JIM STANTON
DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

HE's among the latest batch of arrivals at Tynecastle under Vladimir Romanov's maroon revolution - but he'll never score the winner in a cup final.

Instead, David Southern aims to score for Hearts off the park, taking both the club and the plc business to new levels of success and deeper into the fabric of Edinburgh's business life, while keeping the everyday fans onboard.

Drafted in as Hearts' communications director just under a month ago, the widely-respected public relations veteran has the task of presenting the Hearts story far and wide - not only the daily dose of updates for fans, but also devising and advising on the strategic drive underpinning both the football and corporate sides of the business.

Having been at his desk for just four weeks, Hearts' five wins from their first five league games would suggest Mr Southern has been on easy street so far.

But having handled PR for a range of sporting organisations such as Rangers, the Scottish Rugby Union, Scottish Racing and businesses including David Murray's Murray International Holdings, whisky maker Whyte and Mackay, and Scottish law giant Shepherd & Wedderburn, he's taking nothing for granted.

"Yes, so far, so good," the maths graduate says, laughing. But he's well aware that Hearts, both at a plc and football level, have not been the best practitioners of public relations in recent years under former chief executive Chris Robinson.

Diplomatically, he suggests things could have been better. Sports reporters, not known for their patience or diplomacy, would say the previous regime was downright obstructive at times.

Which is not the kind of situation Mr Southern and his communications manager Clare Cowan are fostering from here on in, particularly now that the foundations of a decent and easily marketable product on the park are taking shape.

Backed by the deep pockets of Lithuanian banker and new Hearts owner Romanov, Scotland's "always the bridesmaid" team have brought in six overseas players this summer, including Czech internationalist Rudi Skacel, Lithuanian international player Edgaras Jankauskas, and Takis Fyssas, the former Benfica player who played in the triumphant Greek side that clinched the Euro 2004 title.

Through a combination of a flying start and the role played in it by overseas players, pictures of jubilant foreign stars in Hearts jerseys have been featuring regularly in papers and on TV in places like Lithuania, Greece, Germany, Portugal, the Czech Republic and France, where they are followed by fans of their national side or by supporters of their previous clubs.

Indeed, Czech Republic hotshot Rudi Skacel's goal-scoring exploits - a goal in each of the opening five games - this week propelled Hearts on to the front page of the Uefa.com website, no mean feat for a club not appearing in a European competition this year.

To Mr Southern, that's not just a foundation, but an opportunity that a PR professional needs to capitalise on.

"Part of my role is to extend the reach of Hearts," says Mr Southern. "In our outlook, we're not just a Scottish football club. We're now getting more and more UK coverage than at any time in our recent history and also more European coverage."

And that makes him more determined to get Hearts, both as an Edinburgh football team and a local business, up there at the forefront of other successful Capital-based companies.

"Look at the city we're in; look at the businesses we have here: Standard Life, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland, there's a tremendous financial heart in this city," he states.

"What we're saying to them and all the other businesses in Edinburgh is that we are open for business and more than happy to talk.

"We have our growth ambitions, they have theirs, and we're hoping they may see us as something that can get their business, through ours, into other markets."

That will be as much down to skilled and considered promotion and communication as to Hearts maintaining form on the park.

When new chief executive Phil Anderton took the helm at Gorgie in March, Mr Southern, who'd previously worked with Anderton at the SRU, knew things were going to change.

So he called him up - and landed himself with the task of reversing the Tynecastle PR machine's siege-like mentality.

"Phil knew there was a communications job to be done at Hearts," says Mr Southern.

"Both he and the board have big ambitions for the club, so it's important that the communications aspect off-field matches the effort of the manager and the players on-field."

WHAT seems clear is that the new regime knows that while the fans might not be the true owners of the business, they are its de facto custodians.

"We're not selling Mars bars, we're trading with people's emotions," says Mr Southern. "In marketing speak a football club might be a product, but the reality is it's traditions, heritage and emotions. So you have to listen to what the fans want."

In one case, many fans wanted a family area away from the verbal tribalism that can attach itself to football, so a family and concessions area was set aside in the Gorgie Road Stand.

"It's just a case of listening and responding, it's not rocket science," offers Mr Southern. "Most people might think that what's most important from a communications point of view is information, but half the time it's about listening."

Having been born in Dumfries, Mr Southern's says he has a "strong association" with local outfit Queen of the South. But armed with the belief that football supporters should support their local team, a move to Edinburgh's Haymarket district nine years ago saw him regularly attending Hearts games. "It stuck with me, it's there," he says of Hearts.

"Ultimately, it's football, and the fans are the lifeblood of football, so it's about not forgetting the past but also about taking people forward with you and thinking ahead."

Part of that involves taking into account what a 94-year-old who has had a season ticket for 81 years flags up, as well as what those sporting their freshly unpacked scarves among the 11,000 season ticket holders want.

As a lumbering dinosaur of commercialism in previous eras, Hearts were seldom troubled with finding enough "sold out" signs to hang outside the Tynecastle gates.

Pleasantly surprised to now find themselves in such a commercially lucrative situation, Mr Southern is working on a strategy that will see the business capitalise on its new and wider following. Having a chief executive with a marketing background will certainly help there.

Plus, a new commercial director is expected next month.

"We have to make sure we can match the fans' growing expectations in terms of ticketing, back-office support and also in things like attracting sponsors", says Mr Southern.

In fact, sponsors is not a word he often uses. "I don't like the word sponsor, I prefer partner, as partners benefit from their association with each other.

"And that's about more than just a name on a jersey. So, there's opportunities for new partners to associate with Hearts at an early stage of a new beginning."

Whether the fans' lofty expectations are to be realised or not this season, the management and board at Hearts believe they have turned the club on to its most optimistic footing in years.

And while the seats in the stands are full, Mr Southern believes Hearts plc can never have enough corporate support.

Maths degree adds up for Southern

DAVID SOUTHERN thought a maths degree gained at Glasgow Caledonian University would be the perfect foundation stone for a career as a stockbroker.

But an option to do a module on marketing, including public relations, in the final year of his course turned him on to a new career idea.

"I then went to Strathclyde University to do a post-graduate course in marketing," Mr Southern explains.

Upon completion, firing off letter to the 72 marketing firms listed in the Glasgow Yellow Pages brought two replies. One was from PR Consultants Scotland, which promptly dispatched him to Stirling University to do an MSC in public relations - the first course of its type in Europe.

Working at PRCS, which at the time was David Murray's PR vehicle, for seven years brought a deep insight into sport and business media. Murray eventually tired of coughing up for outside PR and set up Creative Public Relations under the stewardship of Malcolm Brown.

At the outset, Mr Southern joined CPR and soon changed the name to Carnegie PR, becoming part of Carnegie Sports International.

"Me and Malcolm built up the business and bought a 15 per cent stake," he explains. Soon they flipped the shareholding with Murray through a management buyout, changed the name to Atlantic PR, won a raft of PR awards and eventually sold the company to the Harrison Cowley PR group where Mr Southern became an executive director before joining Hearts earlier this month.

Taken from the Scotsman