Plus: The latest on the war in Iran; betting site Kalshi woos women.
It’s the kind of piece PR pros dream of.
The New York Times profile has the perfect headline for a comeback story: “24 Hours With Nike’s C.E.O. as He Races to Win Back the Sports World.” There’s a glowing, above-the-fold quote from Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the head of the Qatar sovereign wealth fund’s sports investment organization that also owns French soccer team Paris Saint-Germain: “Since he arrived, he changed everything at Nike. It was tough before.”
Elliott Hill casually shows off texts with Michael Jordan. He draws direct parallels between himself and Nike co-founder Phil Knight. He jet sets from Monaco to Barcelona.
Sure, there’s business analysis too, as you’d expect from a Times piece. It acknowledges the difficulties Nike has faced: A shift away from its core ties to the athletic community, losses in the competitive running space, tanking stock prices and layoffs.
But overall, the story can only be read as a masterful expression of Nike’s turnaround philosophy, with Hill at the center. Throughout the piece, he’s wooing athletes, bemoaning the lack of sneakers at the Winter Olympics and examining the footwear of people in the streets.
“Just like in sport, we keep score,” said Hill in the quote that closes out the piece.
Why it matters: We aren’t privy to the behind-the-scenes bargaining that led to this piece. We don’t know who pitched who. But we do know that the day was carefully orchestrated and Hill was briefed and trained to up the likelihood of this positive coverage that so naturally conveys Nike’s talking points for its transformation.
From the choreography of the day — major sporting event with brand partner, multiple meetings with athletes, visits to retail stores — to the vetted, rehearsed and recalled lines delivered during the course of a 24-hour visit with the reporter, every detail was designed to support Nike’s narrative.
This is why PR is so powerful. By filtering their messaging through the Times rather than in their own video newsroom piece, they gain huge credibility. With careful preparation, their own messaging shines through even as the reporter adds context and depth.
It only worked because Hill’s PR team prepped him, and Hill was able to execute on the media training.
Editor’s Top Reads:
- The war in Iran shows no signs of abating. Over the weekend, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was chosen as the next leader of the country in a move that is being interpreted as defiance. President Donald Trump has demanded an unconditional surrender to stop the attacks on Iran, and Khamenei’s choice seems to signal no such intention. Meanwhile, global markets tumbled, led by a sharp increase in oil prices to more than $120 a barrel as ships remain unable to safely traverse the Strait of Hormuz. The PR implications? This isn’t shaping up to be a quick strike and exit. All signs point to this being a more drawn-out conflict, which could have a significant impact on businesses of all kinds, almost all of whom rely on oil and gas in some way. Buckle in, understand your risk exposures and get ready for the long haul.
- Kalshi began as a sports betting site. But now the company is trying to extend beyond its roots to encourage people to bet on all manner of things, such as whether Ed Sheeran will have a No. 1 album or whether Taylor Swift will use the word “ring” in an appearance. To do that, they’ll need to win over women. Kalshi is moving aggressively with a number of influencer campaigns, advertisements and in-person watch parties of shows like “The Bachelor.” “The whole premise [of prediction markets] is the wisdom of the crowd,” said Aggie Rozite, a paid influencer for Kalshi. “You can’t have only half the population giving wisdom.” The plan to shift the male-dominated prediction markets to include women is an ambitious (and obvious) growth plan. Shifting the focus from sports to pop culture is also the obvious route to wooing women. But will it be enough to get women to jump into the uncertain world of betting? Or is something more needed beyond simply “feminizing” the nature of the bets?
- As governments become more and more interested in protecting children from the dangers of the internet, that’s coming with a price for adults online: privacy. It also leaves many companies, ranging from social media to vendors, in the role of enforcer, implementing systems and explaining to users over 18 how their data will be collected, used and stored. Some companies, like Discord, have already stumbled, angering users as they sought to balance protecting kids and safeguarding adult privacy. Snapchat owner Snap suggested that social media platforms should not be responsible for collecting this information at all: “We believe there are better, more privacy-conscious solutions such as mandating age verification at the primary point of entry — the device, operating system, or app store level,” they told CNBC. This kind of approach may help soften the PR blow against individual companies by allowing them to work in concert, with no individual organization forced to take the full brunt of public blowback. Sometimes, there’s safety in numbers.
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
The post The Scoop: NYT interview with Nike’s Elliott Hill shows art of CEO profile appeared first on PR Daily.
