Nissan give Smylie Kaufman a new Murano in marketing 'masters' stroke | Car Talk - Car News Apr 2016

12:20 Wednesday 13 Apr 2016

Nissan take opportunity to use the US Masters - and the brilliantly named, Smylie Kaufman - for a clever bit of marketing.

The beauty of the US Masters is that it is probably the biggest event in one of the most popular sports in the world, but unlike other huge sporting events, you're not necessarily watching a collection of millionaire professionals. This year there was the story of the amateur, Bryson Dechambeau, who was one bad hole away from being in contention for the green jacket, a man that was not paid to be there, and collected no prize money. It all adds to the magic.

Nissan took the opportunity to capitalise on the popularity of the event, and bring a little bit of magic of their own to the proceedings with a marketing master stroke, when they tweeted Smylie Kaufman. Kaufman may not be an amateur but he is a 24 year old that - whilst in the same field (literally) as the likes of Mcilroy and Spieth - is on another planet when it comes to his everyday life. He's had a very good year, but he doesn't seem to have realised it just yet. He still lives at home with his parents and - this is where Nissan comes into this - he drives around in a 2008 Nissan Murano because "it drives really nice".

So, Nissan tweeted Smylie to let him no that 'win or lose' they had got a brand new Murano waiting for him to pick up after the Masters, free of charge.

Granted, after the year he's had, and after some impressive golf at last weekend's Masters he could probably afford to buy a whole fleet of Nissans by now, but it was a nice (marketing) touch from the Japanese manufacturer. It made us 'smylie' anyway. Sorry.

Here's the Tweets:

Nissan Murano Smylie Kaufman