TaylorMade-Adidas Golf is launching two major campaigns, one designed to highlight the brand and another to introduce a golf ball that marks a change in direction in the category.
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Paula Creamer is one of the pros in the new
“I Am a Golfer” campaign. |
The costlier effort is called “I Am a Golfer.” Sean Toulon, executive vice president for TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, said it’s the company’s way of trying to connect itself, the brand and the products with whom he calls “the soul of the authentic, passionate, committed golfer.”
“We’re letting our hearts come a little bit closer to the sleeve and let people see it, touch it, feel it,” Toulon said. “We think they’re going to want to jump in the car and go for a ride with us.”
The company is spending millions on “I Am a Golfer,” Toulon said, but he would not be more specific.
The campaign will have 16 print worldwide variations of the ad, plus four 30-second television commercials. They contain variations of a mantra that describes things Toulon said are important to the company that will relate to golfers.
In one print ad, Bob Wilson, a double amputee cancer survivor with prosthetics for both legs, talks about the sacrifices he has made to be able to play golf because of its importance to him. Another ad features a U.S. soldier in Iraq dressed in full fatigues hitting golf balls in the middle of the Iraqi desert. “More than a soldier, I am a golfer,” part of the copy reads.
TaylorMade staff professionals Sergio Garcia, Retief Goosen, Paula Creamer and others also play prominent roles in the campaign.
The campaign will have network advertising in and around the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship and British Open. A large buy on The Golf Channel will last through the end of the year and will include all LPGA tournament broadcasts.
Print ads will be in major golf publications such as Golfweek, Golf World, Golf Digest, Golf Magazine and others. There also will be a Web site, www.TaylorMadegolf.com/iamagolfer.
TaylorMade’s other major initiative, the new TaylorMade Tour Preferred golf ball, marks an important change in the company’s golf ball direction. TaylorMade, which has not introduced a ball under its own name in several years, becomes the company’s premium golf ball brand. Maxfli, which TaylorMade-Adidas Golf bought at the end of 2002, becomes the value price brand.
“TaylorMade is the name we’ve put on all of our best products, and this ball is worthy of that name,” said Bob Maggiore, director of marketing for TaylorMade-Adidas Golf. “This is the largest ball campaign we’re ever going to have. We’re going to hit it hard and heavy when the new product is available.”
That’s scheduled to happen in full force May 19, but the ball debuted April 2 with a major introduction in Greensboro, Ga., about an hour from Augusta, Ga., the site of the Masters.
Instead of a TV campaign, TaylorMade will put the ball directly in the hands of better players with a heavy seeding program of two-ball packs, including working with 1,500 professional staff members across the country and partnering with Golf World magazine. In its April 21 edition, Golf World will feature a controlled online registration for the balls focused on the magazine’s readers with single-digit handicaps. TaylorMade will also have one-page ads in golf weeklies only — Golf World, Golfweek and SI Golf Plus — starting in mid-May and running through mid-July. Garcia will be prominently featured.
Maggiore said that more than 40 TaylorMade staff professionals will switch to the new ball, which has a suggested retail price of $55 a dozen. John Daly, who recently signed with Maxfli, will continue to play the Black Max ball.
Bob Seligman is a writer based in New York.
