Tiger Woods Next Endorsement Deals: PriceWaterhouse, Powerade, Citizen, Verizon, Chrysler, And Visa

Tiger Woods sponsorship income in 2009 was estimated by several media sources to be $110 million. Thirty million dollars of that came from Nike (NKE). There are no estimates for the revenue he received from the companies that chose to end their relationships with him—Accenture (ACN), Tag Hauer, AT&T (T), Gatorade, which is part of Pepsi (PEP), and Gillette, which is part of P&G (PG). Woods also almost certainly lost the opportunity to get another car brand deal to replace his arrangement with Buick when it lapsed. The Buick buyers are older than Woods, and the arrangement with the GM division was probably a bad deal from the start.

Media reports say Woods may play in the Masters which runs from April 5th through the 11th. Woods is probably more welcome there than at any other place that he plays. He has won this tournament four times and has the chance to pass Jack Nicklaus, who has six, before he retires. Woods can also count on the best crowd control of any tournament there. Augusta is a private club run by a very tough board of directors.

Woods would need to show up with his wife, two children, and mother to be viewed as socially rehabilitated by the golf world and the public. His “brand” is probably strong enough for him to resurrect his image over the next year or two. There are certainly models of athletes who have stumbled in public and regained their position with fans. Kobe Bryant is the most recent example.

Wood’s agent, Mark Steinberg, is among the most powerful people in his industry. He runs a division of International Management Group, which is owned by billionaire Theodore J. Forstmann. The IMG board includes former US Senator John Breaux, Morgan Stanley Chairman John Mack, Bloomberg executive Andrew Lack, and the Chairman of the Brookings Institute John Thorton among other people. Steinberg’s second biggest client after Woods is recently retired women’s golf champion, Anika Sorenstam. Steinberg arranged sponsorships for Sorenstam with Callaway, Mercedes, Cutter & Buck and Kraft.

Steinberg’s most likely approach to get new sponsors for Woods is by negotiating with the competitors of his former ones. This would offer these companies an opportunity to be part of the “every American deserves a second chance” chorus that Woods will enjoy in most circles. It will also allow these corporations to take “brand equity” away from competitors who spent millions of dollars building their images through Woods. Accenture would not like to see Ernst & Young’s logo on Wood’s golf bag.

PriceWaterhouseCoopers is the world’s largest consulting company with 165,000 employees. The firm has big operations all over the world. It can take Accenture’s spot on Woods’ sponsor list. That would be good timing because rival Ernst & Young is in serious trouble because of Lehman’s Chapter 11 ongoing scandal.

Verizon is the most likely company to replace AT&T, specifically the Verizon Wireless business which competes with AT&T Wireless. Verizon is slightly larger than AT&T with 91 million subscribers to AT&T’s 85 million. But, AT&T added more subscribers last year–2.6 million to Verizon’s 2.2 million. AT&T’s brand is burnished by its exclusive deal to sell the Apple (AAPL) iPhone. Wood’s becomes Verizon’s Steve Jobs.

Schick, owned by Energizer (ENR), would have a chance to come out from under the shadow of Gillette by signing with Woods and improving the visibility of Schick and its Edge products which are already growing quickly.

Powerade is a sport drink which competes directly with Gatorade. It is sold in every large country around the world. Powerade is owned by Coca-Cola (KO) while Gatorade is owned by Pepsi. Powerade has 21% of the US market for sports drinks to Gaterade’s 77%. Wood’s could drive market share to Powerade more than any other sports figure.

Chrysler has faltered since the federal government provided the company capital to emerge from Chapter 11. The firm’s management is controlled by Fiat and Fiat’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, is also the head of Chrysler. The No.3 US car company has only 9% of the domestic market and very few new models coming to market this year or next. Both Hyundai and Nissan could move ahead of Chrysler in domestic market share this year. Chrysler has to build some excitement around its brands which include Jeep and Dodge or risk going under.

Electronic Art  (ERTS) cannot sever its ties with Woods even if wants to. Its “Tiger Woods PGA Tour” game is too important to its sales.  It can once again heavily promote the game once Woods returns to the sport.

Watch company, Tag Hauer, stayed with Woods for a while but stopped using him in its marketing. This may have meant that Woods had little or no value to the watch firm and they ended the relationship. Tag’s watches sell for a few hundred dollars up to $2,000 or $3,000. The most likely watch company to take Tag’s place is Citizen, which is pushing its high-end Eco-Drive time pieces. Citizen already has a collection of spokesmen, including Eli Manning, Winston Cup Driver, Matt Kenseth, and LPGA women’s golfer, Paula Creamer. None has nearly the global image that Woods does.

American Express (AXP) parted ways with Woods over two years ago. That will give Visa (V) the opportunity to become Woods’ credit card sponsor, perhaps for much less money than Amex paid.

Tiger Woods still has the power to be a great brand enhancer. Many of the companies who might use him have global customer bases and it would be a mistake to think that Woods is viewed as negatively outside the US as he was in America. It is also easy to see that some companies like Chrysler and Powerade, which are struggling with market  share, would not gamble on Woods’ fame, tarnished as it is for the time being, for $10 million a year. Woods could be critical to their ability to remain viable companies.

Douglas A. McIntyre    [email protected]