PR in sport – a playground for PR graduates?

Personal BR and branding is where the worlds of sport and celebrity overlap. Some adventure sports people survive on a combination of occasional jobs, writing and sponsorship.

When she is not being Director of the MSc in Public Relations at the University of Stirling, Jacquie L’Etang is a keen sportswoman and triathlete. Here she highlights opportunities available in various areas of sports PR and explains some challenges in the field

Some adventure sports people survive on a combination of occasional jobs, writing and sponsorship

PR for minority sports is very different to working for a football association. Bowls is trying to shift the perception that it is an old person’s sport and Eton Fives that it is a public school preserve

Sport is both a major international business and a key structure in globalised society.   It encompasses business communication (business-to-business, employee communications, financial, consumer) as well as cultural and inter-cultural communication, and political communication.

To illustrate the political component we have only to consider the communicative aspects of events such as the Olympics and the way in which they are utilised as cultural diplomacy (L’Etang, 1996) to promote national ideals and cultural identity internally and externally and to stimulate tourism (sport, business and leisure).

And bidding for Olympics and similar events requires expert political lobbying and media relations. As Hill & Knowlton explain in their promotional material,

‘this is one of the most interesting and complex communications challenges an organisation can undertake…a successful bid is certainly a prize. A significant economic impact and a legacy that could include improved transportation infrastructure and enhanced leisure and sporting facilities…challenges include competing with other bids…persuading officials and personalities to rally to the cause, combining popularity at home with understanding and acceptance abroad, understanding what is sometimes a complex and secretive (and always political) decision making process’ (Britsport 2004).

So Byzantine is the process that there is a whole website – Around the Rings (ATR – www.aroundtherings.com/) – dedicated to covering Olympic politics.   Mega-events, by definition, fit news values and are therefore vulnerable to terrorism or threats of terrorism. PR specialisms of issues and crisis management are essential, as is that of community relations.

Sport’s newsworthiness also derives from its financial growth as well as its central role in culture.  Football, for example, is a ‘”media product” for organizations such as BskyB [that] has resulted in vast sums being put into the game to secure live television rights” (Boyle & Haynes, 2005, forthcoming).

The fall in football rights in Europe in 2002 has led to increased focus on financial communications (Boyle & Haynes, 2004) with a wide range of stakeholders (corporate sponsors, shareholders, fans, fans who are also shareholders), lobbying and media relations with news and business editors, not solely sports editors.  Dominant sports in the UK, such as football and rugby can now expect front page and editorial space in the heavies as well as in the red tops, which carry a greater proportion of gossip and rumour.

Brand it like Beckham

Football provides the consummate example of personal PR and branding. This is where the worlds of sport and celebrity overlap. Beckham’s brand-building activities have been limited by Real Madrid to 111 hours a year, his Japanese contracts alone are said to exceed €28m (European Business, 2005, 49) and he has been targeted as a gay icon to promote male grooming products (Donnelly, 2005).

In the field, sponsorship practice is changing to take a more holistic approach linking corporate affairs and marketing communications (including hospitality).   The changing media environment includes more branded coverage as the media have developed better understanding of sponsorship so that,

‘Rather than working against sponsors, more and more of the media are seeing and understanding the benefit of a symbiotic relationship with corporate sponsors to assist with their own funding/content of their medium’s output – thus boosting circulation and reach whilst advancing brand awareness and   preference for the sponsor’ (Morgan, 2005, 49).

PR has had to respond to proliferating channels and consequent reduction of audience share  (but better targeting) but it is still the case that ‘PR tends to be a marketing tactic that is created from a centralised marketing strategy’(Morgan, 2005, 49). The next generation of public relations graduates have the chance to change this!

Sponsorship practice is also developing to take account of new cultural trends, so, for example female mountain bikers such as Tracy Mosely, Lesley McKenna, a top British snowboarder and Lucy Adams Britain’s no. 1 skateboarder may benefit from the development of female specific goods by major brands (Asthana, 2003, 20).

In addition to the business and news value of elite sport and celebrity sports stars there is a vast sports market comprised both of giants that encompass clothing, equipment, footwear and to some degree fashion (Nike, Adidas) and niche specialists (De Rosa bikes, Aquaman wetsuits). Such strongly branded companies are highly newsworthy and maybe vulnerable to whistleblowers. Internal and external corporate social responsibility are vital PR functions.  Of course, all such commercial companies require public relations expertise beyond marketing, not least to effect productive employee relations but also to facilitate an understanding of organisational culture and climate and their relationship to organisational vision and mission.

The role of PR in dominant sports and at an elite level is clear but the field of sports PR is wider yet.  Sports tourism includes both the promotion of events worldwide to sports-specific fans (such as those who follow English Cricket to overseas Tests, see Barmy Army on page 8) and holidays which offer sports facilities at a variety of recreational levels and targeted at different markets (family orientated, adventure or ‘adrenaline junkie’, training camp). The importance of the concept of lifestyle should be emphasised as markets and media fragment.

One of the features of postmodernity has been a fragmentation of work and leisure structures. One form of this is ‘portfolio working’, another is,

‘[The] trend to shy away from traditional careers in favour of a lifestyle that combines [a] favourite pastime and career. There are a string of adventure sports people (cutting edge and grassroots alike) who live on a combination of occasional jobs (bars or handymen) writing (travel writing and writing for specialist magazines) and sponsorship (top performers only’ (Puchan, 2004, 172).

‘Lifestyle’ has also become significant in government rhetoric as sport is beginning to be promoted to citizens as part of healthy living (L’Etang, 2005). Sports development may encompass (sometimes conflicting) aims of mass participation and community development or the identification and nurturing of talent and elites. Either way, they are clearly promotional in intent and offer opportunities for public relations graduates.

Careers in sports PR

One of the key features that potential employers look for in candidates is enthusiasm. That, coupled with knowledge, some basic experience and maybe even some relevant media contacts can be enough to secure a contract. For this reason, focusing job hunts on favourite pastimes may prove fruitful. This is as true for academics as practitioners! 

As with any sector in public relations, there are career opportunities in sport in agencies and in-house.  One of the important things to bear in mind is that public relations work may be described by another term such as ‘sports direction’ (US term), ‘sports promotion’, ‘sports development’, ‘sponsorship exploitation’, ‘event management’ or ‘sports marketing’.

This is because sports policy-makers, practitioners and academics do not seem to have fully taken on board the more strategic public relations concepts and processes that we take for granted.  For the entrant to the field this is actually good news: it gives you the chance to expand your job once you have got your foot in the door and make yourself indispensable!

Agencies specialising in the field likewise present themselves in a variety of ways including ‘sports PR’, ‘sports PR and brand building’, ‘brand and event promoting agency’,  ‘sponsorship marketing’, ‘brand and events promotion’,  and ‘athlete management’. 

While a number of the major PR consultancies such as Porter Novelli, Hill & Knowlton, Cohn & Wolfe, QBO Bell Pottinger and Ketchum have specialist divisions, there are also dedicated agencies that only tackle sports such as Benchmark Sport, Sports Impact, Whitestone International, Total Sports Online ASA and within that category, niche specialists such as KHP Consulting Ltd which specialises in international motorsport focusing on Grand Prix events and blue-chip clients such as MasterCard, Porsche, Shell, Ford Motor Company, BMW, Bacardi-Martini.

However, a very different level of public relations takes place in minority sports, some of which may be new on the market, for example parkour a form of free fall street gymnastics using street furniture as props.  The appeal here combines novelty, the extreme and visual aesthetics (see Puchan, 2004). 

Others may be struggling to establish their identity, for example, korfball, practised in Holland for over a hundred years but not so well-known in the UK. Identity construction and management is essential to minority sports, for example, bowls is trying to shift perception that it is an old person’s sport and Eton Fives that it is a public school preserve.

Public relations for these sports is very different to working for a football association dealing with the immoderate language of tabloids and trying to limit speculative coverage.

Opportunities exist for students in specialist associations (which often include the promotion and development of their sport as a main organisational aim), especially in minority sports where public relations and marketing are often performed by enthusiastic volunteers.

One Stirling student offered her services to the local Orienteering club and gained valuable media experience.  Local sports development officers and leisure centres offer other opportunities for promotional skills and media relations as well as for more organisationally focused functions such as employee communications.

A final route is the traditional journalism route via the multitude of specialist media and websites that feed the cornucopia of sports. Blogging could also help establish personal reputation in a particular field.

Research in sports PR

To date, little work has been carried out on sports PR and this special issue of Behind the Spin demonstrates its importance as a domain.  Within sports literature PR as a discipline separate from marketing has not received much attention and within media studies, PR tends to be presented solely as media relations. These issues are the focus for some debate here at Stirling where five academics form a special research cluster on Sport, Media and PR

Bibliography

Asthana, A.(2003)  ‘Girls just want to have fun too’, The Observer, 14 October.

Boyle, R. & Haynes, R. (2004) Football in the New Media Age, Routledge, London.

Boyle, R., Dinan, W. & Morrow, S. (2002) ‘Doing the business? The newspaper reporting of the business of football’, Journalism, vol.3 (2), 149–169.

Boyle, R. & Haynes, R. (2005, forthcoming) ‘The Football Industry and Public Relations’ in L’Etang, J. & Pieczka, M. (eds) Public Relations: Critical Debates and Contemporary Practice, LEA.

Britsport. 04 Sportbusiness Group Ltd 2004.

Houlihan, B. & White, A. (2002) The Politics of Sports Development: development of sport or development through sport? Routledge.

L’Etang, J. (1996) ‘Public relations as diplomacy’ in L’Etang, J. & Pieczka, M. (eds) Critical Perspectives in Public Relations, ITBP.

L’Etang, J. (2005, forthcoming) ‘Public relations in sport, health and tourism’ in L’Etang, J. & Pieczka, M. (eds) Public Relations: critical debates and contemporary practice, LEA.

Morgan, G. (2005) ‘Evolution and evolution’, Sportbusiness, February p.49.

Puchan, H. (2004) ’Living “extreme”: Adventure sports, media and communications’, Journal of Communication Management, 9 (2) pp 171–178.

Comments

[Manu]

Hi there

Sport PR is in fact a white spot in PR research. That is why I will dedicate my dissertation and any further research activities on this field. My first project will analyse professionalism ins sports pr in switzerland. Therefore I created a website to do my survey, debate on professionalism in sports pr, put on downloadable tools and, and, and...

find out more and go to: www.sportpr.ch. My blog on the same topic is: www.sportpr.ch/wordpress

CU soon

Manu

[Matt Tomasco]

Enjoyed the article! I am in sports PR myself and trying to establish myself. I would enjoy any other articles you may have related to sports PR.

Thank you,

Matt

[Mark]

great article.. i've just written a post from the "property" point of view.

would be great to get some comments in..

cheers
mark

[Brian jibbo]

an insightful article,sports pr needs to be demystified more. i come from kenya and we are still several rungs down.,more of your articles will be a blessing.

Brian jibbo