I love watching golf. Not necessarily up to ‘not moving from the couch all weekend’ guy standards, but I can definitely kill an afternoon following a tournament. One thing I have noticed over the years is the growing ‘logo fest’ on almost every players apparel. First it was just an additional sponsor to the hat or back of shirt, followed quickly by an additional logo or two on the front of shirt and why not one on the collar? I can just hear the sponsor/agent now, ‘It’ll be in all the closeups!’ I worry that just around the corner are more NASCAR style wins, which involve the winner spending as much time (cue the ‘grab and chug’ sponsor drink) naming/thanking sponsors as discussing play.
The problem with all this (besides the fact that it just seems to barge in on the grace of the game) is a great example of why creatives whine about wanting ‘more white space’. ‘White space’ is the space that allows objects to exist. Take a great portion of that space away, and the audience doesn’t know what they are looking at. Therein lies the battle and the whining begins. No one starts out using all the white space up. As you chip, chip, chip, away at it (no pun intended), before you know it, there is nothing but a sea of clutter to look at. If a sponsor wants the audience to see and remember said logo/partnership, in a sea of logos – what do you think the likelihood of that is?
In the past, Tiger Woods and Nike have handled it perfectly. Nike paid big dollars for exclusivity during play, while other Woods sponsors, Gatorade, Gillette, Tag Heuer, etc. got different pieces of Tiger. Of course that kind of money isn’t always on the table, but even Tiger is in a different situation now. Players need to be more selective about what they allow sponsors to demand of them. Sponsors need to be more innovative in how they take advantage of brand partnerships. If they don’t, they’re just throwing their money away.
