The Mike & Mike in the Morning Show will be broadcasting live for the second consecutive year from the Hootie & the Blowfish Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am on April 9 at Barefoot Resort’s Dye Club.
Attracting the popular show that airs from 6-10 a.m. each weekday on ESPN Radio and the ESPN2 television network is a small part of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday’s spring marketing campaign.
The marketing cooperative, which has more than 75 golf courses and nearly 100 combined hotels and package providers among its membership, will spend the bulk of its $4.2 million marketing budget in 2012 through the first few months of the year.
The comprehensive plan includes print, television and radio ads with a focus on markets offering direct flights to Myrtle Beach; a new web-based show called the Myrtle Beach Golf Buzz; an endorsement agreement with PGA Tour member Dustin Johnson; direct mail and email blitzes; and consumer golf show sponsorship and attendance.
Mike & Mike hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic broadcast their show from the Dye Club’s first tee last year and have agreed to return. Commercials in advance of the tournament on ESPN Radio began airing last week and include 104 60-second spots, 70 15-second spots and 36 5-second spots or reads. Some individual courses and hotels/resorts will be mentioned in the ads.
This is the 10th year the Dye Club is hosting Hootie’s 18-year pro-am, which was previously held in Columbia and Kiawah Island. Johnson played in the 2010 event.
For the second consecutive year, Johnson will participate in a sweepstakes to award a round with him on the Grand Strand for a winner and his guest. Johnson is also in national and regional TV, radio and print ads hyping Myrtle Beach, is included in all online ads, and is on the cover of the annual Golf Holiday planner, which will have at least 100,000 copies.
“Anytime we can use him and integrate him into the messaging, we will,” Golden said.
Myrtle Beach Golf Buzz webisodes will air on its own new website and Golf Holiday’s page, and pro golfer and model Blair O’Neal has been hired to host all of the videos. O’Neal was twice a contestant on Golf Channel’s “Big Break” series filmed on Prince Edward Island and the Dominican Republic, and plays competitively on the LPGA’s developmental Futures Tour.
The first episode could be produced by mid-February, and some episodes are expected to include Johnson. “It will allow us to provide more engaging video, do some man on the street videos with golfers while they’re here, do some instruction, do some fashion and fitness, and highlight restaurants,” Golden said. “We’ll just kind of show what the experience is like in Myrtle Beach from her perspective.”
Golf Holiday and some of its members will be attending 10 consumer golf shows between Jan. 20 and March 18. The schedule is heavy on direct flight markets.
It is sponsoring shows in New Jersey; Columbus, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Toronto, Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. It is also attending shows in Ottawa, Montreal and the Chicago area (Rosemont, Ill.).
As the title sponsor, the organization receives placement in pre-event show advertising, premium booth locations, greater access to the names and contact information collected by the show organizers, show signage, and distribution of Golf Holiday planners at the front entrance of shows, among other things.
Golf Holiday has expanded its relationship with Golf.com World Amateur Handicap Championship title sponsor Sports Illustrated Golf Group, having signed on as the destination sponsor of the new Sports Illustrated at the Majors promotion.
SI will set up corporate tents at the three 2012 domestic pro majors and Ryder Cup, and Golf Holiday will have a team of Golf Holiday and member representatives in each tent. The events are in Augusta, Ga., San Francisco, Kiawah Island and Chicago.
“They’re anticipating 80,000 to 90,000 people collectively through the four tournaments passing through this,” Golden said. “It’s a huge opportunity for us. … If you think about the Ryder Cup, PGA Championship and Masters in terms of our audience and geographic location of our audience, they’re perfect.”
Regional marketing blitzes are based around direct flights on airlines including Spirit, Myrtle Beach Direct Air, Porter Air, Allegiant Air, Delta and U.S. Air. The targeted cities are Pittsburgh, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
All will have radio ad blitzes and some will have a television presence, with accompanying emails, direct mailings and online ads. Each ad and mailing will tout the direct flights.
The Pittsburgh plan, for example, is expected to include more than 500 30-second radio commercials accompanied by internet splash ads, an online sweepstakes, direct mail and emails to golfers in those markets who are in Golf Holiday’s database of 575,000 customers and potential customers.
The primary national golf magazines have all been contracted. A two-page insert will appear in the March 2012 Golf Digest issue in select regional locations, including those with direct flights to Myrtle Beach. There was already a one-page ad in Golf Magazine’s January issue and ads will run periodically in Golfweek. Online ads come with the magazine print ads.
Golf Magazine ran a nine-page Golf.com World Am participant guide in its October issue last year and there is a similar plan in 2012. Golfweek is also a sponsor of the Palmetto High School Championship and Golfweek Program Challenge college tournament.
“Every year things change a little bit but we try to target all the major media online, offline and broadcast,” Golden said.
In addition to its own golfer database, Golf Holiday’s magazine buys often include access to that magazine’s email database, and strategically timed emails are sent. In the first quarter of 2012 a total of 16.5 million emails will be sent. The acquired emails include those of Golfsmith, GolfTEC, Golf Galaxy, Time Inc., Golf Tips Magazine, Golf.com, PGA.com and Golf Channel.
“This stuff is critical to us because you look at our assets, the email database is probably the most valuable thing we have,” Golden said. “… [Members] pay us as a marketing agency to market the area, but we need to deliver some tangible stuff, too.”
Golf Holiday will have video ads/banners on the Global Golf Post and Golf World Monday weekly blast emails reportedly reaching an audience of more than 300,000.
ESPN Radio air time was purchased during college football bowl games this winter. “Not that Golf Channel is not relevant this time of year, but we try to target the sports enthusiast when they’re keyed into [a certain sport],” Golden said.
Golf Holiday’s social media campaign includes activity on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
Juniors claim honors
McKenzie Talbert of North Augusta and Carson Young of Pendleton have been named the Carolinas Junior Golf players of the year and All-Carolinas for 2011.
Joining Talbert on the All-Carolinas Girls’ Team are Sarah Bae of Cary, N.C., and Kelli Murphy of Elgin, and joining Young on the All-Carolinas Boys’ Team are Will Starke of Chapin and Benjamin Griffin of Chapel Hill, N.C.
Talbert, 16, a junior at Strom Thurmond High, won her third straight Carolinas Girls’ Player of the Year award by winning the CPGA Charles Tilghman Junior, SCJGA Fall Championship and SC Junior Match Play Championship. She finished second in the Vicki DiSantis Girls’ Championship and the Joe Cheves Junior and tied for third in the Carolinas Girls’ Championship. She also played on the winning U.S. Junior Solheim Cup Team.
Young, 17, a junior at Pendleton High and a Clemson commitment, won the S.C. Junior Match Play Championship and the Carolinas PGA Junior Championship, and finished third in the S.C. Junior Players Championship.
The honors are based on a 17-event series of tournaments run by seven associations that are the grassroots of junior golf in the Carolinas.
Fitness clinic offered
The Golf Academy of America will host a free golf fitness clinic at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at its Myrtle Beach campus on Waccamaw Blvd.
Bob Forman, the author/owner of GolFIT Carolina, a program that helps golfers improve their fitness with an emphasis on golf, will lead the 90-minute clinic. Forman is a 30-year veteran of the fitness industry and director of the Golf Fitness Academy in High Point, N.C., and possesses a Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology.
He occasionally provides golf fitness assessment and training at Barefoot Resort. To reserve a clinic seat call the academy at 843-236-0481 or Forman at 336-509-4610.
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