Golfer Adam Scott “may have been marketable before” winning The Masters Sunday, but now he is "a sports marketer's dream,” according to Frank Chung of ADNEWS. M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment Sydney Head of PR & Events Jack Lamacraft said, “As the first Australian to win the Masters, he will become a household name virtually overnight.” Lamacraft added that while it was "hard to put a dollar value on Scott, 'whatever he was worth yesterday, he’s worth half as much again, if not double, today.'" Scott has been “notoriously selective in his brand partnerships.” Octagon Managing Dir Sean Nicholls said that this approach has “worked in his favour.” Scott is “currently sponsored by” Mercedes-Benz, Rolex, Titleist and Uniqlo. While a comparison “can be drawn” between Scott's win at The Masters and Aussie cyclist Cadel Evans becoming the first Australian to win the Tour de France in '11, Nicholls and Lamacraft agreed that Scott “would have broader brand appeal than Evans.” Lamacraft: “A lot of brands will want to use him. He’s a golfer but he’s not an old fat guy. He also embraces the Australian lifestyle, is into surfing and so on” (ADNEWS, 4/15). In Australia, John Stensholt noted Scott will “receive bonuses from his sponsors for his Masters win, worth about another” $1M (AUSTRALIA FINANCIAL REVIEW, 4/15).
PERFECT TIMING: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Daisuke Wakabayashi wrote Scott’s victory was “also a big win” for Japan-based clothing brand Uniqlo, which signed Scott as brand ambassador last Tuesday, “just a few days before the Masters began.” Scott will wear Uniqlo “in all competitions and participate in promotions for the company, including the launch of a global polo shirt campaign in mid-April.” The timing “couldn’t be better for Uniqlo, which is trying to build its image outside Japan.” The company “already has athletic-wear sponsorship deals” with tennis players Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori (WSJ, 4/15).
FIRST MOVE: FORBES' Kurt Badenhausen reported Scott "represents Uniqlo’s first move into golf." Tadashi Yanai, president of Fast Retailing, which owns Uniqlo, said: "Given its widespread following worldwide and accessibility regardless of age, golf is a good match for us." Fast Retailing was founded by Yanai, and it is the biggest apparel company in Asia with sales of $11.9B. Nike "is a dominant player in golf and tennis apparel." It "is not sweating Uniqlo, but the brand, still relatively unknown in the U.S., now has the top tennis player in the world and third ranked golfer" (FORBES, 4/15).
