by Larry Eder
I first met Keith Peters about 1985, perhaps earlier, while he was at Nike Sports Marketing. His thoughtful approach to everything that he was involved with impressed me. Truth is, we were at a road race, and we noticed each other counting shoe brands among elite and sub elite. We recognized kindred spirits.
My time at RW from (1981-1987), specifically from 1985-1987, was spent at about nineteen to twenty road races a year. Weekends were spent seeing the likes of Keith Peters, Tom Hartge, Mike Cook, Mark Bossardet, Pat Devaney and of course, Mike Fanelli, among others.
In the 1990s, Keith Peters reinvented Nike communications. His approach to content in 1995 at Goteborg put Nike on the top of digital content, and Nike ruled the athletics world, as long as Keith was involved (which ended after Sydney, I believe). Even though Nike was not the sponsor in Goteborg, with the press conferences done on a daily basis, the interviews conducted by Steve Miller, the daily content help, and very subtle Nike product pushes (only if we wanted it, and, we did).
Nike ruled this world from 1995-2001. It was a ton of work, but a generation of media appreciated the work, the support and the brand received intangible benefits, something not noted in a stock prospectus. Keith Peters got that, and, in fact, still does (he is one of the few, I must say, sadly.)
In all honesty, few brands have learnt from those lessons, as the golden age of athletic content is occasionally reached by events today. (Reebok in 2005, 2007, adidas in Beijing 2008, Nike in 2011, London 2012, European Champs in August 2014 and IAAF with their coverage of World Champs in 2013).
A few years ago, Keith Peters got involved in the Council for Responsible Sport. As soon as I saw my friend’s name on the releases, I posted them. Keith Peters does not get involved in programs that do not make sense, either in the small term or long term.
The Council for Responsible Sport is something all events, all track meets and all of us in this sport should note on our browsers. It’s theme is this: lets use athletics as a way to show respect to our planet.
Please note their link: http://www.councilforresponsiblesport.org/
This video was done in July 2014, in Eugene, Oregon, as Keith Peters was meeting with the IAAF to discuss ways to support the IAAF’s new program, Athletics for a Better World : http://www.iaaf.org/athletics-better-world.
