Nike & CBS Look to Tiger Woods (CBS, NKE)

If all goes smoothly, the future of Tiger Woods and the media may finally be back to him being the biggest golf star ever rather than the subject of tabloids and celebrity television stalking shows talking up his infidelity.  Tiger Woods announced today that he is returning to golf and will play at the Masters in April.

CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS) and Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) are up in conjunction with the news.  But there is far more to consider here.  There is a real return and brand value elsewhere, and it is all up for grabs.

CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) is turning out to be the surprise winner from Tiger Woods announcing that he plans to return to the golf at the Masters.  After all, CBS runs rounds of the Masters and that is already one of the highest rated events on TV.  Its shares are up 1.8% at $14.70.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) has earnings this week and the company will probably be even happier that it stuck with the damaged brand of Tiger Woods.  The company had to hear that question about whether it would sick with Tiger as the first question of its earnings conference call Q&A from analysts last quarter. Nike shares are up 0.25% at $70.60, after hitting an all-time high of $71.05 earlier today.

Just yesterday we gave a list of which companies might be the next mega-million dollar brand advertising pacts coming Tiger’s way.

The future value is dependent upon several issues.  First will be Tiger’s play.  If he does well and wins he is going to have new advertisers lining up left and right.  If he does poorly and emerges as a different person, that could hit his chances of securing new ad brands.  But as odd as this sounds, imagine one new notion.  Tiger might now even be more of a hero to the men in America.

JON C. OGG