Microsoft and the PGA Tour

Challenge

Microsoft called upon Eiger Marketing Group to manage their end to end multi-year marketing and technology partnership with the PGA Tour. To start, Eiger was tasked with designing a compelling marketing program showcasing Microsoft technologies for PGA Tour Fans and executive customers at one of golf’s most prestigious events in an effort to drive Microsoft brand preference and executive selling for Windows, Surface and Azure.

The partnership was kicked off by delivering an experiential marketing activation and executive hospitality program at the PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP – the PGA Tour’s showcase event drawing more than 225,000 fans and millions of television viewers worldwide.  Eiger worked across multiple business groups at Microsoft to deliver a program focused on showcasing innovations in technology brought to life through Microsoft’s PGA Tour partnership.  Eiger delivered an end to end marketing program featuring an immersive on-site golf technology experience supported by social amplification, talent and PR outreach.  In parallel, Eiger created a premier executive hosting environment, complete with high impact business briefings featuring leaders in sports technology designed to accelerate critical sales cycles with top clients, incorporating player talent and unique golf and technology related experiences throughout the week.  This project required careful coordination across multiple stakeholder groups and extensive collaboration with PGA Tour staff and vendors to deliver on all aspects of program management including contracting, talent coordination, hosting, ticket program management, staff training, logistics, scheduling and technology management.

Eiger developed and executed both an executive hosting and an integrated on-site technology marketing activation program at the PLAYERS Championship yielding compelling business results enabling sales, technology engagement, purchase intent and closed revenue.  Executive hosted events were attended by senior representation from Microsoft’s leading technology partners, the PGA Tour, golf talent and industry leadership. 

Large enterprise deals were accelerated and closed shortly after the event and several large hardware purchases were also heavily influenced as a result of the technology integration across the event.  Over 9,000 Windows experiences were delivered over the course of the week with over 58% of the touches indicating an intent to shift from a competing platform to Windows.  PR efforts generated over 1,500 tweets and 2,500 blog views with positive sentiment, including tweets and retweets from some of golf’s most accomplished Tour players.