Why sports needs PR now more than ever

PR has evolved over the last 10-15 years and is becoming an important weapon for marketers across categories. While earlier it was believed that PR firms are needed only in certain industries, today PR is being considered essential even for disciplines like sports. Sports PR is a niche vertical and one needs to show passion and deep interest to build brands which have gained good traction in the last few years. The potential is huge and it will only grow in the coming times, what is needed most is the right talent who will understand this vertical and deliver value. The canvas has become wider as even business dailies today talk about sports and sponsorship as well as heavy investments in various sports. In the US and Europe, they have created great value out of sports by looking at it very professionally and also supporting the various sports activities with wide coverage and exposure and the success is also because of the passion and commitment that they display.

India has always been a cricket dominant country. However, other sports like football, tennis, badminton, hockey, boxing, athletics, tennis, table tennis and even indigenous sports like kabaddi have been gaining in popularity over time. The need for promoting all these sports through earned media has become a necessity today for the organisers, associations, franchises, the sports stars and the brands. The sports scene has undergone a massive change and has witnessed the rise of some very popular brands and PR is being increasingly used to create awareness for sports across the country, including smaller towns where plenty of talent is available.

Today, there are several individual sports celebrities who hire PR firms to build and maintain their image and also to handle crisis, should they be faced with one. More and more brands are looking and using sports to connect their brand with their audience. The IPL league which has now become a mammoth entity, especially after the recent addition of two new teams, has created demand and the need for franchises to look at Sports PR seriously to build their brand image and online reputation not just before and during the tournament, but remain relevant and top of mind of their fans even in the non-playing times.

Over the years, the Indian Super League has been popularising football throughout the length and breadth of the country and making inroads into cricket dominant markets. Sports PR can play a significant role in generating further interest and conversations around football and encourage more youngsters to take up the sport.

The strong performance put up by Indian athletes in the Tokyo Olympics held earlier this year has turned the focus on the need to take sports to the grassroots and inculcate the love for sports. The Tokyo Olympics clocked 69 million viewers and 5.8 billion viewing minutes in the opening on TV – a true testimony to the interest and keenness for watching games beyond cricket. Thus, Sports PR can take up the lofty task of not just forwarding the engagement of established sports stars with their fans, and growing brands’ association with sport, but also promoting the culture of sports amongst the country’s youngsters, who are otherwise deprived of the basic facilities.

Abhoy Chattopadhyay, Co-Founder, SPORTSCOMM, remarked, “Sports PR, like its other verticals, is a very important cog in the wheel to ensure that a sport star/ event/ association/ team/ brand reaches their core audience in the right manner with the right messages. That’s what makes this department a very important bridge between the organisation (entity/ individuals) and the external audience.” 

“While over the last decade we have seen the growth of Sports PR as a specific vertical, but the growth has been slow though steady and that’s the good news. While like any other new department sports PR as a specialised process also have challenges, but nothing that’s abnormal. The fact that agencies and brands are slowly understanding the importance of hiring/ engaging with specialised sports PR professionals for their sporting initiatives speaks volumes about the future and need for specialised sports PR,” he added.

Commenting on the need for Sports PR, Neha Mathur Rastogi, Founder & CEO, Words Work, Communications Consulting, said, “Sports PR has always been a very specialised field. If you don’t know the sport, you simply can’t write or talk about it. This was the founding thought behind WordsWork specialising in sports as a vertical since its inception in 2009. It has been close to 13 years now and as the industry has evolved this need has grown and seen more recognition as well. Initially, our work was seasonal limited to the few months sport was active. But now with the growth in private leagues and club culture, our work has grown manifold, and the sporting calendar has been extended across the entire calendar year. This is only expected to grow further also beyond the usual suspects of cricket and football. Thanks to the recently held Olympics, interest in track and field has also grown and the space allocated by media for sport is also on the rise entering into the main stream.”

Pooja Chaudhri, Executive Director, Concept PR, who has cut her teeth in Sports PR for over two decades, noted, “The growth in the sports landscape in India most definitely drove the need for sports PR. And for lovers of sport, nothing could be more exciting than to work on their favourite game, or with their most admired team or athlete.”

“As with everything else, IPL birthed the need for sports PR in a big way. As the game unfolds on match day, it is there for all to see. An exciting match day game review written by our well respecting sports journalists, helps bring alive the match yet again for readers. Having worked on various sports disciplines and across all stakeholders of sports in India and overseas in the last two decades, I can tell you that it is a well-rounded PR campaign that brings alive the non-match day stories. And therein lies the finer nuances of sports PR,” she added.

Continuing further, Chaudhri said that to keep this vertical of PR growing in tandem with the sports eco-system, it is important for all stakeholders to realise and understand that the need for communication is a constant, and not start just pre or during the event. “Sustained communication is important to help build a fan base and ultimately, better return on investment for your sponsors and stakeholders,” she concluded.