Our friends at Doosan have announced that they have agreed to extend their sponsorship of the Open Championship for another five years. An agreement was reached with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club (R&A) last July, both parties are ‘delighted with the arrangement’.
Details of the deal
The deal will see Doosan continue in their capacity as the official patron of the Open until 2019 which sees them involved in a project involving a huge amount of promotional events including exhibitions and even a Doosan branded bus. Some of the on-site exhibits included:
- LED billboard displaying Doosan’s brand story
- Excavator simulator
- Virtual reality power plant simulator
- Golf simulator
- Photo zone
Last year the promotional exhibits generated just over 23,000 visitors which is astonishing considering that there was a total attendance at the Open of 201,000 for the whole week. The promotional event was clearly a massive hit with the public and even though golf is a global sport, this event has been great for generating exposure and brand affiliation in the valuable UK market.
Excitement surrounds upcoming exhibition
As well as generating huge amounts of public interest, the relationship has also produced financial benefits. An analysis by Doosan estimated the monetary value of the exposure to be around £8.5 million per annum.
Doosan are heavily involved in the sports world and are also associated with one of the most popular regular sporting events in the world, sponsoring NASCAR team Joe Gibbs racing, providing precise machine tools that help Joe Gibbs racing excel (they have won three Sprint Cup Championships since 2000).
The Open is one of the four major professional golf championships. It is recognised as the most prestigious of the four majors. Last year’s tournament took place at the Old Course, St Andrews, Scotland and was the first to take place there after a five year absence.