• by Karl Greenberg , March 10, 2008

Golf wizard Tiger Woods has been the face of General Motors' Buick brand for eight years, and in this time he's promoted vehicles like Buick Lucerne and Enclave with offbeat ads--some with a golf theme and some without. The latest effort is squarely aimed at golf aficionados.

In "Tee-Off with Tiger," the player will become caddy to a winning registrant at TeeOffwithTiger.com, which goes live today. The effort, running through September, has the company giving away--each week--a Buick vehicle that Woods has driven at a tournament in which he has played. Each comes with a Tiger Woods autographed plaque.

Golf has been a central marketing channel for Buick since the mid 1980s, when it signed as official car of several PGA properties. Buick has title sponsorship of The Buick Invitational and the Buick Open.

Entrants have to tally their predictions for each of the 18 holes Woods plays during four rounds of golf at each tournament in which he competes during the promotion period, which starts this week and runs through September.

The entrant who gets closest to Woods' score wins the Buick that Woods drove during that tourney. The grand prize winner, chosen from the Top 10 entrants from each tournament, gets airfare for two to the 2008 Buick Invitational and U.S. Open in La Jolla, Calif., plus accommodations and merchandise. At Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Woods will be the winner's personal caddy for nine holes on Oct. 20.

Larry Peck, Buick golf marketing manager, says the effort is the first such promotion for Woods. "There have been opportunities for people to purchase a spot to play beside Woods in a Pro Am tournament, but you can't buy Tiger as your caddy," he says.

He said that Buick will support with an integrated TV, print, interactive and radio campaign, via AOR Publicis' Leo Burnett, that begins Thursday night on golf-themed TV media. Toward the end of March, the promotion will extend into Buick brand TV ads beyond golf-centric broadcasting.

Buick will also promote via feature units and billboards on the Golf Channel, and front-page units in the March 14 Wall Street Journal; and two-page ads in golf magazines like Golf Digest and PGA. All of the ads show Woods wearing a caddy bib.

"The idea came from the agency," says Peck. "They were trying to pitch an idea of something people can't buy around golfing. I mentioned it to Woods in December, and his first question was, 'Do you want me to carry the bag?'

Peck adds that the promotion gets Buick lead generation from consumers giving information about purchase intent as part of the game registration process. Site visitors are also encouraged to click to a product demo and virtual driving range Web site, where they view Buick products and get virtual product demos. When they scroll over Buick vehicles to see specs, they are also entered to win Nike merchandise and other prizes.

"The TV ads are really fun and lighthearted," says Peck, who explains that they feature a guy dreaming about hanging with Woods for a day in different scenarios. He wakes up at his computer to discover he can do that, but he has to register.

Because Buick is the Official Car of the PGA Tour and of some 20 separate PGA events, the company gets an assortment of product-placement opportunities: rules officials drive Buicks to and from; there is a Buick Club House exhibit trailer at all events; and Buick also offers golf-swing lessons from PGA pros at tournaments.

Buick will also be running a host of activities around the 50th anniversary of the Buick Open at the Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc, Mich.