NBC Sports Group tees off on its new 13-year partnership with The R&A for The 145th Open this week, running coverage from July 14-17. NBC Sports and Golf Channel are on deck to offer nearly 50 hours of live tournament coverage the most ever planned for a major championship complimented by nearly 60 hours of Golf Channel’s Golf Central Live From The Open, which begins today at 9a with Round 1 coverage beginning Thursday from 1:30a-4p. On the marketing front, the company has lined up the prestigious tournament beside its other top-tier properties, as the tournament helps anchor 12 straight weeks of golf tent poles for the company, including the Olympics, the FedExCup Playoffs and the Ryder Open.
Cynopsis Sports asked Regina O’Brien, SVP of Marketing at Golf Channel, about the company’s approach to the Open, its Olympic plans and how it will be leveraging new audiences.
O’Brien on The Open: Our goal has been to build awareness of its new home on Golf Channel and the event’s return to broadcast television on NBC. Like other marquee sporting events in Europe, the time of day presents unique challenges. However we are having fun with that, adding to the legacy of The Open typically being a morning event in the U.S. and expanding it to the night prior, since our all-encompassing coverage will range from the first tee shot to the final putt and kick off in primetime on the West Coast each day.
On tactics: This is definitely the most comprehensive promotion we have ever done at Golf Channel. We are taking advantage of being part of the NBC Sports Group and maximizing our partnerships within the NBCUniversal and Comcast portfolios to help raise the profile of The Open. NBC Sports is home to marquee sports programming like the English Premiere League, French Open and Tour de France, so we have been targeting promotion to that early morning sports audience throughout the year, as well as other high-profile events within NBC Sports’ Championship Season like the Triple Crown, NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs and NASCAR. An example of one of the ways we are engaging a more digitally minded, youthful audience is by developing content with partners like SB Nation and Whistle Sports, where we surprised golfers at Chelsea Piers and taught them what it’s authentically like to play the links of Scotland, including simulated rain, wind, pot bunkers and fescue grass.
On the Olympics: NBC does a tremendous job with Olympics promotion and I’ve been lucky enough to work with John Miller and his team to develop the right strategy for golf. We have two goals with the Olympics: to let our golf audience know that their favorite golfers will be competing for a gold medal on sport’s biggest world stage and introduce golf to fans of the Olympics. Rather than reinventing the wheel, we have weaved golf into the NBC Olympic campaign. We asked LPGA Tour and PGA Tour golfers about their personal memories as Olympic fans, in addition to their expectations as athletes. Modern golfers have never been to an Olympics, so they really don’t know what to expect, or how they will feel. So weaving together their excitement and anticipation, in conjunction with great moments in Olympic history, has been central to our promotional campaigns.
On star power: When I started in 2008, Golf Channel’s promotion was all about Tiger Woods. But now, Golf Channel has nearly doubled our live tournament coverage and there is a roster of young stars on the PGA TOUR with Jordan, Rory, Jason, Rickie and Dustin all playing well. Fans are getting to know these players through not just their stellar play, but through social media and digital assets. Also adding to the tremendous momentum in golf is the wave of young stars on the LPGA Tour, including Lexi, Lydian and Michelle. This is a huge advantage for Golf Channel, which has live tournament coverage nearly every week of the year, because several if not all of golf’s biggest stars are teeing it up week in and week out.
