11th HSBC Women’s World Championship Marketing Campaign Evaluation
Background
The HSBC Women’s World Championship (HWCC), formerly known as the HSBC Women’s Champions, is one of the many events on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour. Bringing top-notch female golfers to Singapore, the event became a favourite for all and gained the reputation of being ‘Asia’s Major’ over time. HSBC Bank has been the title sponsor since its 2008 debut and in mid-2018, the bank announced a 2-year extension of their sponsorship. The current tournament purse stands at $1. 5 million with the winner receiving 15% of the share. From 2008 to 2009, the annual tournament entry was open to the top 78 players, with their placing set in accordance to the Rolex World Ranking list and wins from other LPGA tournaments.
Since 2010, the field was downsized and only 63 players could qualify. Multiple courses like the Tanah Merah Country Club Garden course and Sentosa Golf Club (SGC) Serapong course have been used over the years but in 2018, the SGC New Tanjong Course played host. The 2018 tournament pioneered a collaboration between HSBC and the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP), allowing the winner of the latter to qualify for HWWC and sharpen their skills by competing against professionals.
Marketing Mix & Sponsorship Activities
The HWCC’s service product is the sporting event itself, an intangible and perishable experience that fulfills the consumers’ needs and wants - to witness a professional golf tournament. The golfers play the game while the spectators generate excitement and enthusiasm. The 2018 event was held at SGC, home to the region’s most challenging golf courses. The New Tanjong course proved to be a refreshing and top-class venue, receiving many compliments during its first use in 2017. Event tickets could be purchased from main ticket agent APACTIX, either online, via hotline, or from their physical outlets at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and various SingPost outlets. Single Day tickets were priced at $22 for the first two rounds, and $33 for the tournament weekend while seasonal tickets were sold at prices ranging from $60 to $221. HSBC credit and debit card holders, staff, and senior citizens received discounts while children under the age of 17 enjoyed free entry when accompanied by a ticketed adult. IMG also created VIP hospitality packages for corporate clients at the HSBC Hexagon Suite. The event was promoted through the HWWC official website, Facebook page, and promotional posts by their media partners. Videos highlights were posted on the HSBC Golf website, their Facebook page, as well as on www. lpga. com and www. golfchannel. com, generating publicity and providing an event overview.
Additionally, Fox Sports Asia wrote an article on Michelle Wie’s win in 2018 (Appendix 1A, 1B, 1C & 1D). Media partners — Calibre, The Honeycombers, Marie France Asia, and Robb Report — extended the event’s reach by writing articles on the event details, highlights, and results. Radio station One FM 91. 3 also held a lucky draw contest; the prize being a pair of HWWC VIP weekend tickets. To fulfill the sponsorship objectives of accessing their target market, triangular billboards bearing the HSBC logo and the event name were placed around the golf course. Caddies wore prominent red HSBC bibs throughout the competition while the Rolex watch face was displayed on the HSBC website. Other sponsors’ logos such as Singapore Airlines and RICOH were also displayed on billboards surrounding the golf course (Appendix 2A, 2B & 2C). Besides premier golfing action, HWWC offered various entertainment options through the HSBC Power Hour Village (HPHV) as well. Fringe activities conducted by co-sponsors and event partners enriched the experience whilst simultaneously promoting themselves (Appendix 3).
As golf courses usually lack food and beverage (F&B) options, the sponsors brought a wide array of F&B products to the event. Beverage sponsors — Stella Artois, COCOLOCO, Coffee Bandits and SamDaSoo — helped spectators to keep cool while food sponsors like The Golden Duck Co. and The Traveling C. O. W. provided snack options. Presuming spectators to be golfers themselves, a series of workshops and retail booths were arranged to help them hone their skills and upgrade their equipment. Sport instructor company, GOLFTEC, presented discounted swing evaluation consultations and Bridgestone Golf promoted their products by giving spectators sneak peeks of their latest golf equipment. Likewise, ECCO allowed spectators to try out their latest footwear, demonstrating how their products could accelerate the abilities of budding golfers. A Meet and Greet Session with LPGA’s 7th seat, MinJee Lee, was also held by them. To enhance the festivities and appeal to the younger generation, local bands were invited to perform on the clubhouse stage and popular South Korean boy group, MONSTA X, headlined the HWWC Music Festival with their special showcase (Appendix 4).
Marketing Campaign Effectiveness
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Reputation: The collaboration between world-class organisations, LPGA and HSBC, alongside HWWC’s reputation of ‘high drama’ and the gathering of the top women golfers, make the tournament increasingly exciting each year.
Location: SGC was voted Best Golf Course in Southeast Asia at the Annual Golf Digest Singapore Awards in 2013 and the New Tanjong Course received many compliments for being a top-class venue.
Popularity: Approximately 80% of visitors flew to Singapore specifically to attend the event, bringing in visitors from countries beyond Southeast Asia, such as Korea (21%), Australia (15%) and USA (14%).
Spectator Activities: HPHV booths and workshops catered specifically to the needs and interests of the spectators.
User-Friendly Website: Detailed information on the HWWC website and the 360 Virtual Reality tour allowed spectators to familiarise themselves with the course.
Attendance: According to the Singapore Golf Industry Report 2018 (SIGR), 60% of spectators attended the event for two or more days and over 70% intended to return for future events, illustrating the event’s ability to retain their target audience.
Weaknesses
Advertising: Many may have been unaware of the ticket affordability and missed out on the event. Despite having over 6,000 followers, HWWC’s Facebook posts garnered little engagement, highlighting a low success in reaching out via social media.
Event Activities: Activities such as the HSBC Music Festival are not as successful compared to those in the Singapore Grand Prix, even though both events launched in 2018.
Opportunities
Media: The event could tap on the significant marketing and broadcasting potential provided by an official media partner like Mediacorp or FOX Sports Asia to televise the tournament.
Location: Explore other award-winning golf courses in Singapore.
Attendance: Having more collaborations with other tournaments like WAAP could lead to increased spectatorship due the golfers’ large fan bases garnered from the previous tournaments.
Threats
Lifestyle: Concurrent events could be prioritised over HWCC. Examples include the more popular K-pop concert, EXO Planet, and Garden Beats Festival.
Competition: Comparison to similar major regional golf championships like SMBC Singapore Open and Asia Pacific Amateur Championship.
Unpopularity: The SIGR states that the main driver of attendance is an interest in golf. However, golf ranks 15th place for most enjoyed and participated activity in the Sport Singapore Sports Index 2015.
Demographics: Despite attempts to attract a younger demographic, the event’s spectator profile indicated that attendees were mainly male (64%) and aged over 40 years (68%).
Recommendations
In order to heighten advertising effectiveness, HWWC should establish a stronger internet presence if they intend on using social media as their main advertising channel. Directing more social media advertisements towards the target market who have not liked or followed their social media pages can lead to increased post reach, translating into spectatorship. In view of social media’s popularity, Facebook or Instagram Live videos can be uploaded with exclusive behind-the-scenes looks, real-time score updates and Question & Answer segments where players address questions submitted through the comments section. This creates a unique and direct audience-to-player connection, crucial to event promotion. The event organisers could include the hashtag #HWWC on all official posts and encourage spectators to follow suit on their own accounts, spreading the brand name through user-generated content. They could also capitalise on social media competitions and provide incentives for “Most Liked”, “Most Shared” and “Most Creative” posts. More food sponsors can also be engaged to further decorate the event.
Food options ranging from visually appealing golf-themed desserts to local delicacies can simultaneously satisfy taste buds through theming and introduce the large number of foreign spectators to Singapore’s rich food heritage respectively. In terms of arranging the HWWC Music Festival, organisers could invite more international music acts, performing different genres like mandopop, electronic dance music and R&B, to increase spectatorship. Moreover, extensive post-event feedback sessions could be conducted to identify positive and negative practices and areas of improvement, allowing the event organisers to tailor future tournaments to meet consumers’ ever-changing wants and needs, and develop a balance between golfing action and spectator activities in HWCC 2019.
