Q&A with GoDaddy’s Suzanne Mitchell: Marketing through the pandemic

INTERVIEW:
Suzanne Mitchell, marketing director, GoDaddy (SM)
Vivienne Kelly, editor, Mumbrella (VK)

VK: When you were planning your marketing activities for GoDaddy for 2020 and what you wanted to achieve and what you wanted consumers to know about your brand, you would never have predicted that we’d be in this situation – so how has the lockdown and the economic factors associated with that changed your view of success in 2020, and changed how you’re operating?

SM: I think there’s two things that come to mind there. The first is really from a creative perspective, our brand and our business has always been and will always be focused on empowering entrepreneurs, so small business owners or people with ideas to get them online.

So, that ethos and that philosophy has always been there. We have programs where we tell customer stories to inspire others and to help drive their businesses. And what we’ve found when the coronavirus, or COVID-19, hit, was we just leant into that in a deeper way, and had a lot more emphasis on that within our programs, because really as a business, we wanted to support our customers at that time.

So that was the first thing we did. And there are some examples of that where we produced content that allowed our customers to understand what GoDaddy was doing to support them, but also to provide content and information to them both in our local market of Australia, but also globally, because I think customers learned from like-minded businesses in other regions as well as local.

And then we also did a media partnership with The Latch locally, where we recognised over 66 Australian businesses, 16 of which were GoDaddy customers, where The Latch interviewed them and told their stories, and demonstrated how they had pivoted their business. Sometimes it was a hospitality business that was running in a physical outlet, and how they’d pivoted their business and moved online; fitness businesses; hairdressers; even chocolate markers and chocolate wholesalers and retailers around Easter and how they dealt with the current climate. And we wanted to get their stories out there to inspire others and to help those customers in their business.

So that’s one of the examples of what we’ve done locally.

So, from a creative perspective, we just leant in deeper to empowering our entrepreneurs within our content mix.

From a media perspective, which is sort of the other side to it, we’re a digital-first marketing business. So a lot of our plans for 2020 haven’t been disrupted from a channel perspective, however, again we just have flipped it a little bit so we can allow for that storytelling to take place in a more meaningful, richer way with our customers at the heart. So we have done programs like The Latch that I just mentioned, but added to our existing programs which was digital-first – so a heavy emphasis on search and display and a lot of social media channels.

VK: We’ve obviously seen a lot of brands cutting back their marketing spend in this environment, because they just feel like they don’t have any extra cash to play with. What is your view on what brands should be doing in an environment like this. Do they need to be cutting back on spending? Do they need to be ramping it back up? How do you think about that for GoDaddy in this environment?

SM: I think for GoDaddy it’s a moment in time when we really need to be there for our customers and helping them get their businesses online or improving their online presence is critical for businesses at this time. So we have ramped as much as we can our spending to be seen and to be there supporting our customers at least for the foreseeable future as much as we can as a business.

But I recognise there’s other businesses that have very different circumstances to us, and I can understand why they would be pulling back on spending in response to what’s going on – if their marketing budgets are cut or moved due to cash-flow or business uncertainty. Luckily, GoDaddy’s not in that situation. We see ourselves as part of the solution for the economy and for small businesses around Australia to succeed or pivot during this period, and then to come out the other side with a really amazing online offering.

We also believe that customers and Australians will be behaving and consuming differently on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, and obviously online is critical to that. So, when we’re working with customers, we’re really working with them to think about the current state and what they need to do in the environment now, but also to think about as much as possible, the six to 12 months online offering that they should have within their segment to be as successful as they can and come out of this as strongly as possible.

VK: That was going to be my next question, actually, was whether you think COVID-19 and what we’re going through at the moment will permanently change consumer behaviour and consumers’ expectations of brands. Or do you think that it’s temporary and we’ll go back to business as normal, whenever that may be?

SM: I absolutely think consumers will come out the other side with changed behaviours.

I’ve worked in online businesses for a good proportion of my career, and back in 2004, 2005, I worked at eBay, and customers went from not understanding or even being aware of what eBay was, to really understanding that business and using it, and through using an online platform like eBay or GoDaddy, consumers become comfortable, they become confident and they master it – and there’s no going back from that. They’ll always keep that behaviour, whether it’s shopping online, or whether it’s building a website to get their idea live and in an online space. And that idea could be a passion idea as a hobby, it could be a side hustle where they’re making money on the side, or it could be their long-term plan to start up their business immediately or into the future.

So, I absolutely believe once consumers or Australians use online businesses, and register and set themselves up, there’s actually no going back to exactly what it was prior.

VK: And so, what does success look like for you now in 2020? When we get to the end of the year, what boxes do you want to have ticked to think ‘Alright, that was actually a good year’?

SM: I think most importantly that GoDaddy is a global business that has a strong local Australian presence and is here physically to support Australian businesses and entrepreneurs on their journey to being really successful online.

So, I think it’s that awareness of the global and local nature that Go Daddy brings to the table is really important.

I also think brand metrics are key around being a supportive and trusted brand for businesses, and I’m really proud – a good example of that is our customer care team. We have a 24/7 phone line, and every time I talk to customers, they rave about how great it is they can connect with a human being, and that person is willing and hoping to help them there and then to improve their experience online. And so that sort of care and ‘A brand I trust’ metric is really important for us at GoDaddy.

And then the third piece is really with our GoDaddy customers, seeing those Australian businesses that we’re working with through our marketing really go from strength to strength through the year, and come out of this journey that we’re all on, really successful and empowered with a very strong online presence moving forward.

So that is sort of the three things that if I looked back, it would be a fantastic year if we achieved those three elements.

VK: Are you working remotely now? Working from home?

SM: I always have been working from home, remotely.

We have a small team. Well, I shouldn’t say that. We have a natural global team, so I have – and when I think of the team working on GoDaddy, I think of anyone that does marketing for GoDaddy is part of our team – whether they sit in an agency or whether they sit in the media, or in our creative team – they’re all in our team. So we have lots of people here locally, working on GoDaddy. So I work with them, and the whole team is remote.

But then I have connections and channel specialists in other global markets that look after and work with me on Australia as well. We’re a global approach to our workforce. And everyone is working from home at this point.

I was really impressed with GoDaddy’s approach to their customer care team. As soon as COVID-19 hit, they had a massive effort to move everybody working in that team to be able to work from home, which is a massive feat. I think there are like 7,000 employees that were moved to remote, to their homes, basically. And they were set up, and the whole thinking that was driving it was we needed to get our care team base, and with their families, and keep them connected at the same time, so they could be on call and help our customers. So there was this double whammy there, and it was really impressive to see how quickly the team focused down and made this happen. They even had a drive-through pick up your iPad and laptop and headphone set in the carpark at one of the offices. It was great to see the pics of that happening.

VK: So, a lot of people have been struggling in adland with the move to working from home. There’s been lots of anecdotes of children dropping in on Zoom calls, or various things going wrong – so because you’ve been doing it for a while, do you think you’ve been immune to those struggles and difficulties?

SM: Well, I should have caveated that with, I have been doing it for a long time, but I’ve been doing it in my very zen home sans my husband and two children. So definitely, my environment here is not as, let’s say zen, as what it was prior.

However, I’m really fortunate. I have a husband who works full time, so we have been juggling the home schooling and just general life. And my two girls aren’t toddlers, which I think makes it easier. And they can play by themselves and entertain themselves for little periods of time. So we’ve just been making the best of the situation like loads of families across Australia have. And also, trying to be as positive as possible in the sense it is a time when you do get to spend more time with your loved ones at home, and trying to make the most of that as well, and see that silver lining, because it’s very easy to fall into that trap of being pulled in four million directions and not getting anything done well, and that negativity. I’m trying to as much as I can keep in the positive and relish all the crafting that I’ve been forced to endure.

VK: Your advertising campaign that featured Ray Meagher from Home & Away, how did you think that resonated with people? Do you think that cut through?

SM: So I only joined GoDaddy in November last year, so that campaign was run by the previous marketing director. So I can’t talk to it in real time, but I can say that looking at the data from last year, it drove the business nicely, building awareness and understanding for the brand.

So, I think it did a really good job in that regard. And I also think that GoDaddy has a whole range of different products that can be sometimes complicated for people to understand all the different options that you can get, and I think that campaign really nicely and cleanly explained the offering and how to get started – and GoDaddy does make it really easy, but that creative just broke it down really nicely for Australian customers.

And you can’t get more Australian than Ray from Home & Away. He’s an icon. It was a nice piece of creative.

Just speaking creatively and campaign wise, we have done that pivot this year into a more digital performance-focused approach in Australia, which has been quite fortunate for the COVID-19 situation.

GoDaddy’s old logo

But from a creative perspective, we do include a lot of our customers in our creative now. So we are showcasing six different Australian small businesses: a photographer, a wedding singer, a pet walker, an architect – and it’s really nice to see Australian consumers within global creative.

GoDaddy’s new logo

It’s a really nice, refreshing take on global creative done locally. It’s working really effectively, and it’s very powerful in this market. In line with our logo refresh that we executed in February this year as well, so our whole brand had a new look and feel put into place.

Vivienne Kelly

Vivienne Kelly was previously the editor of Mumbrella from 2016 to August 2020.

topics coronavirusCOVID-19GoDaddyMarketingSuzanne Mitchellworking from home

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