Better late than never

I am sorry I have not been very proactive with my blog posts…

I have been keeping a diary about my work experience so within the next few days you will read a lot about my internship.

The first few weeks I worked on Aussie invader. It was an interesting project as it was completely different to what I have ever done before.

Aussie invader is the team of Perth born Rosco McGlashan, “a man on mission” not satisfied with holding the Australian Land Speed record so he is going for the ultimate goal of the world land speed record. Rosco and his team have great incentives but they have been struggling to get strong sponsorship compared to his main competitor (the British team) who has Rolex on their side. To break the world record, Rosco requires a car that is costly.

Therefore, Clarity agreed to take Aussie Invader’ team under its wing to advise them with public relations and to help them creating an advantageous network.

After a great meeting, Clarity set up some objectives and decided to organise a lunch with some of their significant client to build some networking for Rosco. In the meantime, I had to look at the media opportunities and create a media list.

Creating a media list is like writing up making a stew: you start with a lot and end up with a lot less… (I am not sure if you can get it ). Selecting the right media can be tricky. Who would be interesting about Aussie Invader? Which Industry: science, automobile or education? It had to be specific so I looked at every publication to understand their main interest and I it would be worth it to get in touch with them: it took me a few days. Finally I compared my findings to the Clarity media list to check any other details such as the editor’s contacts. It was a great research job and I was impressed on how my list was reduced every single day just by understanding more and more the client ‘s (Aussie invader) expectations.

Once the media list approved by Anthony (Clarity’s director), I called up a few publications to pitch them about Aussie Invader. I thought it would be an easy job but I was far from the truth. It was very confronting and journalist did not make it any easier; I got quite frustrated, as some of them are just not ready to give you any of their time.

These last few weeks I realised that it is essential to possess a good knowledge about your client to achieve great results with the media. It is also very important to be prepared and to know the story that you are about to picth even if it is done over the phone; journalists can be very challenging.