Auto marketer BMW of North America knows that many of its customers love golf. That's why the company is expanding its sponsorship connection to professional gold by establishing its own tournament.
Under a new agreement with the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Tour and the Western Golf Association, BMW will sponsor the third leg of four PGA Tour playoff tournaments that are part of the
new FedExCup competition, which begins next year. Dubbed the BMW Championship, the tournament will be played for a week in September 2007 at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Chicago. Beginning in 2008,
the tournament will travel to golf courses in the Midwest every other year. The championship will be played in St. Louis at the Bellerive Country Club in 2008, before returning to Chicago in 2009. The
move is an extension of BMW's existing ties to the sport. The carmaker is also the official vehicle at the PGA's Barclays Classic, and of the Tour Championship presented by Coca-Cola, which will
follow the BMW Championship as the final event in the PGA Tour Playoffs. "This really is a perfect opportunity for the BMW brand, which has been engaged in golf for the last 20 years at both the
amateur and professional level," said Tom Salkowsky, manager of experiential marketing, BMW. "A lot of analysis shows that our dealers and owners play the game readily and as a competitive set view
the game...as the most interesting game in sport."
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