Corporate sponsorship of sports events is a well-established practice. Tune your television to any auto race, tennis match, or baseball game and you'll see a number of corporate logos. Because sports events invoke excitement and such positive emotional responses in people, sponsoring them can be pivotal factors in building brand recognition. Traditional advertising has become fragmented with people looking for ways to stand out. Sponsorship is more inclusive than traditional advertising because people feel an affinity with a sports personality or team.
In a feature on corporate sponsorship in Wealth, one marketing executive noted, "Fans are passionate about sport. Advances in technology mean they can now follow sport 'live' whenever they want, wherever they are in the world - over the Internet, on mobile devices, on TV, radio, etc - which provides even greater opportunities for sponsors. Sponsorships are now an integral part of the marketing mix, and the industry as a whole looks to have a healthy future."
A recent story in the New York Times revealed that Web.com, which provides Internet services to small- and medium-size businesses, has signed on to sponsor the golf circuit for up and coming players looking to qualify for the elite PGA tour. Web.com will become the tour's umbrella sponsor in a move that combines tour sponsorship, a series of TV commercials, and an official marketing partnership with the PGA tour. "We are about to become bolder," David L. Brown, Web.com's chief executive, told the Times.
Web.com isn't the only company to recognize the value of sponsoring golf tours. Barclays Group gains heightened visibility through its sponsorship of such high-profile sports tournaments as Barclays Scottish Open and Barclays Singapore Open for golf, and Volvo Cars Corporation in Sweden is the title sponsor of Volvo Masters.
According to an interview with Wealth, Johan Bexell, Sponsorship Director of Volvo Cars Corporation, golf sponsorship efforts have many benefits: "Volvo Masters is the final of the European Tour, which makes it the most prestigious tournament on the tour. It is televised worldwide so we get lots of brand exposure. We try to incorporate all the models as much as possible and place them on the golf course. That's the way we build up the brand."
But you don't have to be a giant corporation or sponsor a major tournament to get in on the golf sponsorship game. Even small companies can take advantage of sponsorship opportunities on a smaller level, perhaps by sponsoring a local tournament or participating as a fundraising sponsor for a local charity event. Building your brand in this way at the community level can be just as significant as a major corporation's sponsorship of a major tour event.
When you sponsor a golf event, you're reaching a true cross-section of the public. David L. Brown of Web.com notes that while golf definitely appeals to an older, well-educated, and high-end consumer, it also reaches a wider audience. In the U.S. alone, 19 percent of Americans attended, listened to, or watched a PGA event in the 12-month period between 2011 and 2012.
There are many opportunities for companies large and small to sponsor golf, from sponsoring individual players to sponsoring tournaments to forming marketing partnerships with major golf organizations. A study by the European Journal of Marketing revealed that brand recall from sponsorship of golf is high. Companies whose names appear in relation to golf events are remembered by those who attend, so it is worth considering an investment of your marketing dollars there.
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