Out of the PoS Woods
Last week’s article (“Sponsors welcome Tiger Woods’ return, MarketingWeek.co.uk 17 March’) pondered Tiger’s return to the course. His sponsors have generally stood by their man – noise-lovers such as Nike are unlikely to worry about further media interest. But the question for some sponsors must be his impact – for richer or poorer – at the point of sale.
Take EA Games for instance. Notwithstanding the rapidly growing mobile space, it’s generally acknowledged that future growth in the category will come from family gaming, and that is already in evidence with the growth of platforms like the Wii.
Because of this, it’s expected that incremental sales will materialise from mainstream grocery where mums (and dads) are more likely to shop a category merchandised in a familiar environment. But would mums run away from Tiger in Tesco right now?
You can hardly imagine him roaring back but then again, he’s hardly serving his paymasters if he simply skulks in the point of sale long grass.
It’s a tricky balancing act yet one his sponsors will have to get right – you need plenty of activation to justify that kind of sponsorship money and opportunity.
Bruce Ferguson, Group account director, Billington Cartmell
