Assistant Manager - Public Relations, Sports
Assistant Manager – Public Relations (Sports)
Role Purpose
The Assistant Manager – PR (Sports) will own end-to-end media and narrative management for the sports portfolio, driving both flawless business-as-usual execution and two strategic step-changes for the function: building a credible, board-ready measurement framework that connects PR activity to business outcomes, and consistently generating high-impact ideas that create conversation around the brand — whether tied to a live event or standing entirely on their own. This is a role for someone who wants to move PR to a key business impact function & would relish the challenges by breaking new ground.
Key Responsibilities
1. Core Media & Reputation Management (BAU)
Own the day-to-day media relationship map across sports, business, and entertainment beats — print, digital, wires, broadcast, and key trade press.
Draft and manage the full press release lifecycle: announcements, statements, rights deals, and league/tournament news, ensuring message discipline and CXO sign-off standards. Partner with Corporate Communications in order to ensure alignment with the overall narrative of the organisation.
Build and maintain the media monitoring and daily clippings process; track share of voice, tonality, and competitive coverage.
Manage press conferences, media days, athlete/talent availabilities, and on-ground media logistics for marquee properties and events.
Prepare briefing notes, Q&A documents, and talking points for spokespersons and senior leadership ahead of interviews, panels, and press interactions.
Act as first point of contact for reactive and issues-management scenarios; draft holding statements and coordinate rapid-response with legal, business, and leadership stakeholders.
Manage PR agency and vendor relationships — briefing, output quality, timelines, and budget tracking.
Coordinate with digital/social teams to ensure earned media narratives are amplified and consistent across owned channels.
Maintain the always-on editorial and moments calendar aligned to the sporting season, tournament windows, and business milestones.
Support cross-functional stakeholders (business development, partnerships, legal, consulting engagements) with PR counsel on announcements and external-facing communication.
2. Strategic Mandate A — Pioneer PR Measurement of Business Impact
Design and stand up a first-of-its-kind measurement framework that moves the function beyond clippings and AVE toward metrics that speak to business impact
Define a scorecard and reporting cadence (event-level and quarterly) that can be presented at CXO level, consistent with existing performance reporting standards used across the marketing function.
Partner with data/analytics/media teams to source the inputs needed (media intelligence tools, brand tracking, digital analytics) and build the business case for any new tools or platforms required.
Establish before/after benchmarking for major PR moments so that impact can be demonstrated, not just asserted.
3. Strategic Mandate B — Big Idea Generation
Originate and pitch big, ownable ideas that generate conversation around marquee events, tournaments, and rights properties — going beyond standard announcement-led coverage.
Build a parallel stream of non-event-led ideas — cultural moments, data stories, athlete-led narratives, franchise storytelling — that keep the brand in conversation between events and reduce dependence on the live sporting calendar.
Translate ideas into pitchable formats (media exclusives, franchise content series, data/insight-led stories, stunts, partnerships) and take them from concept through execution with agencies and newsrooms.
Bring an external, culturally plugged-in point of view to team brainstorms — tracking what's cutting through in sports, entertainment, and youth culture, and adapting it for the brand.
What Success Looks Like
A functioning PR measurement dashboard that leadership references in business reviews, not just PR reviews.
At least a few large, distinctive ideas per quarter that get picked up organically — some event-anchored, some not — visibly shifting share of voice.
Zero-surprise reputation management: issues are anticipated, briefed, and handled before they escalate.
Media relationships strong enough that exclusives come to the team, not the other way around.
Requirements
Experience
3–5 years in PR/communications, with meaningful exposure to sports, entertainment, or a fast-moving consumer brand environment.
Agency-side or in-house experience both acceptable; agency-side candidates should show strong client/brand-side thinking.
Proven track record of media relationships that go beyond transactional pitching.
Experience supporting senior leadership/spokesperson communications.
Skills & Competencies
Sharp news judgment and an instinct for what makes a story, not just an announcement.
Strong articulation/communication/writing - able to flex between a crisp press release and a punchy pitch note.