Are we finally starting to see Starmer’s plans for sport?

Team of the Week - 27.06.25

Behind the Bowls: The PR Push That Delivered 24,000 New Players

JJ Spaun and Bath Rugby both secured huge wins this week. For Bath, it was a win on and off the pitch, announcing a three-year contract extension for Finn Russell. Mimi Rhodes continues her heroic debut season on the Women’s PGA Tour, and Mondo Duplantis is doing what only Mondo Duplantis can.

9 April marks four years of New Reach. It’s been a remarkable journey so far, with much more to come. Our MD and Founder, Nick Rewcastle, reflects on the milestone. If you said to me four years ago, that I would be writing this post, I may not have believed you. When we set out, we had a clear mission; to make a difference in the development of sports, talent, and communities through ethical, impactful, and strategic communications. We promised to never compromise trust, morals or rules to profit. I can proudly say that we’ve stuck by our principles and delivered some amazing results along the way. What began as a small idea has grown into a team of dedicated PR, social media and video professionals, united by a shared set of values. We’ve had the honour of collaborating with a diverse range of clients, playing a role in telling the stories that matter the most. There’s too many highlights and amazing projects to name them all, and we don’t want to miss anyone out. Just looking at some of the sports we have worked with, the variety is incredible; football, rugby, cricket, squash, bowls, climbing, rowing, table tennis, triathlon, running, basketball, gymnastics, sailing and even chess. The past two years has seen us really drive growth across our digital offerings, growing our expertise across social media management and video, aligned with our ongoing PR work. None of this would be possible without the incredible people I get to work with. Our team is small but mighty, and every single person brings passion, skill, and care to the table. Together, we've built something that feels authentic — something I’m genuinely proud of. As we celebrate this milestone, we also look forward to the next four years. We remain committed to our mission and are extremely excited about the future. We want to further grow the team, work with new clients, experiencing new sports and sectors. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our clients, partners, and the communities we've worked with over the past four years. Your trust and collaboration have been vital to our journey. Here's to continued growth, meaningful impact, and many more milestones ahead.

Motiv Sports UK has renewed its agreement with New Reach for a third year.

Will Lloyd, Communications Executive One of the more valuable traits in social media management is adaptability. Rarely does everything work out exactly according to plan, so the ability to step back and consider why your plan didn't work, adjusting accordingly, is often the difference between a successful campaign that resonates with your audience and one that goes largely unnoticed. When creating content plans for a new client or platform, we are often making an informed guess, whilst trying to demonstrate what we can do ‘in theory’. You’ve done the research and crafted a strategy that seems promising, but until the posts go live, there’s no guarantee of how things will play out. This is when we start to look at tweaking posting times, being more graphic/video/image led or even scrapping certain aspects completely. That’s because social media doesn’t work the same way for any two accounts, and what performs well for one client or audience might struggle elsewhere. While it’s frustrating, this is what makes us good at our job - the ability to adapt to the needs of the account. Social media rewards those who can step back, assess what isn’t working, and try something new. It can feel messy and unpredictable at times, but like any creative industry, trial and error is how you uncover what really works. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’ original project struggled horribly before they *adapted* and joined Fleetwood Mac; now look at them - or at least their music… It’s worth remembering that content plans aren’t set in stone. They’re a starting point and a vague concept, not a rigid programme. It might feel wrong to abandon a plan that you worked hard to come up with, but the best results often come when you allow yourself to be more creative and impulsive with your content. If a series doesn’t gain the engagement you hoped for, you haven’t wasted your time. Treat them as experiments, and each time one doesn’t work, check it off the list and move on to the next idea. Eventually, you will find the trends and nuances that get people engaged - put yourself in the shoes of your audience, what would you like to see in your feed? It’s all part of the process, and more often than not, your ability to adapt will be rewarded. Clients and audiences will appreciate content that feels fresh, creative and tailored to them.

We’ve proudly partnered with performance marketing agency, Double Media, to provide a wider offering to our clients. Double Media specialises in all things paid advertising across channels such as Meta and Google and lead nurturing systems such as text automations and email automations. The partnership aims to combine New Reach’s integrated communications offering and skillsets with Double Media’s performance marketing services. You can find out more about Double Media at: www.double-media.com Collaboration has always been at the heart of New Reach, with MD and Founder Nick Rewcastle creating strategic partnerships with varying organisations and talented individuals over the years. New Reach Managing Director, Nick Rewcastle, said: “It’s a very exciting partnership for us, working with the guys at Double Media to offer something fresh and different. We’ve also been very impressed with their progress and development over the last few years. “While we would love to say that we can do everything ourselves, we can’t, which is why we love combining with brilliant partners. Ryan and I met through a mutual connection and got on like a house on fire, so I knew this was the start of something great. “What is also so refreshing is that Ryan and I agreed that we are both local business owners, doing great things, that can help each other out – because we want to. There’s no formal relationship or expectations, simply the ability to collaborate when we can. “Simply put, Double Media have skills that we don’t, but know that some of our clients would love. Likewise, we can offer our PR services to Ryan’s clients – all with the peace of mind knowing that we vouch for each other.”

Last week, Sport England released its annual Active Lives Children and Young People survey – a fundamental date in the diary for all operating in this sector. Yet again, concerning data has highlighted the sustained battle to get young people active. 52% of children and young people are doing less than the recommended amount of activity a day. Boys are still more active than girls with affluence and race a key factor. The worrying consistency of these annual reports is the rise in health inequalities. Those from a white or mixed background are more likely to be active than Black or Asian children, a trend that has continued over the years, worsening since the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated the inequalities - with least affluent, Asian people, disabled people, and people with long-term health conditions all less likely to be active than other groups. But surely, we expected more progress by now? A small glimmer of hope, however, is that the general situation generally isn’t getting worse, with overall activity levels around the same as the previous year, but we’re still not back to pre-pandemic levels. We can’t celebrate ‘not getting worse’, however, and the inequality crisis remains alarming. There are significant learnings this year around motivations to being active, finding that those with three or more positive attitudes towards physical activity were more active. However, among the disparities are younger children being less active, with many having a knock-on effect from the pandemic. Sport England chief executive, Tim Hollingsworth, said: “For the pandemic generation, COVID-19 has had a fundamental impact. The data shows that, for the children whose impressionable early years were defined by lockdowns and lack of activities, attitudes towards sport and physical activity are distinctly negative. “The challenge is huge - with issues such as rising obesity levels and rising cost-of-living damaging children’s health prospects too – but so is the opportunity. An active generation is critical to the government’s missions because active children turn into active adults, helping our NHS and improving the long-term health and wealth of our country. “Sport England will continue to play its part in solving these challenges, but we cannot do it alone. We look forward to working with the government and everyone who cares about future generations to drive the changes we need.” The full report is available here .