FedEx will be the presenting sponsor of a PGA Tour season-in-review special airing on NBC in December, part of the overnight shipper's new marketing program to leverage the sponsorship deal it signed with the tour last summer.
As part of the hour-long show, the Memphis-based company will sponsor a segment highlighting the players who led the 2003 PGA Tour in a variety of statistical categories, such as driving accuracy and putting efficiency. The show's air date has not been determined.
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The FedEx marketing program encompasses sponsorship and advertising tie-ins to an assortment of PGA Tour-themed television programming and Internet content, said Kevin Demsky, FedEx director of sponsorship marketing.
Neither PGA Tour nor FedEx executives would disclose the monetary value of the marketing program.
To help leverage its tour partnership, which runs through 2006, FedEx also has established a presence on The Golf Channel's "Inside the PGA Tour," running ads on the weekly cable show and sponsoring a series of 60-second vignettes, many of which feature instructional tips from tour players.
FedEx, the official shipping company of the PGA Tour, has secured banner ads on pgatour.com and signed on to sponsor the site's Pro Tips instructional area, said Kelly Gerhart, FedEx manager of sponsorship marketing.
The company also has an advertising presence on TourCast, a pgatour.com service that enables fans to track, in real time, every shot at every PGA Tour event. As part of its association with TourCast, FedEx is sponsoring "alerts" that pop up on-screen, providing news or analysis about the PGA Tour event taking place at the time.
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The core message that the FedEx marketing program aims to deliver is "reliability," positioning the company as "the most reliable player in the game" while linking it to a sport whose players succeed because of their reliable swings, Demsky said.
Vignettes on The Golf Channel use statistical data from the tour's ShotLink system to underscore players' reliability in such aspects of the game as putting from 15 to 20 feet.
FedEx's marketing program is "a great example of how to actively leverage a relationship with the PGA Tour," said Sheila McLenaghan, a vice president of marketing at the tour.
