"The FedEx Cup, specifically how a player wins it, how a player not only survives but thrives on it."
/Now it's Ric Clarson's turn to wow us with multiple platform references. From the PGA Tour Communciations Summit:
RIC CLARSON: We wanted to spend a little bit of time telling you about the FedEx Cup, specifically how a player wins it, how a player not only survives but thrives on it.
Now, there are several of you in the audience I'm sure who have seen this presentation before, and the only thing I'm going to tell you is you probably didn't know all the words to Margaritaville the first time you heard it, and we would like you to know how the FedEx Cup is going to work because that is our new platform.
What a metaphor! Uh the difference between Margaritaville and the FedEx Cup? One conjures up images of the good life, the other induces naps.
I do think it's important to hear about this as a platform, and each of the stakeholders that are in the audience this morning, when we go through this, think about it as it pertains to your constituency and how that connects.
I read this article in the Wall Street Journal about how profits launch from platforms.
Oh yeah this is fun:
It said, "A couple years ago, in the days before YouTube™, a short video website spread like wildfire on the internet. It showed the fourth richest man on the planet, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, doing a crazy jig on stage at a conference screaming 'developers, developers, developers.' Truer words have never spoken or repeated. Without developers, Microsoft would not possess its desktop monopoly or billions of dollars in profits."
It goes on to say, "Those developers are the little platoons of software programmers and product inventors who turn operating systems like Microsoft Windows, internet browsers, game devices and much else, into something more than themselves, into platforms upon which a whole economic ecosystem rests."
So all of us in this room, we're actually part of an ecosystem, and we have developed a new schedule, a new season, something called the FedEx Cup competition, and if we all execute against it, this will be a platform for all of you in the room, players included, that is going to take us into a new era in golf.
This is YOUR platform. YOUR ecosystem. Embrace it. Sell it. Hump the living daylights out of it whether you think its worth it or not.
When you think about some of the progress that other sports have made and how they've done it, you realize quickly that the PGA TOUR and golf as an industry could not, cannot and will not hold still. We must be able to compete with a new product.
But if the game is healthy...
So a new schedule, a PGA TOUR season, 44 weeks, a new season, FedEx Cup season that gives us new meaning. This will be a generational change. This is not going to be turn on the switch and everybody gets it from the start.
This gives us a onceinalifetime opportunity, and all of us in this room are involved. This is why we are referring to the FedEx Cup as a new era in golf. I hope today's communications summit is indicative of the determination we have to go into a new era.
But it's a new performance measurement. We've had Player of the Year in the past, we've had Leading Money Winner in the past. But this is a defined, onthefield performance measurement over a 37week period of time and a sevenweek Fall Series right behind it.
Okay that's enough of that.
Media, I was talking to Craig Dolch last night and I know personally I'm thrilled to have a true season to market against. It's easier, it's logical, there are better points during the year to garner attention for the sport, and just like those of you in the media who cover other sports with a defined season, we think this is a huge enhancement for you to cover the PGA TOUR and our new season in the FedEx Cup points race. More quality story lines.
Oh yeah. Uh huh. Right!
We're delighted that you're here because this is an important day for you to absorb this information.
I gave a presentation to Golf 20/20 because the stakeholders who run golf clubs are important stakeholders. They're influencers. So we've reached out to just about everybody we could think of.
This has also given us the platform to sync our media internally. We're getting a lot better at our messaging and how we do it through all the different media channels through a collective effort.
A platform to sync our media internally. Now that's a keeper!
Our communications phases, we started a tease campaign in July, we've just moved into a prelaunch and merges right into the launch campaign that will take us through the first three to six weeks of the season. Then we get into the season itself, the playoffs and the Fall Series.
The tease to the pre-launch to the launch. Such seamless MBAspeak marketing.
Time to dim the lights and watch some PSAs...
We're just trying to get the FedEx Cup name out there and that tag line "A New Era in Golf." Well, did it work? When Golf World wrote an article after THE TOUR Championship entitled "The End of an Era," we were so pleased with that because we do plan on definitely going into this new era.
And I'm sure it just warms the heart of Golf World's headline writer that he helped brand the FedEx Cup.
This is going to take us into what we call our player desire spots. We've used some historical footage, again, to appeal to the core and connect this past history to what will be new history.
And...
Nothing is more believable than hearing it from the player himself, so we have a collection of player desire spots that we've done, and now we've started a little bit of seriousness and historical perspective. Now we're going to use a little bit more humor to tell the passion of players. (Video shown.)
Player desire. Is that an oxy...eh forget it.
