As the curtain falls on the Olympics and Paralympics for another four years, many governing bodies’ attention will naturally turn to how they can capitalise on interest from the next generation of athletes, coaches or supporters.
This legacy soundbite is used every four years – and rightly so given its importance – but often the biggest challenge for some sports is maintaining a consistent presence in the mainstream media – and thus remaining a viable sporting option for the general public.
Securing positive media coverage in particular is one of the most influential tools in the communications toolbox, carrying strong trustworthiness and credibility in the eyes of the reader.
It is for this reason that PR should be high on the agenda for any national governing body wanting to amplify their presence between now and LA 2028.
Placing Olympians and Paralympians out into the community to parade their achievements is great short-term PR of course, but a bigger picture is required.
This is not a quick fix, and so a key driver to achieving this is developing a strategic communications plan which addresses the following questions: What do you want to achieve? Who do you want to talk to? And what do you want to say?
Answers to these questions are crucial, as they will help to guide not only creative ideas and activation, but also via what channels they are delivered – ensuring that a communications campaign is joined up with the same messaging, whether that is earned media coverage, sponsored social media posts, digital advertising, or community events.
Many – if not all – national governing bodies are already activating community initiatives, but perhaps require a nose for news to bring these to life for media outlets.
This could be jumping on to existing news hooks, unearthing powerful human-interest stories to reach new audiences, or generating news with fresh research.
Our recent work with the British Judo Association in the build-up to Paris 2024 is a great example of an NGB harnessing the power of PR to help place the sport in front of non-judo audiences.
We were able to work closely with British Judo’s comms team to identify athletes with interesting back stories, before drafting oven-ready copy to help us pitch their stories to key national lifestyle media.
This, for example, saw Kirsten Taylor’s tale about her swapping crufts for the dojo landing on MailOnline and the Scottish Daily Express, while Emma Reid’s aims of wanting to follow in her judoka mother’s footsteps was picked up by Woman magazine and one of its sister titles – underlining how we were able to place the sport of judo into fresh parts of the media – and in turn, fresh audiences.
Every single day is crucial to the development of the elite athletes we see competing on the world stage – and it should be no different for the sports themselves.
