After Good Good x Callaway Controversy, Creators Remain Valuable Asset in Golf

‍The PGA Tour is relying on its Creator Council and creators to usher in its new entertainment era geared toward younger audiences under CEO Brian Rolapp. On September 30, 2020, Roger Steele posted a video on Instagram that would change his life.

Talking to the camera “like I was talking to one of my homies,” Steele didn’t mince words or limit his profanity as he spoke about golf—the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between. Warning people getting into the game for the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic they’d be “trash for a long ass time,” the former civil engineer offered other honest realizations, observations and anecdotes in an eight-minute rill talk monologue.

Steele’s bluntness, relatability, humor and authenticity struck a positive chord in and out of the golf community as the video started going viral. Buoyed by the backing of a newly formed social media community and larger follower count, Steele took his second swing: he slid in Callaway’s DMs.

Six years later, Steele is one of the most recognized faces in golf. He co-hosts “Mornings @ the Masters” with Hally Leadbetter. He is on the PGA Tour’s Creator Council. He’s the in-venue host for TGL. He hosts events and creates content with brands including Callaway, Lululemon, SoFi, Dewar’s, AT&T, KemperSports, Topgolf, Five Iron, Cutwater and BMW.

“One thing I have to applaud myself on is that I’ve always sought people that were smarter than me in every aspect and I’ve clung to that,” Steele said. “I also don’t consider myself a greedy person so I’m not out there looking for ways to maximize every single opportunity and deal. The way my life is and the way my family is, I get to say ‘no’ to things and I don’t have to do everything. I don’t have to be everywhere. Nor do I want to be everywhere.

“Everybody on my side, we’re constantly looking at: ‘Is it worth doing? Is this worth saying? Does this make sense?’ and we’re constantly asking questions. Up until this point we’ve done a decent job at getting most of the things right with the people we work with and the things we go to.”

The popularity and influence of golf creators and influencers like Paige Spiranac, Grant Horvat, Bob Does Sports, Tisha Alyn and Steele has caused brands and organizations to adjust their content strategies and reprioritize marketing dollars in recent years.

What’s more valuable: a traditional TV ad buy or a paid piece of social media content with a popular creator?

With brands, broadcasters and organizations focused on engaging younger audiences and demographics, they’re investing heavily in the latter.

But finding the perfect match isn’t necessarily as easy as it seems in the wild west of chasing likes, clicks, comments and shares while constantly adjusting and evolving strategies and campaigns in a never-ending quest to capitalize on ever-changing algorithms, viral trends and digital dependency.

The wins can be priceless. The consequences could be catastrophic.

Creators and influencers have come under scrutiny and criticism lately following a pair of headline-causing controversies in late August.

Major companies and retailers cut ties with and dropped merchandise from Good Good Golf as a result of a controversial video promoting a new co-branded driver with multi-year partner Callaway.

Not only did Callaway sever ties with Good Good, but Golf Galaxy pulled its title sponsorship of “Big Break x Good Good,” a reboot of the popular Golf Channel competition reality show; the show’s premiere on Aug. 25 was initially postponed a week before being canceled. Their merchandise was pulled from shelves and online at major retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Golf Galaxy, PGA Tour Superstore and Golf Town. Good Good also had to withdraw as title sponsor of a November PGA Tour event in Texas.

Good Good CEO Matt Kendrick and President Joe Flannery stepped down. Alex Upegui, Callaway Director of Content and Production, departed as well.

To make matters worse for influencers and creators, they received negative press at the U.S. Open for interrupting play and drawing the ire of fans who were unable to attend the popular tennis tournament in New York City due to significantly increased ticket prices.

“It was a harsh reality that I wasn’t quite aware that the stakes were that high for mistakes,” Steele said. “I did not know that the stakes were that high if creatively you bit off more than you can chew, had unintended impacts and triggered a sentiment you weren’t intending to.

“I think a lot of creators had that visceral jerk reaction where it’s like, ‘Man, I had no idea that a mess up or that my primarily positive intentions in a different context could land me in this type of trouble.’ … And I don’t think that’s the way that we want the game to go. I also think that creators do have a responsibility to lean into their resources and try to be deeply collaborative with the brands that they’re working with to understand what’s the best way to go about it.”

A month later, how individual brands and organizations work with creators and influencers from this inflection point is a case by case basis. Some are doubling down, while others are withdrawing as they reevaluate opportunities, going over everything with a fine-tooth comb from contracts to creative briefs and vetting talent.

“It’s all a risk. It always has been a risk,” said Jess McAlister, a golf marketing consultant and founder of Catalyst9. “... I think with the issue that arose, there was clearly a lack of alignment in communication and maybe some legal stuff in there. I think a lot of that is coming to light (in the industry) like revisiting contracts, revisiting purpose, vetting creators properly and asking, ‘What are we actually trying to accomplish here?’”

“When you’re an established consumer brand operating in a fairly traditional sport like golf, you have to ask how far you’re willing to push those boundaries before you alienate your core consumer,” Jeff Hunt, founder of brand and reputation consulting firm Legend Labs, told The Athletic. “The advertisement exposed that underlying tension, and the response afterward compounded it. But I think the bigger issue was whether there was enough alignment between these two brands from the beginning.”

While each side of the relationship is in the midst of self reflection, creators have hardly been cast aside.

McAlister, who reps Alyn, said the PGA Tour is one of the organizations set to double down in this area. As we addressed in a previous issue of the Golf Business Intelligence Brief, the Creator Council is still alive and well as it’s poised for further involvement in ushering in the Tour’s new entertainment era under CEO Brian Rolapp.

Not only is Rolapp bringing in some of his former NFL colleagues like Dhruv Prasad (CCO), Will Deng (SVP Media Strategy) and Paul Hicks (EVP Strategic Communications) to guide the modern-day PGA Tour, the organization also hired former Overtime and Under Armour creative and brand exec Tyler Rutstein as Chief Marketing Officer.

Golf is younger, cooler and more mainstream than ever before. But the PGA Tour’s audience skews significantly older than the diverse demos spearheading the game’s record amateur participation and interest.

That certainly bodes well for endemic and non-endemic creators, most of whom possess their own unique communities of predominately younger, social-first followers that the Tour and, quite frankly, every brand on the planet is desperately fighting for the attention of.

Love them or hate them: creators in golf are here to stay. Just expect a slightly more calculated approach as brands like the PGA Tour avoid repeating another’s missteps, especially immediately so quickly after.

“As a league right now, we are certainly looking to evolve and innovate,” said Alex Dorsch, VP of Demand Marketing at the PGA Tour. “And I think (the Creator Council) can very much be a big piece of that as well as how we look to the group as a whole. It’s something that is very, very top of mind as far as how we can continue the success of the group as well as expand the reach to creators as a whole.”