Professional sports are designed to be watched. Of course they are competitions amongst the world’s most skilled athletes, but they are also entertainment. They compete for people’s time, attention and money. So when a brand engages in the sports world they are committing to entertain. And to do that, the content it creates needs to be as worthwhile a use of that fan’s time and energy as watching the sport itself. This series not only delivered on that challenge, causing golf fans to spend real time watching, but also brought new fans into the sport.

Schwab knows that golf fans make up a large portion of its target audience, a target ripe for conversion to customers, but how could they get more golf fans to visit their branded golf promotion site schwabgolf.com? How could they give those golf fans something they weren't already getting from extensive coverage of the sport?

'The Challengers' is a documentary film series focused on people in the world of golf who have questioned the way things are done and changed the game in a positive way.

Each episode features in depth interviews with iconic but rarely covered characters in the game ranging from Suzy Whaley, the first female President of The PGA, to The No Laying Up Guys, a group of bloggers and podcasters reinventing the way the sport is covered to Casey Martin a college coach with a whole new approach to practice. The choice of characters, the in depth interviews, and a cinematic approach unusual in golf broadcasting, made them stand out in the world of standardized golf coverage.

Since its founding, Schwab has positioned itself as the challenger to Wall Street. As one of the largest online brokerage firms in the world, Schwab still positions itself as a “challenger brand.” The Challengers strategy extends from this brand heritage and current positioning. The firm believes that those who challenge the status quo by asking tough questions and engaging deeply are the most likely to succeed. The Challengers series showcases compelling challenger stories that appeal to a lucrative set of potential customers: golf fans.

We have created two five-episode seasons of The Challengers. Each episode is a 5-6 minute documentary that provides an in-depth look at each Challenger. These longform episodes live within schwabgolf.com and are key to converting new customers. To create awareness of the series and invite golf fans to watch more on schwabgolf.com, we have :30s and :60s trailers of each episode that run across digital and TV. For social platforms we created a range of assets to tease each story from GIFs and vertical videos to image carousels.

Each Challengers season kicks-off Schwab’s golf promotion as the PGA Tour hits its stride in early spring and runs through summer. There is heightened presence around Schwab’s sponsored PGA Tour event, the Charles Schwab Challenge in May. Over 30MM households are reached each season through a golf targeted TV schedule and 3MM digital impressions promote the series in paid and owned channels.

The content drove enormous interest among golf fans:

A massive increase (1609%) in traffic to Schwab’s golf promotion website.

A video completion rate of over 98%

And all this interest led to a massive increase in 'Net New Assets' to the firm.