Grail is again turning to golf to reach the over-50 audience targeted by its cancer screening blood test, teaming up with two professionals to get its message out ahead of the second edition of the tournament it sponsors.
The demographics of the audience for the PGA Tour Champions, a tour for professional golfers aged 50 years and older, has helped establish the events as a popular marketing opportunity for cancer screening companies. Exact Sciences, which sells a colorectal cancer screening test, has sponsored the Cologuard Classic since 2018 and extended its agreement through 2027 one year ago.
Grail, a rival to Exact in the liquid biopsy space, got in on the action in 2022 by agreeing to sponsor a new tournament. The first edition of the Galleri Classic, named after Grail’s multi-cancer early detection test, took place in March 2023, becoming the next stop on the tour after the Cologuard Classic.
PGA Tour Champions player David Duval and World Golf Hall of Famer Juli Inkster partnered with Grail for the first edition. This time around, Grail is working with Steve Stricker, who earned a record amount of money in the 2023 season, and Inkster to raise awareness of its cancer screening test.
Proceeds from the second edition of the Galleri Classic, which will take place in the last week of March, will fund local cancer-related nonprofit organizations focused on underserved populations. The six charitable partners include the Palm Desert office of the American Cancer Society and the Desert Cancer Foundation.
The area around the golf course is a rich source of potential Galleri users. The 2020 census found 36% of people in Palm Desert, a city close to the course, are aged 65 years or older compared to around 17% of people across the entire U.S.