A Step to Begin

I worked as an intern at Fortune PR in Jakarta, Indonesia, for two months, yet it has been an interesting opportunity to see PR consultancy work first hand. I might not experienced as many learning about the industry in only such a short period of time, however during my time I learned what to be expected of me in PR job field later.

At the first day my supervisor updated and briefed me about two PR events they were about to held in two weeks ahead. Since I was not involved on the project from the beginning I was in charged to follow up the media invitation. I recalled sitting with my supervisor and her explaining about the importance of media role in PR. She said, what the media reports about the event then that was what the public, sponsors and potential sponsors would believe. The numbers of media came and aggregate of media cover was one of the ways to measure the success of the event.

Two of the events I contributed in my first two weeks were, first PT. Sinde Budi Sentosa, a corporate with premiere products herbal drink called larutan penyegar. The corporate aimed to strengthen its position as pioneer brand by announced the success of receiving Indonesia Museum World of Record (MURI) as the first Jamu (Indonesia traditional herbal) produced in can packaging (modernization) innovation. Jaya Suprana, a famous Indonesian composer, pianist, businessman, television presenter, and founder of MURI, gave the award. Second event was Tupperware ‘Green Living’ campaign event to celebrate 2012 Earth day, with key message “Smart Solutions with Green Living by REDUCE Styrofoam and Disposable Plastic also REUSE Plastic Container”.

PT. Sinde Budi Sentosa recieved MURI Award for its Innovation Journey

Tupperware Smart Solution with Green Living

During the event itself I was responsible to create a good relationship with the journalist came to the event and compiling the media list. Based on my lessons from study and internship the importance of creating good relationship with the media is to receive invaluable exposure to potential attendees, where it will also add the credibility of the event and the brand itself. In the event we need to provide the media attends not only with the media release to help them with the story angle, but also with the photograph. Both media release and photo should have news perspective value that able to convince the journalists, reporters, including the editors to cover the story or event.

After two weeks being in charged in media relation, I was reseated with my supervisor and asked what I was interested to focus on during my internship. I told her that I would like to learn more on developing a PR strategy. I ended up getting was a responsible to develop PR proposal strategy for their New Business Development projects, which allowed me to do and to learn more how to develop strategy that addressed the client brief. It was a big responsible, but I welcomed the opportunity to be introduced into the real PR world.

Sincere,

Indri Ervianti

LUCT - Malaysia

110027720