Sports marketers are, or will shortly, start planning promotional campaigns for Major League Baseball’s playoffs and World Series, for the beginning of the National Football League season and Super Bowl, and for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. For a PR staffer, being assigned to one of those accounts can be a good news, bad news career move because of three important aspects:

1. During my years in the PR business, a sought-after assignment by many staffers was to be assigned to a sports marketing program because they are thought to be glamorous. But being assigned to one can also be detrimental to a career. That’s because sports marketing programs are flagship accounts, and if they don’t work, the client and agency management will look for scapegoats.

2. PR people have the wrong impression about sports marketing accounts. Just because a person knows the difference between a home run and touchdown convinces many PR higher-ups that anyone can get meaningful results from a well-financed program. However, that is not true. Many journalists look askance when approached to do a story about a sports marketing program and most of these stories end up in trade or........

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