The Golden Tee Blog

The goal of the GTB is to give the community insight into the lives of us hardworking marketing-types at Golden Tee Central.  Most of the time, my workaday life is as mundane as yours – toiling away on my dusty keyboard, filing copious amounts of TPS reports and slingin’ copy slop to “sell them games.”  But once in a blue moon marketing opportunities pass by my desk that rekindle the wide-eyed, optimistic business geek I once knew in college.  A “Pre” Duffer Dan, of sorts.

And the following tale is one of those instances.  Enjoy…

Story of the Tune

"It's Golden Tee" by Ira Dean Band is the ass-kickin' new title track for Golden Tee 2010

Some time ago the marketing team got a call from a manager plugged in to the country music biz.  He said, “Hey, have y’all heard the new Montgomery Gentry song, One In Every Crowd?”  Not country fans by nature, none of us had heard the tune yet.  He replied, “Well, the first word is Gawwllden Tee and it’s climbing the charts!”  A quick Google search confirmed his claim and sure enough, Montgomery Gentry is HUGE!  So, what do we do with this?

*Phone rings…*

On the other line spoke a fella that it seems I’ve met a million times before – a friendly, fun, dude-who’s-got-people.  ”Hey, man,” he said.  ”This is Ira Dean and I’ve been waitin’ to talk to y’all…”  Turns out Ira is a singer/songwriter from Nashville who co-wrote the tune for Montgomery Gentry.  He  was also the bassist for the band Trick Pony, where he spent years touring to sold out crowds and stopping at Golden Tee havens in every city along the way.  A country star and longtime Golden Tee fan, Ira explained how he had written this little ditty a while back about the game he loves and how he was hoping the Montgomery Gentry song would finally connect us.

A professional song about Golden Tee?  I just had to hear this…

So when the demo arrived, I blasted it across the marketing department and smiled from ear to ear.  It really was a song about Golden Tee Golf and in the exact words of Ira, “It f***’n rocks, man!”

*Opportunity knocks…*

Hey, I’m paid to promote IT’s games and we just so happen to be working on our Golden Tee 2010 launch.  After working through some of the logistics to bring this song from “Tune to Tee,” a small video team from IT zipped down to Nashville to shoot a music video with Ira Dean Band.  For one day, I felt like I worked for MTV (or CMT in this case) – our video team and I captured Ira and the band in studio, followed by a Golden Tee shoot at Sam’s Sports Bar and Grill in Nashville – an amazing sports bar near Vanderbilt University that proudly boasts 4 new HI-DEF Showpiece Golden Tee machines (if you’re in the area, this is THE place to play).

The video is nuts and is currently in editing for our 2010 preview launch.  And the tune? It’s got it all – including a sick harmonica track and a billy-rock banjo on top of some heavy guitar, bass and drums.  The lyrics are about having a good time, livin’ life and playin’ Tee – something we can all relate too.

The Inside Scoop: GT 2010

I can tell you now, a shortened version of the video will be created for possible inclusion in GT 2010 and the full track will hopefully be featured in the new 2010 HitList.  Additionally, the team and I are working on the Golden Tee 2010 trailer and we’re using It’s Golden Tee by Ira Dean Band as the title track of the video.

We’ll release the video – which includes the 2010 course previews and feature announcements – in late July, so stay tuned to Goldentee.com and the GTB to not miss out.  And I promise you – you’ve never seen a game preview that rocks as hard as this…

Until then, here’s a GTB exclusive photo gallery documenting our adventure in Nashville with Ira Dean Band.  Click on the thumbnails below, then use the navigation to view the slide show.

[View with PicLens]

Stay tuned to Goldentee.com and the GTB regarding the launch of It’s Golden Tee and our official 2010 preview site!

Good times,

- DD

Special thanks to the NAVY and USS John C. Stennis for permission to post this video on Goldentee.com

Well, it’s been nearly six months since the team from Incredible Technologies completed Operation: Golden Tee aboard the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier… and nothing has changed.  Our sense of patriotism.  Our sense of pride.  Our wonder and awe – it all remains as strong as the day we disembarked in San Diego.

Our experience took place in January, you followed the before and after stories right here on the GTB.  It’s now nearly July and while most of us have lived our normal lives – working, relaxing and spinning trackballs with our friends, the men and women aboard the Stennis have had a different go at it.  They’ve been dedicating their time to protecting our country on a deployment half way around the world.  They’ve worked, worked, worked – hard – for us.  They miss their families, they miss their friends and long to return to normalcy. This dedication has been an inspiration to the Incredible Technologies family as we hope it’s been to yours as well.

Going aboard also taught us that the person behind the sailor is as inspiring as the sailor themselves.  Like us, they love their family and friends.  They have hopes, dreams and their own experiences.  I look at it as if we met “the Golden Tee player” inside.  The average Joe (or Jane), looking for a short break from reality to wind down and be entertained.

That’s where we come in…

Incredible Technologies is an entertainment company – we work to play.  And not only did we walk away from the Stennis inspired, we were proud.  Proud to provide fun.  Proud to be a small, yet happy, piece in peoples’ everyday lives.  Proud that whether folks Tee-up at their corner tavern or while crossing the international date line, they do it for fun, to relax and be entertained.

That’s our mission accomplished.

The video above is an homage to that sentiment.  It’s also a thank you to the dedication of the men and women of the US Navy and all forms of service.  And a thank you to the fine folks on the USS John C. Stennis that took us in as part of their team – our time aboard was short, but the impression left will last a lifetime.

Finally, the main purpose of this video is to remind all of us Golden Tee fans out there to never forget that it’s sometimes the little things in life that can mean so much.

Good times,

- DD

Every corporate boardroom on earth is full of ‘em right now.  Big, important boss types pounding their scared marketing team with words like “Twitterspere” ,”Blogroll” and “Wiki.”  ”We need a iPhone App!!!” they demand.  Why? They have no idea.  But they move forward, paying their crack R&D team to interview 12-year-olds and study the likes of “marketing genius” Ashton Kutcher for “business” research.  They think they need this stuff and duh!? They want to be cool with you, dawg!

Well, well, well – here at the inner sanctum of the Golden Tee marketing universe – we are hip.  We are with it. And yes, bro – we can hang with you wiki-tubey-tweety hip cats too!  But damn it – we do it with some common sense and style.

Ya know, the Golden Tee marketing team is small, but we are MIGHTY!  And you’ve probably noticed an equal amount of Golden Tee Goodness on and off the game this past year.  We kicked it off with YouTube Great Shot Replays in last year’s 2009 update.  The simple idea of replaying holes-in-one has always been around, but when our team first eyed YouTube the drool starting forming.  It was a way to make everyone happy – YOU, the player, are happy because you can show off your off-the-ubrella-stick-nothin-but-cup.  And I, the marketing geek, am happy because we’ve uploaded 30,000 videos and are approaching 1,000,000 advertisements, errr, views!  User generated content at it’s best, baby.

Here's My Incredible Stat Card, Where's Yours?!

But we didn’t stop there.  And likely by now you’ve seen our killer new Facebook Applications.  The addition of dynamic stats cards for Golden Tee and Silver Strike Bowling, along with our new “Dress Your Golfer” app for Goldentee.com/Facebook – this stuff’s just the tip of your 2.0 iceberg.

Yesterday, we launched a fun  project for those millions of iGoogle users out there – our very first Golden Tee iGoogle theme! (insert applause here)  So whether searching for important items like dogs on skateboards, celebrity smut or, aaaa , “private entertainment” – we here at Golden Tee Central hope you git’r done within your fun Golden Tee frame!

So, are you left wondering, “Duffer, how is this any different than those big-time-poser corporate fat cats you speak of?” Well, my friends, I can proudly say that social media is only as good as the community that’s powering it and YOU GUYS ROCK!  Whether it’s through our presence on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, you – THOUSANDS OF YOU – were there first and greased the IT social media marketing machine.  We came along merely to add a little more insight and legitimacy into your already existing communities and thanks dudes – we’ve learned a ton along the way.

To end this post, I propose the challenge for you to challenge us…

HOW CAN INCREDIBLE TECHNOLOGIES HELP FURTHER YOUR ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA?

An easy question, with no right or wrong answers.  We’ve already heard many great suggestions like “blog about course creation” or ” exclusive contests for Facebook and Twitter users” – whatever your suggestion is, now is your chance to voice it!  And maybe, just maybe, your suggestion will help shape the future of Golden Tee Golf!  And that, my friends, if anything else, would be an AWESOME acheivment on your ol’ resume…

Good times,

- DD

Hanging with celebs isn’t exactly a normal occurrence in my everyday life, so when I found out I was going to Brian Urlacher’s house to install and play some IT games, I was excited and nervous to say the least.

We actually arrived at his house hours before he did and with his permission we let ourselves in. He arrived shortly thereafter, (working out, duh) and almost instantly offered Sobe and I a Corona and a sandwich? I mean, really? That’s a story in itself! Needless to say, we took him up on the offer.

From there it only got better. He played Golden Tee, Lawn Darts, Carnival King, talked about the Bears and their new quarterback, and even gave Sobe a beating in actual bags – Sorry Sobe. He was friendly, and more impressive, down to earth. It’s hard to anticipate what someone of his fame and status will be like out of his element and in person, and Brian proved to be just a normal “dude.” It was also amazing to see that he has a genuine love for all of our games and a real soft spot for Golden Tee.

We hung out for a few hours when he finally looked at his watch and said he had a plane to catch. Brian was jetting off to Cleveland to watch LeBron and company beat up on the Atlanta Hawks. Apparently he made it, because at the end of the game LeBron signed his shoes and then gave them and a bear hug to Urlacher at his seat in the front row. Just another day in the life of Mr. Urlacher.

Meanwhile I sat on my couch and watched him, still reliving the tale to my buddies throughout the evening. Five hours earlier we were discussing our favorite Raw Talk™ phrases in Target Toss and Golden Tee strategy – now he was courtside with LeBron!

And while I may never sit courtside, and I will certainly never get a bear hug from LeBron (unless there is some jail involved), I will always share one thing with Brian Urlacher. The enjoyment and passion of Golden Tee.

And hopefully at some point, a neck as big as his.

-Adam at IT

Here is a little snippet from Mouthpiece Sports who was there to capture the day. I’m the one in the background looking rather confused and mesmerized by the entire situation.

Brian Urlacher Playing Golden Tee and Lawn Darts