Advertising golf kit on TV...

... is a potential nightmare.

I seldom watch golf on TV (in fact I couldn't tell you the last golf I watched on TV), but agreed to sit through the Accenture coverage for the last two nights because we have house guests who wanted to see it.

In every ad break - and there are soooooooo many - we saw an ad for either the TaylorMade r11s, or the Callaway razr, or both. And the people swinging the clubs were Alvaro Quiros (lost first round), Justin Rose (lost first round), Sergio Garcia (lost first round), and Dustin Johnson (still going). And I saw adverts for California with Phil Mickelson (on holiday), something with Paul Casey (injured) and Adam Scott (lost first round).

Some marketing executives must be pulling their hair out. 'use our clubs and lose in the first round' seems to be the message.

Watching last night also made me realise how out of touch I am with pro golf. I scarcely recognised anyone except Tiger, Westwood and Lawrie, and there were names I'd never heard of. Wilson? Hanson? Bae? Stanley? Who are these people and how did they get to be in the top 60 odd?

In general, Sky's coverage of US golf is shockingly bad as they take the "host broadcaster's" output. That means a couple of shots and then either 5 minutes of ads for golf gear on a constant loop, or (mostly) inane drivel from the studio team.

If it wasn't for Sky+ I wouldn't watch it. Last night the coverage was from 7pm unitl 11pm - 4 hours. I recorded and started watching the recording at 9.15pm. By fast forwarding through the ads and drivel, I finshed watching the 4 hours of coverage at 11.15pm - i.e. 2 hours. It's a god send.

So the upshot is, I never watch the ads and I'm not sure how this factors into the viewing figures and thus price list for advertising during the golf shows.

There was a nice segue on Wednesday when Luke Donald had just chunked two balls into the drink on #3. Cut to commercial and first up is a Titleist spot with Luke's voice, "I work hard on my game"!

George, give my weekly drivel a try, you'll be up to speed on these guys in a flash! (I know, I know.)

George, I think there is more to advertising than how the player has just performed. Think the overall image rather than what has just happened.


As for not knowing about the players in world golf at the moment it really is not too much time out your week to read Kwini and princedracula's articles. Google a few names from them plus taking in what is written and you will soon be up to speed.

Pretty sure people dont actually decide to buy a club (s) depending on the one showing of players in a matchplay lottery where any one can win.. McLaren is right though its more to do with image rather than how they have just performed.

Im with you on the ad breaks the coverage from the US is pretty terrible.

Stanley is an up and coming american who has won this year on the PGA tour and should have won another tournament too. Wilson has won 3 tournaments in the last 2 years on the PGA tour too. Not that clued up on Bae and depends which player you mean with Hanson. Both the danish or Swede have had decent results on the European Tour on the last few years.

I think it's more based on the marketability of the individual and players that appeal to the public. Hence for example why TM use DJ, Sergio even Villegas instead of Messers Peter Hanson, MArtin LAird etc it's about the players that appeal to the masses.

Then the callaway for the Razer fit driver is like all drivers about selling the length of it so they use Quiros and Holmes because they are renowned for their ability to smash it stupid lengths and that fits in with the hyerpbole surrounding the club.

If it was purely based on this one event then TM would be fine with Hanson and Laird still in the event, Ping still have Mahan and LW, Titleist have Stricker not to mention other manufacturers and their staff players.

Kyle Stanley is as pointed out above a real talent and one i'd expect to challenge in majors.

Speaking of marketing / advertising, I wonder whether Nike have ever contemplated branding a model of clubs as "Tiger".

Surely Tiger [Fairway] Woods would fly off the shelves.

[I'll be here all week (or) I'll get my coat... ]

Interesting point but they do have the TW clothing range amongst the Nike products so maybe they are waiting until he retires (based on his play clould be sooner rather than later) then release the Tiger range any bets the slogan would read " Play like the greatest"

Sand wrote:Pretty sure people dont actually decide to buy a club (s) depending on the one showing of players in a matchplay lottery where any one can win.. McLaren is right though its more to do with image rather than how they have just performed...

It's performance in part but it's definitely who's using the gear. And advertising muscle. I can see it now. The mid-handicap amateur thinking "Well, I really love Tiger. He uses a Nike VR driver with Graphite Design XXX flex mega shaft with a Nike Tour ball. If he's using it, it must be good so I'll have to play the same". Sod the fact they can't get even 25% out of the setup, it's the fact they have the same gear (well, OK, they think they have the same gear) as Tiger.
Substitute any other 'star' name and Bob's your mother's brother. If it was just about the quality of the gear, there'd be a lot more niche manufacturers at the top of the sales lists.

Kwini, what you write is excellent, interesting and witty, and I have no doubt that I would benefit enormously if I read it regularly.

I've lost interest in pro golf though. It's partly the robotic identikit golfers, and it's partly the commentating. Ewen Murray has become even more sycophantic since the last time I heard him - which must be at least three years ago - and Paul McGinley looked like he'd rather be anywhere than where he was. And the commentating is just hyperbole now - like Tiger's sand shot on the last on Thursday. It was a difficult shot from the bunker to a downhill green. But the commentators bigged it up, and one of them said it was 'a career up and down'. He hit a good shot, killed it in the longer grass, and he holed a nice 10 footer.

Good shot, yes. Career up and down - NO.

Please Ewen, don't pretend these guys are superhuman. It insults our intelligence.

George,
Agree about the identikit image, very tough to dispel that. Perhaps made worse by the stereotypical TV coverage.
I try and attend two or three events each year and the number of golfers I actually feel I want to see when I look at the "pairings(sic) sheet" is small. But a lot of them have interesting stories and personalities that don't come out in the mainstream media and that's what I try to pass on. Witty is going a bit far though.

Thought Woods's response to his sand shot and putt was actually quite good, almost pithy for him:
"What chance did you think of getting that up and down? 1 in 10??"
"I only needed the one!"

I'm staying with witty. You are under selling yourself.

George1507 wrote:I'm staying with witty. You are under selling yourself.

He is indeed.

Just reading the interview transcripts from the Accenture - Hunter says it'll be good to play another Ping guy in Arizona. Occurred to me that actually 3 of the semi-finalists are Pingers! Must please Karsten's crew to have their players close to monopolising the final day's TV coverage.

The sponsorship is always a tough one. I remember watching the Matchplay in Finca Cortsan (?) Spain last year where Poulter beat Donald in the final. Both were playing white drivers which the commentators mentioned saying that they were both using Taylormade.

Obviously TM would have been happy about this. Mizuno who sponsor Donald less so. But probably not as annoyed as Cobra who sponsor Poulter and who's driver he was actually using. They came out with a very limited edition white driver before the R11 came out. What a marketing mistake that was as while I have no doubt that the R11 is a good piece of kit, one of the main reasons its been so popular is the colour.