Canadian Open: RBC signs Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and Matt Kuchar
Royal Bank of Canada signed a sponsorship deal with Ernie Els, Jim Furyk and Matt Kuchar to confirm their presence in the RBC Canadian Open 2011.
The bank is pumping in money to expand the field to attract massive media attention. Being the major sponsor since 2007, RBC had been applying various strategies to make the event bigger than life. This is why it signed a contract with the trio to make certain
that the toppers of money list would show up.
The news was confirmed by the Chief brand and communications officer of RBC, Jim Little. During an interview with the press, Little said, “It's one of the things you have to do. We've got to have a good field and we've got a challenging date. We have to
really work hard to make sure the tournament's good. We are very proud of the progress we've made on it. Unless something strange happens, they're going to be participants at Shaughnessy and we're going to have a great field there.”
As a part of the deal, the trio will carry RBC tour bags and bank’s logo on their clothes as well. The trio is not the first one to get a sponsorship deal with the bank. Prior to them, RBC had names like Anthony Kim, Mike Weir, Stephen Ames, Luke Donald,
Fred Couples and Morgan Pressel endorsed.
Sponsorship deals are used as a tool in promotion. Big stars attract media glitz and hence help in making more money. Little highlighted the notion and said, “We've had people in the business who were kind of neutral on what golf could do to help them grow
the business. And then they saw Luke Donald the day after the Ryder Cup at Wentworth (in London) and they saw Stephen Ames go down to Trinidad. It's the actual presence of these guys in front of our clients in points around the world that makes it real for
them. The demand from within the company keeps growing every year.”
RBC Canadian Open will hit the greens of Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club Vancouver from 18-24 July 2011.
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