Hey Class,
It’s Aaron Friedman, one of the lead bloggers for this week. As we have been looking at TV ratings lately, I found a Wall Street Journal article from last week about how one person can single-handedly having an impact on TV ratings and marketing for an industry. That person is Tiger Woods, one of the world’s most famous athletes, who has returned to professional competition this past week following a major injury that sidelined him. As Suzanne Vranica notes, Nielsen Media Research tracked that the average audience of eight golf tournaments without Woods dropped 47 % from the year before. With the ongoing economic downturn, Tiger’s return couldn’t have come at a better time as TV companies and marketers are trying to recover some of their losses by capitalizing on his return. The article describes how the Golf Channel and NBC are promoting Woods’ return to golf. In addition to the TV companies, Woods’ return revives a struggling sports marking world. Several marketers including Nike and Louie Vutton include Tiger Woods in new promotional efforts based on his return to golf. There’s a reason Tiger Woods is the highest paid-athlete in the world, he sells.
The article in full appears below:
4 comments:
A great example of the power of CONTENT to lure viewers. And, it's also why program rights command such big license fees.
Would Tiger Woods help mobile TV? My initial thought: No....this is a big screen event. Yeah, mobile might tell me whether he won or made a shot but can I really enjoy his play if it's on a 3 inch (or smaller) screen?
What would Daisy say about the power of Tiger?
I knew that Tiger Woods held a lot of sway in the marketing / advertising world when it came to not only golf but sports in general. However, I didn't know just how much. The 47% drop since his departure is astounding. No wonder companies are flying at him trying to get the piece of his media buzz by his return. I think that this will be good for golf and advertising because it is a win-win situation. Those viewers who only watched golf for tiger will come back to see him play, they will see the new ads about him and those aired during his playing time, and golf itself will become tiger-ized again. This can only be good. I wouldn't be surprised if the price for ads during Tiger's tournaments go way up.
I only wonder if Mr. Woods wasn't pressured to get back into the golf course considering how much clout he has in the sports (golf) industry?
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