By JOHN STEINBREDER
Senior Writer It was just a matter of time. The YouTube phenomenon has infected Titleist.
Several golf companies already have used “viral marketing” campaigns – like Nike Golf ads for its Juice 312 balls that viewers can pass along online to others.
But Titleist is taking the practice a step further by creating a dedicated Web site with YouTube-like features to promote its new NXT Tour and NXT Extreme balls and engage consumers.
At www.NXTube.com visitors can read the rants of the John Cleese character, Ian MacCallister, self-proclaimed leader of Golf Designers Against Distance. They can add their views on his faux battle to ban the NXT (because, MacCallister protests, it makes golf too easy) by e-mailing comments or uploading homemade videos on the subject.
The primary goal, says Mary Lou Bohn, Titleist’s vice president of advertising and communications, is to develop among consumers a stronger sense of community and loyalty to the NXT brand. She’s also counting on it to be a complementary vehicle to help break through advertising clutter.
The term “viral marketing” was first coined in the late 1990s when the Internet company Hotmail promoted itself in ads attached to outgoing e-mails. Essentially, the practice is about encouraging people to pass along marketing messages through the Internet. The theory is that viewers can be “infected” by messages – in the form of blogs, video clips or interactive games – and be prompted to engage in some fashion, such as providing their e-mail address or crafting a response as “citizen authors.” Just as important, they’re expected to spread the “virus” by eliciting similar behavior from others.
Viral marketing advocates say the practice’s greatest value can be intangible, yet priceless.
“Products can be obsoleted in the market place pretty quickly, so it is important to create a mythology for brands that carry powerful connotations among consumers,” says Bill Gray, co-CEO of Ogilvy North America, an integrated marketing agency with expertise in digital media. “That makes it much easier to do well with line extensions and new product introductions.
“The beauty about something like YouTube, where there is all that shared engagement whether in the form of people sending web-based ads around to friends, or becoming citizen authors and creating their own versions, is that the power of the brand can get truly released. It can go far beyond just seeing an ad on television.”
Gray should know. Last year, Ogilvy created for Dove soap a critically acclaimed 60-second film that appeared exclusively on YouTube. Industry executives estimate it has been viewed by more than 300 million people worldwide and credit it for helping increase Dove product sales nearly 25 percent.
The Web’s ability to offer interactivity also is a significant advantage over conventional advertising. But defining success in this new frontier is a work in progress.
“This is the first time we have done a campaign driving people to a blog, so to give you some pie-in-the-sky number just wouldn’t be accurate,” Bohn says. “We will need three or four months to get an indication as to how this campaign is working, based on product sell-in and sell-through as well as traffic to the sites and an evaluation of the level of visits.
“People are registering on the site . . . and we will follow up with them for feedback on the golf ball and anything else we might want to know from them.”
Titleist is offering an NXT sweepstakes at the site (in exchange for consumers’ demographic information) and plans to query consumers who sign up for MacCallister's newsletter, essentially assembling a sizeable focus group that’s always on call.
“Whenever you get response rates from 500 people or more, you can judge them to be statistically significant,” Bohn says.
Titleist began working in the spring on the NXTube concept as it developed a marketing campaign for the ball brand.
It launched NXT and started using John Cleese as Ian MacCallister in the fall of 2001.
“We knew were going to have to do something different if we wanted to extend it,” Bohn says. “Using the Web in this way seemed a natural, given all the different blog sites in the golf world and the way golfers like and use them.”
In addition to creating NXTube.com, Titleist plans to run ads for the balls through the middle of next year on TV, print and online. The company has released one spot in which MacCallister tries to telephone Bill Morgan, senior vice president for golf ball research and development for Titleist’s parent, Acushnet Co. And Acushnet CEO Wally Uihlein, who took a pie in the face from Cleese in a previous NXT campaign, will play a role in another.
• • •
John Steinbreder is a
Golfweek senior writer. To reach him e-mail
jsteinbreder@golfweek.com.
What’s new: Titleist NXT Tour and NXT Extreme balls
Specs: These latest-generation NXTs employ Staggered Wave parting lines – first used by Titleist in its newest Pro V1 and Pro V1x balls – that are designed to improve aerodynamics by increasing dimple surface coverage. The balls also feature the Alignment Integrated Marking (A.I.M.) side stamp to help with putting alignment.
MSRP: $40 per dozen (NXT Tour); $34 per dozen (NXT Extreme)
Availability: Immediately
Noteworthy: Titleist is looking for the multilayer NXT Tour to appeal to better players, bridging the gap between the NXT and Pro V1. The company wants to attract distance-obsessed golfers of all abilities with the NXT Extreme.
Posted: 8/3/2007
print
email
discuss
