Walton Goggins and CMO Fara Howard Are Keeping GoDaddy's Super Bowl Momentum Going

A few weeks ago, a select group of Americans opened their email to find a video from Walton Goggins. The actor is riding high on starring roles on the Amazon Prime series Fallout and HBO’s The White Lotus, now drawing over 4 million viewers in its third season. But Goggins wasn’t there to talk about surviving a nuclear war or the lustful misadventures of a posh resort. No, he was talking about building a website. “I am an actor, but guess what? I’m also a business owner,” Goggins announced. “GoDaddy Airo was instrumental in helping me get started, and I know from the bottom of my heart that it can do the same for you.” Airo uses AI to help GoDaddy customers create what they need to set up a business online. The 122 million people who tuned into the Super Bowl in February already saw Goggins introduce the tool in GoDaddy’s spot. That's what made the follow-up video noteworthy. Unlike the Big Game ad, this effort was targeted (only customers who’d bought the Airo all-access bundle received it); it was personal (Goggins improvised the message), and it signaled a new marketing approach for GoDaddy. CMO Fara Howard considers its minute-long Super Bowl ad to be just a jumping-off point. As she sees it, “the Super Bowl isn’t the campaign—it’s the start of the campaign.” “My belief is that if you can start a story at a big moment where you have incredible attention, and continue that story, there's incredible potential for engagement long term," Howard told ADWEEK. Advertising aficionados might recall GoDaddy's earlier Super Bowl ads for their sexual overtones. Over the last decade—and since Howard joined as CMO in 2019—the brand has evolved into a diversified (and better-behaved) software operation. After developing the AI-driven Airo over multiple quarters, GoDaddy launched the feature in 2023, promoting it the following year. Finding the right celeb Howard had a very specific type of Hollywood star that she wanted. “It was imperative that the celebrity had entrepreneurial experience and an investment in small business,” she said. Goggins, a cofounder of LA’s Mulholland Distilling, checked that box. He was also willing to meet Howard’s other mandate of using Airo to create a brand, which is how Walton Goggins’ Goggle Glasses came into the world. “A while back, after a day of skiing near my home in upstate New York, I realized I was still wearing my ski goggles hours later—I’ve always thought they were so cool,” Goggins told ADWEEK. But when he went searching for sunglasses that had the same aesthetic, he struck out. “So when GoDaddy and I began talking about what kind of business would really open me up creatively I thought back to that day,” he said. “I knew there was nothing like Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses out there.” The wraparound eyewear, made in partnership with Revo, boasts UVA/UVB protection and retails for $150. Twelve months of momentum Super Bowl spots are arguably the highest-profile way to draw attention to a product—for one night, of course. Howard is maintaining the marketing momentum that began with the Big Game through the rest of this year. That effort started with a series of short videos emailed to new Airo buyers. The first (“All Access from the Noggin of Goggins”) is a get-acquainted message, while the following two delve into the features of domain activation and logo design. Each about two minutes long, the videos are informal and improvised. Goggins talks to GoDaddy customers as though they’re hanging out in his dressing room. "People are watching [them] a minute and a half of the two-minute content," Howard said. “That’s crazy, to have that type of view rate.” GoDaddy will also air “a mix of broad and targeted” TV spots as well as content for social media, some featuring Goggins and some not. On TikTok for example, Goggins made a video demonstrating how he likes to wear his goggles while chopping onions. “The contract he had with him asks him to make a series of posts,” Howard said. “He’s done more than requested. He is talking about GoDaddy Airo with way more frequency than we ever hoped.” However, not wanting to be completely “Goggified” (Howard’s term) GoDaddy has also created short YouTube segments known as “Airo can” videos. One features a young woman entrepreneur using Airo to launch her food truck business. But the messaging has to walk a fine line between professional and informal, technical and accessible. Fortunately, that’s something Goggins—who moved to LA at 19 and ran his own valet-parking business when he wasn’t auditioning—does already. “I always felt a deep connection with small business owners,” he said. “[Being] a small business owner is so much like starting out as an actor in Hollywood. I admire those with that kind of drive.”

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Walton Goggins and CMO Fara Howard Are Keeping GoDaddy's Super Bowl Momentum Going

"Goggified" messaging for a mixed audience

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