National Golf Month, the annual campaign aimed at increasing participation in golf, has achieved record levels of success on social media.
With the help of celebrity ambassadors, which include Georgie Bingham, Denise van Outen, Dan Walker and Charley Hull, the #GirlsGetGolfing hashtag has reached nearly 3 million people across various social media platforms – smashing last year’s performance of 1.5 million.
The marketing initiative, coordinated by the British Golf Industry Association, has also been supported with radio and print media advertising from over the duration of the month, with the total reach for the campaign exceeding 10 million.
The campaign was kick-started with a social media ‘thunderclap’ on 28 April, which attracted simultaneous support from Ryder Cup winning golfer Paul McGinley, England Golf (the sport’s governing body) and government funding agency Sport England. Golf clubs, pros and centres up and down the country have since used the hashtag to help recruit more participants to the sport.
Doug Poole, the BGIA’s project director for National Golf Month said, ‘The reaction to this year’s campaign has been overwhelming. The Thunderclap helped us reach new heights and gave us the boost we needed right from the get-go. To have such an eclectic range of supporters, from new participants, to celebrities, to golf clubs, really helped put #GirlsGetGolfing on the social media map.’
Mel Reid, the English Ladies’ European Tour golfer who has achieved success so far in 2017, talked to Talksport’s Georgie Bingham and Tony Cascarino on the Weekend Breakfast show about opportunities to get involved in golf via the nationalgolfmonth.com website.
Further highlights from the first 10 days of the campaign include:
- The BBC’s Dan Walker and former Westlife band member Brian McFadden have pledged their support towards the campaign.
- 35 national and regional radio stations have featured adverts promoting National Golf Month in the lead up to and during May.
- Adverts and editorial features in female lifestyle publications focusing on the health benefits of golf, including Yours and Top Santé.
- An online advertising campaign with ads featured on websites including GolfShake, GolfALot and Golf Empire.
Poole continued, ‘We hope our marketing campaign, which is free for clubs and pros to take part in to grow their businesses, will go some way to helping increase female participation. There’s still bags of time for the industry to get behind this initiative and upload taster sessions via nationalgolfmonth.com
Enquiries BGIA dpoolegolf@gmail.com