Tournament Sponsorship
One big part of a sponsors engagement at a sports event surely is the visibility of the engagement in the media. I don’t mind that, without sponsors there would be a whole lot less events in sports, especially in golf. The non-happening of Bernhard Langers tournament last year was due to the lack of a sponsor in a year, where everybody concentrated on the soccer world cup.
I was just skipping through the recordings of this tournament and one thing that really bugged me was the tv commentator. On hole 16, a 178m par 3, the hole in one price was set up, an SUV from the main sponsor. The picture above shows the camera angle that was shown when the individual player was teeing up. You cannot overlook the hole-in-one price. You really cannot. But the commentator stressed on every possible occasion: “The player scoring a hole in one on this hole wins the prize of the tournament sponsor Mercedes-Benz, a brand new GL 420 CDI.” He didn’t say “… wins a car…” or “… wins the displayed car…”, he said “Mercedes-Benz GL 420 CDI” every single time as if he had the brochure for breakfast.
That was a little sponsorship overexposure for me. A question to the US readers: how is that with golf broadcasts over there in the states? Is it the same or worse? How much influence do sponsors have over the broadcasting of events?
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Obviously you don’t have Premiere or your not looking golf with the english language track. Sponsoring is really big there, they always mention the names of a few sponsors, they have an interview with a representative of the main sponsor often. One example: “Aerial coverage is brought to you by Outback Steakhouse, the great taste of blablabla.” So the commentators there do a lot more advertising or sponsor mentioning than here in germany.
Ok, I was a little too sensitive then!
As a heavy consumer of sports television and golf broadcasts in particular I like to point out that the American way of doing things is hardly as blatant as Alexander’s example from Germany. For once, a regular golf tournament is covered by up to eight reporters/commentators and an awful amount of cameras. The director cuts back and forth quickly to where the action is – car or no car. Secondly, cars are not placed behind the players on the tee box, but in a visually less obtrusive place on the course. Thirdly they braodcast more than 40 tournaments, many of which are sponsored by car companies (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Buick, Chrysler) – they have to find a balance and a consistency between those events and they do. That’s why they do ONE interview on Sunday with a representative of the sponsor, no matter what the brand. That’s it. Oh, and one more thing: You can’t fool the US golf audience by teasing them about a guy winning a car. It is such a rare feat. And everybody knows it, the commentators, the members of the audience. That’s probably why BMW this year completely got away from the idea to give away a car. If somebody had shot a hole-in-one they would have given away a scholarship to a young caddie who can not afford to go to college in the name of the player – worth up to $100.000. Something like that would have received a lot of press, much more than the fact that a rich golfer with four cars in his garage gets one more.
Lastly: The American approach to golf sponsorship is really not a flat-out simple advertising scenario. It is much more sophisticated. I did cover one aspect of it in a story I recently wrote about BMW for FAZ. Maybe you want to take a look.