The contrarian outlook that makes the Masters so great

0:03James Emmett:Hello and welcome to Worth Knowing, the sports industry podcast from Leaders, where we talk to the people worth knowing in the business of sport this week. I'm Leaders Editorial Director James Emmett, and on the interview show this week, we're going to be asking, what makes the Masters so great? We are in Masters Week Augusta, looking fabulous, looking lush, looking green, looking pink, looking yellow, looking everything it needs to be at this stage of the year. It's a quirk. It's a complete anomaly. It's a contrarian entity that has proved hugely successful in sports, marketing, and media terms.

0:48James Emmett:And I'm going to be talking this week with Steve Martin about what makes the Masters so great. Steve is the perfect person to talk to about this, mainly because he knows what he's talking about and he's willing to talk about it. Something that you get with the Masters is a cloak of secrecy and mystery around the whole thing. People who certainly work for Augusta National and for the Masters, not permitted to talk publicly about what they do and how they do what they do. But Steve is a sports marketing expert, something of a golf expert as well. He's the co-founder of MSQ Sport and Entertainment, the sports, well, Sports and Entertainment Sponsorship Activation Agency.

1:33James Emmett:He formerly ran the MNC Saatchi Sports and Entertainment Agency. He worked at Adidas for many years too. He's had plenty of golf clients over the years, notably TaylorMade and now Callaway, one of the founding clients of MSQ Sport and Entertainment. They also work with the likes of Barclays, O2, British Gas, and plenty more. Let's get stuck in. What makes the Masters so great with Steve Martin? Steve, thanks very much for being here, for traveling into the Leader's Studio. We are in Masters Week. Yes, we are, Steve. We're not really in Masters Week, but when people are listening to this, we will be.

2:15James Emmett:I honestly think this is one of the most exciting weeks and weekends in the sporting calendar. Maybe it's personal preference, but I love watching the Masters. It's always a really exciting point of the cycling calendar as well. And I also like to watch cycling. It's Paris-Roubaix this weekend as well. And this is where the sporting season kicks off for me. And I wanted to have you in because I know you also love the Masters and you think that the Masters is one of the pinnacle events in sport, in sports marketing. So I want to get stuck in give us your master's memories steve how how many times have you been i've been about five times now and you know it was almost breaking the duck of it was the first time i went i mean i can't tell you how excited it was and it goes back to like sitting watching the masters with my dad for years yeah mom was like they were obsessed with it and it's sort of become a sort of a mystical and mythical place but you don't really understand it because you're obviously watching tv you know i'm sitting in belfast watching it you're a million miles away from it but as you've growing up with it the dream was always to go but it always felt inaccessible and you couldn't go and you but the dream came true for me in a way and i'm pretty spoiled boy working in this industry we all are like we've been to a lot of stuff and a lot of events a lot of things over the years from a corporate and business side of things but actually to go somewhere and go through those gates as a fan yeah or a patron as they call them at the masters it's so vivid for me and a lot of things you know we're running at 200 miles an hour i can remember you walking in the gates the first time and seeing the slope of this place it looked like ski slopes some of the course and just the scale of the place and how manicured it was and that sort of ocd element of it and i remember almost like the first queue i was in the first beer i got where i put my seat because you don't have a phone either which is probably one of the things we'll talk about the values of the masters everything remains vivid so i think i've got really distinct and clear memories of it yeah which I think helps.

4:10James Emmett:Yeah. And I've sort of fallen in love with it ever since. And every time I've been there, of those five times, I've been there 90 % of it as a patron, as a fan, not from our sort of corporate work head on, you know, which again is quite refreshing. Give us a sense of your bona fides, if you will, Steve. Obviously, plenty of people in the industry will know you and your work, but what connects you professionally with golf? What kind of spheres have you operated in the golf world? As of growing up in the industry, I mean, it goes back to my Adidas days. I worked a lot of the golf side of things.

4:43One of the first things I ever did was work in the open in, you know, late 90s, launching different shoes and products and apparel and all the rest of it. You know, that feels a long time ago. I then, one of my first jobs post-university, I was the PR guy for the Belfry around the Ryder Cup in 93, I'll whisper that. And that was an extraordinary thing because you saw the scale of how Ryder Cup was growing, becoming more commercial. I was a bit more pure then, but it's absolute rock and roll now, isn't it? As an event and a broadcast opportunity, it's extraordinary what's happened to that. So it's been fully ingrained in me and what I've grown up with in the early days.

5:15And then when I moved to MNC Satya, we worked for TaylorMade for a long time. And the beauty of coming to MSQ was our new sport and entertainment business there, which is sort of 18 months in, but the founding client was Ben Calloway. And to have their support when we had no other clients, no business, no team, no name, it was amazing so I think we understand golf and golf as an industry obviously through COVID it had an incredible renaissance but the renaissance has continued and the golf industry is in as rude health as you could ever imagine almost more than any other sport you know and the numbers are flying golf company membership is flying products are flying women's game is really doing very well the grassroots of the game doing well the creator economy inside it there's new brands launching all the time there's so many moving parts of the golf industry and I think certainly our work with Callaway recently.

6:04It's been terrific to sort of maintain that relationship within the game for us. It's been very important to me and the backing of it has been fantastic. Because golf can be seen as a small industry, but it's a very fast growing industry still. And actually a very innovative industry. You learn an awful lot being part of it. Okay.

6:20James Emmett:We are going to talk about the Masters now for the next 20, 30 minutes or so. We're going to talk about what makes the Masters so great from a sports marketing perspective, but from a sort of sports, from a sports event perspective more generally, but I think specifically we'll focus on, you know, your professional expertise. We've gone back and forth a little bit in the prep for this episode and I think have identified six or seven areas where we think the Masters really excels. I'm going to kick us off, if I may, with look and feel. Such an important thing in the world now, you know, brand, how you represent your entity through a brand look and feel.

6:58James Emmett:And you talked about it, just talking about your early memories of the masters there, Steve, there's something so distinctive about the masters. And I think there is something in heightened sensory experience, however you experience the masters. I've never been to the masters physically, but there's something so identifiable, immediately identifiable. Do you feel like? I think so. All through the TV, right? And whatever kind of advertising marketing I might have picked up about it. You know, there's something in not just the logo, the very distinctive kind of yellow and green that comes through, but of course the perfect lush green of the golf course and the pinks of the azaleas, you know, that is Augusta, right?

7:39James Emmett:And the green jackets, of course, there's so much green in Augusta and how that comes across. And you mentioned the restriction on having phones actually at the event. Obviously that's not the case when you're just watching on TV. But I do think there is something heightened sensory experience at Augusta that probably comes from having a restriction on phones. I feel like the visuals are dialed up a notch. Probably you are aware of your other senses a bit more because you're not just on your phone when you're a little bit bored or whatever. You probably can smell things a little bit more. You hear things a little bit more.

8:10James Emmett:A few years ago, we ran an event where we had one of the guys from TikTok talking about excellence on TikTok. And he pointed to an example from the masters. I can't remember what year it was, 22 maybe, but there was a little phase where TikTokers were doing ASMR, I think it is. It's all about sounds, very deliberate sounds. And it was a fast cut sort of run through the 2022 masters just in sounds. And it was unbelievable bit of footage, so evocative. And And I really think that the Masters has somehow managed to nail heightened sensory experience through look and feel. That's not a question by that.

8:48That's just a rambling sentiment there. No, but it's so true. And it's the ultimate example of control of a brand. But it's the ultimate example of surprising you. Because you would think this is a very traditional organization. They don't apologize for tradition. In fact, they lean into it. We're going into the marketing world at the minute where everything is leaning into nostalgia, talking about nostalgia. We're actually calling it new-stalgia. is almost what it is. And some of the kids that are buying products from the 90s weren't even born then, but they've got the values of what went before.

9:19And I think them doesn't apologise for that. But the control over things is amazing, but it makes you really want to be there and it makes you really want to watch it. And they're very good at carving it all up. It's the sum of the parts of the masters. So all the touch points of, yes, they're looking for when you're there. It's like an oasis. You cannot believe that. You're almost like stepping into a vortex, this place in Augusta. the way the grass is, the way the flowers are, the way everything is just so pristine and precise. And that's the physical bit. And everything is around the players and how the players experience it.

9:52I mean, they've just launched a new sort of players area, which again, they leak through beautiful content. Content is so consistent. If you looked and put your hand over the logo, you'd know it's the masters. So everything you do is incredibly consistent. It is ultimate control, but it's brilliant. And I think they've merged the sort of history and tradition with really sort of modernity, if you like. And again, that's a great tension to have in marketing at the moment. It's extrasensory, I would describe it as, and it's vivid. And that is incredibly hard to do. It's amazing when you have how confident you have to be to say to the patrons and the fans who are there, you say, put your phone in here, you can't take it in.

10:29I mean, that's unbelievable confidence. But people, when I throw my phone in, I can't wait to get rid of it because you concentrate on who you're with. Everything goes through your eyes and stays there. you know which is why it's so vivid and that's value and it's confidence but it's really smart they don't apologize for it and and i think what they've done brilliantly for the master which i'm sure we'll come on to talk about is how they've moved with the times but respecting tradition so it really is they've got it very very right and the numbers don't lie and the fact that you mentioned a tiktok example who would have thought 10 years ago five years ago even you know, the masters of the way it's perceived would be creating bespoke content for all those digital and social channels like TikTok and Instagram, and they do it beautifully.

11:12James Emmett:You've touched on a few things there and you talked about the word control. When I think about the phone restriction, chuck your phone in a bag or in a box or whatever before you go in and just experience fully, honestly, what I mainly feel about that is, wow, what a sort of pleasant oasis of calm. I'm not going to have to experience this sporting event through the screen of so many other people's phones standing in front of me. That's a nicer personal experience that they're creating for me by forcing me and everyone else to do this. But of course, at the same time, what they're also doing is controlling exactly what imagery and video comes out of that place.

11:49James Emmett:You are not going to get fan footage of whatever happening and being spread across the place. It's just simply not possible. So they control absolutely every aspect of what they're doing. thing to do because so many rights holders will want a great value because they think the number of views, people sharing it live from the experience is going to enhance their monetization of it, which like I get it, enhance them. The masters feel that they're confident enough that they can make the commercial revenue come in through the broadcast, which by the way, is an extraordinary auction in its own right.

12:22They can do it through all the other commercial partners that they have because it's super premium. It's not premium, it's super premium. And these partners sign up for a number of years. And again, they're on their toes to sign up again. So they feel confident enough that they're not going to spoil their commercial model by suddenly copying everybody else. So that's, again, it's incredibly brave to do that.

12:40James Emmett:But they're also presumably talking to, and we'll come on to, we've got a collective term for this sort of no phones thing, but presumably they're also talking to their partners about, right, it was a no phones environment. You're going to have to think differently. There's no point in having people taking a photo of your or display or whatever. That's just not going to happen. Yeah, and it's a big B2B play, though, as well as a B2C play. You know, that's what you're seeing at the Massacres, the entertainment, the hospitality is off the charts. You know, they've got so many different layers to that of how you buy into it.

13:08So the B2B plays a bit, but it's the association. And I think what they will say is like at the event itself, you'll have broadcast opportunities, but it's subtle. But it's what you do to amplify around it. I think that's where they would encourage a bit more freedom to do that.

13:21James Emmett:So we've got look and feel. We've also got the sport, right? The sport, a lot, Any sporting event has sport as part of its, a core part of its product. But there is something about the Masters that never fails, I think, on kind of pure sporting tension. And you talked about it earlier. They're really focused on delivering a good experience for the players. You are plugged into the golf world, Steve, and I'm sure you talked to current and former golfers. Is it right to assume that for most golfers, the Masters is pretty much the number one thing that they want? Depends who you talk to. I mean I think to get the invite I mean it's everything from the invite that they get The physical thing The physical thing It's different to the other majors It's really I think the majors now have become the big two are the Masters and the Open Championship here I'm not been disparaging in any way the US Open and the US PGA but there's an elevation around those two and the players would say that some obviously coming from the British Isles and Ireland would want to win the Open because it's got the bigger scale it's got the tradition it's got the and they're learning I think what we've seen happening in the Open over time has got better and better and better and better and experiencing it on my home track last year at Royal Portrush was honestly the best I've ever seen it amplified and activated but then there's the Masters is just another level up and players will tell you either way but you know I think you can just see the reaction to Rory winning the green jacket last year that just went everywhere and it brought an audience in that maybe didn't even exist before but the Masters is always you talk about the sport of the Masters it has momentum and I think what they've done to bring this sort of women's game into that is been again fabulous because they've opened up the whole part of Augusta in the build up the women's championship Amherst's championship is the week before you've then got the par 3 which is part of it you've suddenly got all the families involved little kids that's incredible you've got the history of that but like showing it as a family event as well again leads beautifully and then you've got the big event sort of kicks off on the Thursday so they're really smart of how they roll it out but the sport itself the Masters never really has a bad winner and history will tell you that it's always dramatic and the course because it's from the same place every time.

15:23You're used to the angles, you're used to the holes, you know where the jeopardy is, you know when there's going to be the stress, you know the back nine at the Masters. The Masters isn't one until the Sunday, the back nine. And every time it's like that, unless you get somebody, it's like a parade for somebody like the old year when Tiger was flying, you know, he'd win a bow. But even then, you know, still drama. So I think the sport builds and builds and builds. And I think that's what you always want, that momentum. But you could go back to history and say, is the sport good at the Masters?

15:50And you'd be hard to argue against it.

15:51James Emmett:It's a good time zone as well for us over here in Europe. You talked about the organizers being very smart about building out the week and following the model that other event organizers are doing in other sports. You look at the majors, the grand slams in tennis, they're slowly sort of building out into three-week entities to grow revenues, I guess, and make themselves into bigger enterprises. Even though the Masters leans into tradition and restriction, it is still doing that. It's still putting, the par three is now broadcast. It's part of the event. It's part of what they sell to broadcasters.

16:29James Emmett:They've got the practice days as well. You talk about the women's competitions the previous week. It's sort of smart event organizations. You've got a good big thing. Let's make it bigger in a smart way. But I specifically wanted to ask you, Steve, about those touches that they do for the players you talk about the physical invitation obviously the green jacket is a lovely tradition a great thing that people automatically think of what are those little touches that any other things that you can think of that they do for players i just think it's the transport in you know they've made a very big deal about magnolia drive so mercedes is the main partner i mean they've made that so much of a piece of magic of driving up magnolia drive and you know the players will go there and they build up as they prepare for it in the weeks before they'll all be talking about that they'll all be showing that it's the only place they can really show their own content so they make a big deal of that they've created an incredible new players facility players only facility which again they leaked out this week and it is just mind blowing what's in there what they're leaning into here is every golfer's dream they want to be more than anyone any golfer in the world whether you're male or female young or old would want to have those facilities and you know those are totally elevated for the pro players it was the right thing to do and then it's the little touch points how the families are treated because everyone's welcomed.

17:42You know, they realise that pro golfers aren't about just the individuals, the team around them, the families around them, the people of influence around them. And they're very good at engaging in that and bringing that together. So I think the players come in and feel incredible when they come in, but they feel overawed sometimes. You know, and they're more nervous probably standing in that tee on the first day than they are in most championships because of all that history, but the way they build the prestige of it over time. and it's all the little touch points really. So they make everything obviously very easy because the players are their biggest assets for those four or five days.

18:18James Emmett:It's like you go to a swanky hotel and you're not used to it and you feel like you need to dress up for it and you're not quite natural. The TV product and the way they have done, packaged the TV product in the past and even now, I think is absolutely something that makes the Masters great. We talked about the look and feel and how that is transmitted through TV. Do you know if they, I mean, you probably wouldn't know, but it feels to me like there are more longer lingering shots of greens and beautiful verdant kind of course at the masters it's down to their production i mean again when you go there you cannot believe the place it looks like it's ai it looks like it's been created by ai but it's not it's physical and it's real and you go there and it's extrasensory as we talked about the colors are so rich and it plays with your head and your mind but the way they shoot it and the camera angles and it is so clever but it's you wouldn't even know it's there so it's almost so blended into the course that you don't feel it's restrictive you're not walking past tv towers everywhere like you're not so i think the way the broadcasting is shot and you know you're covering an awful lot there you're covering every shot so there's a lot of golfers on the course you're covering every shot you're covering all the content behind the scenes you're covering all the build-up you know the range itself has become a massive asset to them it was opened up over the last 10 years within golf about where a lot of the great broadcasters and presenters will get some of the really great content from walking up the range to talk to the players as they prepare because they're a bit less tight, if you like, when they're prepping.

19:43But then they do a beautiful job on that. They do a brilliant job of how they dress the studios. So, you know, you'll have it on the side of all the practice going, you'll have all the US studios and then you'll have Scott, you know, all the broadcasters will be lined up and it's so curated. So it makes it very easy and because it's the same site, it's a plug-in and go. So they know everything. But how they carve that content up through broadcast, I think has been just amazing. And the speed of reaction, so the editing and the production is top of the game. We'll talk about it, hopefully, at some stage, how that's become digitized.

20:14Because again, it's not just the broadcast, it's how that links into the digital product as well.

20:17James Emmett:If you're not in the sports marketing world, you don't necessarily know anything about the business behind Augusta. The thing that you might know is the TV model, the TV rights model that they've had for any number of years now. And I think it's still the case that they take a much lower than possible domestic rights fee, at least, in return for big control of various aspects of the broadcast. They deliberately restrict the amount of footage that goes out. Obviously, a broadcaster would want to show all of it and pump it full of very high cost advertising and all of that. But Augusta restricts ad breaks, the amount of footage shown, the type of partners, I think, that can go in the ad breaks.

21:01James Emmett:I think there is an element of they're able to sell TV ad space to their partners through what they do with their broadcast partners. And in return, they leave all of this money on the table. The relationship between their main longstanding domestic broadcast partner, CBS, is probably akin to the Wimbledon BBC relationship. They are completely simpatico with each other. And, you know, think about one, you think about the other in sporting terms. Although, again, they're modernizing there a little bit. Amazon is coming in for the first time, I think, this year, broadcasting a little bit of it. I believe they do monetize the international rights fees in a slightly more traditional way.

21:40James Emmett:I don't think there's quite the same level of restriction. I think they are trying to go for kind of top dollar there. But yeah, so amazing, I think, in all of this that they have such a clear strategy and they stick to it. And they've had this strategy for a long time before people were sort of thinking about contrarian ways to kind of go into a market. A lot of the things they do go against the tide of the industry, and they go against the tide of most sports rights holders, you know, whether it's a Super Bowl, whether it's a World Cups, or even the Olympics, you know, is changing in front of our I'm not saying it's up there because the numbers, I mean, there's about 30 million watch the Masters globally compared to 130 odd million Superbowl.

22:16So, you know, it's not the closest assembly to Wimbledon. Actually, you know, they have a share agreement. They have a person who sits in between a liaison office between Wimbledon and Augusta. And you can see the values coming out very simple of just up the road here versus what Augusta's looks like. And, you know, I think Wimbledon is one of the most impressive rights holders in the way they present Wimbledon. The All England is world class as well, you know, but they're learning from each other, but it's not as restricted from a broadcast point of view. The broadcast thing of control, again, is super smart.

22:45It creates demand, it creates jeopardy. When the auction comes around again, you know, everyone's on their toes again. They're also very loyal. I think that's the thing. It seems to be in a lot of the other sports that we're around, and you'll have commented on for years. You know, look at football. I mean, you can't sit on your hands for too long because the next auction will come around for a Premier League or, you know, even FA Cups domestically or Champions League that we've seen and rugby is the same it's chaotic from a broadcast it's really consistent and they treat they'll be very loyal and they'll add and then innovate and they innovate not in front of your eyes it's this sort of constant evolution of the broadcast model I think as opposed to rapid change and I think that also gives a comfort you know you can find it easily you can watch it easily you know what it's going to be every year and I think that's again playing into this sort of macro vision that they have which is about let's look after our fans let's look after them and be enduring and not jump around here, there and everywhere.

23:41And I don't know, it gives a certain comfort with that.

23:43James Emmett:But they're also managing to have their cake and eat it, I think, in terms of that particular sentiment. Let's look after our fans because it's coming through loud and clear that they're looking after the ticket buying patrons, the people who are physically there present. They, for many years, restricted the live footage to just the back nine on the last day, I think. Obviously, that has changed now, but I think there are still plenty of restrictions in place so that if you are a ticket buying patron, you're there and you're getting plenty of exclusive stuff for your money. But they are also now delivering best in class digital footage for everyone else, right?

24:23James Emmett:Through this app, which anyone, unless they've got an interest somewhere else, anyone in the sort of sports, marketing sports broadcast world will point to the Masters app as if not the best in the top two in sport. And this is a relatively recent thing, but it has become world leading. It has. And again, it's a great surprise. It's seen as a very traditional event, which is very controlled. Always been around the broadcast model and how they've restricted. It's almost less is more. And it's made you want to see it more because it is restricted. It's really smart marketing that. Take something away from somebody that wanted even more.

24:58So I think that jeopardy around that has been fabulous. But the biggest surprise has been the digitization of it for me. I mean, I think Wimbledon followed suit. The Wimbledon app now is absolutely brilliant. But I think it's learned from the masters. It was the biggest surprise for me when I first started. that people were like, wow, have you seen that? And once you start going into it, it's almost real time. It's almost like you're the director of your own master's coverage. That's what it's like. That's how good it is. And they can take every, they film every shot and it's almost as live. Now, how hard is that to do?

25:27And then they have the beautification of the course. That's easy. You can film all that. But again, it's so engaging and mesmerizing, some of it. And it's just everything about it, where to go, where to sound, where you get your food. I mean, it's, and that's not, that's not just, as you said, for the patrons who are there at the event. It's for all of us watching it from afar. So you feel like you're right in it and you can follow everything and it's uncluttered. And, you know, again, the confidence that they have that they don't want to sell that to betting brands. But, you know, it's so clear and crisp.