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Golf & Delta Air Lines |
A Business Week Special Advertising Section
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delta-air.com
Ask any professional golfer what is the
hardest part about their job, and 90% will say the travel. A handful of
the top players can afford to crisscross the country in private jets,
but most of the golfers on the PGA TOUR, SENIOR PGA TOUR and Buy.com
TOUR (formerly the NIKE TOUR) fly commercial like the rest of us. And
the only thing tougher than having to spend weeks at a time on the road
away from family is reaching the destination without wasting time and
money.
Ask any marketer the hardest part of their job,
and 100% will say reaching target customers at the right time and on
budget. Fifteen years ago, Delta Air Lines discovered an effective and
efficient way to align their company with their core demographic of
frequent business travelers by signing on as a corporate sponsor of the
PGA TOUR. As the "Official Airline of the PGA TOUR and
SENIOR PGA TOUR," Delta provides important benefits not only to
TOUR players but to the tournaments as well. Players receive discounted
plane tickets and special one-way zone fares. This zone fare program comes
in very handy when TOUR
professionals get into a tournament as a last-minute alternate, miss the
cut and have to head home early, or travel from Potomac, MD to Harrison,
NY to Pebble Beach, CA to Memphis, TN to Cromwell, CT as they will in
consecutive weeks this next June. Winners of co-sponsored TOUR events are awarded
25,000 Delta SkyMiles; dozens of tournaments receive travel support in
return for advertising and sponsorship benefits; and TOUR features are included in
Delta's in-flight entertainment program-all in an effort to leverage
recognition as a PGA TOUR partner. "With more than 100 events on the PGA TOUR,
SENIOR PGA TOUR and Buy.com TOUR, and increased international play, our
players are traveling more than ever," says Mike Stevens, Vice
President of Corporate Marketing for the PGA TOUR. "Our players
appreciate the benefits provided to them by Delta, as well as the
support Delta provides to many of our tournaments." It is a good deal for Delta, too. Golf is booming
and the TOUR is enjoying significant growth. There is no sign that this
craze is just a phase. Delta's very visible and integral association with professional
golf lends instant credibility to Delta Vacations golf packages (deltavacations.com), a one-stop shopping program created last year that
allows customers to book a complete golf vacation (tee times, plane
ticket, hotel room, rental car). The competition in the skies is as fierce as it is
in the fairways. But savvy marketing backed up by first-class service
are what helped make Delta Air Lines the 1998 airline of the year by Air
Transport World and the choice of the world's greatest golfers. Design by Calfo Aron LLC, www.calfoaron.com Web Conversion by WebTeck |
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