Tiger Woods commercial future crashed with the car
What would the gurus at Accenture (NYSE:ACN) say about Tiger Woods’ predicament following his early morning car crash? The golfer has been the face of the management consultancy since 2003 and the mystery over the collision risks affecting his commercial earnings as well as his playing career.
Most of the $1bn Forbes calculates Woods has earned since going professional has come from his endorsements rather than prize money. Besides Accenture’s extensive use of the player’s image, he has endorsed brands and products from Gillette to General Motors and American Express to Nike and Tag Heuer watches.
If Woods is worried about the reporting of him crashing his Cadillac outside his Florida home then think of the concern of those companies. Do they suspend their promotions, axe their sponsorships or increase their advertising to exploit his increased newsworthiness?
The truth behind the incident barely matters when there is so much speculation and it hardly matters what Woods eventually says: if it is bad he risks the public turning against him and if it is not bad he risks the public accusing him of covering up bad news.
His representatives at the IMG agency must decide whether he tells all, stays quiet, or seeks to repair his image.
If this is the end of the incident rather than a preview of deeper problems yet to arise, then they story will fade from the front pages but it will always be revived when the press want to criticise either another dip in his golfing performance or a lapse in his private life.
Much of Woods’ value to those wanting to ally their products to him has been not only his spectacular early success but his squeaky-clean image: damaging his own brand damages those that he endorses and that $1bn of earnings could be his last billion when he should have hoped to make at least one more.
Staying quiet has only allowed rumours to circulate. It is not true that all publicity is good publicity. The player can seek to repair his image by devoting more time to his Tiger Woods Foundation and learning centres but the Woods that emerged from that crash is not the one his sponsors signed on to.
People like heroes but regrettably for his public, himself and the companies that endorse him, Woods is being revealed as an ordinary human and there are plenty of those to choose between. Accenture’s current slogan on the Woods adverts reads “It’s what comes next that counts”. Between them they must try turning this adversity into advantage.
