New Driver: Callaway signs multiple partnerships in effort to further grow the game ⛳️
Alongside the launch of their new collection, Callaway Golf has signed three significant partnerships as part of their mission to drive the popularity of the sport and to reach new audiences.
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Callaway Golf recently launched their new Paradym range of clubs at their Los Angeles Topgolf location with a star-studded line-up.
The guestlist, which included members of the YouTube channel Good Good, the Long Drive World Champion Martin Borgmeier, and social media influencer Snappy Gilmore, perfectly summed up the attitude of company, which changed its corporate name to Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp in September to acknowledge their “unique and dominant leadership in the Modern Golf space.”
That leadership at Callaway has certainly been dominant over the past five years at least. The company’s share price is 42% higher than it was five years ago, which is more than the market average. Furthermore, the company has beaten earning expectations for the last four consecutive quarters, with positively revised predictions for year-end results making them a stock to watch.
This is in no small part down to their $2 billion acquisition of Topgolf in October of 2020, but also to the philosophy behind it.
"Our whole thing is to bring new people into the game and make sure they are having fun," said Topgolf Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Cottrill. "If you’re not a golfer, it can be intimidating (to learn the game). We take that away. If it (the Topgolf experience) is fun and memorable, they will come back. It’s a really fun place to be."
The deal has made a lot of sense for the company, creating a more social experience and boosting the popularity of the sport by reducing barriers to entry and improving accessibility and enjoyment.
An oversimplified justification of this approach would be that any increase the number of people playing the sport equals more potential customers for them to sell their golf equipment to.
Of course, this is basic supply and demand, but it is nonetheless a strong premise for any business (or sport). It’s also strategy that has been working for centuries. Take a look at this classic example from the tyre company Michelin, for instance.
In 1900, there were fewer than 3,000 cars on the roads of France. To increase the demand for cars and, accordingly, car tyres, tyre manufacturers and brothers Édouard and André Michelin published a guide for French motorists, the Michelin Guide.
This is because the Michelin brothers recognised there were two ways to increase sales of tyres – either increase the number of cars sold or increase the usage. As such, the guide - which provided useful information to motorists, such as maps, hotels, petrol stations (and later ‘Michelin star’ restaurants) - was designed to encourage motorists to make more journeys, as well as to increase the demand for personal vehicles.
Though new in comparison to the Édouard and André Michelin story, Callaway and Topgolf is, of course, not a new example, so why bring this up now?
The answer is simple. Because in the last week alone, the company has announced the signing of three significant partnerships which provide an interesting iterative layer to their strategy in driving these new, diverse audiences to the sport.
Firstly, on Tuesday, Callaway announced a partnership with Good Good Golf – a group of content creators with more than 1.1 million subscribers on YouTube. This partnership enables them to tap into the massive influence of these creators (who create much of the most consumed golf content globally) and of course reach new audiences.
Two days later, Callaway announced another formal partnership. This time with former One Direction singer, Niall Horan.
The global music and entertainment superstar has a passion for golf and actually began working with the R&A in 2021 to design and develop a series of grassroots programs. Now, through this new partnership, he will collaborate with Callaway to bring golf to a wider, younger audience.
Then on Friday, to top it all off, the golf brand announced that it had also extended its partnership with four-time NBA champion Steph Curry. The press release stated that “Together, they will continue to work on various initiatives, with a strong focus on expanding the game by making it more accessible to underserved and underrepresented youth.”
Like Horan, Curry has also worked on several successful golf-related endeavours to bring more young people into the game. He helped Howard University to launch their first-ever Division 1 Golf Program, has served as the Executive Producer for the hit ABC mini-golf show "Holey Moley," and launched UNDERRATED Golf, a mission-based enterprise providing equity, access, and opportunity to underrepresented individuals across the country.
Whilst each of these moves alone would be significant, together they could have a seismic impact.
For years, Callaway has executed well on reaching new audiences via investment in technology and improving accessibility. However, through these recent deals, the brand has now doubled down on its ambition to reach new audiences and added an all-important content string to its bow. This further goes to show just how important content and personalities are becoming in driving interest and conversation.
Golf is fortunate to have brands such as Callaway (among others) so proactively moving the game forward and seeking opportunities to further its reach. For other sports that have not been so fortunate, there is still plenty of opportunity to learn from this and to adopt some of these same strategies around creating experiential locations, increasing accessibility, investing in technology, and connecting with audiences via diverse spokespeople that represent different groups.
Whilst Callaway is the official sponsor of Women’s Golf Day and an official partner of the LPGA Tour, I expect the next step for them to be partnering with an influential female personality that can create content that unlocks a different demographic to Horan, Curry, and the guys behind Good Good Golf.
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