AmFam Championship
PROBLEM - in 2013, American Family Insurance (AmFam) was in discussions with PGA Tour star and Wisconsin native Steve Stricker about becoming a potential Brand Ambassador. At the same time, AmFam was searching for new legacy projects to expand upon its commitment to Madison, WI and the American Family Children’s Hospital. AmFam leadership was struggling to connect the dots and Zach was tasked with designing a strategic plan on how to best develop the relationship based on the collective goals of AmFam and Stricker.
SOLUTION - after conducting individual interviews with AmFam and Stricker, Zach learned that Stricker had a goal of bringing professional golf back to Wisconsin full-time and had never had a foundation of his own. Consequently, Zach developed a multi-faceted partnership platform in which a) Stricker would become a Brand Ambassador of AmFam, b) AmFam and Stricker would launch a co-branded foundation - the Steve Stricker American Family Insurance Foundation - and c) AmFam would become a title sponsor of a new PGA Tour Champions event held at University Ridge in Madison, WI (home course of the Wisconsin Badgers). Stricker would act as tournament host - the first of its kind on the PGA Tour Champions - and the new foundation would donate 50% of all event proceeds to the AmFam Children’s Hospital. To bring this to plan life, Zach designed and negotiated AmFam’s agreements with Stricker and the PGA Tour, designed and executed a RFP for a tournament operations vendor (HNS) and assisted in tournament sponsorship sales and marketing efforts.
ROI - the event has received the PGA Tour’s prestigious President’s Award twice (2018 and 2019) for overall tournament excellence. To date, the tournament has raised more than $7,000,000 for local charities and provided over 280 grants to communities and individuals in need. In addition, Zach supported the brand in tournament activation and hospitality and created a celebrity foursome that has featured the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Brett Favre, Andy North, Derek Jeter, Mark Tauscher and Darius Rucker. The celebrity foursome is the #1 driver of ticket sales during tournament week.
