Taylor Made Spring Golf Tour Charts Course with Sony, BMW - three companies partner for traveling promotion - Brief Article

Brandweek, March 5, 2001 by Chuck Stogel

Sony in support of its digital camera unit, and BMW are hitching their grass roots marketing wagons to a spring and summer nationwide demo caravan driven by Taylor Made/Adidas Golf.

The City Attack tour, hitting in April, will be headed by a $40,000 BMW X5 Sports Activity Vehicle pulling a TaylorMade trailer loaded with demonstration clubs and sample balls. More than two dozen cities, and possibly up to 40, will be visited in the program still being finalized. The cities would likely include Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago and San Francisco.

"By pooling our resources, we've created a way for all of us to make meaningful contact with consumers whose demographics are very similar," said Merle Marting, Taylor Made director of brand communications. This will help us engage potential customers on another level."

Taylor Made, based in Carlsbad, Calif., will showcase its new 300 series of woods and irons, along with its InerGel golf ball and Adidas shoes. Budget for Taylor Made's share of City Attack will exceed $2 million. There will be no national advertising; some local ads and POP materials will support.

Sony will provide tour officials with DSC-PI digital cameras to capture images of golfers testing and being fitted for Taylor Made clubs at City Attack locations, which will comprise both off-course retailers and on-course shops. Later, customers can access a to-be-determined Web site and view either stills or MPEG motion pictures of their golf swings.

"This is another channel for us to support and introduce our digital still cameras," and Jim Malcolm, senior marketing manager at Sony's digital still camera unit in San Diago. "while golfers are waiting to hit clubs, we can distribute information and get them excited about this new-camera technology."

The DSC-P1, with a suggested retail price of $799, lets users download high-resolution digital images onto their PCs.

City Attack is just one of the linkups this year between BMW and Taylor Made, who will also team on staging the BMW Golf Cup, a series of more than 100 tournaments nationwide.

Organized by local auto dealers at nearby clubs, these member-member or member-guest events--at which Taylor Made will provide each contestant with a sleeve of balls--offer a test-drive component. For consumers who opt for a test drive, local BMW dealers will give away a choice of Taylor Made products: a travel cover bag, Nubbins putter or two dozen InerGel balls.

"This is an awesome partnership between BMW and Taylor Made, and it's just the beginning," said Holly Babich, consumer events manager at BMW North America in Woodcliff Lake, N.J.