Callaway Golf Signs Justin Timberlake, Not Clear Why

Last week, Callaway Golf announced that they had signed Justin Timberlake to a sponsorship deal. Timberlake isn't a professional golfer (does anybody not know that?) but he dated Brittney Spears, was a member of 'N Sync, and loves golf. Hardly seems like a reason to sign a celebrity to a club deal, but I'm not a marketing whiz, so what do I know.

Tom Rotunno, on Darren Rovell's CNBC blog, writes that "Timberlake won't be used in Callaway advertising, [but] he will play a full complement of Callaway Golf clubs, golf balls and will carry a bag branded with the company's logo."

Terms of the deal weren't announced, but assuming that actual money was involved, I'm not sure how the few hundred people who see Timberlake on the course every year toting a nifty new Callaway bag will put much of a dent in sales.

But Timberlake is a celebrity and sometimes that's all it takes. Rotunno talked to the brainiacs behind the Davis-Brown Index (according to Wikipedia, DBI "is an independent index for brand marketers and agencies that determines a celebrity's ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent.") to run the numbers and here's the deal:

The good news: most people know who he is. 91 percent of consumers say they are aware of Timberlake. It's a strong showing given that Tom Hanks, who has the highest overall DBI score, has an awareness rating of 99 percent.

The bad news: people may know who he is, but whether they find him appealing is open for debate. Timberlake has a DBI appeal score of 66 percent. So just how bad is a 66 percent rating? According to the maker of the DBI, it puts Timberlake in the same company as...wait for it...wait for it...John Daly and David Hasseloff [sic]. Yikes. That's territory that would make any sponsor queasy.

John Daly's a golfer, so you'd think that he would hold some sway over the Joe the Plumber's of the public munis (although, ironically, Daly has burned through just about every sponsor except the one that currently enables him). And everybody knows Hasselhoff can only move product in Germany.

Which is to say: I fully expect Callaway to get zero return on their investment but sometimes crazy, sexy, cool trumps all that.