Today’s Harry Rosen offers the full range of men’s clothing – not only classically tailored suits, but also casual clothes, footwear, and even streetwear. But the outdated image of the retailer as the place
your dad buys his suits still persists.

To overcome that, Harry has embarked on a series of initiatives to establish its style leadership by engaging different niche audiences. One of those audiences: golfers.

If you think of golf as the game your dad plays on Sundays, well, that’s out of date, too.
Interest in the sport soared during the pandemic. New golf club memberships surged 113% in 2020, according to ClubLink, and 65% of new golfers were in the 18-34 age group, according to Golf Canada. More than 2.3 million Canadian men have played golf in the past year. Trendwatchers noted the rise of “golfcore” – golf-inspired fashion that was popping up both on and off the links.

In 2022, Harry Rosen expanded its golf offering as part of a bid to bring new customers into the brand. They knew they couldn’t compete with Golf Town or pro shops on performance. But their one-on-one interviews with style-conscious golfers revealed that golf is a social activity and a lifestyle as much as it is a sport.

Success in golf is less about your score and more about spending quality time with friends and business associates. The unspoken social side of the competition starts before the round and continues through the 19th hole after the game. A bad outfit can lead to good-natured ribbing or even worse – silent judgment.

“Winning” in golf is about how you show up as much as it’s about how you play.

They aimed to establish Harry Rosen as the undisputed experts in golf ... style. While there may be little Harry can do to improve your handicap, they can certainly make you look like you know what you’re doing – and that’s a big part of the “game behind the game.”

The campaign had all of Harry’s trademark wit, but with a golf twist. It started during the television broadcast of golf’s premiere event, the Masters golf tournament. Each spot was designed to look and feel just like the broadcast it was interrupting – the same camera angles, the same graphics, the same sotto voce golf commentators. The twist: the commentators weren’t talking about the players’ swings.
Instead, they were critiquing their golf attire.

The scripts were written to give golf fans the pleasure of recognition. Double entendres (such as talking about one player’s improving “shirt game”) bridged the worlds of golf and fashion. Not everyone would get the jokes – but their target would delight in them.

They created a 1:30-long mini “broadcast” of the “Harry Rosen Championship,” from which they pulled several :15 pre-rolls that ran on YouTube and in golf-related media.

Then they made the campaign social. A contest on TikTok invited golfers to submit their own outfits to critique in order to win an updated golf wardrobe. And during the Masters, they
live-tweeted style commentary at the players.

The campaign continued down to the point of purchase. Digital display advertising featured Harry Rosen’s golf products, and in-store marketing featured golf-inspired headlines like “Ace the 19th.”

In one stroke, the campaign lofted Harry Rosen’s expanded golf offering right onto the green. They proved they could really speak golfers’ language. The campaign exceeded retail category norms for recall by 62% and more than doubled category norms for favourability. In particular, online sales of polo shirts surged 40% week-over-week after the launch. The lifestyle category grew by a factor of 12.6 times. Within the first two weeks of the campaign, clothing from the campaign had sold out. Searches for golf apparel on HarryRosen.com rose 350% compared to the same period a year before.