FINDING THE SWEET SPOT FOR THE INAUGURAL ATHENS REGIONAL FOUNDATION CLASSIC

Client:

Assignment:

Jackson Spalding was specifically tasked with helping to raise the tournament's profile in metro Atlanta to help secure stronger attendance, recruit deep-pocketed participants for the pro-am, and to build awareness among a wider sponsor base each year. One challenge was promote the event while keeping the beneficiary front and center throughout the coverage.

Strategy/Implementation:

Proactively worked to obtain print, television, radio, and online coverage in metro Atlanta (which also reaches Athens). We worked closely with the client on the choice of sponsors' exemptions extended to players in an effort to maximize the impact on media coverage. We also worked closely with the PGA Tour to staff the media room the week of the event, which helped build relationships with the media as the week progressed.

Results:

In the event's three-year history, an average of 250 stories have mentioned the tournament each year. Coverage has included segments on all four Atlanta broadcast stations, multiple feature segments on a regional cable sports network, as well as pre-event features and daily event coverage on the Northeast Georgia CBS affiliate. On the print side, we've secured feature and daily coverage in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Athens Banner-Herald, as well as saturation coverage in many regional print publications. Radio coverage of the event has included interviews on both Atlanta sports radio stations, as well as multiple interviews on local radio featuring players and dignitaries from the hospital. We also targeted the blog community, which was new for an event such as this. This event has been benchmarked by the Nationwide Tour for its successful media coverage, and the ARFC attracted enough attendees to make it one of the top five most attended events on the tour.