ABOUT

Tell us who you are!

Hi, I’m Warren. I’m 25, and I work as an Account Executive on the Sports Team at Hill+Knowlton Strategies (PR & Comms Agency).

So what do you actually do?

In short, we work with clients (typically brands, sports event partners,) to help them shape their public image. Depending on what the client asks for, this can be a wide range of tasks:
from getting coverage in media (Newspapers, Magazines,TV, Social media) to help crafting campaigns and content, and everything in between.

What has your career path been?

I came across Sports PR/Marketing while playing American Football at university. I was in charge of publicity for the team, and it was something I enjoyed doing - so I started researching if there were professional roles that involved similar tasks. I graduated from University of Nottingham in 2019, with a BA in Sociology and a Masters in Psychology and from there began to look for jobs within comms/marketing pr for sport. There were A LOT of rejections and some unsuccessful interviews, but in the meantime I took on part-time roles as a researcher at the Ubele Initiative, participated in focus groups, did volunteer work for Sporting Equals (many of which would not have come about if I didn’t know people who pointed these opportunities out to me), even did online surveys and became a TV/Film Extra to earn money on the side.
2 years later in late 2021, I came across a PR intern advert on Linkedin at my current company. No experience was required (hallelujah), so I went through the application process (answer questions, do a preliminary interview, in-depth interview and writing task) and was successful. Since then I worked as an intern before being promoted to an AE earlier this year.

What is the best part of your job?

For me it’s really cool to be on the “other side” of the media we typically engage on a day-to-day basis, and it’s interesting to understand how everything comes together. Doing a variety of tasks means no two weeks are the same, as well as being able to go to different sporting events across the country/world is always a bonus.

Why do you do your job?

I love sports. Being surrounded by colleagues who share the same passion, and generally, being within the sports media sphere on a daily basis, is always an enjoyable way to put bread on the table.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

Have a passion for what you do and always want to learn more. It’s a big industry, and you’ll be working with people who have years and years of experience who can offer so much valuable insight so take advantage of the network around you.

Any parting words?

Creative industries like PR aren’t always the most straight-forward industries to get into. Like most things, if you can find an internship -great! But there’s no particular subject you have to study (Doing a degree in PR/journalism may be very helpful). The most important skills: are a strong writing ability, knowledge of your field (make sure you read broadly - read,read,read!!!), a passion for your interests, and if you’re fortunate enough - contacts in media/news agencies are like gold dust (networking strikes again!).

Check out Warren’s Instagram below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

My morning will usually start with reading the news. Often clients will want either a news update relating to any of their sport/areas of interest, or if their products have been covered in an article - so we use monitoring tools to find articles, and then if applicable - write up a coverage update for them. This is usually followed by internal team meetings, where we discuss what we’ve been working on, and what we need to do for the coming week(s) - similar will usually occur with a meeting with our clients. These aren’t always in the morning, but can range from different times during the day/week just according to everyone’s schedules. Traditional PR tasks usually involve:
Writing press releases (an official statement sent to news media for the purpose of providing information, or making an announcement for public release - this usually forms the basis of a news story),
Pitching (like a shortened version of the press release sent via email - send the news stories to journalists for them to cover in their media outlet)
Creating spreadsheets to track media coverage
Campaign planning (creating ideas for a new product launch/ announcement/content) - usually strategy documents (like a nifty powerpoint) that outline how and why we’re going to do something.
Creating Social Media Content (Selecting images and writing captions to be published on Different social media platforms)
Writing reports (A document summarising coverage within a month/ from a recent campaign, stating what we did/how we did/ and with numbers to illustrate the results).
Other tasks can include: Writing speaker notes for client events - (We give clients key points on what to say, including brand messaging - think Prince Andrew’s interview on Newsnight - but our clients aren’t accused of peadophilia
Submitting Awards Entries
Writing public statements (A more official version of the notes app apologies celebrities do)
Contracting photographers, videographers, influencers, talent - usually by getting in contact with themselves/their agent, agreeing fees, payment and submitting to finance teams.
That’s everything off the top of my head, but I’m sure there’s more - as there are such a wide range of tasks that we do.