Different look, same writer
Welcome to my new blog. And my new look. In an effort to communicate the personal side of the publicity work I do, I decided to use what I identify with best — my own name. I continue to work with and consult with others who know how to do things better than I do […]
UFC tossed years of good publicity in media power play
It wasn’t long ago that decades old sports leagues admired UFC’s creativity, popularity and fan loyalty. Publicity for this mixed martial arts organization was off the charts. Now we see it as a group that may have taken all of its positive publicity for granted. During the past weekend, well-known MMA reporter Ariel Helwani was reportedly […]
Sports media – you need a website
{This post originally appeared at nationalsportsmedia.org, previously National Sportsbroadcasters and Sportswriters Association, as it made a website transfer.} Sportscasters and Sportswriters: you need your own websites Sportscasters and sportswriters that have taken buyouts or were released in media organization downsizings ask, often in a panic, “how do I stay relevant in sports media circles when I […]
Happy Birthday, Twitter!
You’re a decade old and like many pre-teens, you’re experiencing some growing pains. You’re a bit indecisive (140 characters or 10,000 characters?). You have pimples (abusive accounts remain active after people have begged you to silence harmful trolls). Like in junior high and high school, bullies abound. The Internet as a whole has made people […]
Sports PR was front-and-center in this week’s news
It was quite a week of you’re into sports PR case studies. Or just into sports. Sure, there’s that college conference basketball tournament thing. A few overtimes, buzzer-beaters and upsets are always good for a sport that seems to emerge from a regular season slumber at this time each year. [Note to those people: the […]
Social media is changing the way athletes make big announcements
When it comes to professional athletes announcing their retirements, the media planets are in the process of a major realignment. Last week former Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings and Carolina defensive end Jared Allen announced that he was stepping away from professional football after playing 12 years in the NFL. He didn’t issue a press release […]
Attract women to the NFL with respect, not recipes
Last week the Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced its “RED Women’s Movement” marketing campaign, which is designed to attract females to the Bucs’ brand. I respect the end. The means, however, made thousands of women, including me, cringe. In its news release and video promo, “highlights” of the program included introducing women to NFL gameday fashion, […]
Tampa Bay Bucs have women seeing RED but not in the way it intended
To those outside of Florida and the Twitterverse that haven’t heard of the Bucs RED for Women marketing campaign that was announced this week, you missed a publicity mess. Man or woman, it might make you react like I did: ARE YOU *&@$% ME?? Yes, it had me seeing, well, red. Mind you, I’m from National […]
Looking for Super Bowl ad momentum after the game
With the NCAA Basketball Tournament nearly upon us, I started to think about advertiser value or as the Association calls them, “corporate partners.” Reports of late reveal that Super Bowl advertisers, while they dish out millions of dollars for a minute of air time during the game, have little message recall or effect on sales […]
Ed Sabol was the founder of NFL storytelling
Buzzwords in the publicity, public relations, marketing and advertising industries seem to pop into our vocabularies and change by the day. Within the last two years, those of us that work to get messages heard glommed onto what many of our pitches already were: stories. A short time after that word simplified our lives and […]