Woods' Masters Windfall Pulls in 43% Ad Gain for AT&T, IBM
Tiger Woods’s return to golf at the Masters Tournament
will give sponsors like AT&T Inc. an unexpected boost from their ad
dollars, lifting the value of their TV spots by 43 percent, according to a
media analyst’s estimate.
With Woods playing, a 30-second commercial is worth
$500,000; without him, it’s valued at about $350,000, based on comparable
events, said Brad Adgate, director of research at Horizon Media Inc., an ad
company in New York.
AT&T, International Business Machines Corp. and Exxon
Mobil Corp. paid a flat fee to be the only advertisers on the broadcast,
which CBS has carried since 1956. Nike Inc., a sponsor that has stuck by
Woods, and ticket resellers also benefit from the golfer’s decision to
play at the Masters.
“I don’t think there is any other athlete in any other
sport that is so impactful on ratings,” said Rick Gentile, a former
executive producer for CBS Sports who runs a sports poll at Seton Hall
University in South Orange, New Jersey. “He changes the ratings just by
his presence.”
Viewership on the last day of the event may rise more than
60 percent, to a record, if Woods makes the final round, according to Sam
Sussman, a Starcom Worldwide senior vice president in charge of buying ads
on sports programs. Last year, the last day of the tournament attracted 14.3
million viewers, according to Nielsen Co. data.
Fletcher Cook, a spokesman for Dallas-based AT&T, the
biggest U.S. phone company, declined to comment, as did Cynthia Bergman
White, a spokeswoman for Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil. Edward Barbini,
with Armonk, New York-based IBM, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Swoosh Logo
A win for Woods, clad in apparel with Nike’s swoosh
logo, would give the company exposure worth as much as $36 million,
according to an estimate by Joyce Julius & Associates, a company that
measures the advertising value of sponsorships at sports events.
“Nike could see some two hours of in-broadcast exposure
time,” Eric Wright, a vice president of Ann Arbor, Michigan- based Joyce
Julius & Associates, said in an e-mail.
Nike, which produces a line of Tiger Woods golf gear and
apparel, is looking forward to his return, Beth Gast, a spokeswoman for the
Beaverton, Oregon-based company, said March 16. She didn’t respond
yesterday to requests for comment on the value of the company’s exposure
at the Masters.
Major Tournaments
Live coverage starts April 7 on Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN
and switches three days later to CBS Corp.’s TV network, according to the
Masters Web site.
LeslieAnne Wade, a spokeswoman for CBS Sports in New York,
declined to comment on the terms of its agreement. Steve Ethun, a spokesman
for Augusta National Golf Club, the event’s organizer, said he couldn’t
comment. The Masters is the first of golf’s four major tournaments each
year.
CBS, owner of the most-watched broadcast network, fell 28
cents to $14.50 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Burbank, California-based Disney, the world’s biggest media company, was
unchanged at $33.75.
IBM dropped 91 cents to $127.76, while AT&T gained 5
cents to $25.90 and Exxon Mobil added 79 cents to $67.36…