Hello fellow PR kids.
This is my first post on the blog so be nice! I've finally gotten around to writing something as I have been really busy with uni, work and my placement.
My internship is at an organisation called Student Edge. I actually started over the holidays and completed 12 weeks right before uni started up again. Then i just figured I might as well stay on where I'm already comfortable and learn a bit more.
For those of you who are not familiar with Student Edge, the organisation aims to make the life of students financially easier. They do this by forming partnerships with various other companies that will provide discounts, offers and prizes in exchange for exposure on the website and various other Student Edge publications. Members receive a card in the mail which they show to retailers when redeeming offers. To give you a general idea, some of the partners include McDonalds, Betts shoes, Video Ezy and Hoyts among 100 others.
I was welcomed with open arms as soon as I started and have continued to be mentored along the way. The office is really friendly and everyone is more than happy to help. It consists of a CEO, marketing and communications executive, a couple of graphic designers and an accounts executive as well as a few other staff. When i first started there were about 7 or 8 interns- most of which didn't even finish their initial 12 weeks-now I'm the only one left! I'm not sure if they didn't like it or simply had no time...
Building relationships with their present and future partners is extremely important to Student Edge. Without their partners the organisation would simply not exist. However, the Edge approaches PR a little differently than some of the other companies I have been reading about in this blog. I haven't been asked to write a single media release in the 17 weeks that I have been an intern there BUT neither have I seen anyone on the office ever write a media release. The company was in the local Subiaco newspaper a little while ago but I'm pretty sure the CEO simply called up a journalist that he knew to write the article. No media releases involved whatsoever.
However Student Edge is really big on promotions. I haven't been doing promo work recently but when i first started, a fellow intern and I regularly received these 'assignments' so to speak where we took the Edge car out for the day accompanied with a list of places where there would be lots of students. Armed with a camera and lots of free stuff like bottles of water, chips and movie passes, we would go to popular beaches and take snaps of people who would be happy to pose and have a chat to us about Student Edge. It sounds tedious but it was actually really fun to get out of the office! Afterwards we would create an album and upload all the photos onto Facebook plus chat to the communications executive about any student issues or topics of interest we found out on the day.
OK that's probably enough for my first post but I have lots to add so will be on here shortly! I'm going to the Angus and Julia Stone concert tonight so I'm quite excited ;)
4 comments:
As you mentioned you have yet to write a media release, I'm curious on how does that work in your company? I am just wondering who writes them... I think that is pretty interesting, I have never heard of that before! I have always thought PR revolved around the media release and events management. And lucky you on going to the Angus and Julia Stone concert, bet it would be amazing :)
It is surprised that I am not the only one did not need media release wrirting as my work. At the beginning of work, I thought it is just my company did not used media release as general communication. Since I have been working in a small-scale company, my colleagues used to phone call or e-mail to contact the journalists directly for the up-coming events. After I have got the real-life work experience, I found there is much different that what I thought. Finally I realise different PR firms got its different business methods to work for!
Cathy- it is good to know that I'm not the only one who's not writing them either!
Paige- well as far as I know the company barely uses media releases. I haven't seen anyone in the office write one yet and its been like 16 weeks. I suppose it is pretty weird compared to a lot of other organisations....the PR focus of Student Edge is more on promotions. They are huge on social media and small-scale events. Maybe media releases is something they should seriously look into!
Oh and angus and julia= AMAZING!
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