The Role of Strategic Communication in Sport Events
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The role of strategic communication in sport events The challenges of the PR RACE in attracting amateur athletes to distance running events in Romania Master Thesis, 15 hp Author: Elena-Maria Vavilov Media and Communication Science Tutor: Fredrik Stiernstedt with Specialisation in Examiner: Karin Wennström International Communication Semester: VT 2018 JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY Master Thesis, 15 credits School of Education and Communication Course: International Communication Box 1026, SE-551 11 Jönköping, Sweden Term: Spring 2018 +46 (0)36 101000 ABSTRACT Writer: Elena-Maria Vavilov Title: The role of strategic communication in sport events Subtitle: The challenges of the PR RACE in attracting amateur athletes to distance running events in Romania Language: English Pages: 36 This year will be the 110th since the first time that athletes ran the exact distance of 42.195 km at the Olympic Games in London, the length known today as the standard distance for a marathon. Since then, the world of distance competitions has gone through remarkable transformations in structure, vision, strategy and location. Attending distance running events is a social global phenomenon, and thousands became hundreds of thousands in terms of participation rate. Starting 1980 the sport communication research experienced an exponential growth due to fast technological changes in sport events organization and promotion channels. The aim of this current research is to study the role of strategic communication in attracting amateur runners to engage in distance races, and the concept of Intelligence-led PR and its functionality during the challenges faced by PR practitioners. The concept is part of strategic communication theory and it has a key role in the communication process due to the significant social and economic impact of these events on the participants’ life and on the local markets. The study will focus on the content and data analysis of two distance running competitions organized in 2016 in Romania. The data collection was made by conducting two interviews with the representatives of the biggest sport event organizers in Romania - Bucharest RUNNING Club Association and Media Production Group, and examining several market reports. The main conclusions of this Master thesis are that research and planning, as well as using modern communication tools and new technologies, as part of strategic communication, have helped the big sport event organizers to reach targeted audiences, form and shape public’s perception about recreational activities and engage people to participate in running competitions. Another finding is that PR Intelligence, as a concept of strategic communication, is represented by a set of knowledge that can be gained both by education and relevant practice and makes this type of communication essential for an organization becoming one of the essential managerial functions. Keywords: sport communication, strategic communication, Public Relations Intelligence, marathon, distance running, Romania, Facebook Table of contents 1. Introduction, aims and motivation ........................................................................ 3 1.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3 1.2. Background ......................................................................................................... 4 1.2.1. Running phenomenon in Romania ................................................................. 4 1.3. Research purpose and questions ...................................................................... 6 1.4. Personal motivation and arguments for the specific topic .............................. 7 2. Research review ..................................................................................................... 8 2.1. The running boom waves ................................................................................... 8 2.2. The link with distance running events in Romania ........................................... 9 2.3. Social world of amateur athletes ...................................................................... 10 2.4. Strategic communication in organizations...................................................... 11 3. Theoretical framework and concepts ................................................................. 12 3.1. PR and theories of communication ................................................................. 12 3.2. The value of strategic communication in running events .............................. 15 3.3. Intelligence-led PR concept .............................................................................. 17 3.4. PR - a systematic cyclical process conceptualized as RACE ........................ 17 4. Methodology ......................................................................................................... 18 4.1. Methodological background ............................................................................. 18 4.2. Methods and data collection ............................................................................ 20 4.2.1. Interviewing the biggest sport event organizers in Romania ...................... 20 4.2.2. Market reports used for qualitative analysis ................................................ 21 A. Bucharest International Marathon ...................................................................... 21 B. RACE TO NATURE Trail and Family Run ........................................................... 22 C. Communication channels ................................................................................... 23 5. Data presentation and analysis ........................................................................... 24 5.1. Bucharest Marathon: from pioneering to strategic communication .............. 24 5.2. Taking runners out of the city: RACE TO NATURE Trail & Family Run ........ 27 5.3. PR challenges in attracting people to distance running events .................... 31 5.4. Effects of “breaking out” and public engagement .......................................... 33 6. Results and discussions ..................................................................................... 34 6.1. Implementing strategic communication in running events ............................ 34 6.2. PR practitioners need to embrace technologic revolution ............................. 36 7. Conclusions ......................................................................................................... 37 References................................................................................................................ 39 List of Appendix Tables ........................................................................................... 44 List of Appendix Figures ......................................................................................... 45 1. Introduction, aims and motivation 1.1. Introduction Running a long-distance or a distance race has become, with predilection in the last three decades, a life target for millions of people worldwide. Whether they go alone or in a group, choosing indoor or outdoor environment like parks or forest trails, lots of people put on their running shoes and exercise or “jog” almost daily. And this activity has become an important side of human lifestyle and communities (Scheerder et al., 2015). Today, there are thousands of distance running races registered in the annual global calendars, apart from the Olympics editions, and a few nations remain that don’t have their own marathon. People around the world are embracing the running philosophy and are willing to travel and compete in some of the most iconic cities in the world. They plan their training, budget and their entire life a year ahead or more just to have the satisfaction of living the runner’s dream, crossing the finish line, proudly wearing the medal and telling the world about it. This Master thesis considers the role of strategic communication in the running events for amateur athletes and the analysis will focus on communication plans and how they were implemented by the biggest Romanian sport event organizers in relation to the empirical cases chosen: two distance running competitions, road and trail. The first goal of this study is to closely investigate the local market from the perspective of these two events, which represents a novelty in terms of research in the field of sport communication. Secondly, the desire is that the analysis will bring more insights into the social dimension of the local running phenomenon and to outline the profile of Romanian amateur runners. Finally, the goal is to argue in favour of the idea and necessity of strategic thinking and action in sports communication, with the hope that the results and findings of this document will serve as examples and knowledge for PR specialists in the field. The first part of Introduction includes a background consisting of: a quick overview of the birth of the running phenomenon in the 20th century and its social, cultural and economic dimensions; a brief introduction of the mass events spread in Romania, the biggest country and market in the South-Eastern Europe and of the main sport event organizers. The second part of the chapter is dedicated to the research purpose and questions, emphasizing on the role and value of strategic communication in running competitions and briefly illustrates some of the challenges met by the PR practitioners during the communication process. The third part consists