For much of its recent history, golf has had a reputation for being somewhat of an old man’s sport. That’s been changing in recent years, and as a result of the sport’s evolving image, some institutional golf brands have undertaken efforts to connect with newer and younger fans.
Good Good Golf, the golf apparel, equipment, and content brand born on YouTube in 2020, is trying to grow in the opposite direction.
“We have done an incredible job reaching that target [audience] that most traditional brands are striving to reach,” Jeffrey Lefkovits, Good Good Golf’s marketing director, told Marketing Brew. “For us, as the market leaders in YouTube golf, in order to reach our growth goals, we also need to figure out, ‘How do we grow outside of that core segment?’ We need to reach some of the traditional golf audiences.”
To do so, Good Good dropped its first-ever brand campaign and a new brand look in January, and it has further plans to cement its place in the legacy of the sport as “more than just YouTube” content, Lefkovits said.
More than a moment
The campaign, called “There’s More to Golf,” centers on an ad that tracks the history of golf, from a “crude twig” hitting a “leather pouch” up to its current iteration, including the trick shots that Good Good players are known for.
The spot was designed to pay homage to the history of the sport, while also leaning into the kind of content and moments that make Good Good unique, Lefkovits said.
“What made this brand and this content really take off is that we were showing golf in a totally different way, and we were really spending time in all the moments between the shots that you don’t usually get to see when you’re watching golf,” he said. “We really are trying to own this idea that there’s more to golf.”
And there’s more to Good Good than YouTube. In addition to its 4 million social followers, the company sells golf gear and apparel, has partnerships with major retailers like Target and Dick’s Sporting Goods, and hosts golf events. With golf continuing to gain mainstream popularity, Lefkovits said his team intends to communicate that Good Good is playing a role in that growth outside of social media.
Get marketing news you’ll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
“It just felt like this was the time and place where we planted a literal and figurative flag in the ground to say that we are at the epicenter of the growth of this game,” he told us. “We believe that we can be a top-five brand in golf, and not just a very popular YouTube creator channel…We don’t want to let this moment pass us by.”
Family affair
The ad spotlights players of all ages, since the Good Good team is looking to target “the full family,” including millennial dads, youth audiences, and women, Lefkovits said. The brand’s core audience has so far largely consisted of 18- to 34-year-olds, he added.
Alongside the campaign, Good Good rolled out a new visual identity and website featuring a cleaned up look, which Lefkovits said is part of the push to appeal to more of the millennial audience. The new look extends to the company’s product lines, which are also set to include more apparel for kids and women, he told us.
As Good Good works to make inroads with new audiences, the team is focused on winning institutional acceptance in golf as well. The brand’s new campaign rolled out at the PGA Show, a golf trade show at the start of the season, and will get a “big media push” around the time of the Masters Tournament in April, Lefkovits said.
Later this year, Good Good is planning a tournament in partnership with the PGA Tour, the Good Good Championship. Before that, the brand is bringing back golf reality TV series Big Break, which initially ran from 2003 through 2015, through a partnership with the Golf Channel. The show had something of a “cult following” during that time, Lefkovits said, and he hopes its revival could help raise the profiles of new stars, who are often integral in hooking new fans. The winner will receive an exemption to compete in the Good Good Championship.
“We’ll be able to continue that storyline and really build a universe around this person, who hopefully will be the next big name in golf,” he said.
Read the full article here
