while the world continues to beat up on the financial giants, ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, staged a coup during the Masters this weekend.

first, being one of only 3 or 4 corporate sponsors provided them with a captive audience all weekend to utilize – gasp! – good ol’ fashioned television advertising. yes, Dorothy, television sometimes still works, and in this case – it worked really well.

some of the spots the ExoonMibil ran featured the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy, a summer camp for 3rd-5th grade math and science teachers  to learn new teaching methods and ways to make the classroom more fun. they hold these camps in multiple locations around the country and host hundreds of teachers that kids and parents nominate at sendmyteacher.com

sure, it didn’t hurt that their partner and spokesperson, Phil Mickelson, is the guy who won the Masters. yet what I thought was brilliant was targeting all those parents across America who were watching the event and talking about their kids’ future. the same parents whose kids were probably complaining all day Sunday, “Dad, why are you watching tv instead of playing with me?!”

right message, right person, right time.