My first official PR Event

Hi everyone,

This is my second blog and I have now completed about nine days of my placement. I was supposed to have been doing my placement full time however car crashes, resulting back injuries and treatments have inconveniently gotten in my way :( I am lucky however to have a boss who is lovely, completely understands and is very supportive.

Well what a week! Perth Theatre Company (PTC) has a very busy march season with three shows commencing performances in two weeks. Yesterday was the opening of the first March production The Matchmaker which is an Irish comedy about Dicky Mick Dicky a matchmaker with an assortment of hilarious clients searching for love, companionship and well, all that comes with it! I was lucky enough to attend the event and after party which gave me a chance to mingle with some industry people and the actors themselves. I was also lucky enough to be able to take my partner and found that he was a great diversion from just talking shop, shop, shop all the time.

Working this past week has really fined tuned my abilities in calling and arranging interviews, profile pieces and feature articles. As a result of my work I have now set up five radio interviews (RTR FM & Fremantle Radio), three community newspaper profiles on the starring actors in our up-coming performance The Big Picture, including a photo shoot and a feature that will hopefully appear in the STM magazine of The Sunday Times.

When first calling the editors of these papers I remember feeling the need to ‘sell’ the play, I think I even labelled it as fabulous to one lady. I think in her amusement at my enthusiasm and with a kindly intent she politely informed me to slow down and stop selling it. After that I found that just being friendly, informative and helpful was enough. It is essential though to know absolutely everything before you call eg; what images you have, who would be the best to interview, when rehearsals are, can a photo shoot take place…

When one editor told me she wasn’t too keen but gave me her email address so I could send through some information… I did what I assumed any good PR professional would do and pursued her with dogged enthusiasm. I sent her an email letting her know what a good opportunity it was, who she could talk to and why they were important, I attached a copy of the media release and some of the casts bios… she called me back that afternoon and informed me she would love to write something up! I guess that shows that a little persistence and a bucket of interesting information can really help.

I faced an ethical dilemma earlier this week with one reporter informing me that they would only do a piece on a play if another paper (who I had already contacted) was not. I found myself a little caught up because it was in PTC’s best interests to receive as much coverage as possible regardless. After chatting it over with the business manager, I concluded that I would base my response on angles. So although the competing paper was doing a piece on our performance, it would be on a completely different angle than the one the current reporter was proposing. The reporter seemed happy with this and I believe is now writing up an article.

I have also consumed my time creating a PR/Marketing plan for an up-coming show. I found that once I formed a Uni like format I was able to fill in the gaps quite easily and coming from a ‘new mind frame’ I was able to think out side of the box and come up with some targeting/promotional idea’s which pleased Ali greatly.

I guess in reflection one of the most important lessons I am continually learning is the importance of communication. How much further you can go and how much more likely the media will be to help you out can entirely depend on the “professional/personal’ repour you form with them. This repour can often only come from contacting them by phone and having a chat. In an ethical sense I have also learnt the truth is often not only the best option but also the most believable.

I’ll keep you updated.
Chelle x