As The Masters heads for the final round this Sunday, it struck us that since this blog was started in November the major sport we have probably written the least about is golf, with tennis probably a close second. Probably one of the reasons is that the leasure activity that golf is and the passion its followers has is probably akin to NASCAR, and although some brands such as Callaway are always looking to expand marketplace and share, the governing organizations are fine with holding the image away from the over the top promotion gimmicks and huge PR pushes, simply because they don’t feel they are needed.Darren Rovell's blog on Friday went into detail on what The Masters could be if it wanted to be, and we found a good piece in The Stanford Daily recently on the social and business network that revolves around the Palo Alto-area golf courses, especially at this time of year as young MBA's look for jobs, but both pieces speak to the same thing…business is great, so why try and remake the whee.? Now there are some innovative deals going on to try and move things to a new generation or a larger group…Phil Mickelson's microsite with Crowne Plaza Hotels got a great amount of buzz when launched in JanuaryLesson learned here…take care of those who follow you as the primary goal…if you go and get more fans away from your game or brand then great…but if it works, stick to it. Golf follows that principle better than anyone.
Speaking of golf…not that he will need it (as they say in publishing, the smaller the ball the bigger the sale) but my longtime friend Ian O’Connor's book on Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus(Arnie and Jack) gives all in the business an amazing insight into two icons of both sports and culture and should be read by all…on to other topics, the Dodgers took some heat this week for not allowing fans into the lower seats for autographs pregame, but again showed their savvy by reversing the decision, as reported in the LA Times later this week…great example of admitting the mistake and showing responsiveness by fixing it right away…good story yesterday in the New York Times as well on the lingering effects of Davidson's NCAA playoff run and how that can be capitalized on by the school going forward…and lest we forget about the NASCAR marketing machine, another great ROI piece was posted on NASCAR.com on Nationwide's benefit from their sponsorship, also worth reading.
