Nike stuck with Tiger Woods for a long, ugly decade — and now it’s finally paying off.
On Sunday, Woods won his fifth Masters green jacket and his first major championship since 2008. The TV ratings exploded, marking the highest-rated morning golf broadcast in 34 years — and Wood’s face landed on the cover of every major newspaper.
The win is proving a redemption story not just for Woods, but also for Nike, whose investors pushed the stock to $86.83 a share Monday, up from $85 a share on Thursday when the tournament began. For Nike, it was a $4 billion gain in its valuation.
The athletic wear giant also benefited from an estimated $22.5 million in brand exposure as viewers tuned in to watch the former golf hero win back his crown and saw the shoemaker’s logos splayed across his hat, shirt, pants and shoes, according to branding analytics company Apex Marketing,
Nike stuck by Woods after AT&T, Gillette, Buick and Accenture dropped him following a series of public humiliations that started in 2009, including his marital infidelities, a stint in a sex-addiction rehab facility and a reckless driving conviction. A bad back has only helped keep him on the sidelines.
But within an hour of Woods’ win, Nike dropped a 51-second celebratory video entitled “Same Dream,” featuring Woods as a toddler declaring that he’d be the next Jack Nicklaus, a legendary golfer.
“It’s crazy to think a 43-year-old who has experienced every high and every low and has just won his 15th major …. is chasing the same dream as a 3-year-old,” the ad says.
It scored 24.6 million views on Nike’s website between Sunday and Monday, and 629,782 views on YouTube, the company said.
Woods is now three major titles short of the record of 18 set by of Nicklaus. And no brand is more closely associated with his comeback story than Nike, which first signed with him in 1996.
To be sure, Nike has also not shied away from controversial marketing strategies in the past — most notably by aligning itself with Colin Kaepernick amid controversy over his NFL kneeling protests.
While Woods’ controversy is a far cry from Kaepernick’s, some analysts say there’s just no such thing as bad publicity in the sporting world.
“Tiger checks the box of what a brand looks for in an endorser, making plenty of headlines both good and bad,” Instinet analyst Simeon Siegel told The Post.
“All news is good news,” Siegel added.
Nike is also sending the message that the company “will stick by you when the chips are down,” said sports marketing consulting Joe Favorito. “Its a very competitive business, and Nike sticking with Tiger shows how they value relationships.”
Woods’ winning streak in the 1990s and early 2000s sparked a boom in the sport. But his travails, starting in 2009, coincided with a decline in golf equipment sales and playing time as a rash of courses closed and retailer Golfsmith filed for bankruptcy protection in 2016.
Nike exited the golf equipment business around that time as well.
Woods’ Masters victory could offer a badly needed shot in the arm for the game, say experts.