What if your flag was stiff?
Picture it, it’s a completely calm day out as you walk up to the green yet you notice the flag is not drooping, but stiffly standing parallel to the ground. And in fact, there’s an advertisement for Joe’s Bar and Grill on it with a coupon code for a half-price burger if you mention the name of the golf course. How would that make you feel? Would it cheapen the serene beauty and intense competition you are embroiled in? Would you lose focus as you are hovering over that four-footer for the match?
I think not. I don’t have any problems with a little sponsorship on the golf course. And neither does Rockford based Midwest Golf Managment (looks like a division of a company called Fetelli). They’ve invented a flag that is about half rigid and half fluid called the Ad Flag. On the rigid half you can put your course name or an advertisement and you never have to be concerned about it being obscured on a calm day when the flag droops. But, it still retains some of the features of a loose flag because half of the flag flaps in the wind.
I read an article about this in Golf World. The little article talks about the interesting take on income opportunities that Midwest Golf Management has. They propose charging the advertiser on an advertising-view basis that is positive Google-ish. You, as the golf course owner, go to the potential advertiser and say, “I get 20,000 paid rounds per year on my golf course so I can guarantee that many sets of eyeballs on your advertisement annually if you sponsor an Ad Flag on my first hole. In fact, I will only charge you for each “view” so you only pay $0.08 per view.”
Check out the link and let me know what you think. Sounds reasonable to me I guess. You can see for yourself if you play a Rockford park district course his summer, because they’ve apparently incorporated it on their greens. The industry has been doing it for years on tee markers, but may not be using the “advertising view” model to charge advertisers. Heck, if it makes the industry healthier, I’m all for it, because this sponsorship model is here to stay.
April 26th, 2007 at 8:07 am
This makes me SICK!!! I do not like the idea of subisidizing the industry, based on THEIR overbuilding in the 90’s. On a calm day I want to see that flag flacid and stiff on windy days.
Sorry I am so fired up about this, I am just tired of seeing public golf courses that are managed poorly because the person running the show is very good at hiting 3 irons and not so good from a business sense!!
Golf courses have a plethra of money making opportunities available to them through consessions and merchandising that most squander away because they are too lazy to do market research and come up with unique idea’s to increase the golfers overall spend at the course.
Stop selling Pro-V’s for $60/dozen when I can get them at Dicks for $39 and you may actually make a couple of bucks in that completely under utilized and mismanaged retail space called the ProShop.
Come up with a unique food like a “Bearclaw Burger” and make your course known for more than the golf holes. How about customer appreciation day for loyal and regular patrons (geez you have their contact info from tee-times and credit card swipes)!!
Sorry - Not ready to turn my local daily fee course to a freaking NASCAR speedway just yet!!!!!!!
April 26th, 2007 at 8:10 am
Ah, there’s the fire in the belly that I like to see. You raise a ton of great points that I will respond to later. Thanks for caring! Let’s see if anyone else chimes in on this.
April 27th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I have to admit that when I play a course where the tee markers have the advertising for local businesses like plumbers, realtors and D.U.I defense attorneys, I really knock the course down a few pegs in my review. In fact, I don’t even like it when they have little advertising on the back of the score card. Am I an elitist? I prefer to think of myself as a purist. Lump me with the golf enthusiasts that eschew the use of logo decorated golf balls. Imagine saving your hole in one ball for the rest of your life with the Enron logo plastered all over it.
On a related note, some predict real commercial advertising opportunities by spray painting the grass on the fairway in billboard sized banners. Woe to those who pooh pooh the slippery slope!
April 27th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Wow, you guys make compelling cases for something that I was ready to consent to. I just may have a little higher threshold for sponsorship intrusions. It could because I benefit to a certain extent from sponsor driven things (for example, this blog is hosted completely free on a sponsor-supported Google site).
I am going to be more attentive to this, but I think some level of sponsorship creeping into our golf experience is inevitable so part of me just wants to learn to deal with it. The question will be where do you draw the line? Painting something that is naturally occurring (like grass), is unconscionable and I would revolt. But tee markers, fine with me. The flag, that’s starting to intrude a little.
I will hopefully get to Rockford for a round of golf and I will let talk more about it.