Post by Nicole Cho for June 25, 2013
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With the grand opening of their retail store in Wimbledon Village approaching (took place this past weekend), right before Day 1 of Wimbledon, Natalie and I were completely wrapped up with contacting media outlets in London to alert them of the event. Considering my passion for PR, MSBA couldn’t have placed me in a more perfect internship than with NPM | PR.
I’ve quickly realized that one of the main benefits of interning with a smaller independent company is that I’m able to be part of a process from start to finish rather than being one of the countless assisting hands on a given project and not being able to see the end product or result. Regarding the grand opening of Prince Tennis’ store in Wimbledon Village, I got to see firsthand how publicists such as Natalie reach out to major media outlets and organize for reporters to make an appearance at a given event, resulting in valuable media coverage and publicity for the company/brand.
One of the major British media outlets I contacted on behalf of Natalie was Sky Sports, who responded that they were interested in sending one of their reporters to the event. It was really interesting seeing Natalie arrange for the Sky Sports reporter to have a private interview with renowned tennis coach Nick Bollettieri of the Bollettieri Tennis Academy, as he was making a guest appearance at the grand opening along with John Isner and the Bryan brothers. Monday was an extremely rewarding day as lots of positive media coverage was published about the opening of Prince Tennis’ Wimbledon Village Store by major media outlets, such as Sports Business Daily’s Global Edition.
With Prince Tennis looking to generate new excitement and global attention around their brand and determined to stay a step ahead of their competitors, I could see how crucial it was to have a PR team or publicist who could ensure that the rest of the world heard and took notice of the company’s latest endeavors. As for my internship at Harlem Junior Tennis, I got the unbelievable opportunity to work at their 41st Anniversary Celebration gala and Celebrity Pro-AM tennis tournament. At the gala, I got to check in influential individuals such as Patrick McEnroe and Herb Williams; it was amazing being in the presence of people such as them and to hear personal stories from the students of Harlem Junior Tennis about what the program has done to improve their lives on and off the court.
The day after the gala was Harlem Junior Tennis’ Celebrity tennis tournament, which took place at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center out in Flushing Meadows. The best moment of working the tennis tournament was having the once in a lifetime experience of standing on Arthur Ashe Stadium, right in the middle of center court. Since I idolize players such as Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova that have played and won the U.S. Open on the very court I got the opportunity to stand on, it was a moment that I knew I’d never forget. I can easily say after my first three weeks in MSBA that each new week continues to top the last.
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