TheBuzz
TheBuzz
The Sony Open in Hawaii will greet a new participant come the January 2002 PGA Tour event. New unit of Sony
to strut stuff
in Hawaii firstNo, Tiger Woods doesn't have a younger sibling entered.
Sony Corporation of America, title sponsor of the 36-year-old heritage golf tournament, unveiled a new marketing and event promotion group at the end of August. Its debut will be the Jan. 7-13 event at Waialae Country Club Golf Course.
Group Vice President Mike Dyer said the group was formed within Sony to tie together the Sony Electronics, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment divisions in terms of promotions and event marketing.
While a PGA-sanctioned event, the Sony Open is a fund-raiser for Friends of Hawaii Charities Inc. Its board of directors reads like a "Who's Who" of Hawaii business and politics (www.friendsofhawaiicharities.com). Proceeds from the tournament are matched dollar-for-dollar by The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Inc.
Hawaii Charities, in turn, contracts with Communicator Sports & Entertainment for event production. "We basically handle anything that's tournament-related," said Sweetie Nelson, Communicator's senior marketing director. The company works with Sony and other sponsors, handles tournament operations, coordinates the volunteer staff and the marketing, including advertising placement.
Dyer visited Honolulu about three weeks ago, meeting with officials from the charitable organization and event producers, as well as cohorts with Sony Hawaii.
"It's pretty exciting to have a core group of marketing experts basically to kind of help shape and take the tournament to an even higher level," Nelson said.
Dyer kept mum, though, about the level of that new level.
"We're in the process of putting together the event agenda and schedule," he said. "We are talking about doing things differently than in the past."
The coming Sony Open will be the last under the current four-year title sponsor contract. "We are discussing the possibility of extending for four years," Dyer said.
Communicator Sports has time in grade with the PGA, as it also produces Senior Tour events such as the upcoming inaugural Turtle Bay Championship (formerly known as the Kaanapali Classic) in October, the Mastercard Championship at Hualalai and the Senior Skins Game in Wailea (formerly at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows).
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com