For this interview I was able to contact Kent Brown.
Kent Brown is the Associate Athletic Director/Media Relations for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Below are the questions asked and his responses:
1. What are your responsibilities and how do these responsibilities integrate with marketing and business objectives for your organization and/or clients?
KB –“I direct the Athletics Communication office at the University of Illinois, coordinating all media-related activities for the UI Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. My office is the liaison between media and the Illinois teams, student-athletes, coaches and administrators. We also provide a vast majority of content for FIghtingIllini.com. Although we provide and work for “free” media, our staff works closely with our marketing and promotions staff in communicating messages to our fans and constituents. It is important that all of us who work in external groups are working together in helping drive revenue. The Athletics Communication office does not drive revenue, but we certainly help spread the word and help our fans stay engaged through various media outlets.”
2. What methods of communications does your organization use to reach their publics and how are they effective?
KB – “At Illinois, we use many different methods to communicate to our fans and constituents, including our website (FightingIllini.com), our social media accounts for the department and each sport, and traditional media outlets. Each is effective in its own way. Our website is visited by nearly 500,000 unique visitors each month, our social accounts are followed by nearly a quarter million people and fans, and the traditional media outlets (newspaper, radio, television outlets) can literally reach millions.”
3. What are some examples of communications strategies you have used to achieve success and what were the results?
KB – “A great example of social media use was the announcement that Lovie Smith would be the new Illinois football coach. Director of Athletics used a photo of himself with Lovie taken at the University of Illinois Memorial Stadium and sent it out via Twitter prior to the official press release. Word spread extremely fast as the posting was re-tweeted and shared hundreds, if not thousands, of times that morning.”
4. How has your public relations practice affected the reputation of your organization and/or clients?
KB – “I would like to think that my staff and department greatly enhances the reputation of the University of Illinois. We identify the positive stories of our student-athletes and programs, and distribute them to as many people as possible using all our different channels, including traditional and social media. We have developed positive relationships with media locally, regionally and nationally, to help get our story out. We all know that victories by our teams lead to more positive stories, but, as an elite institution of higher learning, we have tremendous stories to tell outside of the results on the field or court.”
