In-house vs Consultancy

Hello!

I actually got to see the battle of consultancy vs corporate PR at my placement at Diabetes WA (DWA). At the start of this year Diabetes WA stopped using a local Perth PR consultancy for their media and as well as a cost saving effort it actually increased the results of this area by bringing the activities in-house. As we have learnt in PR (consultancy) 300 and PR (Corporate) 360 both have their strengths and weaknesses.

For DWA one of their main goals is to raise the awareness of the risk of type 2 diabetes to West Australian adults. (visit http://www.dontignorediabetes.com.au to see if you are at risk) A National campaign, National Diabetes Week is run to promote this objective. Last year with the aid of the consultancy they received 3-4 newpaper atricles. However this year, with the marketing and communcations team of 2 and myself as their intern were able to generate coverage in community newpapers (4in perth and 2 in rural areas), the West Australian, and on Win News, Channel 10 news and 6PR. The media campaign was considered a great success. One of my sources (a sufferer of type 2 diabetes I interviewed) was picked up from the media release I personally wrote and and article was printed.

So the question is what happened? In my opinion it is because the girls at DWA are passionate about their jobs and achieving the organisations mission of Freedom from Diabetes. They really understand how DWA works and it objectives which is so important when sending out messages on behalf of that orgainsation. The consultancy would not have had that grasp how important raising diabetes awareness is. Katharina was right, we MUST have an understand of the organisations objectives before we can perform well in PR.

Overall my time at DWA was such a GREAT and VALUABLE experience. Anyone looking for more work experience should contact Diabetes WA. They are a small organisation with lots to do. I got to do so much ranging from political lobbying, writing media releases to event management and campaign planning. And now heading into the work force have a substantial amount of proven work for my portfolio.