October 25, 2004
Mass marketer | In his new role as the Portland Pirates communications director, Greg Glynn juggles Web content, PR and radio play-by-play
By Sean Donahue
In many small businesses, "director of communications" is a catch-all title for the person who handles anything related to public relations, marketing, media relations and whatever else needs to be written or said. Even within the tradition of the multi-tasking communications director, though, few have taken on as many tasks as has Greg Glynn, the new communications director for the Portland Pirates.
Glynn, who joined the Pirates in June, is in charge of typical communications duties such as writing press releases for the Pirates management department, the team itself and the Portland Pirates Foundation, a charitable organization. But Glynn also is responsible for scheduling press conferences before and after games; compiling and editing the team's annual yearbook; writing player bios; tracking and updating team statistics; managing the Pirates website; and scheduling player appearances around the community. Not enough for you? In his role as "the voice of the Pirates," Glynn will call play-by-play for Pirates games on the radio this season.
Though Glynn, 23, only graduated from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., in June, neither working in hockey nor juggling the demands of both print and radio is new to him. While in college, Glynn was a beat writer for U.S. College Hockey Magazine and the radio announcer for Quinnipiac Bobcats hockey games.
Now, in his first job with a professional hockey team, Glynn's broad communications duties are part of a larger effort to raise the Pirates' profile and brand image in southern Maine. Last season, to help address declining ticket sales, the team conducted a survey of fans and non-fans to gauge the public's perception of the Pirates. Out of that survey came new initiatives such as reduced ticket prices and an effort to get the players out into the community more often.
Mainebiz caught up with Glynn a few days before the Pirates' opening night to find out just what the job entails and how he plans to manage his time. Not surprisingly, he says the first thing he did upon landing the job was buy himself a Palm Pilot to stay organized.
In your case, being communications director doesn't just mean putting out press releases from the management. You're also communicating directly to consumers through the website. How busy does the website keep you?
I update the website daily, at least to add new information about press conferences or other events. There's also a large front section news story that I like to change every other day.
But once the season starts the website will become a lot more demanding. I'll have to make sure the post-game story gets up as quickly as possible. People want it now ˆ they don't care that you have to pack up your radio equipment and get back to the office.
Fans are crazy, but it's great.
Our focus this year is on getting the guys out in the community more and creating a positive image, so I try to take care of every e-mail request that shows up in my e-mail box. I answer the "contact us" mailbox, and I probably get 100 e-mails a day ˆ people asking for autographs or asking where is a former Pirates player now. If I can't answer the question I'll pass it along to the right person in the office, because if people don't hear back from us that frustrates them, and that creates a bad image for the Pirates.
When you're writing press releases, updating statistics or promoting events on the website, are you thinking about that constant flow of information as part of the broader image-building effort?
Definitely. When there are community events or anything like that, it's important to let both the fans and the media know. We're putting a little more emphasis on that. When we tell the fans something, the media need to know too, so they can cover the event and get the PR out there ˆ publicize the fact that the Pirates are doing these things [to a larger audience] rather than the 50 people that might show up at the appearance. The more press we get out of it, the more people realize, "Oh, they were there last week. I wonder if they're going to be there again? I wonder what else they do?"
We have an "In the Community" part of our website that we try to update constantly. And we're going to make that a little more visible this year by adding some features to it. Rather than seeing, "The Pirates will be at so-and-so sports bar" ˆ that three sentence thing with the time and date ˆ we've designed listings so when you click on them you actually get a description of what's really going to take place. Are they going to be signing autographs? Are they going to be bartenders at a local bar?
For example, we had a Hannaford event where the guys were referees of the shopping cart races ˆ they had a great time, they were throwing penalty flags everywhere, and we have pictures from it. That's another thing: putting photos on the website. You can read all you want, but when you have a picture that shows a smile on a face, there's nothing like that.
I would say the one message through every [piece of communications] is "Get to know the Pirates."
You're not just publicizing those player appearances, you're also helping set them up. But since this is your first year, and the team only recently finalized its roster, do you feel like you know the players well enough yet to ask them to do these kinds of things?
That's a great question, because it's something we're trying to address with "Get to know the Pirates." Of all the major sports, there are two sports in which it's really difficult to promote players: one is football and the other is hockey. The reason is because they wear masks ˆ you can't see the players. It's even a little bit different in football because on the sidelines the guys take off their helmets. In hockey, you don't really take off your helmet.
So it's difficult for people to know the Pirates, and that's what I'm facing here. I've been around the players for about two weeks, and it's still difficult to pick certain guys out. I've got a majority of them down, but certainly the rookies and the free agents are guys that I'm still working on. I've been around them for two weeks and I still don't know them, so imagine the fans who are going to try to do it. That's what's important about the community involvement, too, because now you're going to see Jason Ulmer [the Pirates' center, who was the team's second-highest scorer last year] come into the sports bar and you're going to know who he is.
In addition to all the writing and the event scheduling, you're also calling the games for the radio on WJAB. Do you envision using your play-by-play chatter as another important marketing or promotional channel?
I think it's very helpful that I'm involved with everything that I am in the office, and I know it will carry over into my play-by-play as far as messaging. Anything that goes on in the office I'm going to know in the back of my mind as I do a broadcast. So if I want to promote a certain event and I feel it's appropriate at that time, boom, there it is. Maybe Jason Ulmer scores a goal, and I can say, "Gosh, that's a great goal by Jason," and talk about how Jason's a great guy and was out at a community event last week and how those fans who met him must really appreciate what Jason just did there.
That's what I think is going to happen and I think it's going to be great because it's going to allow for people to listen to the games and know what's also going on outside the arena.
Doing play-by-play commentary is pretty obscure skill that I doubt many corporate communications directors have. How did you learn how to do it?
I had a back injury in high school, so after two years of high school hockey I had to stop playing. That was devastating to me, because it's the game you love and then you can't play it anymore. Then my friend and I got together and said, "Why don't we broadcast the games on local access TV?" And we pulled it off. It was a gong show, but it was pretty funny, and it was experience.
So I did two years in high school [broadcasting on public access]. Then when I came to Quinnipiac, and to be able to say to them I had two years of experience ˆ you don't get that often, so I was broadcasting games my freshman year.
As the play-by-play guy, you don't just need to know the Pirates players and all of their stats, you need to know everything about the opposing team. How much time do you spend preparing for a broadcast?
At Quinnipiac it was about six or seven hours of prep time. Here, it's going to be more like 25 to 30 hours combined throughout the week. That includes everything from getting rosters, studying the names, doing the game notes and updating statistics on the website ˆ everything that will contribute to my broadcast. As far as game day, I need at least four hours [of preparation] to feel comfortable going into a broadcast.
With all your other communications duties, how are you going to find that much time to prepare?
We haven't had a game yet, so I'm giving you these numbers and it could change tomorrow and it'll be one hour [laughs]. That's what I would like to do, and I know it's going to be difficult to do, but we'll find a way to get it done.
To take this all on and put in the kind of hours you're likely to be putting in this season, I guess it goes without saying that you really love hockey.
It's a passion, and a level of passion that a lot of my friends and sometimes my close family don't understand. They sometimes say "You're crazy," but this is something that I love.
Glynn, who joined the Pirates in June, is in charge of typical communications duties such as writing press releases for the Pirates management department, the team itself and the Portland Pirates Foundation, a charitable organization. But Glynn also is responsible for scheduling press conferences before and after games; compiling and editing the team's annual yearbook; writing player bios; tracking and updating team statistics; managing the Pirates website; and scheduling player appearances around the community. Not enough for you? In his role as "the voice of the Pirates," Glynn will call play-by-play for Pirates games on the radio this season.
Though Glynn, 23, only graduated from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., in June, neither working in hockey nor juggling the demands of both print and radio is new to him. While in college, Glynn was a beat writer for U.S. College Hockey Magazine and the radio announcer for Quinnipiac Bobcats hockey games.
Now, in his first job with a professional hockey team, Glynn's broad communications duties are part of a larger effort to raise the Pirates' profile and brand image in southern Maine. Last season, to help address declining ticket sales, the team conducted a survey of fans and non-fans to gauge the public's perception of the Pirates. Out of that survey came new initiatives such as reduced ticket prices and an effort to get the players out into the community more often.
Mainebiz caught up with Glynn a few days before the Pirates' opening night to find out just what the job entails and how he plans to manage his time. Not surprisingly, he says the first thing he did upon landing the job was buy himself a Palm Pilot to stay organized.
In your case, being communications director doesn't just mean putting out press releases from the management. You're also communicating directly to consumers through the website. How busy does the website keep you?
I update the website daily, at least to add new information about press conferences or other events. There's also a large front section news story that I like to change every other day.
But once the season starts the website will become a lot more demanding. I'll have to make sure the post-game story gets up as quickly as possible. People want it now ˆ they don't care that you have to pack up your radio equipment and get back to the office.
Fans are crazy, but it's great.
Our focus this year is on getting the guys out in the community more and creating a positive image, so I try to take care of every e-mail request that shows up in my e-mail box. I answer the "contact us" mailbox, and I probably get 100 e-mails a day ˆ people asking for autographs or asking where is a former Pirates player now. If I can't answer the question I'll pass it along to the right person in the office, because if people don't hear back from us that frustrates them, and that creates a bad image for the Pirates.
When you're writing press releases, updating statistics or promoting events on the website, are you thinking about that constant flow of information as part of the broader image-building effort?
Definitely. When there are community events or anything like that, it's important to let both the fans and the media know. We're putting a little more emphasis on that. When we tell the fans something, the media need to know too, so they can cover the event and get the PR out there ˆ publicize the fact that the Pirates are doing these things [to a larger audience] rather than the 50 people that might show up at the appearance. The more press we get out of it, the more people realize, "Oh, they were there last week. I wonder if they're going to be there again? I wonder what else they do?"
We have an "In the Community" part of our website that we try to update constantly. And we're going to make that a little more visible this year by adding some features to it. Rather than seeing, "The Pirates will be at so-and-so sports bar" ˆ that three sentence thing with the time and date ˆ we've designed listings so when you click on them you actually get a description of what's really going to take place. Are they going to be signing autographs? Are they going to be bartenders at a local bar?
For example, we had a Hannaford event where the guys were referees of the shopping cart races ˆ they had a great time, they were throwing penalty flags everywhere, and we have pictures from it. That's another thing: putting photos on the website. You can read all you want, but when you have a picture that shows a smile on a face, there's nothing like that.
I would say the one message through every [piece of communications] is "Get to know the Pirates."
You're not just publicizing those player appearances, you're also helping set them up. But since this is your first year, and the team only recently finalized its roster, do you feel like you know the players well enough yet to ask them to do these kinds of things?
That's a great question, because it's something we're trying to address with "Get to know the Pirates." Of all the major sports, there are two sports in which it's really difficult to promote players: one is football and the other is hockey. The reason is because they wear masks ˆ you can't see the players. It's even a little bit different in football because on the sidelines the guys take off their helmets. In hockey, you don't really take off your helmet.
So it's difficult for people to know the Pirates, and that's what I'm facing here. I've been around the players for about two weeks, and it's still difficult to pick certain guys out. I've got a majority of them down, but certainly the rookies and the free agents are guys that I'm still working on. I've been around them for two weeks and I still don't know them, so imagine the fans who are going to try to do it. That's what's important about the community involvement, too, because now you're going to see Jason Ulmer [the Pirates' center, who was the team's second-highest scorer last year] come into the sports bar and you're going to know who he is.
In addition to all the writing and the event scheduling, you're also calling the games for the radio on WJAB. Do you envision using your play-by-play chatter as another important marketing or promotional channel?
I think it's very helpful that I'm involved with everything that I am in the office, and I know it will carry over into my play-by-play as far as messaging. Anything that goes on in the office I'm going to know in the back of my mind as I do a broadcast. So if I want to promote a certain event and I feel it's appropriate at that time, boom, there it is. Maybe Jason Ulmer scores a goal, and I can say, "Gosh, that's a great goal by Jason," and talk about how Jason's a great guy and was out at a community event last week and how those fans who met him must really appreciate what Jason just did there.
That's what I think is going to happen and I think it's going to be great because it's going to allow for people to listen to the games and know what's also going on outside the arena.
Doing play-by-play commentary is pretty obscure skill that I doubt many corporate communications directors have. How did you learn how to do it?
I had a back injury in high school, so after two years of high school hockey I had to stop playing. That was devastating to me, because it's the game you love and then you can't play it anymore. Then my friend and I got together and said, "Why don't we broadcast the games on local access TV?" And we pulled it off. It was a gong show, but it was pretty funny, and it was experience.
So I did two years in high school [broadcasting on public access]. Then when I came to Quinnipiac, and to be able to say to them I had two years of experience ˆ you don't get that often, so I was broadcasting games my freshman year.
As the play-by-play guy, you don't just need to know the Pirates players and all of their stats, you need to know everything about the opposing team. How much time do you spend preparing for a broadcast?
At Quinnipiac it was about six or seven hours of prep time. Here, it's going to be more like 25 to 30 hours combined throughout the week. That includes everything from getting rosters, studying the names, doing the game notes and updating statistics on the website ˆ everything that will contribute to my broadcast. As far as game day, I need at least four hours [of preparation] to feel comfortable going into a broadcast.
With all your other communications duties, how are you going to find that much time to prepare?
We haven't had a game yet, so I'm giving you these numbers and it could change tomorrow and it'll be one hour [laughs]. That's what I would like to do, and I know it's going to be difficult to do, but we'll find a way to get it done.
To take this all on and put in the kind of hours you're likely to be putting in this season, I guess it goes without saying that you really love hockey.
It's a passion, and a level of passion that a lot of my friends and sometimes my close family don't understand. They sometimes say "You're crazy," but this is something that I love.
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