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By Dominic Curran on December 9th, 2008

Tags: Default, Press Clipping

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They say one man is never bigger than the sport but there was one conversation that I heard many times over up at Royal Birkdale last week from the hospitality tents to the media centre – will we (media, sponsors, PR agencies & spectators) miss Tiger Woods?

Initial evidence would seem to suggest the answer lies in what side of the Atlantic you’re on. A nervous American TV executive told me that their viewing figures would ‘drop off a cliff’ while Woods kept his knee up at home. Evidence from previous tournaments would seem to back him up – US audiences regularly suffer a fifty percent drop when Woods is not involved at the top of a leaderboard.

Over here it was a different story though with an impressive though unofficial, over-night peak on BBC of 4.7 million watching Harrington collect his second consecutive Claret Jug. This was down on last year’s peak of 5.7 million BUT this figure was far larger than either of the previous years – when Woods was the winner. In addition, the story of a resurgent Greg Norman kept the pages and airtime filled and injected The Open with some much needed romance (and glamour from the new Mrs Norman). The galleries weren’t affected either with over 200,000 through the gates over the four days despite the inclement conditions making it the sixth highest attended in Open history.

Initial evidence is that the UK audience was not at all affected by the loss of Tiger - indeed it raised the hopes of a local winner. The more difficult question, that only the next few months will tell for the American TV exec, will be the longer term affect this will have on US audiences (the economic driver of the sport) and critically The Ryder Cup in a few months.

By Dominic Curran on July 23rd, 2008

Tags: Golf, Public relations, Television audiences, Tiger Woods

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There’s no doubt that cycling is resurgent in Britain. Mark Cavendish has crossed the line first in Le Tour stages a record four times for a Brit and featured regularly on the front pages of our national newspapers. In addition, following regular successes on the world stage in recent years the Team GB cycling team for Beijing looks like the place where many of our medals are going to come from, and this has even prompted talks of creating an all-British team in time for the 2010 Tour de France.

So should there be a sponsor gold rush to hop on-board?

This is where it gets tricky. A high stamina sport, cycling is dogged with drug scandals – of the last two winners of Le Tour one has been stripped of his title while the most recent is missing after his team was banned for doping offences. Just this week, one of the principal sponsors in the sport, Barloworld, announced their premature departure following a drugs offence by one of their team’s riders. Ominously they signed off by stating – “This incident has a negative impact on Barloworld and our brand principles, which our board has a duty to protect”.

Against this background, it would take a brave brand manager to sign a deal. But it could be a gamble worth taking – cycling has an impressive cross-European footprint with huge viewing figures across France, Spain and Germany. The Olympics could take it mainstream in the UK while younger riders and teams such as Garmin, co-owned by British cyclist and converted former doper, David Millar, regularly test themselves in a bid to rid the sport of this image.

Sponsoring a British Tour team could be an inspired (and good value for money) investment, but is always just one needle away from taking your brand PR downhill faster than Mark Cavendish.  

By Dominic Curran on July 22nd, 2008

Tags: Brand marketing, Cycling, Olympics, Public relations, Sponsorship

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There’s been a lot of press over the last few years about the nation’s decreasing sporting ability being matched only by the increasing waist size of its kids. Yesterday, I found myself at a primary school in south London on a visit with British tennis number 1, Andy Murray, as part of an RBS Dream Playgrounds scheme.The tangible excitement caused by Andy’s appearance at the school showed that kids regardless of age, background and interests all loved the chance to just run around with someone they’ve seen on TV.  

Gasps and a spontaneous round of applause greeted his revelation to the school assembly that he started playing tennis at just four years old, but as Andy himself said, getting started is the easy bit – it’s keeping kids interested in staying active beyond twelve that is problematic.

The substantial investment from RBS to improve the school’s playground area will go some way towards improving the chances of these kids to stay active, but while governing bodies battle to corral Britain’s young into their particular sport, the primary challenge for the government is simply to keep kids active – regardless of sporting denomination.

Governing bodies, Sport England and the Department of Health need to work together to build a combined voice with combined facilities that can build on the interest that a three hour visit from a world class athlete can bring.

Incidentally, toughest examination of the day for Andy didn’t come from the gathered press pack but rather from a six-year-old in assembly who looked slightly crestfallen when silence greeted his question, ‘How many Wimbledon’s have you won?’.

By Dominic Curran on June 17th, 2008

Tags: Andy Murray, Tennis, grass roots sport

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