SociableSport

Hours before Tiger Woods makes his eagerly awaited return to the media spotlight, we have seen a spike in Twitter activity akin to the November peak when press coverage of his private life hit the heights usually reserved for Royalty and Recession. The collective consciousness is naturally drawn to the Woods story, not in the least part due to the sheer volume of eyeball coverage its continued to draw (by this I mean the coverage in front of our eyeballs). 

http://trendistic.com/tiger-woods/_30-days#

Scandalous interest aside, news of the 'no questions to be asked' press conference will be ringing loud in the ears of those stakeholders who are currently hanging on the words soon to be uttered. Golf has both suffered and profiteered in the incremental attention to Woods. For one, right now Golf is a more popular sport than the Vancouver Games. The BBC will be streaming the interview online in what will no doubt be a prominent position; in a twist of irony, today is the round of 16 in the Accenture Matchplay tournament. Accenture, of course, were the first brand to terminate their association with Woods once the scandal had broken and the timing of Woods' announcement will leave a bitter taste in the mouths of the tournament organisers and sponsorship managers looking to generate all the right coverage for all the right reasons.

Having said that, Accenture are, again, receiving a disproportionate amount of coverage. Their sponsorship of the tournament may be predicated on a hospitality strategy and yes, this may be a little awkward for those client entertainers who have to continually reply, "No we don't sponsor Tiger any more; anyway, about that Supply Chain Risk Management product...", but for being front-of-mind among those interested in golf, Accenture are in a very good place right now.

So, Ernie Els' comment, "I feel sorry for the sponsor. Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday" may be a little short-sighted. If the BBC and SKY News are talking about your tournament, that's good. Well, it's not perfect - given the context - but you have to be positive in these situations. 

It's the PGA Tour who will be holding their breath. If Woods retires, the tour will be left with a Woods-sized-hole that the sport's next top 5 biggest personalities would struggle to fill. If Woods announces a comeback date, it may well be one of the most watched sporting events of this young decade. This is, arguably, a make-or-break situation for golf's largest tour schedule and one of sport's biggest sponsorship properties.

All we can do is wait and see. 

For this festive season, Tiger Woods' scandalous relationship trauma seems to be driving more search interest than the Greatest Story Ever Told.  

Tiger Woods, Jesus

But stories of infidelity or sacrifice are dwarfed by the search traffic for Christmas itself. What the Spirit of this "Christmas" wave is? I'm not sure. It could be gift ideas, or it could be celebration ideas. Either way, Christmas has certainly arrived... Perhaps Woods could piggy back this with an Oprah Christmas Special? PGA comeback event to be held on December 26th? OK, that's pushing it.

Tiger Woods, Jesus, Christmas

There's nothing like a contemporary advertising campaign. Do you think this example from Gatorade - recently divorced from Woods - has the flexibility to still good a good job for the brand despite Tiger's recent 'image change'? Probably not. Unfortunately, thinking about whether Tiger has "it" has taken on a whole new meaning: mental toughness not being one of them.

Celebrity news site TMZ (cited in the Indian Times) are adamant Woods' transgressions will "harm" his image - most notably as the face of Nike Golf - and suggest Woods' number could be up on other sponsorship deals in addition to the loss of Gatorade. His associative properties have certainly shifted and the Indian Times goes on to reference the Davie Brown Index, which measures celebrities' standing with consumers, where Woods has gone from 6th highest ranking celebrity endorser to 24th. Apparently the database comprises of 2,800 respondents but how often this survey goes out and how much it changes according to who's in the press and why, I'm not sure. 

But cast your minds back to 2004 and the David Beckham scandal. An Evening Standard poll asked London readers, 'Who is to blame for David Beckham's affair?' A staggering 41% blamed Victoria Beckham, 37% blamed David Beckham and only 22% blamed Rebecca Loos herself. Even David Beckham's own mother suggested Victoria was "partly to blame".

The situations are different: while Loos hogged most of the limelight as the 'mistress of choice', Tiger has multiple skeletons to remove from his closet. Yet, after a while, Beckham's image was restored as he and his family went about 'business as usual' and sponsors were un-phased.

When Kate Moss was photographed taking Class A drug Cocaine, associations with Calvin Klein, Rimmel, Chanel and Christian Dior were swiftly put under scrutiny by the press, but store chain H&M were the only brand to take immediate action to separate themselves from the troubled model but after no more than 3 months, Moss actually gained a new $1m+ deal with Virgin Mobile.

Far from being destroyed, these two personalities had their image shaken up - and soon all was forgotten as "in the past". 

According to US-based market research unit Nielsen, advertising featuring Woods hasn't appeared in US prime-time TV since November 29th, but perhaps Woods will go through a similar transformation to Beckham and Moss? Perhaps what he needs is a bit of calm: a period of time signifying the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. Next, a new appearance, a new deal or a new campaign to differentiate the old personality from the reformed. So long as his performance on the golf course is unaffected he will always be a beacon for advertisers because that's the constant - the unchanging champion.

At least the PGA Tour sponsors are benefiting from even more attention to their number 1 star - imagine how many people will tune in to watch his next tournament... . Even now he is delivering more awareness than ever (although not for the best of reasons - but that's not my point!).

For more on Tiger Woods and Gatorade check out the announcement on BBC News.

Edit after live: Today (Thursday December 10th), bookmakers Paddy Power have offered Tiger Woods $1m to get behind their new betting property, 'Tiger's Birdies'. The 12month deal would include an undisclosed profit share arrangement. The bet offers 500-1 odds for anyone who can correctly predict the number of Birdies Woods scores across the first four days of a tournament.

Yes - Tiger isn't going to accept the offer but at least Paddy Power have got some free exposure in the press on the back of a clever piece of product development!

'Champions do not fall from the sky. They are born among us, live among us and are worshipped by us'

On the eve of October 30th 1974, in the Mai 20 Stadium in Kindshasa, Zaire, world Heavyweight Champion George Foreman against former Champion Muhammed Ali. After his refusal to obey his drafting for the US Army in a storm of political and racial significance, Ali had been spent over seven years forging his path to regaining a title he saw as rightfully his. Ali eventually met Foreman that wild night in 1974 and beat the man who had defeated him in the Fight of The Century three years earlier. The events before and during this famous bout are immortalised in the Academy Award winning documentary, When We Were Kings. Norman Mailer's book, The Fight, describes the events within the context of his views of black American culture. It was more than a boxing match, it was an event that defined an era.

On the afternoon of Sunday, June 7th 2009, Roger Federer will enter the Philippe Chatrier court at Roland Garros in Paris for the fourth consecutive year as a finalist in the hallmark claycourt event of the year - the French Open. It is the only one of the four tour majors Federer has never won, having lost on his four previous attempts to the same man - Rafeal Nadal. Victory will give Federer a career Grand Slam and tie him with Pete Sampras on 14 major wins. But with the coveted Coupe de Mousquetaires trophy that elluded the great American, he will surpass Sampras as, according to Andre Agassi, the Greatest tennis player to have graced the sport.

The significance of this victory, should it come, is not weighted in the political or social history of that October night in Zaire, but rather in an affirmation of a man - like Ali - who is widely considered to be a God of his sport. Greatness comes in many forms, but in individual sports like tennis, boxing or golf, the pressures - personal and professional - are so great that they can break even the most gifted. Now, after six years being at the top of the game, Federer is on the cusp of sporting immortality.

Illness at the start of the 2008 season, along with his recent loses to Rafael Nadal not only at Roland Garros but then at Wimbledon and Melbourne Park have revealed a certain frailty within Federer that had otherwise gone unnoticed. It is this frailty - this mortality - that reminds us that Roger Federer, although a global superstar, is human. Like every one of us, he has to overcome emotions like anxiety, fear and self-doubt in order to succeed. In Federer we see a man who has dedicated his life, his soul and his very being to his sport. In the process he has had to bear great suffering: breaking down in tears at the Australian Open final and having to stand and watch as Rafael Nadal lifted a Wimbledon trophy that would have seen him become the first man in history to win six consecutive titles at the All England Club.

This year's French Open has been an up-and-down tournament for Federer and his route to the final is arguably his hardest yet (incidentally, this will be his 19th - tying Ivan Lendl's record). Two of his last three matches have seen him pushed to the very edge of defeat, taken to five sets first by Tommy Haas in the fourth round and then in the semi-final by Juan Martin del Potro. In both matches there were times when Federer looked down and out, staring down the barrell of the gun with no response and no means of stopping what was coming; yet he prevailed. His path to the final demonstrated all the qualities of a Champion - a belief greater than the sum of his doubts and a determination more powerful than the strength of his body - qualities that he will need with him if he is to succeed tomorrow.

Standing in Federer's way is Robin Soderling, an apparent anomaly of the game. Thrust from obscurity, Soderling  has smashed all odds to shreds with victories over David Ferrer, four-time defending Champion Rafael Nadal and having come from 1-4 down in the fifth set to beat Fernando Gonzalez in the semi-final. Should Soderling continue this remarkable run and halt Federer on his quest for greatness there are many who feel he will be defying the very natural order of things - not just of sporting achievement but of human accomplishment, of reward for the deserved and of justice itself.

However, should Federer succeed in defeating his foe (as he has done in their nine previous meetings), he will prove once and for all that the greatest Champions are those who are humble in defeat and gracious in victory; like Ali before him he will prove that true Champions are those who pursue universal greatness when the world seems to be against them; he will prove that the Champion Elite are those who harvest, year after year and season after season, a burning hunger and passion in their hearts so deep and so bright that no man no matter how strong and no matter how fierce can ever extinguish their unfaltering goal: to be the best there has ever been.

Roger Federer, I wish you the very, very best of luck.