… playing well will mitigate branding issues, experts say
SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) – Top golfer Tiger Woods relieved sponsors by announcing his return to the Masters next month and now needs a victory on the links to revive his $100 million sports brand. Woods announced on Tuesday he would return to golf at the U.S. Masters in early April after stepping away from the game to address his marital infidelities.
Woods has won the Masters four times. If he plays badly and leaves the tour early, sponsors will say “not only is this guy risky from a marketing perspective but he’s not achieving the same level of success,” said David Carter, executive director of the Sports Institute at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.
“Unless he wins, he’s not going to return to the high level of media exposure he’s accustomed to and that’s something sponsors will have to take a good look at,” Carter said.
“A great performance will mitigate that personal branding damage.”
Before the scandal led AT&T (T.N) and Accenture (ACN.N) to drop him as a spokesman, Woods was believed to be the world’s wealthiest athlete, with his sports brand generating about $100 million a year in royalties.
While some sponsors, in particular athletic footwear and apparel maker Nike (NKE.N) and video game producer Electronic Arts (ERTS.O), have stood by his side and voiced support as his personal scandal unfolded late last year, others have let contracts with Woods expire or dropped him from advertising.
Nike, EA and Gillette gave a nearly verbatim response to the announcement by Woods about how delighted they will be to see him on the course again. EA hinted at just how much scrutiny he will be under at the Masters, saying “all eyes will be on Augusta in a few weeks”.
Woods laid the groundwork for his return to golf last month, apologising in public for his indiscretions.
But he held off giving a return date at the time, a move that likely did not sit well with sponsors who sought an end to the uncertainty, said Robert Boland, a professor of sports management at New York University.
“The reason he’s playing the Masters is to appease his current sponsors,” Boland said. “This was very calculated.”
“A prolonged absence would have been a breach of contract on his part and that’s absolutely why he’s playing,” Boland added.
Woods’ return to the Masters is certainly music to the ears of executives at CBS (CBS.N) and Walt Disney Co’s ESPN (DIS.N), the two TV networks providing live coverage for this year’s tournament. Nielsen Co suggested Tiger’s comeback could generate record-breaking viewer numbers.
While Nielsen would not predict TV ratings, it said the top-rated golf telecast in more than three decades was the final round of the 1997 Masters, when an estimated 14.1 percent of all households in the United States tuned in to watch Woods win there for the first time.
In second place, with a 13 percent household rating, was during the 2001 Masters when Woods sealed his victory during the final round, Nielsen said.
Meanwhile, last year’s Tiger-less Masters saw ratings slump by almost one half. And Woods’ absence from the PGA Tour this year has meant a decline of 11 percent from last year, according to Nielsen.
Another factor giving cheer to sponsors is Woods’ choice of venue for his comeback. The genteel atmosphere at the Masters, where media is tightly controlled, is not a place where “frenzies” will be tolerated, said Boland.
“The Masters is the most controlled media environment he could possibly walk into,” Boland said. “While he will be a circus, they control that as well as they can.”