Ariana Margetts
S2799584
Subject: Introduction to Public Relations
Type: Case Study/Essay Form
Learning Objectives Assessed: 1, 2, 3, 4
Due Date: 9 Sep 11 17:00 - Week 7
Weight: 25%
Length: 1088
Gaining Back ‘Tigers’ Respect.
1
This essay analysis the successful public relations campaign commenced by Eldrick “Tiger”
Woods. The campaign was initiated with the goals to restore good faith in the public after
scandalous affairs broke in the media (affecting Woods’ personal and professional persona) as well
as to ‘hush’ the scandal so Woods could continue with his professional career. The ordeal started on
November 27th 2009, when Woods had reportedly been in a single car accident. A few days later,
the media found out that the ‘accident’ was due to Woods’ wife finding out he had had an affair.
Accordng to Suzane Zurn’s ‘Social Media Monitoring Case Study’ about Woods, on December 8th,
Gatorade announced they would no longer be creating a “tiger-branded sports drink.” Three days
later Woods announced to the media that he was taking an “indefinite leave” from professional golf.
Three days later again, anther one of Woods’s sponsors ‘Accenture’ dropped Woods as a
representative of their brand (Zurn, S 2010.) This study states the message and brief history of the
campaign, before addressing the strategies and tactics that were implemented and subsequently led
to the successful outcome.
When exploring the history of the campaign, it can be noted that the message was straight forward
from the beginning: to portray Woods as a professional sportsperson and family man that in a
moment of weakness was intrigued by fame and money. As stated above, Woods’ sponsors reduced
quickly. Therefore, his public relations campaign was immediately implemented, with Woods’
agent Mark Steinberg hiring criminal defense attorney Mark Ne Jame and the Hollywood
representative law firm from Los Angeles by the name of Lavely and Singer (Albergotti 2009.)
Between these three representatives a campaign was put together with definite strategies in order to
target their specific audience of the media, the professional sports industry, the American public
and golf fans world-wide. After establishing a very specific message and target audience, the
strategies of the campaign will now be further explored.
2
The strategy of this campaign was very precise and can be looked at over the time period of one
year. According to the ‘Scandal timeline’ published on the NBC sports news site, these events took
place. Thirteen hours after the crash, Woods released a statement stating it was a minor accident.
On December 29, released on his official website was that the accident was of a “private manner.”
On December 14th, major sponsor ‘Nike’ announces they would be standing by the athlete unlike
his other sponsors. As part of his image repair strategy, Woods was recommended to stay out of the
media eye, with the first photographs of him since the scandal being published on the 20th of
January, and apart from these minor statements, Woods was non-public about the scandal for three
months, breaking his silence to a small group of people on the 19th of February (Tiger Woods’ Sex
scandal timeline, 2009-2010.) Stainberg stated prior that the statement would be between five and
seven minutes and Woods would not be answering any questions. It is said by Stainberg that this
statement was part of the strategy to "begin the process of making amends” (Politi, S 2010) which
leads to the specific tactics that were put in place by this campaign.
As part of the strategy, specific tactics were implemented in order to rebuild his image to his target
audience. Woods’ campaign was composed of a mix of informal and formal tactics. These being:
silence, initial statements, television advertisements, social networking and direct phone and radio
interviews with media publics. Woods’s original tactics were to steer clear from the media and
public and “plead for privacy” (Johnson A 2011.) Arguably, his restoration tactics really began five
months later on April 7th with an advertisement campaign fueled by the brand and major sponsor
‘Nike’ in which Woods faces straight to camera and remains silent while a voice over of his
deceased father narrates the commercial, quoting about responsibility (Tiger Woods’ Sex scandal
timeline, 2009-2010.) This tactic was specifically put in place as a way to portray his acceptance of
responsibility to his target audience. With his major sponsor ‘Nike’ standing by him it proved
invaluable support to the athlete. The use of social networking was also an informal tactic employed
by Woods in order to connect with his fans on a more personal level, portraying him as a level
3
hearted guy that was down to earth. Woods typed his first ‘tweet’ on the social networking site
‘Twitter’ almost a year after activating an account, posting “Whats up everyone, finally decided to
try out Twitter” (Cianflone R, 2010.) This tactic obviously worked, with Woods’s followers
increasing by sixty thousand within the hour, gaining him back public control and direct fan
contact. It seems that after these initial efforts of breaking back into the media, the tactics were now
formal and standard with Woods holding personal five minute interviews with journalists and
appearing on radio morning shows and conducting phone interviews to select media (‘Daveibsen’
2010.)
There are three different theories which apply to this public relations campaign that subsequently
led to its successful outcome. Firstly, it covers the media effects theory as it is reporting one
message through different mediums: television, social networking websites and radio. He is also
using social learning through networking sites in order to gain back good will from his target
audience. It can also be seen that this campaign uses the situational theory as there is a situational
analysis that allows Woods to target his audience. His tactics are built around the targeted publics.
Also applied is the rhetorical theory as the campaigns strategies are very much focused on the
“effective use of words” (McAlister, 2011) in order to reach the target audience with specific
communication techniques that support the campaigns message.
4
After addressing the goals, target audience and brief history of the campaign, as well as the overall
strategy and specific tactics implemented, we can see how this public relations campaign was
successful in its goal to restore good faith in the public as well as ‘hush’ the scandal in order for
Woods to return to his professional golf career. Due to Woods accepting full responsibility of his
actions and publicly apologizing, before connecting with fans on a personal level, he has regained
the majority of public and media support he once had. (Johnson, A 2011.) The reasons for this
success are due to the tactics that were implemented specifically as part of a one year strategy in
order to directly target the campaigns publics. In conclusion, this campaign achieved its set goals
and should be commended for its positive outcome on a Hollywood scandal.
Bibliography:
Zurn, S 2010, Social Media Monitoring Case Study, Tiger Woods: Damage to Personal and
Sponsorship Brands, viewed 30 August 2011,
<http://www.slideshare.net/suzannezurn/tiger-woods-social-media-case-study-2691500>
Albergotti, R 2009, How Tiger’s top man is managing the crisis: Discreet and Unassuming,
Mark Steinberg Has Handled the Controversy With a Muted Style; a Deal for Silence?, media
release, 7 December, viewed 16 September 2008,
5
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574582091561335288.html>
NBC Sports: Tiger Woods’ Sex scandal timeline, 2009-2010, viewed 30 August 2011,
<http://www.nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/34969596?ta=y>
Politi, S 2010, Tiger Woods’ PR strategy clearly deficient as golfer prepares to address crisis,
viewed 31 August 2011,
< http://www.nj.com/golf/index.ssf/2010/02/politi_tiger_woods_pr_strategy.html>
Johnson, A 2011, ‘Rebuilding a Professional Athlete’s reputation After a Scandal: Refining
Public Relation Techniques’. California Polytechnic State University Journal, pp. 3-17,
viewed August 2011, via Google Scholar database.
Zurn, S 2010, Social Media Monitoring Case Study, Tiger Woods: Damage to Personal and
Sponsorship Brands, viewed 30 August 2011,
<http://www.slideshare.net/suzannezurn/tiger-woods-social-media-case-study-2691500>
Cianflone, R 2010 ‘Tiger Woods Reaches Out to Public with Essay, Interview’, USAToday,
viewed 31 August 2011,
<http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/2010-11-17-tiger-woods-rebuilding_N.htm>
‘Daveibsen’ 2010, Rebuilding the Tiger Woods image one Tweet at a Time, weblog, 19
November, viewed 1 September 2011,
<http://daveibsen.typepad.com/5_blogs_before_lunch/2010/11/rebuilding-the-tiger-woodsimage-one-tweet-at-a-time.html>
McAlister, P 2011, ‘1510HUM Introduction to Public Relations week 2 lecture: Public
Relations Theory’, Retrieved from Griffith University, School of Humanities,
Learning@Griffith web site
6