Football manager Ian Holloway wins a PR Week award

Ex-labour spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, presented the PR Week awards last night the first of which went to Blackpool FC manager Ian Holloway who received one of the loudest cheers of the night.

Campbell wrote on is blog: “Some of the judges were worried that their peers would not quite understand why football manager Ian Holloway was being so honoured – indeed Mr Holloway himself felt the same – but their concerns were misplaced, even before the video highlights of his best outbursts were shown.

Over dinner the Blackpool manager who brought a breath of fresh air to the Premier League and whose after match interviews became must viewing for football fans and comms students alike, gave me his version of how he developed his own unique brand of interview style. He credited two life changing events, both of which required him to make huge changes in attitude and lifestyle. The first was his wife’s cancer. The second was the discovery that due to a genetic condition, his three daughters were all born profoundly deaf. The first of these taught him the value of life, the second the importance of clarity in communication. Holloway’s appeal is that in a world fed up with pre-packaged everything, he says what he thinks, and thereby passes the number one rule of communication -authenticity.”

Take a look at this compilation of interview snippets and see if you agree.