Jason Dufner’s One-Week Hat Deal Validates the Instant Sponsor Concept
It was the beginning of the 2018 summer…the first week of June to be exact. The PGA Tour season was hitting a stretch of time between golf’s first two major championships of the season (The Masters and the U.S. Open).
There was certainly plenty to talk about that first week of June at the Memorial Tournament, played in Ohio and hosted by golf’s greatest player, Jack Nicklaus. Yes, there were plenty of storylines related to Tiger Woods’ comeback, winning in front of his childhood idol and reaching the elusive win №80.
But the defending champion, Jason Dufner, stole a little bit of that spotlight early in the week when he donned several peculiar hats during the practice rounds and revealed more as the week unfolded. It even gave the stone-cold-in-concentration Woods a chuckle when the two players were paired together in the opening rounds.
“Duf, you’re a real beauty,” Woods said with a chuckle on the first tee, looking at Dufner’s unusual hat.
Duf’s caps were unique all week, with different logos or inscriptions on the front. Ranging from “Boss” to “Save the Crew” to “Duf Daddy”.
Despite their uniqueness, each had had a common denominator: an MSF Real Estate Capital logo and website address on the sides of each cap.
Jarvis Woodson, the owner of MSF (located in Ohio) saw in the early in the week that Dufner did not have a sponsor an offered to sponsor the former champion’s snap-back hats on a one-week sponsorship deal.
“We realized right around the time of the ‘Boss’ hat that he didn’t have a sponsor, so I did a little research and next thing you know I reached out to his agent and here we are,” Woodson said via Golf.com.
Woodson deployed his friend Kevin Iannarino — a graphic designer — to come up with several hat designs that Dufner could sport throughout the week, each with the MSF logo clearly pronounced on the side.
“We designed seven total, and he has all seven,” Woodson said. “We’re just letting him roll with whatever his outfits are and what he feels comfortable with.”
MSF’s brand received a massive boost as Dufner was paired with both Woods and eventual World №1 Justin Rose on the first two days of the Memorial…bringing Dufner and MSF to the forefront of that week’s media coverage.
“I had no idea it would be hundreds of emails, thousands of texts, complications with printing and everything,” Woodson added. “But it’s gone so well the last couple of days and everyone at our company is so excited and invigorated by it, I really would do it again.”
How This Can Be Replicated By Instant Sponsor…
One-off sponsorship deals are not a common practice on the PGA Tour, but that is because smaller-to-midsized brands are unable to find a point of entry into the sponsorship ecosystem.
If you are not well-connected then you will not get a sponsorship deal done…
Instant Sponsor aims to break down any barrier of entry and allow for potential sponsors to directly contact rights holders on a peer-to-peer network.
But it doesn’t stop with just simply bridging the gap between sponsorship opportunity and sponsor. Instant Sponsor’s platform will allow a sponsor and rights holder to negotiate and transact seamlessly and efficiently without needing to leave the platform.
Instant Sponsor’s SaaS solution is an automated process saves time and resources. Leading to faster acquisition and significantly lower costs versus the traditional process. Unbundling a complex legacy system into simple one-click optionality.
If you are interested in Instant Sponsor’s platform then you should check out the Instant Sponsor website and join the Official Telegram Community to receive news and updates about the company and sports sponsorship industry.
