Tennis to have an image coach

I was interested to read in PR Week that Max Clifford has been hired to ‘help shed tennis’ middle-class image.’ Having been the lucky ballot winner of front row seats at the spectacular final recently I can safely say that he will have a tough job with tickets such as mine at £90 a head and the price of a salad at around £15. I’m not complaining; it was worth every penny (perhaps not the salad) but being a ticket holder at this prestigious event for the first time I was struck by the difference in experience between the determined member of the famous queue and the honored ticket holder. For anyone who has stood in that queue, and I have done my fair share of queuing in the past, you can wait for hours on end, generally in the rain (if you’re me) and then you can queue again once in the grounds in the blind hope that you will get a return for one of the main courts. It takes about as much determination and willpower as it does to win Wimbledon. The class divide is then further emphasized by the Debentures who pay a high price for guaranteed tickets and their own exclusive restaurants.

The suggestion that tennis could be used to coax children off the streets and get them fit is a great idea and also good public relations spin as it fits the agenda of tackling obesity and crime in young people; topics which regularly feature in our media industry analysis. Whilst I’m all in support of making tennis free of charge at local authority tennis courts there is a long way to go to tackle the image of exclusivity which is propelled by events such as Wimbledon. Champagne and strawberries anyone?

Terminal 5

I had the misfortune to fly out of T5 in the midst of the chaos of the opening week. Although painfully delayed and some shocking incompetence I resisted to turn the knife via the blog - I thought that others were doing a pretty good job in creating the latest case-study in how not to handle crisis communication. It was therefore with some trepidation that I arrived for my flight to Geneva this week.

The whole experience was nigh on perfect, passing seamlessly through security to the gate, with time to buy a couple of items from smiling shop assistants. The return leg proved equally impressive, taxiing on to a stand in good fashion to sailing through passport control without a hint of a queue. As a media evaluator it got me thinking, well you would expect nothing less. Where were the good news stories about the turnaround of the terminal? - have the good ladies and gentlemen of BA and BAA been told to keep their own counsel for fear of reminding the potential customer of the previous 'challenges'. Or is it the media are simply not interested in a good news story and would rather sharpen their knives on another victim (another slice of M&S anyone?).

Media analysis on Murray

Andy Murray’s image has suffered some blows in the past particularly for his jokes deriding England and his emphasis on his Scottish heritage. In the build-up to the tournament two years ago he joked he wanted "anyone but England" to win the World Cup which didn’t go down too well south of the border and this jibe at Henman was misrepresented in the papers. A little media training would have been helpful here and indeed Andy took on a PR agency earlier this year.

Public relations in sports are notoriously precarious as reputation is based on a concoction of personality and results. It was Murray’s seemingly dour personality which has been criticized in the past as many commented that he doesn’t smile enough. There was a glimmer of a grin as he turned the match around last night beating Richard Gasquet and as he started to make his long comeback suddenly the crowd had something to cheer about. It seems the fickle public are backing him now he’s winning because let’s face it if he makes it to the semis we’ll see him as British and, as Murray commented: “once I got ahead they got behind me more than they ever have before.”

This was in stark contrast to reports earlier in the tournament that there was “hardly a painted face, union jack, Saltire or ill-advised red, white and blue ensemble in sight.” They may go as far as to put it down to his strong Scottish determination if he continues to do well, which would prove that a message can be turned on its head. It just goes to show how reactions can change overnight based on performance, which is something we often find when measuring PR impact.

As for Murray’s image it’s been said that he’s been advised to be more like McEnroe than Henman yet one spectator commented: “I preferred Henman’s personality. He belonged to a time when Tennis was a little more refined.” Henman fitted in as he was more the English gent, though he was at times criticized for being just that and labeled “boring.” The firey Scot is slowly rallying the crowd as Boris Becker remarked: “the whole country is now expecting greatness from him.” I’m backing him, but then I am half-Scottish!