Headlines from my podcast with British Olympic Association’s Comms Director Scott Field
These were the big talking points when Scott joined me on my Delete Delete Engage podcast
A couple of weeks ago, I was delighted to welcome Scott Field as the latest guest on my Delete Delete Engage podcast.
Scott has established a successful career in sports marcomms. Having started his career in the broadcast industry, Scott went on to have a variety of roles in professional football, including Director of Marketing and Communications at Watford Football Club and Head of Communications at The FA.
Since 2016, he has been the Director responsible for communications, marketing, and digital at the British Olympic Association, more commonly known as Team GB.
Here are the headlines and big comms takeaways from my chat with Scott.
You can listen to the podcast here
On the 24/7 demands of football comms versus the event-driven nature of the Olympics
Scott describes football as “the national obsession” and an ‘always on’ environment and, as football’s national governing body, he shares that leading comms for the FA meant dealing with bureaucracy, governance, rules and regulations and a need to manage and engage multiple stakeholders.
He says that the BOA is by contrast a much calmer environment with more time to plan, strategise and deliver. He shares that the depth of planning that goes into supporting the Summer and Winter Olympics can be six or seven years in the making.
On the BOA being independent of Government
The BOA receives no annual funding from the lottery or government has no political interests and is dependent upon commercial income to achieve its mission.
Scott explains that the BOA’s independence of Government most famously came to bear in 1980 when the Government wanted the BOA and British athletes to join the USA team in boycotting the Moscow Olympics to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. GB ultimately didn’t boycott the Games because the BOA took its steer from the GB athletes who wanted to participate.
On planning for the greatest sporting event on earth.
With a little over 500 days to go until Paris 2024 at the time of recording, Scott says planning is “well advanced” and “from a performance perspective the team is set”.
He explains that they know the locations where the athletes will be staying and training and, from a marketing, comms and digital perspective, Scott’s team is refining the narrative that the BOA will take to the British public to drive awareness around the Games.
Although the Olympics event is huge, Scott explains that getting coverage in the build-up is often hard because you’re competing with so many other major events in the sporting calendar.
With that in mind, the first job for the team is to drive awareness that an Olympic Games is happening next year in France. The second job is showcasing the athlete stories which Scott describes as “the humble, everyday, extraordinary” athlete stories”.
(15:20) On the BOA’s relationship with athletes
Scott explains that on a day-to-day basis, the athletes are working within their sports. The BOA’s job is to amplify what is going on in Olympic sport in GB, particularly outside of Games time. This could be supporting (long jumper) Jasmin Sawyer’s story or (800 metre runner) Keeley Hodgkinson’s story through the BOA’s channels.
(17:30) On the importance of content and stories
Scott references Eve Muirhead winning the curling for Team GB in the Beijing Winter Olympics - the first to do so since Rhona Martn’s “stone of destiny”. Scott said that these moments inspire generations to take part in sports that otherwise might remain relatively unknown to the general public, so amplifying these stories when they happen becomes a crucial part of the job.
(19.29) On putting lesser-known sports in the spotlight
Scott explains that the BOA endeavours to be equitable with the way it covers all Olympics sports, but recognises that it has a duty to give coverage to sports that might otherwise struggle to achieve it. He explains that recent Team GB success has contributed to the challenge because we now have a few hundred individuals coming home with medals whereas in years gone by it may only have been a handful.
Part of the BOA’s role, therefore, is to support the athletes who don’t otherwise get their stories told in a media landscape often dominated by football, rugby and cricket.
The other challenge is ensuring that the Olympians know that there is value in their story, even if’s just a story that resonates in their local community.
Scott says: “These are everyday individuals who walk the same streets as us, shop in the same shops and drive the same cars, who achieve extraordinary things.”
(21.55) On Team GB’s diversity
Scott says that everyone should be able to look at Team GB and see something or somebody that resonates with them.
He explains “We’re diverse and if you put the sum of our parts together you’ll see four nations. We’re every part of the country, every accent, every size and shape and every age. “We have 13-year-old skateboarders and 65-year-old equestrians winning medals….and our job is to tell those stories back to the communities.”
Scott cites the example of the weightlifter Emily Campbell who was a relatively unknown athlete who was sponsored by the guy in the local shop, then, at the Tokyo Olympics became the first British woman to ever medal in the sport, and now features in TV ad campaigns.
On dealing with politics, pandemics and drug scandals
Scott says that when he joined the BOA in 2016 the last thing he ever expected was the prospect of postponing an Olympic Games, which very nearly happened with Tokyo 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
From boycotts to protests to drug scandals to terrorist attacks, the Olympics has had to deal with its fair share of controversy.
Scott shares the example of the loss of the Team GB sprint relay silver medals following the doping offense of athlete, CJ Ujah.
He says: “This isn’t happy work, but it’s important to put as much time and energy into a crisis as it is into the big positive stuff and the campaigns. You have to manage the crisis to give oxygen to the big, positive stuff.”
(28.32) On working closely with the BOA’s CEO and Chairman
Scott has a very close working relationship with the BOA’s CEO Andy Anson and Chairman Sir Hugh Roberton, who he says are both very experienced at communications and have good relationships with the media. He says that, when it comes to the big comms decisions, nobody does anything without anyone else’s knowledge or support, which he thinks is a healthy approach.
On his comms, marketing and digital team
Scott shares that the BOA organisation is made up of around 50 people and there are 13 in the comms, marketing and digital team outside of Games time. They grow to about 30 or 40 people with secondees and split the team between the London office and the Olympic base. Scott says that for the recent Rio, Beijing and Tokyo Games, the team were able to provide 24-hour coverage local team were in a timezone that was either 8hrs ahead or 8 hours behind the London office. But the Paris 2024 Games will be the first time he’ll have worked in a European time zone when supporting an Olympic event for the BOA.
On the role of the Olympic charter and the BOA’s relationship with other countries Committees
Scott says the BOA doesn’t have values it does take guidance from the Olympic Charter, which is the codification of the fundamental principles of Olympism, and the rules and bye-laws adopted by the International Olympic Committee.
He says: “While they don’t have the Olympic Charter open every day on our desks, we know it’s there and it’s a mandate”.
He adds: “You’d imagine that, because it’s sport, we’d work in an adversarial environment. “But our relationship with the Olympic Committees of the different countries is quite collegiate. The charter mandates it that way.
“For example, we can’t market Team GB outside of the UK. We respect each other's territories because we’re all supporting the Olympic movement.”
My next Delete Delete Engage podcast interview will land on April 21.