Getting out the message
USING TOUR PROS TO PROMOTE PRODUCTS IS HARDLY A NEW CONCEPT FOR EQUIPMENT COMPANIES,
BUT RECEN T CAMPAIGNS HAVE BECOME BIGGER, BOLDER AND MORE SCRUTINIZED // BY BILL FIELDS
DANIEL VASCONCELLOS
SOME GOLF EQUIPMENT companies
are taking an increasingly bold line when
it comes to marketing their products,
producing elaborate television commercials and aggressively utilizing tour
players who endorse their brands.
“With the way people look at media
and the things they’re passionate
about today, kind of breaking the mold
is the stuff that seems to be most
effective,” said Bob Maggiore, chief
marketing officer of TaylorMade,
whose 2011 efforts included fashioning
a giant replica of its R11 driver into a
foul pole at San Diego’s Petco Park.
In December Callaway Golf—which
recently signed Justin Timberlake as
a creative director—spent four nights
filming 13 staff members, including
Phil Mickelson, hitting shots off
rooftops of hotels and casinos in Las
Vegas for three TV spots in its “Epic
Demo” campaign. Around-the-clock
crews shot 75 hours of video. Taylor-
Made’s latest promo for RocketBallz
fairway woods at the
WGC-Cadillac Champi-
onship involved logoed
shirts to be worn by its
tour staff in the final
round touting a large
“ 17” for the extra yards
the company claims the RocketBallz
3-wood delivers over its previous model.
3. 12.2012
FLYING
HIGH
JustinRose takes the
WGC-Cadillac Championship
and sets his sights on winning a major
❯TIGER WOODS,
DORAL’S 18TH,
GIL HANSE
RALLIES AROUND
JARROD LYLE
FREE TO SUBSCRIBERS
and Sergio Garcia on the telecast
wearing the shirts with a number 17
on the front and a larger 17 on the
back, several other TaylorMade
players who were teeing off later,
including Jason Day and Rose, were
told they could not wear the apparel
because it violated tour regulations
for logos and marketing messages.
Although the tour had embraced the
“ 17” promotion by agreeing to sell 100
jerseys at Doral and mentioned it on
Twitter, it believed the numeral would
be limited to the golfers’ shirt-sleeves
and cap crowns. TaylorMade had
touted its “Driver Love” campaign with
heart-logoed hats last month at the
Northern Trust Open. At the Cadillac,
TaylorMade circulated photos of its
staff golfers wearing the large-num-bered jerseys, and the promotion was
featured on weekend telecasts.
“The mindset behind it is doing
something that makes the avid golf
fan look at it and say, ‘What’s going
on?’ ” Maggiore said of the promotion.
“In its simplest form, we’re trying to
create some energy and excitement
using our tour players. At the end of
the weekend, if folks are saying,
‘What were they doing wearing those
17s,’ I think that’s good.” N
