solheim cup fan experience day: reaching new audiences with influencers and social content
As an agency born in golf, Buffalo Groupe was honored to partner with the 2024 Solheim Cup as its local marketing agency to create excitement and bring fans onsite at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club (RTJ) in Gainesville, Va., for this bucket-list sporting experience.
With nearly one million known golfers within a 100-mile radius of RTJ, Buffalo’s long-lead strategy centered on engaging and converting golfers into ticket buyers. This included paid media, strategic partnerships with local organizations and sports teams, grassroots activities and public relations campaigns — including a traditional media day. During the media day at RTJ, 37 local sports and news media members across broadcast, print, and radio heard from USA Team Captain Stacy Lewis and USA Team Member Lexi Thompson and had the chance to play the course themselves. The media coverage was significant, generating over 850 million impressions that created buzz and excitement a full 90 days before the event.
But the Solheim Cup is more than just a golf tournament. It is a global spectacle with the soul, passion, and energy that transcends traditional women’s golf, transforming it into a once-in-a-lifetime event. It isn’t just for golf enthusiasts; it’s an all-ages, family-friendly experience filled with exceptional food, drinks, and entertainment.
With the core golfer base covered through a mix of paid and earned media, we turned our attention to a different challenge — how to capture the attention of local event-goers, general sports fans, and families who might be more spontaneous, last-minute ticket purchasers. For these attendees, it was important to showcase the “outside-the-ropes” experiences that make the Solheim Cup stand out from other sporting events.
Enter Fan Experience Day, a unique event created to bring these experiences to life and extend our reach beyond sports and news outlets. This day-long experience was designed to leverage hyper-local content creators, influencers, and non-traditional media to engage event-goers — many of whom wouldn’t consider attending a women’s golf tournament — by offering a preview of what they could expect at the Solheim Cup beyond just the golf.
Buffalo managed Fan Experience Day from start to finish, including programming for the day, sourcing the attendees, contracting, content review and payment. We carefully curated a group of 20 content creators with three specific criteria: diversified reach, strong follower engagement and ability to capture the energy and excitement of the event in a way that resonated with their local audiences. To broaden our reach even further, we partnered with the social teams at media outlets, including the Washingtonian, to bring a fresh, lifestyle-focused lens to the event.
With a combined follower count of more than 2.2 million, these influencers and media partners documented everything — from the electric first-tee experience to the diverse food and beverage options to the hospitality tents, sponsor activations, and club-in-hand stations at the Fan Village. Through their posts, stories and videos, these creators provided an inside look at what makes the Solheim Cup such a special event, helping to build excitement and anticipation.
By strategically combining the reach of local influencers with the credibility of local media, we were able to produce authentic, engaging content that resonated with audiences beyond the DMV’s golf community and drove last-minute ticket sales.
Ultimately, Fan Experience Day was a complementary part of our broader marketing strategy and contributed to the event’s overall success, with raucous crowds cheering on a victorious Team USA and ticket revenue goals being exceeded.