TV Spots Showcase PGA Tour's 'Farm League' for Pro Golfers
DALLAS--GSD&M has created two television spots to generate interest in the PGA Tour's six-year-old Nike Tour and to solidify its image as a proving ground for new golf talent.
The 30-second commercials, slated to break in the next month, will air during Nike Tour tournament coverage on ESPN and the Golf Channel, according to GSD&M account supervisor Kent Simon. The spots are also provided to organizers in local markets where a five-second event-specific plug can be added.
Tom Gilmore, senior vice president and creative director at GSD&M in Austin, Texas, said the commercials are designed to inform fans that the Nike series is part of the PGA Tour family, made up of the PGA Tour, the Senior PGA Tour and the Nike Tour.
Gilmore said the spots reinforce the Nike Tour's status as "kind of a farm league for up-and-coming golfers who don't have much money." The series' leading money winners qualify for the PGA Tour each year.
To drive home the connection, one ad shows monochrome footage of a golfer practicing on the course and the driving range as he says in a voiceover, "Of the 300 players on the Nike Tour, only 15 are guaranteed a shot on the PGA Tour." He pauses before noting, "This year, I wonder who the other 14 guys will be."
The other spot shows a golfer driving cross-country to his next tournament as he talks about the voice in his head that told him he would never hit a 300-yard drive, break par or win a Nike Tour event. Interspersed footage shows him overcoming those hurdles. At the end of the spot, he quips, "That's the thing about the voice in my head. It never knows when to shut up."
The ads run during free time on ESPN and The Golf Channel as part of the stations' broadcast agreements with the PGA Tour; event organizers must generate their own funding to run the spots locally.
Both television commercials continue to employ the "These guys are good" tagline GSD&M developed for the Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.-based client.