PR Lessons from Baseball and Tennis This Week

Written By Kelly Jefferson Minty

Newsletter #87

This Week:

  1. Crisis Communications from the U.S. Open

  2. ICYMI: Astronomer’s Similar Situation

  3. Brand Snippets

  4. Before We Go…

1. A Tennis Match, a Hat, and a Crisis Response Gone Awry

The US Open is underway, and this year’s tournament is also serving up some great lessons in communications and marketing strategy. One match provided an important case study in crisis response.

After his match against Karen Khachanov, Polish player Kamil Majchrzak greeted fans and handed his hat toward a young boy in the stands. Instead of the child receiving it, an adult man quickly snatched the hat.

Majchrzak didn’t catch the moment, but someone sure did. The moment was captured on video and posted to TikTok. It went viral.

2. ICYMI: Astronomer’s Crisis Response

Ourheadline story is all about how time is the enemy when you’re embroiled in viral online firestorm. Astronomer learned this same lesson just a few short months ago.

While this story highlights their eventual response in hiring Gwyneth Paltrow, their initial response timeline was similarly slow, leaving opportunities for their audience to drive the narrative on their behalf.

3. Brand Snippets

Here’s another lesson from the US Open. For two sets, Taylor Fritz, the top American tennis player playing in the quarterfinals, wore his Boss headband upside down. He lost. This was Boss’s response. A beautiful example of a brand quickly capitalizing on a moment in a clever and playful way.

Was it coordinated in advance? We may never know, but either way – a smart move!

H/T to Sarah McGowan for the find.

And one final sports story for you this week, this one from baseball.

At a Phillies game this week, a father and his son were startled when a woman, now dubbed the “Phillies Karen,” demanded the home run ball the man had snagged for his son. To avoid a greater conflict, the man handed it over.

A “bravo” goes to the Phillies team who spotted the incident, tracked down the father-son duo, and treated them with a signed bat, bag of swag, and a meet and greet with the player who had hit the ball.

A great response that was rewarded with positive PR coverage.

4. Before We Go…

Resource: Capitalize My Title

  • Never remember if “at” should be capitalized in AP style? (Guilty) There’s a tool for that!

From Axios: Trump administration trolls former White House officials on LinkedIn

  • The official White House "company" page on LinkedIn replaced the traditional White House logo with a photo of President Trump. This means that all those who have listed previous work experience at the White House, regardless of the administration they worked in, will have Trump’s face on their profile.

From Thomas McKinlay on LinkedIn: Want to charge premium prices?

  • Here are some research-backed marketing tips that will help your customers be more willing to pay top dollar.

Business Insider: Gap CEO says its viral denim campaign stacked 400 online million views and declare it a cultural takeover.

  • This seemed to be the summer of the denim wars with Lucky, American Eagle, and Gap all hiring high profile celebrities in their ad campaigns with Addison Rae, Sydney Sweeney, and Katseye, respectively. Gap is declaring itself the winner.

We don’t know much about sports, but we DO know a lot about sports PR. Forward this to someone who would love to stay in the know.

Kelly Jefferson Minty
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Happy Labor Day!