Pro golfers Ernie Els, Luke Donald, Louis Oosthuizen, and a few other of the world’s best will tee up at the Royal Brand of Canada Canadian Open this week as the sponsor continues its efforts to move from being into being a more international brand.

"They've got to be five-star events, which is why we've got to go over, put the charter on and make sure the players come," said Jim Little, RBC's chief brand and communications officer, according to the Vancouver Sun. Little was just at the recently completed British Open so he could shepherd such players onto a charter plane and be sure they showed up in Canada to get coverage by America’s CBS and Canada’s Global TV.

RBC, the official bank of the PGA, “aims to have a prominent charity component and a full range of participatory events to host some 3,000 clients” at the event, the Sun reports. All of this effort is because the RBC “has hung its hopes on golf” and its sponsorship of the Olympics to help it become a known brand across the globe, the Sun reports. The golf audience is "right in the wheelhouse of our marketing focus," Little points out to the paper.Continue reading...

Daimler decided a few years back that it wanted to push its products in the golf world. So since 2008, one of its brands, Mercedes-Benz, has sponsored three of the sport’s major events, including the one that's now underway, the British Open, where it's a prominent luxury brand along with the likes of Rolex.

Now, Merdedes “has its sights” on the fourth one of those, the U.S. Open, once the deal Lexus has with that event is finished in 2015, according to the New York Times.Continue reading...