It seems like The London Golf Club understood that it is worth to start meeting people where they are instead of only drawing them to their golf club. The London Golf Club took the opportunity to showcase its services within London’s business district at an innovative showcase in Canary Wharf.
This initiative of The London Golf Club took place from May 9th to May 12th.
Despite all of the advantages of presenting ourselves at our golf club, I think this is the time to revise and change our marketing techniques how we present and show our golf clubs. It does not mean that we should stop holding “Open Days” at our golf clubs. What is important that it should not be the only way to present our golf clubs.
Golf clubs should start meeting people where they are and bring the excitement to them. This is why I like The London Golf Club’s idea.
When I see who are the tenants (companies, people) of the Canary Wharf, There are over 115,000 people working at Canary Wharf. The London Golf Club was the first golf club to have a stand at both Canada Place and Jubilee Place this year.
They were really prepared to all sorts of questions (e.g. events, membership, operations etc.). You also had a chance to win a full membership to London Golf Club, but social membership as well.
The club was joined by golf venue network specialists European Tour Properties, who offered two tickets to a UK Tour event, while Chase Gin handed out a bottle of vodka and Hospitality Finder offered two hospitality places for the Cheltenham Festival.
After 4 days, London Golf Club collected a total of 130 new contacts.
My recommendations for The London Golf Club and other golf clubs:
Follow the example of the banks (I saw this program when I worked at Citi.) and try to organize “golf club@work”. “Bank at work” events are designed to provide convenient and affordable banking service for the employees of the organization.
To the analogy of this initiative, golf clubs could also coordinate such action with the selected companies’ HR team.
I see the following challenges in implementing “golf club@work” programs:
- Developing partnerships:
- Introducing the program to company decision makers;
- Sell golf club membership, place for future events to employees.
- Have you got trained team to execute this?
- Value proposition:
- I would not necessarily use discounts to make golf club membership (or an attractive venue for events) attractive. Instead, I would offer free golf lessons in the golf club’s golf academy and other valuable services.
- Sales execution:
- Golf clubs should create tools and processes to help ensure their sales teams are successful.
Other ideas to consider:
- Consider how 360-degree digital and mobile can enhance the experience for passers-by. E.g. Virtual reality (VR) devices.
- Think about events as the basis for other marketing campaigns.
- Utilize livestreaming technologies to expand the reach of your event (e.g. Live from the Canary Wharf). You can act like a TV channel by using Facebook Live, Periscope etc. This solution can help increase your event’s engagement and build excitement around future events.
- Allow participants to engage with you both ways: digitally and physically. This will help them to fully immerse in your event’s environment.
- I would consider using iBeacons. They are low-cost, low-powered transmitters equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE (also called Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth Smart; globally cca. 570 million Android and Apple smartphones are compatible with BLE) that can be used to deliver proximity-based, context-aware messages.
Have you seen recently any innovative golf club event marketing solution(s)??