Public relations is a critical communications piece to all organizations across all industries and platforms. The value of public relations can not be under stated due to its role in how the public views an organization based on its interactions with said publics. A research paper by Maria K. Hopwood from University of Teesside in Middlesbrough, England reflected on the sport of Cricket’s overall lact of public relations work and how if has negatively affected the sports ability to attract spectators and fans in the United Kingdom.
The article, however, found that a newer club called Durham County Country Club took PR seriously and had an effective strategy compared to the other 17 country clubs across the UK, namely compared to rivals Yorkshire who happen to be among the oldest clubs competing. What Durham did differently was separate public relations from marketing in their operations. Durham is proactive in their PR Department and look to make headlines intentionally and aim to be in headlines for positive reasons. They are able to do this by allocating some of the marketing budget directly to public relations tactics. Durham openly supports the youth academies development as a pr strategy. This entices the best young athletes to come and play for their club as they will feel supported and help draw a clear pathway to the pros.
This reminds me a lot of what we are doing at Virginia Beach City FC. Our first team competes at the fourth division level in the pro soccer pyramid. The money to support a first team comes from the success of our academy teams. We do a lot of promoting our youth teams and do so by stating how we can provide a pathway to the pros via one day playing for our first team, our affiliation with Major League Soccer side D.C. United, or assisting in the recruitment to college teams. But, in a more critical light, I believe that we should focus a department separately from marketing much like Durham CCC did. ‘ve found that the PR work, marketing work, and other communications resources are all conducted by the same two to three people. I think if we added more members to our front office who’s job it is to solely work towards our Public Relations presence, we could be more successful in growing the clubs brand in the Hampton Roads area towards our goal of becoming a household name for our fans and families.
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