3. 2
Introduction
Fox Sports Wisconsin is an American regional sports network first launched on
April 1, 2007. Fox Sports Wisconsin is currently available through cable providers all
throughout Wisconsin and certain parts of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota. Fox
Sports can be streamed via satellite or online through FoxSports.net. Fox Sports
Wisconsin streams all major National Football League, Major League Baseball, National
Basketball Association, National Hockey League, National Collegiate Athletic
Association, and local high school games. You can also find live updates on sporting
events on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Both of these sites have
updates on current games and information for viewers.
In 2015, Fox Sports began a partnership with the United States Golf Association
(USGA). Founded in 1894 by the merging of five country clubs, the USGA formed a
governing body that would organize championships and enforce the rules of golf. In
1985, the USGA administered the first United States Open of Golf. Today, there are 13
different competitions that the USGA organizes and has expanded from the original five
country clubs to over 9,700 members. 2017 will be the first time the U.S. Open
tournament will be held in the state of Wisconsin since the start of this tournament in
1895.
4. 3
Client Overview
The 2017 United States Open Championship of Golf, also referred to as the U.S.
Open, will be held at the Erin Hills Golf Course just 35 miles away from Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. The U.S. Open is a national championship tournament that happens yearly. It
is among the Masters, PGA Championship, and The Open Championship as the four
men’s major golf tournaments. It occurs during the month of June or July throughout the
country at various world renown golf courses.
Erin Hills will be the sixth public access course in the history of the USGA to
hold the U.S. Open. Additionally, attendance is estimated to be more than 35,000 daily,
with staff and volunteers roughly around 5,000. There are many benefits of hosting the
U.S. Open, including the $130 million anticipated revenue throughout the community,
(Erin Hills).
Situation Analysis
SWOT:
Strengths: Erin Hills Golf Course is emerging as one of the best in the country. With the
opportunity of hosting the USGA event there it will only attract more golf fans to the
venue. This will be the first time that the U.S. Open will be held in Wisconsin and seeing
that other Golf Championships have been held in Wisconsin successfully, the excitement
5. 4
of a competition of this magnitude will bring out a lot of people. People in Wisconsin
have a strong love for sports and golf viewership in Wisconsin is only growing.
Weaknesses:Although this event is quite popular, some people have expressed how it
can be hard to travel to. With the golf course being in Hartford, WI, it won’t be as easily
accessible to those people flying in because the main airport is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
which is about 40 minutes away from Hartford. The network has also discussed how
pricey it can be to broadcast the event. With this being Erin Hills first major golf event
there isn’t any guarantee that they will have a huge turnout of fans. Although Erin Hills
is great golf course Hartford, Wisconsin isn’t exactly a vacation destination. Although
social media will create great exposure for us, it might actually decrease viewership of
the Open because people can find out all the live information from tweets, articles, or
various other live media outlets instead.
Opportunities: Although there might be some minor issues with hosting this event, it’s a
great chance for FOX sports to expand their audience since this is only their second year
under an USGA contract and the first time the U.S. Open has been in Wisconsin. This
tournament is a valuable opportunity to expand the game of golf and gives fans the
chance to volunteer. This is also a chance for surrounding business to feed off the event
and the amount of people that will be in the city. As for Erin Hills, their name will be
broadcasted across the nation which gives them the opportunity to build a brand that is
known nationwide.
Threats: There are many things to take into consideration when hosting an event. There
could be questions as to whether or not local accommodations for spectators can be met.
The U.S. Open, because of all of the traffic, parking, and living conditions, could impact
6. 5
local residents. In cases such as this one, we try our best to not only accommodate the
people at the event but also the surrounding areas. Also, the weather in Wisconsin can be
an unpredictable threat. Even though the event is held in the summer, it is very possible
that there is rain or high winds which would impact the performance of the golfers and
the attendance.
Consumer Review
The total number of golfers today in the U.S. peaks at almost 29 million. The
percentage of the U.S population who actually play golf is 9.6%, of which 77.5% are
male and 22.5% are female, (Pringle). Consumers under the age of 30 years old only
make up 5%, making this segment the smallest. Ages 50-59 currently have the highest
percentile rate at 24% (Pringle). Concerning the U.S. Open consumers, statistics remain
consistent with the previously mentioned data but are considered more avid golf fans. It
is mostly white males, with a 70 percent to 30 percent lead over women according to Fox
Sports 1. The average age is 50-55, where almost 70 percent of people have a college
degree as well as at least a $60,000 median income per individual. Geographically
speaking, the Northeast has 17.7 percent, East Central 12.4 percent, West Central 15.8
percent, Southeast 20.8 percent, Southwest 15.1 percent, and the Pacific 18.3 percent.
However, since the tournament is in Wisconsin, the Erin Hill’s attendees will consist of
mostly Midwest residents.
Industry Review
7. 6
The U.S. Open has produced some of its lowest numbers on record over the last 3
years. The 2016 final round earned a 3.4 rating and had 5.4 million viewers, which is
down 19% from 2015 (Paulsen). Viewership peaked between 7:30-8:00 p.m. during the
final round at 9.6 million, making it the 2nd
least-watched final round since 1987.
The 2nd
and 3rd
rounds of the tournament were down 21% from 2015, receiving a
rating of 2.2 and having only 3.3 million viewers. Again, these numbers are the 2nd
worst
ahead of only the 2014 numbers. Pittsburgh (7.8), Minneapolis-St. Paul (6.4),
Greensboro, NC (5.7), and Tampa-St. Petersburg and West Palm Beach tied (5.4) had the
highest ratings for the final round in 2016 (Ratings). These ratings were important
because they gave us specific cities to target when running promotions. We used this data
to form part of our plan that involves Minneapolis, specifically. It seems that the ratings
for the U.S. Open have dropped drastically over the last three years, and Fox broadcast
two of them. The graph below represents the amount of people that watched a golf
championship in 2015. Of the five shown, the U.S. Open is the second most watched
championship.
8. 7
Statista2016
The majority of the people who watch, and play golf are older males. In the last
12 months, 29 million people claimed to have played at least a single round of golf
(Harden). Males make up 77.5% of this group, and 83% of people who played were 45+
years old. Many of these people are married and well educated as well. 68% are married,
and 67% attended or graduated college (Harden).
The demographics of people who have watch golf on television are very similar to
the ones above. According to GfK MRI, 66.74% of the people watching were males, and
70.72% were 45+ years old. These statistics show us that the demographics of people
consuming golf are much older than our target audience; so developing a campaign to
reach multiple age ranges will be key to bringing in younger people.
9. 8
MarketReview
In the year 2015, Fox Sports 1 had an average of 161,000 viewers nationwide
(Brown 2015). In Wisconsin alone, 1.5 million homes had access to a Fox Sports
network. The rapid growth of the Fox Sports networks has allowed for fresh and unique
approaches to broadcasting, thus strengthening relationships with various sports
organizations. The relationship with USGA in particular, strives to “grow golf
viewership, fandom, and participation”(McDonald at el. 2016). For the 2016 United
States Men’s Golf Open at Erin Hills, Fox Sports will broadcast 120 hours of live
coverage from the U.S. Open championships on three networks as well as the
“FoxSportsGo” app. The massive venue will accommodate enough people to fill
approximately 20,000 cars per day. Tickets are priced at three levels, Gallery, Trophy
Club, and 1895 Club seats which can cost anywhere between $50 for one Gallery ticket
up to $1,875 for one 1895 Club seat (Erin Hills). The USGA works in accordance with
the Wisconsin State Golf Association to “promote and advance the game of
golf”(WSGA). Three champions have come out of Wisconsin , one bring a winner of a
U.S. Senior Open and a two winners from U.S. Women’s Open. There are over 500
courses scattered across the state, some of which have been hosts to several PGA
Championships.Andy North, an American Golfer from Wisconsin, has been on the PGA
tour twice bringing home two wins during the U.S Open.
10. 9
TargetAudience
The target audience are millennial males ages 16-35. Income is relatively low seeing as
our demographics are recent college graduates or currently enrolled students. As for
psychographics, they are interested in social media and content sharing, connecting with friends,
and value diversity. Unfortunately, in the past years,golf interest has gone down among this
group (Powell 2014). Geographically speaking, we are targeting millennials on a national level
considering we are only striving to increase interest and viewership.
The secondary target audience focuses on consumers by using the escalator approach. By
having the USGA integrated with the culture of the Midwest, it will retain already existing
customers, really focus moving casualcustomers to returning customers, and possibly sparking
the interest of potential new customers. Currently the majority of existing customers in the world
of golf is white men between the ages of 50-75. Using sports bars and breweries would be an
effective way to access that segment of this large market while seeing people who might fall
under a different segment.
Promotions
Objective/Strategy/Tactic
Primary Objective: Increase interest in golf and Fox viewership among millennials from
under 5% to 10% by mid 2017.
Strategy: Among the top reasons why millennials have become disinterested in the sport
of golf are the lack of diversity, its exclusivity, and personal relevance. Other sports such
as basketball and baseball can be played with upwards of ten friends while golf is
suggests no more than four. In order to combat these findings, we will create a campaign
that will show that golf is diverse and can be enjoyed by many, not just one race or
ethnicity.
11. 10
Tactic: In order to express the diversity in the USGA, we will broadcast short videos on
social media about various international and multicultural players. These videos will be
titled “Swings of Life” playing on the word “swing” and the fact that they come from
different backgrounds. The videos will include personal stories, humorous anecdotes, and
golf statistics. This will allow the audience to connect with players on a more personal
level. Examples of players include:
Tony Finau- United States, but also the first Tongan and person of American
Samoan descent to play in the USGA
Anirban Lahiri- India
Matteo Manassero- Italy
Carlos Ortiz- Mexico
Romain Wattel- France
Secondary Objective: Promote ticket sales for the 2017 U.S. Open in the greater
midwest area by mid 2017.
* Since this is the first time the U.S. Open has been held at Erin Hills, let alone the state
of Wisconsin, we don’t have any comparable statistics.
Strategy: In order to increase ticket sales, there must be an interested audience first. To
do this, we will have fun activations and appearances that will merge golf with the
midwest culture. In Wisconsin in particular, brewery tours and local sports bars are a
huge part of the culture so by having live activations at said places, the Wisconsin
residents will feel at home. Examples of bars include, Major Goolsby's, New Glarus
Brewing Company, Sand Creek Brewing Company, etc.
12. 11
Tactic 1: Playing on the golf term “tee,” we plan on creating activations called Tee
Parties. These activations will be mini putting greens, on-site interviews, and fun U.S.
Open trivia at Midwest breweries and sports bars. Every winner and participants will
receive free U.S. Open golf swag such as; hats, tshirts, coozies, etc. At every activation
site there will be an information booth and a place to purchase U.S. Open Erin Hills
tickets (with permission from the business). To promote the activation, event
notifications will be emailed to members of surrounding public and private golf courses.
U.S. Open activation staff will encourage participants and activation attendees to post on
social media with the hashtag #USOpenTEEParty. The U.S. Open social media platforms
will repost these to promote future activations.
Example Designs:
13. 12
Tactic 2: Another way to integrate the U.S. Open and Midwest culture is by having
USGA golfers make appearances at baseball games- highly attended sporting event for
the midwest. An example of the title would be “Lee Janzen FORE the Minnesota Twins”.
This promotion would involve a USGA golfer making the first pitch of the game. Seeing
that Lee Janzen is a Minnesota native, he would appeal to the fans and culture there.
Before the pitch, an announcer would introduce Janzen and give some information about
the upcoming U.S. Open. We would advertise these upcoming appearances on social
14. 13
media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to connect with our demographic. By
using these sites we can engage with our target consumers and increase the percentage of
young viewers.
15. 14
Social Media
January February March April May June
Week
1
Tweet Facebook
Tweet
Instagram
Tweet
Tweet
Facebook
Facebook
Instagram
Live Tweet/
Facebook/
Instagram
Week
2
Tweet
Instagram
Tweet
Instagram
Tweet
Facebook
Facebook
Instagram
Tweet
Facebook
Live Facebook/
Tweet/
Instagram
Week
3
Facebook
Tweet
Facebook
Instagram
Facebook
Instagram
Instagram
Tweet
Tweet
Facebook
Post event
highlights on all
media
Week
4
Instagram
Facebook
Tweet Tweet Instagram Tweet
Instagram
Post event
highlights on all
media
A few Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook sample posts shown below (in order) →
22. 21
Resources:
Association, W. S. G. (2016). About the WSGA | Wisconsin state golf association.
Brain, S. (2016, November 7). Golf player demographic statistics. Retrieved November 15,
2016, from Sports.
Brown, M. (2016, July 13). FS1 is seeing the strongest growth among all national cable sports
networks. Forbes.
Brown, M. (2015, August 10). In Second year, FOX sports 1 making progress on catching
ESPN. Forbes.
D’Amato, G. (2015, September 7). Planning for 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills gets underway.
Retrieved November 15, 2016.
Erin Hills. (2016). 2017 U.S. Open. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
President, S. V. (2016). People who watched the U.S. Open (golf) on TV (USA), 2015. Retrieved
November 15, 2016.
Glauber, B. (2015, August 17). In Wisconsin, golf is major indeed.
GOLFstats. (2016). Scores, statistics and analysis for the world of professional golf.
Harden,S. (2016, October30).Golf Player Demographic Statistics. Retrieved November16,
2016, fromhttp://www.statisticbrain.com/golf-player-demographic-statistics/
Paulsen. (2016, June 23). U.S. Open ratings low for Third straight year. Retrieved November 15,
2016.
The PGA tour audience. (1995). Retrieved November 15, 2016.
President, S. V. (2016). Number of golfers in the USA,2015.
Pringle, T., Anderson, K., Hodgson, P.,& Doyle, A. (2014, January 27). The demographics of
golf- inside the mind of a golfer (Infographic).
Ratings, S. T. (2015, June 19). U.S. Open golf coverages averages 3 million viewers in
primetime; 1.5 million for 8 hours on cable. Retrieved November 15, 2016.
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Stachura, M., Beall, J., Myers, A.,& Weinman, S. (2015, April 30). Number of golfers steady,
more beginners coming from millennials.
Ventures,E. I. (2016). 2017 PGA golf statistics.
