Jordan Spieth today at The Players is playing his first PGA Tour event since losing at The Masters last month, and the building of the 22-year-old's brand "has been accelerating as fast as one of the golfer's 300-yard drives," according to a cover story by Art Stricklin of D CEO magazine. Golf Digest has estimated Spieth's off-course earnings at $30M, and while some close to Spieth claim that "might be too high for a single year," others "contend it may be too low." Spieth's agent Jay Danzi said that "nourishing the Spieth brand is a singular focus of his." Stricklin notes the "big three Spieth corporate partners" are Under Armour, AT&T and Coca-Cola, his "newest corporate heavyweight." The soft drink company "recently made Spieth its first golf endorser" since the '80s. Spieth said, "I’m learning every day different aspects of what it takes to build my brand and, while I rely heavily on my team, the overall decisions are mine." Stricklin notes Spieth's team "used its local connections to hook up with AT&T." Shawn Spieth, Jordan's father, said, "It was a Dallas company connected with a Dallas athlete. It made natural sense and it was something we wanted to do." The connection between Spieth and the company was AT&T Entertainment Group CEO John Stankey, whose son attended high school with the golfer. Jordan Spieth said, "We had a great relationship with the Stankeys and other AT&T executives. ... It was a matter of time if they wanted to take a chance and get back into golf and get back into a logo." After Stankey introduced Spieth to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and other exec, Spieth "began to carry an AT&T logo bag" in fall '14. A long-term extension of the deal was announced last May.
REACHING RAREFIED AIR: Stricklin notes Spieth "took his brand-building to a new level in January, when he announced a multi-year sponsorship" with Coca-Cola. The Marketing Arm Managing Dir Matt Delzell said of Spieth, "He is playing with the big boys now. The fact that they [Coke] haven’t been with golfers in several decades says something about Jordan. They are a global iconic brand. When you’re with Coke, you have stepped it up in the sponsorship world. You have stepped up the pressure as well, but Jordan seems to thrive on that." Shawn Spieth said that the next step "might be adding a financial services company to the Spieth corporate empire, but there’s little rush." Meanwhile, Delzell suggested that Jordan "could become an investor in companies he’s already associated with, or might affiliate with in the future" (D CEO magazine, 5/ '16 issue).
AND THE REACTS: Golf Channel’s Geoff Shackelford said part of Spieth's allure to people is that they "love that he’s kind of got this seemingly grounded family." However, when reading this article and "hearing all the corporate speak and the business speak, I felt like it was an article you read and you thought, ‘Oh no, why did they do that?'" Shackelford: "The story gives the appearance of this cash grab angle that happens to fit with a narrative that we talked about a little and lots of other folks in real golf media discussed early in this season about Spieth’s struggles because of what appeared to be crazy world travel." The Ringer's Joe House said, "It’s fine to have the ambition. I don’t begrudge them any of it, but you don’t need to go sit down with reporters and tell them about your strategy and discuss with them how it is you intend to go maximize the dollars and maximize the brand." House also criticized Spieth’s sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola, calling it "weird because Coke isn’t that great of a product." House: "There is this undercurrent throughout the national health story here in the United States of America around childhood obesity and the sugar drinks having bad role in all of that" ("Shackhouse Podcast," THERINGER.com, 5/10).
