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Using public relations in sports

Article  in  Romanian Journal of Marketing · June 2016

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 Using public relations in sports
Daniel Şerbănică
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies
Mihaela Constantinescu
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies

Abstract: The efficiency of a company’s activity resides in designing and managing a long term
relationship with the athletes, spectators, sponsors and community. The relationship with any of these four
shareholders can be addressed through public relations, a marketing communication technique that brings
value both for the company sending the message, and for other categories interested in its well-being. The
purpose of this paper is to introduce the reader to the relationships between PR and sports. It explores
how sports public relations practitioners have developed a range of successful strategies and tactics for
influencing media coverage, and supporting the sport’s domains. The authors conclude that the effective
use of Public Relations in sport can generate conversion, facilitate sport representatives positioning, and
maintain continued sport sustenance.

Keywords: Public relations; Sport; Media; Communications

JEL classification: M31

1. Introduction Public relations’ role as dis- function designed to identify a

This paper aims to explore links
between public relations and sport.
Considering that sport is both in-
ternational and a part of everyday
life, it implies a role for public rela-
tions (PR). International sports PR
focuses on media relations, media
rights, promotional and publicity
work, sponsorship, event manage-
ment and fan relationships. Major
public relations consultancies have
specialized in sports sections, but
there are also a number of dedi-
cated agencies offering a range of
PR, marketing and sponsorship
services.
Sport, which in the modern age
is both politics and business, is an
arena for debate and discourses
about elites, resource allocation,
privilege, deprivation, exploita-
tion, justice, nationalism, racism,
gender, age, the body, ideologies,
and religion. Public relations work,
whether or not it is formally ac-
knowledged as such, facilitates
the international and national de-
bates around such issues. Sports
public relations goes way beyond
sport and is intrinsically political.
(L’Etang, 2006).
course management makes critical
interventions in the public sphere
on behalf of clients, and is thus
implicated in the shaping of public
communication on a range of sig-
nificant political, economic, socio-
cultural and technological issues
that arise from sports praxis and
business.
2. Literature
While public relations literature
has traditionally considered PR as a
promotion and communication tool,
this article acknowledges that in
the world of sport, public relations
has a much more sophisticated role
to play.
Despite the ever increasing im-
portance of public relations in the
modern age, a single, accepted theo-
ry of the roles and functions of public
relations has not yet been formulat-
ed. Not only does the theoretical as-
pect remain unformulated, but the
truth is that the definition of public
relations is not fully agreed upon.
There are also several definition of
sports public relations. According
to Stoldt, Dittmore and Branvold
(2006), sport public relations is a
managerial communication-based
sport organization’s key public seg-
ments, evaluate its relationships
with those segments, and foster
desirable relationships between
the sport organization and those
segments. In sports organizations,
the role that PR is playing is widely
misunderstood. Some sport man-
agement authors have argued that
public relations support the mar-
keting function of the organization.
This viewpoint is understandable
because of the overwhelming use of
public relations as an aspect of mar-
keting in sport organizations.
A long time ago, Bronzan and
Stotlar (Wiseman, 1994) have come
the closest to identifying the contri-
bution that public relations makes
to sport organizations: “No sports
organization...can enjoy major suc-
cess for a prolonged period without
public support or sanction. Once
support is achieved, it then be-
comes somewhat easier to sustain
support by the constant application
of sound public relations”. Papers
on sports management and event
management give public relations
little attention. For many years,
sports public relations was unique-
ly defined as a separate occupation-
al and academic specialism. Sport

30 Daniel Șerbănică, Mihaela Constantinescu

literature has generally concentrat-
ed on professional sport, and little
attention has been given to public
relations.
Sport offers the opportunity
to explore links between PR and
grand scale social projects, events,
media representation, the public
sphere and the lifestyles of citizens.
Since sport is a rapidly expanding
global business embedded in cul-
tures as social practice and as a
form of communication, it provides
a domain to explore PR’s cultural
and symbolic role in the commodi-
fication of lifestyles, values and re-
lationships (Hopwood, Kitchin, &
Skinner, 2011).
Sports have been shaped by so-
cial, economic and political change,
affected by ideologies and politics,
bureaucratization, science, technol-
ogy and mass media. The linkage
between these broad scale develop-
ments and the evolution of public
relations is under-explored, as is
PR’s contribution to the business
development of sport.
While public and research at-
tention usually focuses on the fi-
nancial, political, social and even
personal aspects of the sports in-
dustry, public relations has not won
similar attention. In fact, the atten-
tion to sports public relations has
been somewhat sporadic (L’Etang
& Hopwood, 2008).
When conducting a literature
review, we can identify several pub-
lic relations techniques that can be
used in sports, the authors trying
to classify them based on the target
audience or type of activity. Kotler
and Keller (2008) are presenting a
classification in seven categories:
a) Publications – annual reports,
articles, newsletters, magazines
edited by the company;
b) Events - press conferences,
seminars, trips, fairs, exhibi-
tions, contests and competitions,
anniversaries;
c) Sponsorships;
d) News - constitutes one the main
tasks of public relations pro-
fessionals, they trying to per-
suade the media to accept press
releases and to attend press
conferences;
e) Speeches - management repre-
sentatives answer questions or
RRM – 2/2016
give speeches to enhance com-
pany image;
f) Public service activities - mon-
etary and time contribution to
social causes;
g) Identity communication instru-
ments - sending products with
company logo to customers and
business partners.
Looking closely to the above
mentioned classification, we can
identify two particularities for pub-
lic relations in sports:
– first, sponsorship represents an
independent technique, a main
component of the communica-
tional mix; due to its importance
in the marketing budget, as well
as within the sport-community-
business environment relation-
ship, sponsorship is treated
separately as a stand-alone
communication technique, not a
PR one; this doesn’t mean that
it’s totally separated from PR,
considering that sponsorship ef-
ficiency is provided by the inte-
grated approach of the commu-
nicational process through all
promotional techniques, includ-
ing public relations; a special
role is allocated to news broad-
casted through mass media,
where, whenever an information
about a sport club is presented,
automatically also appears some
identification elements of spon-
sors, media coverage being their
main objective;
– secondly, in sports we can iden-
tify a special technique – en-
dorsement, where athletes are
seen as ambassadors of the
brand, in order to build a bet-
ter image for it; if normally, in
speeches, events and other oc-
casions where the company ap-
pears before the public company
management representatives
are used, in sports they are re-
placed very often by famous ath-
letes who are there to support
the company and its products;
such an approach increases the
attractiveness of the technique
for both the public and the me-
dia (willing to take any informa-
tion of public interest and later
turn it in a story); additionally,
using athletes to promote prod-
ucts and services in their field
of activity adds credibility to the
message sent.
3. Discussion
Sports are performed and man-
aged in three parallel arenas: lo-
cal, national, and international.
Like any other industry involving
large sums of money and passions
and interests, it needs sales and
marketing advancement mecha-
nisms. In the modern age, public
relations and marketing go hand
in hand, with public relations being
part of a wider system of marketing
communication.
Public relations professionals
embrace the complex sporting val-
ue chain and strategically manage
communication and celebrity pro-
file from creation to communication
with fans. Public relations experts
need to communicate with the fans
that demand and “consume” sport
celebrities and understand how this
impacts their choices in sports con-
sumption and also their attitudes
towards sports sponsors.
One of the primary concerns
for public relations practitioners
is determining and communicat-
ing what their efforts are worth to
the organization. Many experts in
sport management have described
the public relations function as
one that supports the marketing
department (Kluka & Schilling,
2001). Therefore, the specific goal
of public relations in sport organi-
zations is to strengthen the rela-
tionships between the organization
and its stakeholders. This goal is
especially important in sport man-
agement due to the need for many
sport institutions to build a bond
with and represent its community
in order for the organization to
achieve success.
The large scope of the sports
industry requires and imposes set-
ting up mechanisms to organize the
activity, advance and manage it.
One of the responsibilities of these
organizations is the development of
sports awareness. Public relations
are a vital tool to achieve recogni-
tion (L’Etang, 2013).
The amount of money invested
in and made by professional sport
today and the complexity of those
revenue sources have forged an
31
important symbiotic relationship
between the media, global PR activ-
ity, and professional sport (players
and spectators). Public relations
are used to “sell” sports to the resi-
dents of the city as a healthy activ-
ity, or as a social event.
Many politicians participate in
sports events, aware of the fact that
the television cameras will not miss
their presence at the stadium; thus,
they attend sports events, not to
watch, but primarily to be seen.
The vast public interest in sport
also encourages the media to spon-
sor sports events in order to win the
desired public response.
Globally, successful sporting ce-
lebrities have been able to generate
and support a massive PR machine,
whose fundamental role is to main-
tain the marketability and high
profile of these stars, both from a
corporate investment perspective
and from a personal athlete per-
spective. Most high-profile athletes
employ media and PR agencies to
manage and to develop their image
and profile, quite apart from the PR
activity generated by corporate in-
vestors using the sport celebrity for
their own strategic goals (Summers
& Johnson Morgan, 2008).
4. Practice
Hopwood (2005) emphasizes
that public relations practice in
sport is not always obvious, yet to
the contemporary sports business,
it has much to offer. The public
relations in the field of sports are
used by countries, local authori-
ties and municipalities, political
parties, politicians, owners and in-
vestors, clubs and teams, athletes,
sports agents, mass media, sports
advancement organizations, spon-
sors, advertisers, coaches, referees,
sports officials, athletes unions, fan
organizations, gambling compa-
nies, health product manufactur-
ers, service providers, electronics
companies (including computer and
content manufacturers), stores, po-
lice and emergency services, mer-
chandise manufacturers, sports
memorabilia collectors, artists (pri-
marily singers), universities and
colleges and various one-time inter-
est groups (Tamir, Limor & Galily,
2015).
32
Many sport organizations use
public relations as a tool to estab-
lish brand awareness and identity
and promote their products or ser-
vices. Others use public relations
to demonstrate social responsibil-
ity. Because of these multiple func-
tions, public relations expertise is
particularly important for sport
management professionals. (Stoldt,
Dittmore & Branvold, 2012)
For a sport organization, the
target audience for public relations
actions is represented by:
– internal public – employees, vol-
unteers, shareholders, affiliated
athletes;
– sports consumers, especially
fans and spectators;
– sponsors;
– the Educational System;
– commercial organizations do-
ing business with the company
(here we include suppliers and
distributors);
– governmental institutions;
– leagues and federations;
– the community in which it
operates;
– mass media.
The main objective of public re-
lations is to conserve a favorable
image for the sports organization,
thus, although mentioned last in
the above classification, the rela-
tionship with mass media is be-
coming very important. Through it,
the company can send the message
more easily, without paying ad-
vertising space within commercial
breaks. For a very long time, public
relations were actually assimilated
to free publicity (uncommercial),
precisely in the idea that promotes
the company and its products with-
out paying this from the promotion-
al budget.
In sports, the relationship with
mass media is a crucial one, con-
sidering that it represents, first of
all, the means by which sporting
events are “delivered” to viewers.
Secondly, the information included
in news casts are seen by the public
as being objective, thus generating
more trust. The disadvantage here
is represented by the fact that, pre-
cisely because they want to remain
impartial, sports news cannot be
controlled by the sports organiza-
tion, especially if the press sees
the opportunity of broadcasting a
scandal.
At a functional level, public rela-
tions have the potential to contrib-
ute to many areas of sport, includ-
ing elite (professional) sport, mass
participation (amateur leisure and
recreation), spectator and media
sport and the promotion of sport as
part of healthy living. In practice,
public relations merge with mar-
keting and events management and
is often strongly focused on public-
ity, highlighting issues correlated
to public roles and encroachment.
Yet, sports PR have more profound
cultural implications.
Public relations are a powerful
promotional tool, capable of gener-
ating substantial publicity for the
sports organization. Although the
practice of public relations is diverse
within sports, practitioners must
possess certain basic skills. The
two most prominent ways in which
public relations is practiced in sport
are media relations and community
relations (Mullin, Hardy & Sutton,
2014). Media relations programs fo-
cus on building relationships with
members of the mass media to max-
imize positive publicity and mini-
mize the negative one. Community
relations programs are structured
to allow members of the sport orga-
nizations to come in direct contact
with their constituent.
Very important here is another
public relations objective – crisis
management. Mass media repre-
sents both a promotor for the sport
organization, and an “enemy” in the
actual or potential case of wrong do-
ing. Be it true or not, the PR depart-
ment has to react must act as soon
as mass media starts running im-
ages and information in the disad-
vantage of the sport organization.
A quick response ensures that the
public will also receive the sport
organization version before form-
ing an opinion about the situation
at hand. Once the public makes up
its mind, this opinion is very hard
to change, even if it’s based on false
information.
We see a lot of specialized lit-
erature that emphasis the impor-
tance of immediate response to the
crisis, the steps for appropriate a
PR strategy being: investigation,
restriction of access to athletes,
Daniel Șerbănică, Mihaela Constantinescu
details confirmation, launching
public statement and consider fu-
ture options. The cooperation with
mass media can bring the sport
organization in advantage, giv-
ing it the possibility to control the
messages that reach the public and
prevent scandal exaggeration. The
lack of response from the company
can be seen as a tacit acceptance of
the accusations or as a total lack of
organization on difficult situations,
facts that affect the company’s im-
age of a long run.
5. Action
In the modern age, public re-
lations professionals are now in-
volved in the entire range of the
organization’s PR related activi-
ties. According to Tamir, Limor and
Galily (2015), the sport public rela-
tions activities can include:
A. Events. This area is very
broad, including anything from spe-
cial sports events (such as friendly
matches or exhibition games) to
onetime events (season opening
ceremony, inaugural title events,
events celebrating moving up to a
higher league, events in honor of
the selection and inauguration of
the best players).
Public relations work is inextri-
cably linked to the notion of events
in popular culture. This arises from
the fact that early public relations
work was dominated by publicists
focused on gaining media atten-
tion. Live broadcast enabled tele-
vision channels to create media
events, especially contests, as de-
fined by Dayan and Katz (1992),
between groups or individual ath-
letes. Broadcasting rights at sports
events became a necessity, enlisted
by advertising and public relations
to advance sales. As the demand
for this product increased, it grew
in value, and consequently, so did
advertising and public relations in
this area.
More recently, specialists have
sought to define and explain mega-
events and their mediatized ver-
sion, media events. Mega-events are
culturally and politically significant
events which are touchstones for
ordinary citizens to bring sense to
their own lives (Getz & Page, 2016;
Roche, 2000). Mega-events such as
RRM – 2/2016
the Olympics are used by govern-
ments to promote nation-states and
to create national identity in an in-
ternational arena (Zauhar, 2004).
The Olympics are the ultimate me-
ga-event, not only because of their
sporting impact, but due to their
wider cultural significance shaped
by a range of public relations and
media sources that set agendas,
create or promote ideologies, shape
myths and icons, promote goods
and thus create international refer-
ence points and touchstones.
B. Sponsorships. Public rela-
tions professionals today are in-
volved more than ever before in
raising donations and sponsorships,
and maintaining the relations with
sponsors and donors.
Corporations and sponsors of
sporting events have commercial
resources that produce structural
power beyond the sports world
(Biddiscombe, 2004). Sports mar-
keters are turning towards issues-
based sponsorship focusing on
grass roots sport that links to public
policy and media agendas for repu-
tational benefits. Also, sport may be
used by organizations whose busi-
nesses are not related to sport as a
way of building internal organiza-
tional relationships.
C. Organizing fan clubs and
maintaining connections with
them. Fans are not only the finan-
cial backbone of every sports team,
they are also its heart and engine.
They are not only fans, but also lov-
ers of players, coaches, managers
and owners (Summers & Johnson
Morgan, 2008). Their
emotional moods are often directed
toward semi-practical efforts: de-
mands that managers and owners
resign, that a coach is dismissed,
that certain players are chosen for
the opening play. Fan organizations
are also interested in increasing
their members, uniting them and
motivating them to join actions,
such as fundraising, or displaying
an active presence at sports events.
D. Working with new media and
especially social media. Similar to
public relations practice in other
areas, media relations activities
make up a large portion of the sport
public relations practitioner’s. This
activity includes responsibility for
running the website and updating
it, smart management of social me-
dia (including Facebook, Tweeter,
YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs etc.) and
their use.
The bound between the sport
consumer and his favorite sport ele-
ment is so strong that the consumer
will use any occasion to talk about
it, or even praise it (be it a sports
team, athlete, sports event or even
sport equipment). This strong and
long lasting relationship increases
the efficiency of a very important
marketing communication tool in
sports – team branded products
(shirts, caps, pens, mugs, sports
equipment, etc.).
The use of such products is spe-
cific to sports, the organization be-
ing able to promote its identifica-
tion elements (brand, logo, slogan,
etc.) through products that the pub-
lic can buy all year long, not only
when there are matches or special
events. The stronger the organiza-
tion brand, the attractive are its
branded products. This level of at-
tractiveness makes licensing rights
more valuables.
The continuous communication
through these products has the fol-
lowing advantages:
– once the brand is known and ap-
preciated, this type of commu-
nication turns into a free pro-
motional tool, considering the
fact that the brand and its iden-
tification elements appear on
products used/worn/displayed
by consumers without the or-
ganization paying something in
return; moreover, customers are
the ones paying in order to have
these products;
– the fact that consumers are the
ones who promote the organiza-
tion validates the positive image
built, so the process of attracting
and building relationships with
new clients is much easier, the
public having a minimum reluc-
tance to messages issued by the
organization;
– for many sports organizations
and events, the sale of such
products bring substantial rev-
enue, which, along with televi-
sion rights and sponsorships,
represents the foundation for
business financial support.
The communication through
public relations in sports is also
33
done by using another identifica-
tion element specific to sports –
the arena. This tool can be used
in order to communicate according
to segmentation, positioning and
targeting process established by
the organization, and also in order
to remind the consumer about the
company’s existence, using archi-
tecture, arena’s name, its location,
etc.
It is sufficient to look at how
the field is separate from bleachers
in stadiums from England, Spain,
Italy, or Germany, compared with
those in Romania, for example, to
understand the behavior of spec-
tators participating in football
matches in these countries. If in
the first mentioned category, be-
tween the fiend and the bleachers
there is only a advertising board,
in Romania a protection fence is
needed. Of course that this arena
architecture came as a reaction to
the spectators’ behavior, but in the
long run it sends a negative image
for the entire football phenomenon.
This is the reason for which some
companies, that have huge sports
investments in other countries,
decide not to make an association
with Romanian football (here we
have the case of insurance com-
pany Groupama). Such an image
represents an important barrier
for the efficiency of PR activity, as
the persuasion process has to cover
two aspects: making football like-
able again and, afterwards, making
a certain football club desirable for
sponsors.
An important role for using the
arena as a communication tool is
given to the external architecture,
in order to draw attention and send
a positive message to the target au-
dience. Some arenas have already
known shapes, that most sports
consumers can recognize, such as
Allianz Arena of Stade de France.
In sports we can find a commu-
nicational technique that stands at
the border between public relations
and promotions – free samples.
The reason for which we can see
free samples as being part of the PR
campaigns stands first of all in the
fact the sport is a service, therefore
in order to give free samples you’ll
have to meet with the customers,
and this is done most of the time
34
in special events organized by the
sport company or by its sponsors.
When speaking about products,
free samples represents a very com-
mon technique, especially for new
products launched on the market,
when the customer has to be con-
vinced to try the new product. In
the service area is more difficult,
considering the fact that the sport
consumer cannot receive a part of
the event, for example. Sports clubs
use free demonstrations done by
their star athletes, so the customer
can see what will be the quality of
the actual game for which he will
have to pay a ticket. Here we can
also include types of events such as
“open gate day”, when all specta-
tors can participate free of charge
to a game, or offering free tickets
to some categories that until now
haven’t been to the team’s games,
in order to let them know what they
are missing.
In sports we have also free
samples of products, that are given
most of the time at the game or in
a special event organized by the
sports company and its sponsors.
He we can include:
– free samples of products used
by the team players, such as nu-
trition supplements or energy
drinks;
– free branded products offered
in the game day, such as caps,
t-shirts, memorabilia, action
figures or posters; this is one
of the most used communica-
tion tool in the US sports mar-
ket, where the customer is very
much appreciating such prod-
ucts, sometimes deciding to go
to the arena, instead of watch-
ing the game on TV, especially
for receiving those free branded
products; a good example in this
case is the positive madness cre-
ated around a product call “bub-
blehead” (a doll with a big head,
representing the players from
the major American leagues),
that determined MBL (Major
Baseball League) to make and
present to the public a detailed
schedule for the 2014 campaign
regarding the dolls free offering;
– free products offered by the
mass media that is broadcast-
ing the event – this technique
is targeting TV spectators that
decided to watch the game on a
certain channel and are reward-
ed for this; most of the times, the
campaign requires the viewer to
send a SMS with the right an-
swer to a simple question, and
afterwards the winner will be
selected randomly; such a tech-
nique is used very often by the
Romanian channel Digi Sport,
that has campaigns with the
title “Watch the game on Digi
Sport and we will award you!”.
Another PR-related technique
that gain a place at the sports mar-
keting “big table” is using athletes
under endorsement contracts as
brand ambassadors. This tech-
nique has two major advantages:
– draws much more easily con-
sumers’ attention, considering
the fact that sport celebrities are
of public interest, which makes
them more appealing than other
company’s employees; this will
lead to a greater target audi-
ence for the communicational
message;
– when athletes are presenting
products linked to their domain
of activity, the message gain
credibility, as the athlete is seen
as a specialist recommending a
certain product or service.
These appearances in certain
events and presentations are very
clearly stipulated in the endorse-
ment contract, in many cases the
athletes being limited in terms of
contact with competitors’ brands.
In the public relations events
organized for the sports company
we can also include presentations/
demonstrations for the promot-
ed products/services. Besides
making the products well-known,
this technique offers the possibility
of consumer education. During the
presentation, the employees can
teach customers how to obtain the
best performance in using the prod-
ucts, fact that eliminated or dimin-
ishes customer’s insatisfaction.
There are two ways of imple-
menting this technique: a) presen-
tations specially organized within
a sports event, in high traffic areas
or at company’s headquarters; b)
the use of company’s products and
services by an event/athlete/team,
within a competition, fact that dem-
onstrates in real time their utility.
Daniel Șerbănică, Mihaela Constantinescu
 Public relations help sports
marketers leverage their sports
involvement through the media.
Specifically, public relations can
help clients by:
• developing PR platforms;
• gaining visibility for league
and event sponsorships
• utilizing athlete endorsers;
• promoting sports products;
• creating publicity for grass
roots events.
Sports public relations profes-
sionals often work seven days a
week during the season. They are
usually in charge of writing press
releases, organizing press briefings,
preparing media guides and main-
taining team historical files. They
also respond to media and public
information requests and help posi-
tion difficult or sensitive news re-
lating to their team or players.
6. Conclusion
According to most experts, the
future of public relations in sport
looks bright, indeed. With new tech-
nology and corporate dollars sup-
porting almost everything, it seems
almost impossible to fail. But, if
marketers and public relations
practitioners do not develop rela-
tionships at all levels of the game,
technology and other high-dollar
expenditures will waste the mil-
lions invested in possible revenues.
Although our society has evolved so
much within the last decade, suc-
cess in this industry can be traced
back to its simple roots: quality
relationships with fans, players,
sponsors and the media.
RRM – 2/2016
View publication stats
Certainly, a number of relevant
topics important to sport public
relations deserve further examina-
tion. Future articles should address
topics like: sport sponsorship and
its impact on consumer behavior,
crisis public relations issues stem-
ming from the behavior of sponsors,
product placement in sport and its
value as competition for consumer
attention increases, public relations
strategies and tactics that can be
used to generate additional revenue
and increase fan support.
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