Since 2012, Dittoe PR has worked alongside the Western Golf Association numerous times to promote the BMW Championship. As the penultimate event in the PGA TOUR FedExCup Playoffs, this decisive tournament features the top 50 players in the FedExCup standings and determines the final field 30 for the season-ending TOUR Championship. 2023 marked Dittoe PR’s sixth BMW Championship, with this year’s event hosted at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Illinois.
Dittoe PR implemented numerous PR strategies and community activations to help stimulate excitement for the tournament’s return to Chicagoland after spending two years on the East Coast. Efforts included securing high-quality coverage in top Chicago media outlets from November 2022 through tournament week in August 2023. In addition to our work to promote the 2023 BMW Championship, another main focus of our efforts was highlighting the event’s charitable beneficiary, the Evans Scholars Foundation.
PR Activations and Initiatives
In 2023, we put numerous PR initiatives into action to help bring attention to the BMW Championship in the months leading up to the tournament. We invited various celebrities who are avid golfers to Olympia Fields for an exclusive golf outing in exchange for social media content to generate attention and engagement. Dittoe PR secured opportunities with country singer Luke Combs and NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. as part of this outreach.
In addition, Dittoe PR helped coordinate a visit to Olympia Fields with Good Good Golf, a YouTube golfing group with over 1.3 million subscribers. The Good Good Golf team highlighted Olympia Fields in the video while tying in some BMW Championship-related messaging. The video “We Had a Match at the BMW Championship” was posted during tournament week and has over 1.5 million views.
Mural Activation
Another critical community activation Dittoe PR helped implement for the 2023 BMW Championship was the creation of a mural to celebrate the tournament’s return to Chicago. Ideas for the mural were crowdsourced via a local youth art contest on the theme “Golf in Chicago.” Not only did we assist with the full coordination of this activation, but Dittoe PR’s promotional efforts helped secure numerous media stories on various topics related to the mural’s lifecycle, from the launch of the art contest to the unveiling of the final mural. Dittoe PR secured 24 media placements through our efforts in outlets like the Chicago Tribune and FOX Chicago, generating more than $580,000 in estimated advertising equivalency.
Media Day Overview
Media Day is an important event to help generate media exposure for the 2023 BMW Championship. In addition to assisting with the planning aspects for Media Day, Dittoe PR leveraged the event to engage with local media and stimulate media coverage with top outlets.
The program had over 90 attendees, including 20 media outlets and six social media influencers. The program featured various speakers, including PGA TOUR player Nick Hardy and PGA TOUR Senior Tournament Director Stephen Cox. Our efforts for Media Day generated more than 57 media placements with outlets like CBS Chicago, AXIOS Chicago and WCIA-TV. In addition to media coverage, influencer posts on Media Day captured more than 59,000 impressions and 1,200 engagements.
Evans Scholars Foundation
In addition to our work to promote the 2023 BMW Championship, another main focus of our efforts was highlighting the event’s charitable beneficiary, the Evans Scholars Foundation. Leading up to the tournament, Dittoe PR would incorporate key messaging on the Evans Scholars Foundation into all relevant media opportunities to help educate target audiences about the impact of the BMW Championship on youth caddies nationwide. During tournament week, we leveraged Evans Scholars for numerous media opportunities, including live interviews with local TV stations. Our efforts led to more than 136 media placements with outlets like the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Southtown and CBS Chicago.
Tournament Week Efforts
Dittoe PR secured numerous media opportunities throughout tournament week to help maximize exposure to the 2023 BMW Championship. For these efforts, we leveraged numerous key spokespeople such as WGA’s Senior VP of Tournaments, Vince Pellegrino, and Tournament Chairman Mike Bruni.
Working with credentialed media was also crucial to our presence at the BMW Championship. We helped distribute relevant updates, press releases and key messages from the WGA and PGA TOUR to credentialed media on-site at Olympia Fields throughout tournament week.
Our efforts during the tournament led to more than 300 secured media placements, with opportunities with ABC 7 Chicago, NBC Chicago, FOX Chicago and more. Secured coverage during the tournament generated more than $13 million in estimated advertising value.
Total Media Summary
Thanks to the efforts from Dittoe PR, we secured more than 530 media stories for the 2023 BWM Championship for 1.7 billion media impressions and $18 million in media advertising equivalency. In addition, the tournament experienced near-record-breaking ticket sales, helping generate millions of dollars for the event’s charitable beneficiary, the Evans Scholars Foundation.
Need help promoting your next event? Contact Director of Business Development Lauryn Keegan at la****@di******.com to learn how Dittoe PR can help build brand awareness for your event to key target audiences.
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