Leveraging Father’s Day and spiking golf interest around the 2021 US Open, 17 June saw PGA Tour Superstore roll out a touching new national spot across the USA built around a touching father-and-son story.
The ‘Scorecards’ campaign’s hero commercial, which was conceived by Knoxville-based creative agency Tombras, produced by Greenpoint Pictures and directed by Michael Kuhn and Niles Roth, seeks to capture golf-linked emotional connections.
PGA TOUR Superstore, America’s largest golf retailer, aims to showing how the game of golf creates the gift of memories: precious time spent together and natural bonding between fathers and their children throughout their lifetime.
The hero spot opened with a son looking through a box of score cards from games he’s played with his (now-aging) dad. The score cards trigger his memories of rounds they had played together – when they were both younger. Set in between the 1970s and 1990s, the 90-second ad boasts period detail and its narrative transcends the game to explore how sports and shared interests enhance the bond between parents and children.
The creative ran across national broadcast television and online platforms and was launched ahead of the start of the 2021 US Open (which ran from 17 to 20 June) and debuted on NBC’s Open coverage.
Interestingly, the schoolboy in the spot (Ben Savage) and the young adult (Thomas Clark) are the real-life grandson and son of lead actor Tom Clark (who finds the scorecards). Plus, the elder Clark did indeed often play golf with his own dad (who passed away a few years ago) and he also saved some scorecards from their outings.
“It was no stretch for him to get emotional about the flood of memories that the cards brought back,” recalled Tombras Creative Director Charlie Andrews. “Hopefully, when viewers see this on Father’s Day, it will remind them to not take any time spent with their dads for granted. It’s about these moments you got to share as a father and son. Golf is just a vehicle.”
“Whether you play golf or not, it’s hard not to feel the sentimentality expressed through the film,” added Tombras President Dooley Tombras. “It illustrates a deeper side of the sport, its capacity to bring families together around a game, and exemplifies exactly what Father’s Day represents – a rare moment to appreciate our dads. We have to work hard to connect with consumers to differentiate the brand. This is a passion sport, but so often in sports marketing the focus is on the effort, the challenge and the glory of victory. Which are all fine and well, but we wanted to do something different and found an opportunity in the relationships built around the game. Golf is unique in that it’s a family-oriented sport, so Father’s Day is a great moment for brand storytelling from a connections standpoint.”
“This campaign makes an emotional connection to something that is often overlooked in golf, the bonds that can be formed on the course,” said PGA TOUR Superstore CMO Jill Thomas. “For golfers the game is about so much more than the score card, it’s about the memories made and relationships built. Father’s Day and the US OPEN are the perfect opportunity to remind golfers how great the game can be.”
The campaign was created for PGA Tour Superstore CEO Dick Sullivan, CMO Jill Thomas and Brand Manager Phil Oliphant by a team at agency Rombras which included CCO Jeff Benjamin, President Dooley Tombras, Creative Director (Copy) Charlie Andrews, Creative Director (Art) Rick Baptist, Art Director Keith Thomason, Business Affairs Denice Heyward, Group Account Director Chris Randall and Account Executive Will Watkins.
The production company was Greenpoint Pictures with Directors Michael Kuhn and Niles Roth, Executive Producer Tatiana Rudzinski and Producer Luke Stevens.
The edit was by Elastic Pictures, music was from Auralation and sound was handled by NPall.
Comment:
This is an evocative and suitably sentimental story which makes good use of era-specific details in the production – from vehicles and clothes, to styling and language – and the PGA Superstore branding is kept to an admirable minimum.
This approach has echoes of other contemporary sport marketing initiatives which explore the emotional experience of sports rather than success-led outcomes.
Examples of this range from Nike’s global ‘PlayNew’ to Allianz Direct ‘Future Sports Heroes’.
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