On Course
When it comes to dominating the PGA Tour, no one compares to Buick — except maybe Tiger Woods.
The Flint, MI-based General Motors brand has been a tour title sponsor since 1958 and now has four annual tournaments under its belt in four strategic U.S. markets — not to mention Woods as its official spokesperson.
But it wasn’t always that way. “We’d been a part of the tour for a long time when we decided to take it to the next level,” says Larry Peck, Buick’s golf marketing manager. “A year and a half ago, we said ‘Let’s get big or get out,’ and that’s when we signed Tiger.”
Buick did get bigger. And with the demographic changes taking place among golf fans, the brand appears on the right road to its goal of appealing to young drivers. (According to an ESPN Sports poll, the number of 18-to-24-year-olds who show at least a little interest in golf increased from 25.8 percent in 1996 to 30 percent in 2000.)
The Buick Classic in Harrison, NY, in June was a good example of how to pull together a title sponsorship. The Classic essentially served as the launch platform for Buick’s new Rendezvous SUV. Twenty cars, including 11 of the SUVs, were placed strategically around the golf course. Informational tents were erected, including a “Spectator Village” welcoming center featuring a Rendezvous that was split in half and opened from the top for a quick-peek at the interior. Off-site activities in Times Square were held with Tiger lookalikes, while the real Tiger was presented with the first Rendezvous off the assembly line at the start of the tournament.
“The benefits are two-fold: We get the national TV advertising during the telecast, and we get local and regional impact on-site at the tournament,” says Tim Humes, account director for Buick Golf at St. Louis-based Momentum.
This year, 31 of the 49 PGA Tour stops have title sponsors. It’s a coveted deal that many brands can only dream of attaining. And for those that do score one, it can be a lasting relationship they can build on and renew again, and again, and again.
“Our average length of sponsorship is 11 to 15 years,” says Tom Wade, senior vp-marketing and business development for the PGA Tour. “We strive to have long, long-term relationships.”
Contracts typically last three to four years and go through multiple renewal phases. And rarely does a title sponsor simply drop out. “We have a list of interested sponsors — a lot more than we have room for,” Wade says.
But there is hope for brands out there dying for tee time. Given the rising value of tour purse prizes, more title sponsors are seeking presenting sponsors to help cover the title fees, which can range anywhere from $3.5 million to $10 million. (The tour’s lucrative new TV contract, announced in July, could push those figures even higher in 2003.)
Natural Selection
Given the slim number of openings, it can be tough to finagle a sponsorship. “We are very loyal to our incumbents,” Wade notes. The old boys include Buick, Nissan, Anheuser-Busch, Shell, Honda, BellSouth, AT&T, Federal Express, and Canon USA.
“A lot of it is being in the right place at the right time,” says Mike Reisman, a principal at Westport, CT-based Velocity Sports & Entertainment, which this year handled promotions for the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis and in the past has worked on the Shell Houston Open. “You have to go on record saying ‘I am interested in being a sponsor’ and wait until another title sponsors leaves, or be involved in an event in a smaller market that doesn’t really meet your needs.”
One old-timer suggests brands interested start on a mini-golf scale. “If there is a market that is important to you — say Houston, if you are involved in petroleum — try to become a presenting sponsor,” says John Gill, corporate manager-sports, shows, and events for Gardena, CA-based Nissan North America. “This at least gets you on the PGA Tour roster.”
Gill learned that names matter, too. Originally, the tournament at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, CA, was called the Nissan L.A. Open. But Gill noticed that “Nissan” was often dropped by the media. So the name was changed to the Nissan Open in 1995, which gave the company all the name-dropping it desired. “Brands get tremendous exposure — 12 hours or more of broadcast,” Wade says.
The signing period for sponsorships typically coincides with the tour’s TV contracts, Reisman says. The new TV deal, which covers 2003-2006, could increase fees by 20 percent to 40 percent, he suggests. “In theory, you will get higher TV ratings and increased visibility. Ultimately, the question becomes: Does the sponsor believe it ought to be spending that much more money for the media?”
“You are going to see a lot of sponsors [asking] presenting sponsors [to] off-set some of the purse increases,” Gill says. “Personally, I don’t see many alternatives.”
Hitting Long
As prices go up, brands have to work even harder to leverage sponsorships both on the fairways and elsewhere. While the biggest push for the Buick Classic came in New York, promotions did reach other areas. This year, a Buick Special Exhibits Trailer stopped by dealerships; visitors could step inside a virtual theater to get their picture taken on a green with a Tiger standee and a Rendezvous.
Nissan starts spinning its p.r. wheels 60 days to 90 days before the tournament. The company brings its 40 top-selling dealers to Palm Springs for a four-day golf outing; on the 61 lots that make up Nissan’s Southern California designated marketing area, tourney tickets and other prizes are dangled in exchange for test drives. The company tries to give the Open a new spin each year by aligning with different marketing partners such as Callaway Golf Cubs and Marriott Hotels.
“On-site, we will have around 21 static display vehicles representing Nissan and Infinity,” Gill says. “There’s on-course signage that becomes a subliminal reminder to viewers that it is a Nissan event. But we try to do it all tastefully — we don’t want to create a 110-acre car lot out there.”
Lake Success, NY-based Canon USA, a 17-year tour veteran, gave attendees hands-on looks at its products at the Canon Greater Hartford Open in June, stocking an exhibition tent with printers and digital cameras for fans to check out, and faxes and printers for reporters to use. ESPN and ABC camera lenses and officials’ binoculars were the brand’s. The professional service center gave support to accredited photographers whether they used Canon technology or a competitor’s, says Jon Lese, the company’s associate director of corporate events.
Off-site, Canon gave away tournament tickets with product purchases and as internal sales incentives. And it sent its 78-foot-long mobile tour to cruise the greater Hartford area during the event. Activities included product demonstrations and activation of Canon’s tie-in with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (photographs of missing children are scanned and transferred to police databases).
Goodwill is a big part of the game. With its nonprofit status, the PGA Tour delivers a portion of its proceeds to charities, and most sponsors give, too. Atlanta-based BellSouth, for example, has contributed nearly $9 million to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta through its sponsorship of the BellSouth Classic in Duluth, GA, and Buick has donated $19.8 million to local charities during its tenure.
Those are some impressive greens fees.
To learn more about sports sponsorships, put promo Expo 2001 on your calendar. This year’s agenda features sessions on property selection and activation. The conference will be held Oct. 22-24 in Chicago. For more information, head to promoexpo.com or call 800-927-5007.
Caddy Masters
PGA Tour Title Sponsors in 2001
Advil Western Open
Air Canada Championship
AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
Bell Canadian Open
BellSouth Classic
Bob Hope Chrysler Classic
Buick Challenge
Buick Classic
Buick Invitational
Buick Open
Canon Greater Hartford Open
Compaq Classic of New Orleans
FedEx St. Jude Classic
Genuity Championship
Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic
Honda Classic
Invensys Classic at Las Vegas
John Deere Classic
Kemper Insurance Open
Marconi Pennsylvania Classic
MasterCard Colonial
Mercedes Championship
Michelob Championship at Kingsmill
National Car Rental Golf Classic
Nissan Open
Shell Houston Open
Sony Open in Hawaii
Southern Farm Bureau Classic
Touchstone Energy Tucson Open
Verizon Byron Nelson Classic
Worldcom Classic
