Nike’s New Tiger Woods Commercial – Premiering Same Time As Masters

April 8, 2010

Tiger Woods made his competitive return to golf today at the Masters.  Coincidentally Nike launched a new commercial that features Tiger’s Dad, Earl Woods, talking to his son.  The only catch is Earl passed away years ago and most people that follow golf know that.  They also know about the very close relationship Tiger had with his father.  Nike uses a tool to digitally recreate Earl’s voice as if he if he is having a father-son moment with Tiger.  Tiger doesn’t say a word in the 30 second spot – only stands there with a vulnerable look on his face.

I first saw this commercial last night from a link on MSN.  At that time, it had just over 300 views.  The YouTube video now has over 1,290,000 views.  Needless to say plenty of people are talking about this commercial and it’s creating some controversy for using Earl’s voice as many rumors indicate he was unfaithful to Tiger’s mom.  Say what you want about this commercial, but it definitely does 3 things:

  • Grabs Your Attention – It’s very quite and all you hear is Earl Woods talking and only see a close up of Tiger (of course wearing Nike).  It’s also black and white which makes it stand out even more.
  • Promotes Discussion – As I mentioned above people are talking about Nike’s choice to use Tiger’s father and if Earl would approve.
  • Shows Nike Will Stand By It’s Superstar – Nike is one of the few sponsors that hasn’t abandoned Tiger.  And this commercial reiterates they do not plan to do so anytime soon.

Enough writing about the commercial – check out the video below for yourself.  What is your opinion on this decision from Nike and Tiger?

1 Comment | Viral marketing | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain

What Makes an Effective Online News Headline?

August 23, 2009

MSN.com is set as my home page.  Not because I like using the built in Bing search, but because I love the way the site displays the latest news.  While the home page is very busy, it is laid out in a way to my eye has become accustomed and I can quickly find what I want. 

Being a big golf fan, I recently was drawn into several headlines about Tiger Woods potentially being fined by the PGA because of his criticism of a PGA official enforcing a strict time rule during his win over Padraig Harrington at the Bridgestone Invitational.  These were very well written, enticing headlines.  But when I clicked the headline, time and time again I became disappointed with the content.  It was almost as if they were lying…well not lying, but more like stretching the truth.  I also noticed within one of the articles several comments going back and forth from people feeling the same way.  Disappointed searchers were definitely critisizing whomever could be held responsible for writing such headlines.   Headlines such as, “Me?  Fined?  Tiger blasts erroneous report” would lead you to expect Tiger saying more than just “There was no fine.  That was just an erroneous report.”  It became ridiculous how misleading a series of headlines about this incident became.  And NOTHING ended up happening to Tiger.

So the question I have is – Do the same people that write the articles also write the headlines?  If so, shouldn’t it be their job to deliver relevant, accurate content for both.  Or if different people are writing the headlines – is it their job to ONLY worry about getting the clicks?  What do you think makes an effective online news headline?  Do you get frustrated when the content behind the headline does not deliver?Tiger-Woods-MSN-Effective-Headline

3 Comments | case studies, internet marketing | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain

Watch Tiger Woods Return to Golf at PGATOUR.com

February 24, 2009

One of the greatest moments in sports history is going to take place when Tiger Woods returns to the PGA Tour on Wednesday.  Golf fan or not, you have to appreciate what Tiger has done for the sport.  I was surfing Mashable.com and found an article about Tiger’s return.  This long awaited event has generated a huge amount of buzz throughout all forms of media, so much in fact that the PGATour.com has set up a site so that you can follow Tiger’s every move online. 

Live blogs, hole-by-hole highlights, scorecard updates, and a playoff bracket all updating in real-time during the event.  This is going to be something to talk about and I look forward to seeing how well the PGATour.com can pull it off.  The site will not go live until tomorrow, but I found a preview screen shot (see below) at Mashable.com.  This looks very cool and I will be sure to post a review on the experience. 

Preview of PGATour.com Tiger Woods Site

Preview of PGATour.com Tiger Woods Site- from Mashable.com

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Posted by derekmcclain

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