Telegraph promotions division unveils readers’ golf club

The Telegraph’s Enterprises Division is launching a new kind of club in September to capitalise on its readers’ interest in golf.

The club, to be called The Golf Network, will be advertised in the newspaper and followed up by a direct mail campaign.

For a membership fee, readers get access to special prices on green fees, tuition, golfing equip-ment, competitions and golfing holidays. The products offered to members will be constantly updated and sourced by a full-time product manager.

The club will also have a quarterly newsletter to keep members up to date.

“Half a million of our readers are very interested in golf,” says Kevin Gavaghan, head of Telegraph Enterprises. “This is not a newspaper promotion that you forget about. This is much more about using the strength of The Telegraph brand and applying it to the provision of services.”

The Golf Network, which follows moves into direct selling of books and music by the Enterprises division, is intended to increase the 3m a year profit the newspaper makes from reader offers. It will also bolster loyalty.

The Telegraph is planning more reader clubs, or networks, around other product categories in the future.

A scheme to sell PEPs and financial services (MW February 16) was scrapped because it threatened lucrative newspaper advertising from financial services clients. The Telegraph only takes four pages of golf advertising a year although it runs 400 pages of golf editorial.

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