The Message Goalkeeper

 

A football enthusiast himself, Ben is currently the PR and Communications Manager in Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA).

 

After graduating from PolyU with the Bachelor degree in Language and Communication (now Chinese and Bilingual Studies), Ben had worked with Microsoft and Samsung in the area of “marcomm”, which he mainly focused on product marketing as well as CSR project management.

 

With years of experience in MNCs, Ben was ready to hit the ground running when he joined HKFA in 2015. It was, however, quite a tough row to hoe as the fallout from the ‘poster incident’ that sparked political resentment and racial discrimination continued to pose a great challenge. While Ben knew there wasn’t any silver bullet in solving the convoluted issue, he strived to make a change.

 

His holistic communication approach included official statement release, media interview and social media campaign with the use of viral hashtag to address the issue and change negative perception, a strategic approach that he described as a shift from “reactive to proactive”.

 

This unusual PR fight back from HKFA – as the representative body of Hong Kong Football, stood out and spoke for Hong Kong people, were proved to be well appreciated by the public. The result? HKFA survived the crisis and gained even more popularity among general public – non-football audience are turned into fans, full house record attained for several local matches, social media fan page almost doubled the number of followers.

 

“We help Hong Kong Football to get back its pride and win back the heart of public. The way we dealt with the issue using proper communication strategy is crucial.”

 

Ben acknowledged that establishing proper communication channels and maintaining good media relations are of utmost importance for his role. To him, PR duty resembles a goalkeeper – “It saves a company or an organization from crises.”

 

Finally, Ben encouraged CBS graduates who have a natural aptitude for connecting with people and possess outstanding written and oral communication skills to join the industry.

 

“Ultimately, I hope everyone is a football fan.”

Perhaps apart from professional knowledge, keeping the passion burning is what will drive motivation and bring concrete result at the end. As the saying goes, follow your passion and success will follow.