Hi Everyone,
We’re over
half way through the semester now and it’s not long until that big report is
due! Time is flying!
Over my
third week at Professional Public Relations (PPR) I had undertaken a variety of
tasks across the different divisions.
The Perth Fashion
Festival clippings started to ramp up with more and more coming through the
media portal. I had the opportunity to compile some media clippings for clients
within the investor relations division. These clippings are created a little
differently from those in consumer. There are no values required for the
clippings and the coverage doesn’t come through in an alert from the media
portal. I was required to search through newsletters and articles for
the client names. At first I found it challenging as all the clients were
foreign to me and coverage was scarce. In the end I compiled 5 media clippings
for different companies, predominately those in the mining and resource
industry.
I’m not sure
if any of you have heard of a forward features list before, but this was the
first time I had! Obtaining forward features is an extremely difficult task.
Ultimately all it is it sourcing a list of the up and coming features that will
be published. I contacted all the major print and trade publications that were
specifically related to, or had sections related to small business, franchising
and the coffee industry. I was met with rude and unwilling editors and
journalists who were either reluctant to give the list out to a PR firm or
opted to say they didn’t have one. When I did manage to source a list many of
the time the features didn’t have much relevance to the criteria. The Senior
Consultant I was assisting reassured me the task isn’t an easy one and what I came
up with was sufficient.
I also got
the chance to conduct a media kit and product drop for the Yarra Valley and
Blue Cow Cheese Company. This meant driving around the city and personally
handing the parcels to food journalist and editors. It was fun to get out of
the office and away from the computer for a little while!
I’m sure you
have all seen the advertising for the McDonalds Serious Lamb Burger, or some of
you may have even tried it! Unfortunately I haven’t tried it myself but I did
get to assist another Senior Consultant in compiling the exclusive coupons for
the launch of the burger. The coupons were handed out in the Northbridge and
allowed the first 500 customers to try the Serious Lamb Burger for free. The
radio station 92.9 spread the awareness of the campaign. The Northbridge
McDonalds was the first McDonalds to launch the Serious Lamb Burger in
Australia.
Interns at
PPR carry out a large proportion of administrative tasks. The organisation employs PR graduates in these entry-level roles before they can
progress to become a consultant. During my internship I received great exposure
to the various entry-level roles and confidently understand what’s involved!
I aided the
administration assistant in sourcing 2012 media kits from Perth based print,
online and broadcast publications. The values were then extracted and added
into the Rates and Circulation spreadsheet. This ensures the values are up to
date and calculations for the future media clippings are accurate.
Something that is unique to PR consultancy is the “job bag”. Every
minute of your day has to be accounted for. Each client has a billing code and
your time spent working on tasks for each client is billed to them. Different
rates apply for different consultants, clients and tasks. Throughout the week the
consultants have personal reminders set and time allocated to fill out their
time sheets, to ensure they are up to date and accurate.
Whenever I’ve thought about where I’d like to end up working after
graduation, consulting was never high on my list. I’ve always thought in-house
suited me better. Having experienced first hand what consulting is actually
like, I can honestly say it is an area of public relations I am considering
entering. My day-to-day tasks have been far from repetitive and mundane. No two
days have been exactly the same. My main worry with consultancy is that you
don’t know the clients as well as you would if you had an in-house position.
I’ve learnt that at PPR they invest time and money into nurturing their existing
clients to ensure future work prospects are viable. Some clients have been with PPR for years and many are now on retainers. So in a way the consultants get to know and understand their clients just a well as those who work within the company.
Thanks for reading!
Gemma
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