PR in Sports

BENGALS ATTACK!

Public Relations Plan for the Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals have the most explosive and exciting receiver corps in the NFL, and one of the most improved defenses in their conference. The PR Plan concentrates on the agility, speed and lights-out play of the Bengals offense. Both Terrell Owens and Chad Ocho Cinco have exceptional skills on the field and off and are two of the most entertaining payers in the NFL. The Bengals team also has many fascinating players, all of which have worked incredibly hard to get to the NFL. Combined with their natural talents and work ethic, the team personifies excellence.

PR Messaging & Strategy

This PR strategy needs to convey aggressive quickness, intelligence and smart play in the NFL, and the lightning quick receivers and exceptional work of the entire team needs to come out. Fans need to see and feel the passion players have for agility and for always being a step ahead of their defenders. “Bengal Attack!’ could potentially be one theme that conveys the quickness and lethal nature of the Bengal team. Because of this intensity-based message, the channels and communication will need to also be very focused on speed, agility and aggressiveness.

The intended audience of the messaging is defined in the following figure, Estimated Cincinnati Bengals Fan Base. The majority of fans are male with the dominant segment being males in the 18- to 45-year-old segment (47%) followed by males below 18 years of age.

Estimated Cincinnati Bengals Fan Base

Market Segment

Share

Males 18-45 Income $50K+

47.0%

Females 18-45 Income $50K+

18.0%

Males <18n
20.0%

Females <18n
7.0%

Males >45 Income $100K+

7.0%

Females >45 Income $100K+

1.0%

Source: http://www.bengals.com/media-lounge/index.html

Media Strategy

Bengals Attack! needs to communicate agility, quickness and hard-hitting insights and inside-the-locker room insights that fans are interested in. The Bengal Attack PR campaign also includes an extensive amount of interviews and chances to talk with the Chad Ocho Cinco and Terrell Owens, in addition to Carson Palmer and others. The Bengals Attack! campaign gets the fan right into the huddle and hears the intensity and focus players have to go after their competitors and score.

For this campaign to be effective there needs to be extensive use of interaction opportunities with the players and a chance to listen to fans in addition to blast messages to them (Swann, 470). The focus on Web 2.0 technologies and social networking is also crucial for the team to get and capture the attention fo its fan base. Social networking is the most powerful channel to connect with those in the higher income strata of a market segment as many of these are early adopters of new technology (Bernoff, Li, 36). The Bengals PR team also needs to use social media monitoring to ensure their messaging is being well understood (Caitlin, 48).

PR Team Structure

The team is structured under a PR Director who needs to have access to the coach and team, and has a budget to support event-based marketing to promote the Bengals Attack! concept and strategy. There needs to be a digital media specialist to concentrate on all aspects of social networking and media. Additionally there needs to be a PR writer who will provide the copy and writing of all materials. There needs to be a videographer to travel with the team and provide content for the YouTube and other channels. Finally, there needs to be a PR project manager to also coordinate all of these tasks.

References

Bernoff, J., and C. Li. “Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web. ” MIT Sloan Management Review 49.3 (2008): 36.

Jeff Catlin. “Social Media Monitoring: Duck and Cover or Hold your Ground: Determining when it’s necessary to respond, apologize or even retreat. ” Information Management 19.8 (2009): 48.

Swann, P.. “PR 2.0 New Media, New Tools, New Audiences ,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 86.2 (2009): 470-472.