Like all major professional sports properties, golf organisations and tours are facing unprecedented challenges brought about by the Coronavirus. Re-energising the sport and unlocking a younger fanbase will accelerate a return to commercial success amid the uncertainty.
This report comes in PPT.
Across the landscape of professional sports, there is a focus on winning attention online. Global events have been postponed or cancelled, and sponsorships and activations have been interrupted, impacting key revenue streams for top competitions such as the PGA, LPGA, and the European, Asian and Japan tours.
The profile of golf is evolving. Over 2003-2020, the average age of a top 10 PGA Tour golfer dropped by almost eight years. The emergence of highly ranked professionals that are fluent with social media has created the opportunity to win new fans in new spaces, such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Through the pandemic and beyond, maximising this attention will be key to sustainability and growth.
The sponsorship landscape reflects golf’s traditional roots, over-indexing in spaces like luxury timepieces and luxury cars. These categories contribute essential sponsorship revenue, but online engagement with young fans has opened doors to brands that would have previously overlooked golf. CBD products, energy drinks and consumer electronics brands now consider golfers a part of the sponsorship conversation.
Golf is well positioned to adapt to changes induced by the pandemic. In the short to mid term, illustrating that social distancing is being adhered to will be key to bringing fans back and delivering maximum value for partners. Uncertainty will remain, but focusing on the appeal of golf’s top athletes on digital platforms will contribute heavily toward a sustainable future.
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