More than a year after it initially agreed to sign on, Truist is finally ready to begin its PGA Tour event sponsorship on Thursday at Philadelphia Cricket Club. Truist agreed to take over for fellow Charlotte-based bank Wells Fargo for what’s now known as the Truist Championship.
Truist’s deal is unique in a number of ways. The first year of the sponsorship was out of its home market of Charlotte, with Quail Hollow Club set to host the PGA Championship next week. Truist also was the first company to sign a deal under the PGA Tour’s new Signature event model, which commanded higher fees from sponsors. Truist is reportedly paying in the $200M range over seven years.
“We really looked at golf as an opportunity number one, it’s committed to our purpose,” said Joe Smith, Truist’s head of brand experience, including sponsorships and events. “Number two, it aligns quite well with our customer and client base. And number three, it is really connected in the community in which we operate. And we felt really good about where the tour was.”
Smith said there wasn’t a concern with the first year of the event landing in Philadelphia instead of Charlotte, a banking hotbed. Philadelphia Cricket Club has a smaller footprint than Quail Hollow Club, meaning a more intimate buildout that puts fans closer to the competition. The Northeast has been starved for professional golf in recent years, and Truist also views Philadelphia as a major growth market.
“It’s an opportunity for us to engage with a relatively new set of clients and prospect base,” Smith said. “It’s a really unique opportunity for us to kind of tell the story of who we are as a brand, because when you’re a new brand in a new market, you want to really be able to talk about what makes us different.”
Other growth markets for Truist, Smith said, include cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston and Baltimore.
Smith expects more than 2,000 Truist clients and potential business prospects on site this week in Philadelphia. Activations on site include a Kids Zone sponsored by Nemours Children’s Health, a photo experience from sunglasses brand Knockaround (a PGA Tour OMP) and a Truist-sponsored fan experience that includes live art and a dedicated lounge for mothers, with Mother’s Day falling on Sunday of the tournament.
“We’re really making sure we have the opportunity to connect with our key clients across our entire footprint of the company,” Smith said. “Whether it’s our consumer clients to our wealth clients and investment bank across the whole gamut of the organization.”
Excel Sports Management is Truist’s agency of record.
