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The Approval That Should Never Have Happened · Uphoff on Media Podcast

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hey there, it's Tony.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is a special edition of the Uphoff on Media podcast tied to
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: a special edition Substack post.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I occasionally come across something ripped from the headlines
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: that I think has particular relevance for B2B leaders.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: This example is one you're likely already aware of.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: What you may not be thinking,
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: however,
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: is how a poorly thought-through ad for a golf driver relates to what I do as
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: a B2B marketer.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Turns out it's a real-time case study and one that exposes
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: a challenge you may not realize that you have.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Look, I don't use Uphoff on Media to make personal statements or pass moral judgments.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: However,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: as a husband,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: father of a daughter,
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: and a grandfather of two girls,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll say that I was offended by this ad and I thought it was
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: an incredibly poor taste for all the reasons that critics have noted.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also a new golfer about to get fitted for clubs.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Guess which brand my wife asked me to drop from the shortlist.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: But here's why this matters to you.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Partner-sourced revenue runs roughly 24% of new bookings in horizontal SaaS
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: and even higher in hardware and services-led businesses.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: As agentic AI mainstreams, we're actually seeing an increase in domain-specific partnering.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Each of these partnerships uses some form of co-branding,
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: marketing, PR,
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: thought leadership,
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: white papers, demand generation and events as a part of their GTM programs.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: The vast majority of companies I talk to don't have a structured way
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: of ensuring partners adhere to brand guidelines.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: B2B is very different than B2C.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: When a prospect or customer becomes uncomfortable with a claim,
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: an approach, or a fact stated by a partner, they're going to tell you.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: They won't take to social media.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: There won't be an organized boycott.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: The brand damage shows up as deal slowdowns,
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: non-renewals,
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: and dropped short lists,
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: buried inside quarterly numbers you'll never trace back to the cause.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get to work.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: This episode is titled, The Approval That Should Never Have Happened.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: A golf ad just exposed the design flaw sitting inside every co-marketing deal
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: in B2B tech and marketing.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: A golf equipment company just provided a real-time case study to everyone building,
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: running, funding, or starting a B2B company.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's the exact risk sitting inside every co-marketing deal,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: sponsored campaign, and reseller partnership on the books right now.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Callaway partnered with Good Good Golf,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: the YouTube channel with roughly 4 million subscribers, to launch a new driver.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: The launch ad showed Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark running full speed
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: into fellow Good Good staffer Alexis Mastowski knocking her to the ground
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: and standing over her.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: It went out under both brands.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: It set off an immediate backlash that prompted Callaway's CEO Chip Brewer
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: to make this public statement.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Quote, that approval should never have happened.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Mistakes were made and we are taking the matter various seriously.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: End quote.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Read that sentence again,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: not a rogue post got out,
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: not someone published without sign off, someone approved it.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole story and it's
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: the same story hitting inside your partner marketing schedule right now,
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: just without the dramatic headline.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: The stakes here weren't small.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Equipment is roughly 70% of Callaway's revenue and
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: the company's highest margin segment,
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: about 23% operating margin,
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: worth roughly a hundred million in operating income in a typical quarter.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: The market didn't wait to see how this played out.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Callaway stock dropped 2% the day the story broke,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: a one-day loss of about $57 million in market value,
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: more than half of what the entire equipment division earns in a full quarter.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Dick's and Golf Galaxy didn't just pull the ad.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: They pulled every piece of GoodGood merchandise from shelves and websites.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: The PGA Tour,
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: set to have GoodGood title sponsor a new event this November,
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: is now calling that sponsorship, quote, a fluid situation, end quote.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Golf Channel postponed a show built around the partnership.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: None of that damage came from the driver.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: All of it came from one piece of co-branded content.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody stopped in time.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: The partner had the pen, Callaway kept the liability.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Good Good produced the ad and kept creative control.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Callaway got access to Good Good's platform and audience,
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: which is the entire point of a deal like this.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Borrowed authenticity, borrowed reach, but Callaway still held approval rights and used them.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: The moment the ad published,
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Callaway owned 100% of the retail fallout,
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: the sponsorship fallout and the market reaction,
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: despite writing none of the content.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's the actual structure of most co-marketing and B2B, too.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sponsored content on a partner's channel,
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: a joint webinar where the guest controls the slides,
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: a reseller's campaign carrying your logo, a sponsored analyst report.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: You get named.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You rarely get final cut.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: The exposure transfers with the logo.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: The control doesn't.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wanted to slow down the growth.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Good Good went from roughly 800 retail doors to 4,000 in the past year,
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: and its merchandise was reportedly among the top sellers at Dex and Golf Galaxy
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: in 2025.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's the detail that actually explains the failure.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody at Callaway had the authority to kill that ad before it published.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Almost nobody in that position wants to be the one who slows down
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: the fastest growing partner in the building,
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: especially when that partner is driving the growth number everyone in
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: the room gets credit for.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's the sharper version of there was no process.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: There usually is a process.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: What's missing is a reviewer with the standing and the incentive to actually use it
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: against a partner who's driving the most growth for the business.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: B2B runs on the identical structure with less obvious violence.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Partner-sourced revenue makes up roughly 24% of new bookings in horizontal SaaS
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: and considerably more in hardware and services-led businesses,
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: according to a 2026 Crossbeam and Partnership Leaders survey of more
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: than 2,100 vendors.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Co-marketing isn't a side channel anymore.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's load-bearing.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Most of what goes wrong in that channel won't look like a golf ad.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: It'll look like an over-claim stat in a partner's co-branded blog post,
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: a competitive claim in a joint ad copy that draws a legal letter,
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: a webinar co-host who goes off script on something a company never wanted attached
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: to its name,
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: a sponsored analyst report built on a number nobody at
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: the sponsor actually verified.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Same structural gap, Far lower drama, same exposure.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: The speed of that content is changing, too.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Partner and creator content publishes in hours.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Most brand review chains were built for campaigns that assumed weeks.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've written about the operating shift in genetic AI is forcing on B2B workflows
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: and loop engineering.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the same compression showing up in governance instead of production.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: AI didn't create this gap.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's about to widen it by adding a third content source alongside partners
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: and creators that moves even faster and has the same unclear owner of the veto.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: The relationship rarely stays contained to the campaign.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Retailers didn't just pull an ad, they pulled a brand.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: The tour didn't distance itself from a video.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: It put a signed sponsorship in question.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's the part most people running these partnerships under price.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: A co-marketing misfire With a channel partner or reseller rarely stays bounded to
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: that one campaign.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: It puts deal registration, MDF,
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: roadmap access,
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: and the whole commercial relationship in play because the retailer or
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: the platform doesn't distinguish between the partner and
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: the content once it's gone wrong.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the visible version, the kind that makes headlines.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Most B2B brand damage doesn't.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: A prospect or customer who's uneasy about a partner overstepping or a claim in
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: a co-branded campaign that felt off isn't going to call you and tell you that.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: B2B buyers don't behave like consumers.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: No public complaint.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: No organized boycott.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: No social media pile on.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: What happens instead is quieter and harder to trace.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: A deal that was moving stalls.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: A shortlist imitation that used to come automatically does it.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody names the reason because nobody has to.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And leadership reads it as a soft quarter instead of the actual cause.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's what makes it hard to recover from then Calloway's version.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: A public blow up at least tells you exactly what broke in front of everyone with
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: a clear moment to respond.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Quiet erosion of trust sends no signal at all.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: You lose the account before you know you had a problem.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Where the checks and balances actually have to live.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Most companies don't need a new marketing process.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: They need to know where in the existing one the veto actually sits
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: and what automatically escalates regardless of who produced the content.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: A simple StageGate framework does that.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Concept and partner selection,
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: production, pre-publish, review, publish and distribute, monitor and escalate.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: At each stage, name who holds the creative control and who owns the risk if it goes wrong.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Those two answers are almost never the same name in the gap.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: That gap is exactly where governance has to live.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: The review stage is where it actually gets decided and it only works if a fixed set
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: of triggers pulls content to a senior sign off automatically,
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: regardless of who made it or how well the relationship is performing.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Anything depicting physical harm,
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: anything touching discrimination or a protected class,
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: any competitive or financial claim that hasn't been verified,
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: any conflict with an exclusivity or IP commitment.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Take the judgment call out of the hands of whoever's most invested in not slowing
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: the partner down.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Callaway didn't lose control because nobody was watching.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: It lost control because the person watching had every reason not to slow down
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: the fastest growing thing on the shelf.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a golf problem.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's the exact shape of every co-marketing deal on your calendar.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the fix isn't slower marketing.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's making sure the person holding the veto has both the authority and
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: the incentive to use it,
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: especially against the partner everyone's most excited about.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's it for this episode.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you found this useful, please do one thing.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Follow the Uphoff on Media podcast on Apple or Spotify and leave a rating.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's the single best way to help another operator find this.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Tony Uphoff, back at it next week.