In the past 10 days (five weeks) that I have been there, I have written two media releases, which is fairly good for the Hospital's media expectations. However, what I did not really know and what has never been explained to me was that media releases are not always necessary. On two occasions in my time here, we have simply called our media contacts asking if they were interested in a possible story we had to offer - and within a few hours all major television stations and relevant newspapers had sent crews to take photos and interview talent.
Although I have loved the experience of writing media releases and waiting to hear back from Hospital approval and then the newspapers they were sent to (one story actually got published!) - I am very happy to have also experienced how easy it was to generate media arousal simply through a phonecall or email quickly mentioning the idea.
One of the "quick phonecalls" was about the rise of Whooping Cough in WA and all hospital's subsquently offering free vaccinations to parents. Through a contact, we managed to get West Coast Eagles Captain Darren Glass and player Daniel Kerr down to the Hospital to get vaccines as fathers-to-be. Two or three phonecalls later, all three major television stations had crews sent down as well as both major newspapers.
This was great - except for the fact that one of the (unnamed) television channels did not mention the Hospital's name or whooping cough outbreak at all in their short piece which they decided to place in the sports segment. Both of the newspapers that came down had much better articles.
I suppose it was expected, that the hype would solely revolve around the football players simply because they were football players and it is preseason - but again, it was a good lesson for me in media relations. The PR manager definitely noted down the reporter and television names that did not give the Hospital credit at all and will be mindful when next offering a story to the media if nothing is in it for the Hospital. If I was in the situation, I would also refrain from offering them stories for a period of time - maybe only send media kits as opposed to offering them great visual opportunity like we had done.
On an ending note - the fundraiser that I organised last week by myself went very very well. So well in fact, that we sold out of all of our fundraising cake selections within 15 minutes! We raised close to $300 for Ovarian Cancer Australia and were praised by many with how well it went.
I'm already half way through my placement and it is all going way too quickly for me! Hope everyone else is enjoying theirs as much as I am!
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