We already knew that TV ratings fell approximately in half when Tiger Woods wasn't in a golf tournament. Now here's a look at how much less the advertising goes for.
As one would guess, when “T. Woods” appears on the leaderboard, advertisers are willing to fork over a premium. Per TNS Media Intelligence data, when Woods appeared in a 2009 PGA Tour event, the average cost of a 30-second spot was $104,500. In his absence, that rate declined 30 percent, to $80,200 per spot. TNS’ numbers exclude the four Majors, which generally price out at around $200,000 per ad.
via MediaWeek
50% of the ratings for only 77% of the cost!
If that’s true, those are some damn good salespeople.
And this further proves my point that his endorsements are going NOWHERE until his marketability declines. Once he stops being a top draw, THEN they’ll leave. But until that day, his sponsorships are safe.
You mean like the one with Accenture?
Haven’t a lot already pulled out? I remember hearing stuff about Gatorade and Nike dropping products etc.
Nike is standing firm behind him (no pun intended). Nike co-founder Phil Knight told Sports Business Journal: “When his career is over, you’ll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now.”
Gatorade had already announced (before this all went down) that they were dropping the Tiger Focus label. It’s sales have dropped 30%. That’s huge for such a young product (Tiger Focus, not Gatorade).
And yea, some have dropped their payout a bit; but ultimately, as long as he sells their goods, his deals will stay firm.
Kind of reminds me of Ned Holness. OOPS! I mean Carlos Mencia. He was notorious for stealing other comedian’s material. But as long as he brought eyeballs to Comedy Central, they backed him. After a bit, people stopped watching him, and Comedy Central dropped his show.
I knew Tiger’s Focus Gatorade was in trouble when I saw it at Big Lots.
That said though, if he was a spokes-person for Promise Keepers…pretty sure that endorsement is gone!
It’s hard to imagine Nike pulling ads for any African – American athlete. Their primary market is urban area males. This market very often admires bad boy images and gangsta attitudes. Nike knows this and caters to it. I know I’m going to get a lot of loud objections, but if you are still allowed to express truth in our PC world, that is the fact.
When it comes to Nike, the sad fact is, they have no one else to back in golf that has the excitement as Tiger. It’s not like NBA/NFL, where there are a bunch of players just waiting to get sponsorship deals. Golf has few pro players, and NONE of them bring in viewers and money like Tiger.
I WISH that wasn’t true, since the dude is starting to sound more and more sleazy by the day.
I may not like what he did, but I still like HIM. I don’t watch golf unless he’s playing, so I’m obviously speaking for millions of other viewers. He brings excitement to the game other players simply can’t offer. We need to give him some space to get his act together so he can get on with his life. Frankly, I’m worried about him. This is a lot of pressure and stress, and all of the stone throwing the public is doing is just making it worse. I hope he is getting the support he needs to deal with all of these issues.
@Robert Seidman: Accenture only caused their own issues with dropping him. Tiger was basically the face of their company in terms of advertising. That’s what happens when you lay all your eggs in one basket.
I don’t think any of them have a reason to drop him because they sponsor him for his golfing abilities, not his moral standings. Kinda like how he was still named AP’s Athlete of the Year, it’s all about his playing, not his marriage
Sara, he has a lot of endorsement agreements, some are sports related, some not. If it’s involving selling sporting equipment and his golfing ability, I agree there’s no reason to bolt (at least not yet). Accenture is in the business of selling “good judgment”, so I can see why they would drop him regardless. Barring additional info, I can’t imagine Nike would ever drop him. Gillette? Maybe, maybe not.
My guess though is that if there is no additional fallout and he gets back to his winning ways, it will all totally blow over one of these days. But in the short-term I could see more non sports-equipment related companies bailing on him.
This is what happens when you project a public image that doesn’t reflect your true self.
Then again, I think the media is partly to blame for this. They wanted a black superstar in golf and pumped their hopes into him. Nevermind that he’s only half black and quite proud of his Asian side. He appeared with his Asian mom for his first 60 Minutes interview. But Asians in golf doesn’t translate to money in the bank. But that can also be said of Obama. Obama’s also half white but that’s not what the media wants to promote. Obama’s the first “black” President … if you have a Jim Crow racial purity mindset. Oops. Did I just call the media racist? Shame on me.
Gillete is phasing Tiger out of its ads, respecting his desire for privacy. That’s the way to do it: he wants privacy, let’s give him privacy, *total* privacy. Product endorsement/association can mean a lot when people have a pool of good brands/products to choose from. As much as I like Nikon, I don’t buy or recommend its cameras only because of Ashton Kutcher.
The $80,2K rate must keep the other players from feeling like chopped liver.
Ratings for the Chevron tournament on NBC were .6 on Saturday and .8 on Sunday, down 62% and 73% respectively from 2007, when Tiger Woods played there last. The scandal and related publicity didn’t even help attract the same number of viewers as in 2008.