Daily Sport calls in Brave for rebranding exercise

by Gemma O'Reilly, PR Week UK 10-Apr-08, 06:00

Brave PR is to relaunch the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers after winning a keenly contested three-way pitch.

The agency has been brought on board by Sport Media Group to handle a raft of trade and consumer PR activity for both brands.

Brave PR is to reposition the newspapers with emphasis on a new magazine-style format and content.

It will also be communicating the editorial and design changes to attract more mainstream advertisers and retailers as part of its trade brief.

Sport Newspapers editor-in-chief Barry McIlheney said: 'This is an important step for Sport Newspapers as we relaunch to create the UK's first "newszine", a daily mix of news and magazine content. Brave PR has demonstrated sound strategy and strong creative ideas. Its specialist knowledge of our target audiences will help us to deliver on what we have set out to achieve.'

The account will be headed up by Brave PR director Sam Bowen, who said: 'We will help relaunch this great British institution, one that once was and will again be at the forefront of lads' media. Our work, to re-educate consumers, retailers and advertisers about Sport Newspapers, will have a direct influence on circulation and sales and there is no better evaluation model in our industry than that.'

The relaunch follows the appointments of former Loaded founder James Brown as the papers' consultant editor-in-chief last November and former Emap publisher McIlheney as editor-in-chief in January.

The Daily Sport has a circulation of 100,055 readers, according to ABC figures for the period 28 January 2008 to 24 February 2008.