The power of the Premier League profile

I recently had to reluctantly decline a lucrative and highly attractive invitation to host a marketing event staged by a major international broadcaster. It was the fourth such invitation I have turned down in the past 12 months. The reason? The events were all happening more than 10 hours away by plane and the logistics conflicted with my UK-based TV commitments.

Frustrating, yes, but understandable nonetheless as invitations to work overseas arrive in my Inbox on a regular basis, thanks to my high visibility as a Premier League overseas broadcaster, as well as hopefully my proven ability as an event host.

As any TV host/reporter will tell you, the in-studio and reporting work may be the bread and butter of what we do but gala dinners, end-of-season awards, corporate promotions, golf days and other hosting work also constitute a substantial part of the workload. Fail to tap into this potential source of revenue and you operate at way below your potential.

Indeed, with the rapidly-changing media landscape substantially altering the budgets around "traditional" broadcast roles, it becomes ever more important to drive one's "brand" via social media, digital content or even good old-fashioned get-on-the-stage-and-show-'em-what-you've-got work. After all, an "end-user" viewer or fan might these days be able to generate mobile content, and they can trot out football's statistical analytics with the best of us too. But how many can tell an audience they just sat next to Peter Schmeichel, Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler to watch a game, or chatted about the title race with Harry Kane? How many can naturally ad-lib a series of introductions at an awards ceremony or work a room off-the-cuff in a "live" environment while someone fixes a faulty projector?

So, the TV anchor still has a role to play in that particular environment. Furthermore, while my relative "invisibility" on UK screens might initially appear to hamper my access to this kind of booking, the power of the Premier League as a global brand is demonstrating otherwise.

Thanks to the league's remarkable visibility, its commercial partners know exactly what I represent. I recently worked on three significant projects: hosting the launch event for the league's commercial partnership with Tag Heuer, working with West Ham United captain Mark Noble to entertain some Barclays clients at Upton Park, and involving Spurs and England's Harry Kane in the announcement of the winners of a Barclays competition for its worldwide staff.

So, they know who I am, even if the UK's TV audience doesn't yet. That won't, I suspect, be the case for much longer as the league's brand and its powerful commercial partnerships go from strength to strength.