By Adam Wakefield
As 2015 came to an end, advertising within the golfing space saw an important change. Out-of-home media company Provantage Media Group acquired a stake in specialist company Green Advertising, which focuses on the marketing and advertising opportunities available within the golf course environment.
Fast forward to June 2016 with the launch of GolfAds, a rebranding of Green Advertising, which holds strategic media rights at a minimum of 165 golf courses in South Africa.
Simon Turck, managing director of GolfAds, told those gathered for the launch; “We have a new partnership that is going to bring innovation and opportunity for our marketers to capitalise on this environment.”
GolfAds’ approach to the golfing environment is made of traditional media, digital media, activations, and Golf TV. Turck said traditional media encompassed ballwashers, a three sided billboard placed on each hole where golfers spend guaranteed time, to traditional clocks, and mini-billboards placed at entrances and exits to clubs.
Digital media is represented by digital clocks in high-profile positions within club-houses, pro-shops, club bars, ladies and men’s lockerooms and halfway houses.
Traditional and digital media is complimented by activations and Golf TV, with Turck pointing to the possibilities both forms has for marketers within the golfing space.
“Through our partnership with Provantage, we were able to launch activations. Three months ago, most golf clubs did not stock Stella Artois. We ran this promotion at 60 golf clubs, and in less than three months, we have gone from zero to 1000 cases of beer,” Turck explained.
When it comes to Golf TV, Turck said it is located at 25 of the country’s top golf clubs. Screens for Golf TV are strategically placed in high-dwell time areas, similar to where digital clocks are placed, offering a unique platform to reach the golfing market.
“From a golf club point of view, all the golf clubs we are engaging with are excited about it [Golf TV] because it’s a platform for them to engage with their members and their guests,” Turck said. “We are very excited about this product. It is a world first.”
The reason for their excitement centred on what the golfing market offers to advertisers. Turck described golfers as people who “spend on average more than everybody else”. Key decision makers and CEOs form an important part of the golfing market, also characterised by a player base with high disposable income.
Jacques du Preez, managing director of Provantage Media Group, followed Turck, and explained that the launch of GolfAds and the golfing market itself was a natural fit for the group.
“We’re very excited about this venture. One thing that Simon didn’t share with you: For us, when we look at an environment, it has to be a win-win-win solution,” Du Preez said.
“The objective is to add a lot of value to the club and to the members and be respectful to the client. It’s really bringing information and commercial opportunities that will make the clubs more sustainable.”
Du Preez said Provantage Media Group are very much in favour of the audience GolfAds reaches. They are an audience with an affluent profile and social habits within the golfing environment that endear them to specific types of media and marketing opportunities that GolfAds speaks to.
“The audience speaks for itself,” Du Preez concluded.