The aspiring LPGA golfer who has developed a huge social-media fan base and is described “one of golf’s most popular yet polarizing personalities” will appear in television commercials as a brand ambassador for 18Birdies, an app targeted to Millenials that lets users connect with friends, run individual and team competitions, track round histories and player statistics, and also features a GPS rangefinder with more than 30,000 courses worldwide.
Paige Spiranac has developed a huge social media fan base over the past year, and mobile golf technology startup 18Birdies hopes a good number of her followers are the Millennial golfers they’re targeting, Forbes reported.
Spiranac has signed with 18Birdies as a brand ambassador and will be used in a variety of marketing opportunities, including a national TV advertising campaign, Forbes reported. They will be the first TV commercials for both Spiranac, a professional golfer and “online influencer,” and 18Birdies, a golf app that lets users connect with friends, run individual and team competitions, track round histories and player statistics, and also features a GPS rangefinder with more than 30,000 courses worldwide.
Spiranac, who recently turned 24, is one of golf’s most popular yet polarizing personalities, Forbes reported. Shy and sickly as a youngster, she’s reluctantly learned to embrace the sudden Internet fame, generated in large part by her good looks and provocative postings, that was thrust upon her in the summer of 2015.
Spiranac’s story— including her continued dogged pursuit of an LPGA Tour career—was captured in a Golf.com feature (http://www.golf.com/knockdown/2017/02/01/paige-spiranac-unfiltered-how-power-social-media-set-controversial-golf-star-soaring) that detailed many of the physical and emotional hurdles she has overcome, as well as those she continues to contend with, Forbes reported.
Early in the Golf.com story about Spiranac, Forbes noted, two significant questions were posed about her place in the game: “Is she a much-needed agent of change, helping golf reach a younger, more diverse audience while demonstrating the awesome power of social media? Or is she a sideshow exploiting our baser instincts, while distracting from the real competition between the ropes?”
18Birdies is clearly hoping it’s the former, Forbes noted. Spiranac has almost 950,000 followers on Instagram, a total that Golf.com noted is only surpassed among professional golfers by Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler. And while she has won a mini-tour event, she’s identified primarily by her online celebrity, which also includes 120,000 Twitter followers. It’s because of her social media prominence, Forbes reported, that she’s landed endorsement deals, received sponsor’s invites to LPGA tournaments, met her soon-to-be husband and now has a platform that she uses to fight against cyber-bullying.
And now her fame has prompted the partnership with 18Birdies, which says it’s trying to make golf a more fun, exciting and connected experience, Forbes reported. In her role as a brand ambassador, Spiranac will generate social content that exhibits the benefits of the app, as well as exclusive content for 18Birdies users; it’s a safe bet, Forbes speculated, that will include interaction with Spiranac in real-time as she’s playing various rounds.
“We are very excited to be working with Paige,” Susan Song, the chief marketing officer at 18Birdies, told Forbes. “She has built an influential reputation in the social media space, and we are looking forward to bringing her unique content to our fans.”
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