The Good Spirit of Sharing and Caring for the Community

In concluding the month long Chinese New Year celebrations, one of Edelman Kuala Lumpur’s clients, Pavilion KL hosted a Fortune Meets Love Chap Goh Mei Charity event. As a part of its ongoing efforts to raise funds for the unfortunate and provide a platform for the community to engage in a worthy charity like this, Pavilion KL gave opportunities for shoppers, business partners and tenants to adopt the Fortune Horses.

All the funds raised will be donated to needy charity organizations across Malaysia. These include Tiratana Welfare Society Malaysia, Rumah Seri Kenangan Kedah, Tiam Yam Toh Teng Old Folk's Home, Caring Old Folks Home and Beringin Park Old Folk's Home. Pavilion KL's retailers pledged RM1,688 for a pair of horses while shoppers donated a minimum of RM100 per horse. 

Before the event, there were several important things that my colleagues and I needed to do. The first thing was to send out the invitations to the targeted media. I looked for the contact details of the targeted media. My colleague sent invitations to the targeted media via emails. A day after the invitations were sent out, I was in charge of making media call downs to ensure that they managed to receive the invitations. Apart from sending invitations through emails, my colleagues and I also did media drops to the targeted media. It was my first time experiencing media drops and it was fun a interesting! A day before the media visits, I made media call downs to inform them about the media visits.

We visited the targeted media and dropped off the paper mache horses together with the invitation cards for the targeted editors. It is important to provide correct information and be polite to the media. From what I have observed, doing media drops are more effective than just sending out invitations through emails and making calls to the media. This is because they feel more of our sincerities and they feel appreciated. This is also a good way to build relationships with the media.

Two days before the event, I made media call downs to get RSVP to the event. Making call downs to get their RSVP was quite challenging because some of them were only able to give their confirmation a night before the event while some were only able to give their confirmation a few hours before the event.

On the day of the event at Pavilion KL, two of my colleagues and I were in charge of the media registration booth. We greeted the media and bloggers who came to the event. After they registered themselves, we gave them the media kits and goody bags. It is also very significant to practice the right etiquette while giving them the media kits and goody bags. We should always smile and be well-mannered.

Fortune Meets Love Chap Goh Mei at Pavilion KL ended successfully with the energetic and lively drums and lion dance performances. 

After the event, I did the event debrief with my colleagues. I learned that it is crucial to do an event debrief after every event. From the event debrief we are able to understand the highlights and lowlights of the event. After understanding the lowlights of one event, PR practitioners are able to improve in different ways in order to make the next event better.

In PR Corporate 360 I have learned that it is very important for a company to build strong reputation because reputation is an important asset that maintains any corporation’s sustainability. The charity event was part of Pavilion KL's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program. In short, Pavilion KL is not only contributing to its society but also helping itself in maintaining good reputation.

I am very grateful to have this opportunity to attend the event as I gained a great and memorable experience from it. 

Dorine Lau

16341436/ 7E2A9744

Curtin University Sarawak