Services - Greg_Lansdowne

Having worked for Essex County Cricket Club as its first Communications Manager from 2003 (incorporating the role of being responsible for PR), I continued to work for the club on a freelance basis for many years after. That work included assisting several of the players (including Graham Napier, James Foster, Ravi Bopara and Ryan ten Doeschate) with their own ‘brand’, developing personal websites and supporting their Benefit Years in some instances. With my experience of planning PR campaigns around the four books I have written – generating local, national and global coverage on TV and radio, online and in publications as well as growing social media bases – I would be an asset to any author wishing to raise awareness of their own book. I also spent several years as a freelance PR advisor to Back To Business Essex/Invest Essex – promoting their work as well as that of the vast range of companies they assist (from entrepreneurs and SMEs through to global businesses).

Over the years I have written copy for company websites in various sectors (including winepassport.fr, Lomas and Garner and sirwilliam.se). More recently I have contributed regular press releases/advertorial/feature articles for publication on the Invest ESSEX/Back To Business Essex websites and to support the PR of many entrepreneurs and SMEs (such as Davina Steel, The English Cream Tea Company, Excalibur Screwbolts, Teledyne e2v, Rapid Electronics, Hoppily as well as the Vision and Crate co-working spaces).

After a spell as a researcher at the Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research at Leicester University, I was then ushered in at the start of the dot com boom for sports websites, employed by Sportal, Umbro.com, Virgin Radio, onefootball.com and the Nationwide Football website as a football reporter/editor from 1999 to 2003. I then moved into cricket, as Essex County Cricket Club’s Communications Manager, which included the role of website editor and editing official club publications ranging from the Yearbook, Matchday Programme, Members’ Magazine, Report & Accounts and Diary. I have also been published in various general cricket magazines including The Cricketer and Backspin. I have contributed articles to a wide range of other publications over the years. In sport that includes FourFourTwo, World Soccer, When Saturday Comes, Late Tackle and numerous matchday programmes. I worked as a sub-editor on the ICC website for many years as well as contributing to their Report & Accounts and writing tournament guides. Within that I was employed as chief reporter for the 2009 World T20 and Editor of the ICC website throughout the 2012 World T20. I published my own cricket magazine called Big Hitter – aimed primarily at fans of the Asian cricket nations – in 2009 and 2010, securing interviews with many of the leading players of the time. I have also written articles for more general lifestyle publications including Best, Sorted, The New European, Best of British and Retro Pop, as well as business magazines such as London Business Matters, Business Time and Construction Index.

On the back of writing ‘Stuck On You – The Rise & Fall…& Rise of Panini Stickers’ – published in early 2015 - I have been involved continuously in the collectibles industry ever since. I have featured in almost every national UK newspaper – and a number of local/global outlets – as well as writing/contributing to a wide range of articles in magazines/online around the subject of sports collectibles. With the football nostalgia market a rich vein to tap into, I collaborated on a TV documentary adaptation of ‘Stuck On You’ – first broadcast on ITV in November 2017, with my book providing the basis for the production. On the back of that, I also appeared in shorter films about Panini stickers – around the 2018 World Cup – for The Guardian, FourFourTwo, Copa90, CNN and NBC. I worked as a consultant to Australian collectibles business Tap’N’Play – serving as their UK agent and PR advisor for the 2018 and 2019 Official England Cricket Trading Card collections - as well as Sorare, the French-founded digital collectibles company. My second book on football stickers came out in 2021: Panini Football Stickers - The Official Celebration, selling 20k copies to date. In 2024 I worked with Panini and M&S to launch their 'Home Nations' sticker albums as well as Futera on a multi-sports set.