With the NFL season right around the corner I, along with most of America, have had football on my mind. Will Seattle’s Seahawks make it to another Super Bowl? How will the Denver Broncos play without Peyton Manning leading them on the field? With all my thoughts about the upcoming season, I realized that football and PR have a lot in common. I understand that helmets and pads are not needed in PR, and football games do not take place in cubicles, but PR professionals can still learn techniques from football teams.
If At First You Do Not Succeed, Try Again
In football, you hardly ever see a team give up after losing a game. Instead, they go back to practice the next day with an even more determined attitude. Players will watch game tapes over and over again taking notes of what they did wrong and dissecting what should have happened. Then they will practice the improved plays until everyone on the team knows how to properly execute the play. PR professionals need to do the same thing. If you do not win a client or secure an article, you reevaluate your methods and change them for the future. It is not the amount of wins that defines your life – it is the way you handle your losses and rise above.
Winning Requires Teamwork
The most successful teams — whether they are football teams or PR agencies — realize that strength lies within the team. In football, when one person scores a touchdown the credit also goes to their team, coach, and even fans and family. Same goes for PR firms – just because one person’s name is at the bottom of the email does not mean that other people did not work on the project. Behind every successful person is a team of people armed with strong resources.
Preparation is Essential
If an NFL team was to go into a game without any previous knowledge of their opponent, there is but a sliver of a chance that they will be the victor. Football teams spend hours studying other teams’ game tapes and learning their strengths and weaknesses. As with football, one of the most critical parts of PR is research. We research prospective clients, clients’ competitors and journalists. In PR, knowledge is the key to success. A PR agent needs to be able to familiarize themselves with news circulating about their client so they are able to take the next proactive step.
Evaluate
If a given route or plan does not seem to be driving the anticipated results, football teams will typically either alter the play or come up with a new one. By consistently updating and improving the plays, football teams are confident in knowing that they have all of the proper tools to succeed in a game. In PR it is necessary for agencies and professionals to analyze and evaluate their campaigns to see if they were successful at accomplishing their goals. If there are any areas that they could strengthen for future accounts, then it would be best for the professional to be aware.
While PR might not be a contact sport, and football players’ jobs don’t depend on keeping up with the newest trends, they do have similarities. In the upcoming season, put your thinking helmet on and start attacking the PR world like a football game.