My placement at Perth Zoo has now come to an end, and although it feels like a million weeks ago that I started, the weeks have flown by and I’m standing on the brink of the end of my uni career.
For my final blog entry, I’m going to go through the things I have been doing since I last wrote and tell you a bit about what I have gained and learnt from my internship.

LESSON ONE: STAKEHOLDERS
I’ve come to learn a lot about stakeholder relationships. Yes, we are all well aware that this is the PR “buzz phrase” of the moment, popping up all over our unit outlines and appearing in every organisation. The truth is that it is actually very important. A few weeks back, I was at the Zoo working on my report, when the Commercial Operations Manager came flying into the office asking if everyone could come and assist with the large numbers of visitors who were queuing to get into the Zoo.

The weather was very nice and the Royal Show had just finished, so everyone had decided to come to the Zoo for the day. The crowds, whilst remaining relatively patient, and due to the hot weather might have become frustrated if they had to wait a long time... enter stakeholder relations! Luckily, Perth Zoo has a sponsorship agreement with Streets, so, armed with boxes of Rainbow Paddle Pops, the whole office went outside to give those waiting a free ice cream.
I now realise that I had never fully understood the power of offering something for free. People are actually thrilled to be offered a free token of “thanks for being patient” and I’m sure that they hardly remember that 15 minutes they spent in the line that day.

LESSON TWO: ACCEPTING CRITICISM
As a lot of you have also mentioned, one of the biggest things that shocked me about the “real world”, is learning to accept constructive criticism and being able to use it effectively. I’m not going to lie, I’m one of those people who finds it hard to see another person’s point of view when it comes to my own work, but over the course of my internship I think I have become a lot more willing to accept feedback and use it to make changes to my work.

It is so daunting to get your work back (especially when you are pretty impressed with yourself and have stayed up until some ungodly hour to finish your work) and see scribbles and crosses all over it.

Abraham Lincoln once said: “He has a right to criticise, who has a heart to help”. This is definitely true of constructive criticism in the work place; it is intended to make my work better and more useful, not put me down. Without other people’s feedback, especially those who are far more experienced than I, I would not learn where I could improve in the future. I am now much more willing to accept criticism and use it to my advantage to improve my work.
I encourage everyone else to adopt my point of view; don’t be disheartened when you get your work back, look at is a chance to improve yourself and learn something new!

LESSON THREE: EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES
To update for those of you who read my last blog, I think I actually ended up doing a pretty good job of my executive summary, as they say “practice makes perfect”! I spent a long time on it (more than I would like to admit) but I think it was worth it. I took on the advice of some of my peers and wrote down on a piece of paper, the key points from every section of my report. I then re-worded it, in a way that summarises everything as much as possible and provided the most relevant information. I don’t know how many of you are actually interested in my executive summary or in my project itself, but for those who would like a taste of what I have been up to... here it is:

In recent times the role of the Zoo has significantly changed; from a place of recreation to the primary role now being one of conservation and education. Due to their unique nature, Zoos have the potential to influence people’s attitudes towards conservation, in terms of the environment and animals.

This report focuses on recent strategies used by Perth Zoo to communicate its changing role, and identifies strengths and weaknesses of marketing communications, to identify current successes and opportunities for improvement.

Current communications tactics employed by Perth Zoo include: print magazine; News Paws, email news bulletins; ZooEd and Zoo-E News, digital channels; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the Perth Zoo website, Public Relations; news and media releases and various on-site tactics such as; signage, behind-the-scenes visits and keeper talks. Each tactic is intended for different audiences, and each medium serves a different purpose in the communications mix.

The main market segments that are in contact with Perth Zoo communications are; families, school and community groups, young adults, seniors, members and both Australian and International tourists. Each segment is presented with different messages via one of the aforementioned communication mediums. One notable segment is the young adults, this segment is characterised (among other things) as non-visitors, as they tend to visit the Zoo online rather than on-site, highlighting the importance of Perth Zoo digital communications.

The report includes a SWOT analysis which identifies a number of key strengths possessed by Perth Zoo. Some of Perth Zoo’s current strengths in relation to communication of its changing role are; regular media coverage and regular external communications as well as key performance indicators showing that current communications are having a positive effect among many segments. However, there are a number of areas for improvement. There is currently a lack of a whole of Zoo conservation communications approach and a lack of measurement for evaluating the success of marketing strategies. Also, keeper talks are currently unpopular with visitors. Communications are currently not targeted to specific segments, meaning that Perth Zoo messages may lose their effectiveness and may not be reaching various segments of the community as effectively as they could.

To communicate the changing role of Perth Zoo, this report examines a number of other organisation’s’ strategies, in order to determine the best possible strategies for Perth Zoo to use in the near future, to communicate its changing role. One such strategy is the use of a key animal as the focus of marketing and promotion. This technique has been used by Adelaide and Berlin Zoo’s to drive visitation to communicate their changing role on-site. Adelaide Zoo used Pandas as their champion animal, and Berlin Zoo focused their marketing on a Polar Bear; Knut. Both Zoos created effective marketing campaigns, including promotional material, in a way that generated high community awareness and interest in both of these species. Whilst effective, Berlin Zoo’s use of Knut to highlight the issues wild Polar Bears face, the campaign has been labelled “exploitation”, serving as a lesson for other Zoos to learn where to draw the line on marketing their animals.

The Smithsonian Institution utilised a Web and New Media Strategy to guide the communication relating to their role in the community. The strategy is used to guide the Institution’s communications in the 21st Century. It focuses on capturing younger generations and fostering two-way relationships between the organisation and the visitors, both on and off-site. San Diego Zoo has used a strategy similar to The Smithsonian Institution, with their Pandas; launching an extremely successful new media campaign which greatly increased visitation.

Based on an examination of Perth Zoo’s strengths and weaknesses, and other organisations strategies it is recommended that Perth Zoo adopt a number of different strategies in order to communicate the changing role of the Zoo in the 21st Century. The main recommendations that have emerged from this report, in order of recommended priority are:

• Ensure clarity, consistency and effectiveness in all Perth Zoo communications; this can be implemented through a Conservation Communications Strategy, a campaign calendar, Perth Zoo’s own conservation campaign and measurements of success for marketing strategies.

• Further develop Perth Zoo’s digital channel and utilise new media to enhance the community’s understanding of Perth Zoo’s successful conservation and education programs, and milestones of such programs. This recommendation focuses mainly on regular two-way interactions with users of Perth Zoo’s digital channel, utilising Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

• Perth Zoo’s own champion animal or species to highlight plight of wild animals. This strategy focuses on the use of a token animal to highlight conservation issues and the plight of its species in the wild.

• Develop detailed segmentation profiles to better understand the community and target communications to specific segments.

• Utilise all Perth Zoo communications to encourage increased attendance at conservation, educational programs and keeper talks. This will help with conveying conservation messages to on-site visitors.

• Develop and implement measures of success to evaluate conservation communication strategies, in order to better understand areas that are successful and areas that need improving.

• Develop a specific tourism marketing campaign to target interstate, intrastate and international tourists, to encourage visiting Perth Zoo as a tourist attraction.

In conclusion, it is clear that the role of the Zoo in the 21st Century is now significantly different to the role of the traditional Zoo, and will continue to change in the future. There are now more channels for communication than ever before, meaning that Perth Zoo will have to continue to implement new strategies in order to communicate its role. Perth Zoo’s role is now one of conservation; therefore is now focused on educating visitors about this topic through its recreational, fun and unique environment.

LESSON FOUR: BE GRATEFUL
Although my placement has had its stressful and scary moments, overall I am so grateful. I feel so lucky to have had a unit where I get to put my skills to the test and get a taste for my future. It’s rare that you actually get credit towards your degree for such a “hands-on” learning experience. I would advise anyone completing PR 393 in future to find a placement or organisation that you are interested in, and relish the chance to learn from people who have industry experience. Without completing my internship, I would be lost if stepping out into the real world, not knowing what is expected of me and how things work outside of uni life.


I wish everyone else the best of luck in their placement and future endeavours and I look forward to reading your blogs!

Signing out,
Elle – Lucky WA State Government Intern :)

P.S. – Have since had feedback and changed my executive summary... Refer to Lesson Two and Lesson Three!