LPGA's Durkin Focused on New Messaging - Ladies Professional Golf Association cheif marketing officer Karen Durkin - Brief Article

Brandweek, Jan 22, 2001 by Hilary Cassidy

Most executives only dream about a 1.4 golf handicap, but Karen Durkin, newly promoted to svp/CMO at the Ladies Professional Golf Association, achieved one while playing on mini-tours as an amateur after finishing grad school. Her handicap has since risen to a 9; still quite respectable considering that she is now responsible for all of the LPGA's strategic marketing initiatives, including branding, advertising, sponsorships and new business development. In what she describes as a saturated marketplace, Durkin's first priority is pulling results from a just-completed brand values assessment to create a new blueprint for the LPGA, which is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla.

"One of the ideas that came out of the research is that the LPGA has not yet hit its ceiling of growth, so lots of what we'll be looking at in the new plan is how we can begin to reach our full potential," Durkin said." The research will form the foundation for all the association's strategic initiatives in the near-term, from tactical plans like new advertising to promotional ideas we're exploring with our corporate partners."

Durkin will work to generate more sponsor programs like Michelob Lite's effort last year, where the brewer, already an LPGA sponsor, signed player Annika Sorenstam for a national TV ad campaign that aired during Friends and the X-Files. "That was an absolute home run in terms of exposure, reaching sports fans as well as those who are not necessarily sports fans," she said.

A new LPGA ad campaign will be in place by the end of the second quarter. "Having celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2000, this is a perfect time for new messaging and to focus on where the LPGA is going," said Durkin.