Drive for show, putt for…long-term financial security?
Financial planning company Freedom 55 Financial has partnered with Bell Media’s TSN on a new marketing program called “TSN Fantasy Golf presented by Freedom 55 Financial.”
Housed within a dedicated area of the TSN.ca website, and promoted during the channel’s coverage of the majors and the news and information show Sportscentre, the fantasy golf program invites users to create their own fantasy golf team for a chance to win more than $15,000 in prizes.
The program extends Freedom 55’s ongoing commitment to golf, which includes a title sponsorship of the Freedom 55 Financial Championship in London, Ont. and the PGA Tour Canada’s flagship event the Mackenzie Tour, which promotes five players to the Web.com Tour each season.
The company is also involved in grassroots initiatives such as national sponsorship of both the Canadian Junior Golf Association and the Freedom 55 Financial Clinics for Kids program, and also sponsors a group of young up-and-coming Canadian athletes called Team Freedom.
Michael Cunneen, senior vice-president of Freedom 55 Financial, said the fantasy sports program enables the company to approach consumers in an unexpected manner. Gameplay is designed to appeal to both casual and hardcore fantasy gamers, with users selecting six pro golfers whose combined score determines the winner.
“They had been investing in different golf properties for about two years, and wanted to develop a go-forward strategy,” said David Corelli, chief strategy officer for SportBox Group, the two-year-old sports marketing firm that developed the program in association with TSN.
“They wanted to freshen the brand experience to make it engaging and really deepen the connection with that consumer who is just starting to think about financial planning.”
While Corelli said the program is defined more by psychographics than demographics, he pegged the sweet spot at 25-45, a group that straddles the average age of a typical fantasy gamer, which the U.S. Fantasy Sports Trade Assocation (FTSA) pegs at 34.
The number of fantasy sports players in Canada and the U.S. has exploded in recent years, according to the FTSA, going from 15.2 million in 2003 to 41.5 million in 2014. The group said 19% of the Canadian population is active in fantasy sports, including 18% of adults and 20% of males.
The FSTA said 74% of visit between four and six sports news websites to find relevant data, with another 16% indicating they visit between two and three sites.
“We want to be where people choose to live their lives,” said Corelli. “We don’t want to add new properties that we build in a silo somewhere that we’re asking people to come to. They’re supporting golf and the grassroots development system and golf was a great alignment from a passion standpoint.”
