GoDaddy, the web hosting platform that has sought to attract small business owners, has launched a campaign in the Quebec market, once again using an entrepreneurial-minded athlete to show how easy it is to build a website.
Over the last few years, GoDaddy has teamed up with the Toronto Raptors’ Jonas Valančiūnas and Norman Powell on campaigns demonstrating the ease with which athletes could turn their non-sport passions into tangible businesses. Now, it’s working with Quebec-born professional football player Laurent Duvernay-Tardif to bring that idea to his home province.
On top of playing for the Kansas City Chiefs and obtaining his medical degree, Duvernay-Tardif has pursued woodturning on his spare time. In its latest campaign, GoDaddy taps his desire to make his creations available online. A limited amount of wooden bowls are for sale through www.tourneurdesbois.ca, a GoDaddy created website, the proceeds of which are going to the Laurent Duvernay-Tardif Foundation, which encourages young people to balance sports, arts and theirs studies.
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The campaign is being led by Headspace Marketing on creative, North Strategic on PR and Wave Maker on media.
The effort includes a TV spot running in Quebec, social video and local display takeovers on the Weather Network and French newspaper La Presse, as well as social content posted on GoDaddy Canada’s and Tardif’s own channels. Moreover, the main page of the GoDaddy French website builder landing page features Duvernay-Tardif and the campaign.
Since 77% of Canadians would like to be their own boss, according to company research, GoDaddy is looking to reach new business owners are they contemplate launching an online presence, says Jill Schoolenberg, GoDaddy Canada’s country manager.
As with its “Itty Bitty Ballers ” and “Powell On the Piano” campaigns, sports have proven to be an important alignmnent for the brand, and Duvernay-Tardif offers the possibility of tapping into a Quebec fanbase. Entrepreneurs in the province are an important market, given that GoDaddy launched in French earlier this year, says Schoolenberg.
“Sports are a huge part of what makes us Canadian,” she says. “We know our customers and potential customers are huge sports fans.”
Schoolenberg says that, similar to the Itty Bitty Ballers and Powell on the Piano campaigns, Tourneur des Bois “is a tongue-in-cheek approach to talking about the alternate businesses these professional athletes could have.”
