The Warehouse, 47-49 Cowleaze Road, Kingston Upon Thames, KT2 6DZ
+44 (0)208 541 3434

Performance Communications celebrates new women’s sport division with offer of £20,000 consultancy Boost

Performance Communications Author Image Performance Communications | December 7, 2020

  • £20,000 consultancy support up for grabs for one UK female athlete, team or organisation
  • Nicola McKelvey to head up new Women’s Sport division

Sports, Automotive and Technology communications consultancy, Performance Communications, is celebrating the launch of its new Women’s Sport division by offering £20,000 worth of consultancy to one lucky winner.

Performance has joined with its partner digital agency Frisson Creative, sports sponsorship specialists WH Sports and two-time Olympic gold medallist Victoria Pendleton to launch Boost – the Women’s Sport Accelerator​. On offer to the winner is a combination of proactive media relations, media training, social media support and sponsorship consultancy.

Victoria Pendleton commented: “Women’s sport has come so far over the past few years but I know there is a lot of untapped potential, not just from a sporting point of view but also with the athletes themselves. I’m a big fan of women encouraging each other and I’m looking forward to sharing my experience and supporting the winner of this programme.”

The new department will be headed by senior consultant, Nicola McKelvey. Nicola joined Performance in 2013 and has worked closely with the founders Charlie Raincock and Andy Francis to help grow the business. Previously she was at Visa where she headed up consumer and sponsorship PR across Europe.

Nicola McKelvey said: “I’m a huge supporter of women’s sport. Having recently worked with the Women’s Sport Trust on its #unlocked campaign, I was reminded of the value it brings to young people, the role models it provides and the excitement of watching the sporting action. However, it still has huge potential to realise, and I can’t wait to help our clients harness this growth and navigate the opportunities it offers.

“We hope Boost will attract applications from a wide range of people involved in women’s sport, which like all sport has been hit hard by the pandemic. The next 12 months will be vital in terms of the recovery of live sport and we’re looking forward to being part of that journey.”

Performance Communications has recently been supporting Skoda with its DSI Cycling Academy and #thisisourtime initiative. It has also previously worked with female athletes and teams at every level from Martina Navratilova for Laureus, Fran Halsall for Multipower and the Arsenal women’s team for Citroën, to the national U15 girls’ football cup on behalf of Tesco.

Charlie Raincock, Joint Managing Director, said: “Having worked in the industry for 20 years, it’s been captivating to watch the growth of women’s sport. As a business, we are fuelled by the passion of our team and Nicola’s enthusiasm across our existing women’s sport projects has been infectious. Creating a division under her makes perfect sense to enable us better to help women’s sport continue its growth trajectory.”

Boost – the Women’s Sport Accelerator is open to female athletes, women’s teams or organisations in the UK who need help raising their profile.

The prize will comprise six months’ proactive media relations support and include:
· A kick-off messaging session
· The creation of a 60-second promotional video
· Media training session
· Mentoring session with Victoria Pendleton
· Social media workshop by Frisson Creative
· Sponsorship consultancy introduction and proposal development guidance by WH Sports Group

Entries are via: www.performancecomms.com/boost-womens-sport


Related stories.

Don’t be distracted by the citations noise

A recent study by AIVO says citations are noise. Run the same prompts three times, and it reports that the cited sources change 95.8% of the time. They then go on to identify that the brand recommended (after multiple follow-up questions) changes only 14.6% of the time. The implication is that brands measuring how they […]

Do you know which pages on your website AI assistants actually rely on?

Most brands don’t. We looked at 62k AI answers to car-buying questions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overview in the last three months. A few things stood out: • Manufacturers’ own sites are just 6.2% of what AI cites. Media, dealers, leasing sites and forums make up the rest. • Within that small […]

Authenticity is king on social, but agility will be crucial as big changes loom

When you think of influencer brand collaborations, you probably think of Instagram, right? Take it back to the noughties, when bloggers were busy building followings and communities around fashion, food, lifestyle and more. Brands quickly took note of their unique, authentic voices and the relationships they had built with their audiences – offering an alternative […]

Is Reddit worth the effort for AI visibility?

Reddit is the only forum that really registers (72% of forum citations over the last month) for AI tools, but it’s still a small slice: only about 6% of AI answers cite it. So, what pulls it in? Three question themes lead: practicality, reliability and electric. Together, they account for 37% of all Reddit citations. […]

Clubs risk driving away fans through underinvestment in their stadium experience

Ten years ago, our Future of the Sports Fan report highlighted how fans had increasingly high expectations of the live sporting experience. Today, Arsenal’s plans to modernise the Emirates Stadium shows just how seriously some clubs are taking that challenge a decade on. Despite being only 20 years old, the stadium is set for upgrades […]

How Automotive Awards Are Shaping AI Visibility

According to Engine Room, the RAC editorial pages are the fifth-most cited domain in AI search with the likes of ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AIO and Perplexity behind CarWow, What Car?, Auto Express and YouTube. This year saw the launch of the RAC New Car Awards. So how did this impact its AI visibility? RAC announced […]

AI Search Is the New Top of the Funnel for Automotive Brands

AI search is now the top of the funnel for car sales. Rather than a page of links and magazines off the shelves, car buyers are asking ChatGPT. And those clicking through from AI are four times more likely to convert. It means understanding how you’re appearing on AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and […]

What Makes AI Recommend One Car Brand Over Another?

We know that online search is changing as car buyers switch to AI over traditional search engines when researching their next vehicle. So what makes ChatGPT and other LLMs surface one car brand over another? The answer starts with consistency. A consistent brand voice across every digital touchpoint – your own digital content, social media channels […]

Be Bold.

It’s time to come off the fence:


Message us