Tiger Inc.’s image crash to make sponsors cautious
December 14, 2009
The self-destruction of Tiger Inc. is calling into question whethercompanies can afford the risk of signing multimillion-dollar contracts withcelebrity endorsers.
Done right, celebrity endorsers can help boost both the sale of products andtheir maker’s image. But Woods’ hasty and stunning downfall shows how quicklythings can sour when a superstar athlete’s life choices are exposed in anegative light by today’s real-time tabloid news culture.
Woods and his advisers spent years cultivating a good-guy image to go alongwith his winning ways, which is how he became sports’ first—and perhaps last—$1 billion earner. It’s also what has made his fall even more jarring.
Travellers walk in front of an… AP – Dec 14, 4:09 pm EST An ad for consulting firm Acce… AP – Dec 14, 3:30 pm EST
A passenger walks near an ad f… AP – Dec 14, 3:30 pm EST
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“The billion dollar athlete might be a thing of the past,” said LauraRies, president of marketing consulting firm Ries & Ries. Companies “want asafe choice and it seems like there’s almost no safe choice out there.”
Most of Woods’ $100 million in annual earnings came not from tournamentwinnings but from companies like Accenture that wanted to be associated with hispersona. These image ads are the types that are least likely to endure.Ultimately that could mean few other sports figures will follow in Tiger Woods’footsteps.
“There has to be trust and he’s just taken a grenade to any kind oftraditional agreement that you’d normally have,” said John Sweeney, director ofsports communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Schoolof Journalism and Mass Communication.
Accenture severed ties with Woods on Sunday, two days after he announced anindefinite leave from golf to work on his marriage after admitting infidelities.It said he was “no longer the right representative” of the company’s values.
That’s not surprising since the global consulting firm had pinned its entireidentity on the golfer and bragged that he embodied Accenture’s values ofperfection and integrity.
AT&T said it is also is evaluating its relationship with Woods, as is Swisswatchmaker Tag Heuer.
Procter & Gamble’s Gillette brand announced over the weekend it wasdistancing itself from him by not airing ads featuring Woods. Nike, PepsiCoInc.’s Gatorade and EA Sports say they are standing by him.
Other companies are likely to use the implosion of Tiger Inc. as a warningthat they must closely scrutinize all off-the-field behavior of any sports starthey’re considering hiring and just how much benefit they’re getting.
Even then, they’ll likely be wary of ads that bank on a celebrity’s imageand instead go for that star’s endorsement of a product.
“Brands continually will come back to individuals who they believe willhelp them sell more product,” said Rick Burton, former chief marketing officerof the United States Olympic Committee and now a sports marketing professor atSyracuse University. “The capitalism of all this is if Tiger can help somebodysell a brand in the future, they’re going to use Tiger.”
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