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Melbournians certainly do love sport and this week it is caught up in Tiger Fever (Check out the latest from Twitter search on #Tiger).  I completely with the PR Warrior that the “decision to spend $3 million bringing Tiger Woods to Melbourne for the 2009 JBWere Australian Masters golf tournament has been a terrific promotional investment.”

As the tournament has started I took note of two golf promotions trying to cash in on the Tiger buzz.  Both are trying to promote golf but used different strategies through the Herald Sun newspaper (online & print).

Case 1 – VGolf

Promoted where?
Online top right of sports section right next to a picture of Tiger Woods.

Promoting what?
A junior program VGolf run by the Victorian Golf Association to get kids playing golf, an “Auskick” for golfers.

Sports Geek Take
Great clear offer that appeals to kids & parents who are following Tiger’s first round. Clicking through takes you straight to the VGolf landing page where the program is explained.

Unfortunately the call for action could have been stronger. At the very least get kids to register interest in VGolf via email signup.  Purchasing VGolf via the online store was quite confusing and presented many barriers to potential new customers.

Case 2 – PlayGolf.com.au

Promoted where?
Advert on bottom of back page of Herald Sun advertising PlayGolf.com.au.

Promoting what?
Not exactly sure what was being promoted which prompted this blog post.  The advert itself is a clever tie-in with Tiger’s appearance in Australia.  Upon checking out the site I found out it was the home of Golf Australia.  The Get Into Golf panel is very cool with Google Maps integration but it does not stand out as the best offer on the page.

Sports Geek Take
The advert itself looked good and would drive traffic to the site but would they stay?  There was no clear reason for me (albeit a casual golf fan) to stay.  I understand Golf Australia could not have Tiger Woods plastered across their site or even links to the Australian Masters as it is run by PGA Australia but why not create a special landing page promoting playing golf.  For example a “Contact your mates for a round” promotion to get people to organise a round of golf with 3 mates with a simple email form.  Each golfer could get a discount or offer from the golf clubs.

I applaud both VGA & Golf Australia in attempting to cash in on a golf crazy Melbourne.  I have no problems with “ambush marketing” as it is sometimes called unfortunately here both promotions fall short as they fail to clearly secure a defined goal in an easy manner.

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