Filed under: Celebrity News
It's hard to keep track of this sort of stuff given the rapidly changing nature of most news cycles, but around this time a year ago, Tiger-Gate broke. When Tiger Woods crashed his Escalade into a fire hydrant, a media firestorm ensued. Woods made a tearful announcement about extra-martial dalliances, took a break from golf, had his wife leave him and suffered the indignity of having his dirty laundry aired (repeatedly) by scorned, and in some cases, attention-hungry ex-flings.
In addition to losing his family, sterling reputation, and likely his dignity, Woods also lost a lot of money. His divorce payout is still confidential, but figures range from $100 million to a whopping three-quarters of a billion dollars depending on whose story you believe. Perhaps worse was the loss of endorsements, which are a large part of what made Woods the first athlete ever with a billion dollars in career earnings. Only a fraction of that (roughly 10%) came from actually playing golf. The rest came from hawking a diverse array of products from Buicks to razor blades.
Because most of those endorsements depended on Woods' sterling reputation as a family man who just so happened to play golf for a living, he took a major financial hit when his family issues became public knowledge. Now, Woods is undergoing a PR transformation, in an effort to regain his marketing swagger:
When Tiger Woods ran his SUV over a fire hydrant last Nov. 27, unleashing a torrent of tawdry and shocking details about his infidelities, those clever catch phrases quickly became punchlines. Within weeks, Accenture and other sponsors distanced themselves from the golfer who had built a billion-dollar industry on his spectacular success on the course and impeccable image off it. It was part of the fallout from a scandal that eventually cost him his marriage and his No. 1 world ranking.
After the crash, though, sponsors found themselves being pulled down by the weight of the scandal. Accenture, for example, was the inadvertent butt of jokes, its ad taglines fodder for late-night comics and tabloid websites.
Two weeks after the crash, Accenture dumped Woods. AT&T Inc., whose logo was on Woods' bag, and Gatorade, which had created a Tiger Woods-brand drink, soon followed. Gillette and Tag Heuer de-emphasized him in their marketing.
A year has passed since the infamous crash that started it all, and Woods appears ready to re-enter the marketing game. Woods is tweeting and was a guest last week on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in the Morning" Show. In an op-ed column for Newsweek magazine, his tone was humble and hopeful.
Before the crash, Woods was the standard by which all other megawatt pro stars were measured. Corporations around the world were eager to align themselves with him, even if their business had nothing to do with golf. He was, Forbes estimated last year, the first $1 billion athlete.
According to Kantar Media, Woods appeared in about $700,000 worth of advertising through the first nine months of this year, all for EA Sports and Nike. In the same period a year ago, Woods appeared in $70 million worth of advertising on behalf of his sponsors.
To have only made one percent of the previous year's earnings in endorsements this year has got to sting, but I believe that Tiger can get his marketing groove back. If Woods needs some encouragement, he can simply look at two other high profile athletes who dealt with public scandals and eventually made it back to the top of their endorsement games.
The Baltimore Ravens' Ray Lewis was a highly marketable All-Pro linebacker when he was indicted on murder and aggravated assault charges following a 2000 fight that resulted in two stabbing deaths. Lewis cooperated with authorities, beat the charges, and a decade later is one of the NFL's most marketable players yet again, with endorsement deals from EA Sports to Under Armor.
Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant lost most of his endorsements when embroiled in a 2003 sexual assault scandal. Bryant also beat the charges, returned to win two NBA titles, and once again finds himself among the world's highest-paid athletes. With deals from Coca Cola to Nike, Bryant was ranked third behind Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan in Forbes' list of top earning athletes last year.
Of course, the common thread here is on-field performance. Lewis rebounded from his legal troubles to become a Super Bowl champion the following year, and has made the Pro Bowl virtually every year since. Bryant won the aforementioned NBA titles, and his been a first team All-NBA selection virtually every year since.
Woods, because of injuries and the obvious distractions, has been far less productive on the links since his scandal broke. To put it nicely, he's been downright awful, failing to win a single tournament for the first time in his 15 seasons as a pro this year. He's also in the midst of a career worst drought of 10 straight majors without a victory.
Little of Woods' new PR push will result in new endorsement money unless he regains his stroke where it matters most. On the golf course. But if Tiger Woods can start winning again, he will find his face prominently featured next to major brands on billboards and in ads faster that you can say "Kobe."
Questions:
-Do you think Tiger Woods can come back as a marketing powerhouse at the same level he had achieved before the scandal?
-Will you personally be able to put Tiger's past behind him if he starts winning, and buy products that he endorses again?
Jay Anderson is a freelance writer from Washington, DC, whose work has been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR. When he's not busy talking smack here, he runs the award-winning blog AverageBro.com. Follow him via Twitter @AverageBro.