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Blogvent Day 14: Tiger Woods – any more majors, any more sponsors?

Business | Sponsorship | Sport

After winning the US Open while battling the pain of a knee injury, many golfing pundits thought it was a foregone conclusion that he would overhaul Jack Nicklaus’ tally of 18 professional majors. Now many are not so sure. Exceptional as he is, he has raised the bar in the sport and fostered a hungry pack of competitors behind him. An extended sabbatical sorting his life out could prove very damaging to his place in the record books as the rest of the field will not be standing still.

Away from the golf course, his situation raises some interesting questions around the world of sponsorship. Accenture has built an entire brand image around Tiger’s persona, based on his performance and professionalism. But now they have pulled the plug and the tabloid headline writers are having a field day. But little has been mentioned of the potential pitfalls of sponsoring individuals. A tactical ambassadorship is one thing but basing your whole marketing approach around one person including several years of global TV and airport advertising represents a significant risk. They now have a bit of a void as he is “no longer the right representative for advertising”. Aside from the fact that he hasn’t won a major this year, his performance as the world’s number 1 golfer is still unchallenged. So his performance is still there, but Accenture now question his professionalism and the cultivated “good guy” image. Should the brand stand by on the basis that he is still the golfer they bought into or were they buying into something more?

So Accenture need to start again, but what of Tiger? If he is highly concerned about it, is there much he can do to stem the outflow of commercial support? It has been mentioned he could give he endorsement money to charity which would deliver a positive benefit for both sides. Such things are probably not top of his priorities at the moment.

The issues and potential pitfalls are not unique to sponsorship of individuals. Things go wrong in other areas, as demonstrated by Renault and ING this year, but celebrity endorsement brings a more personal element to things: great when everything is fine, but closer and more painful when things go bad. Any sponsorship is about attributes and values, but these are so much more difficult to define and manage for people, particularly those living slightly detached from the rest of the world.

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