Friday,
July 10th 2015
I
am back on the blog after 7 days of interning at Clarity and I am really
enjoying it! The first few days I was
busy researching various opportunities for the firm, including a ‘reverse
brief’ to be delivered to a property client who was looking to repurpose their
CBD office building. For those who are unaware of what this is, as I was until
it was explained to me, a reverse brief is when external agencies are asked to
provide the client with an indication of their understanding and interpretation
of the brief. One of Clarity’s campaign
strategists had suggested the prospect of co-working space, so my research
involved compiling a document detailing the opportunities for co-working spaces
in Perth, existing spaces and creative ideas to be given to the client.
My
other tasks involved assisting members of the strategy team in researching topics
such as niche foodie publications for a food truck event, the battery industry
for an energy firm entering the Australian market and Scottish social media communities
and publications in Perth for a potential event job. I was also invited to
provide my own creative ideas for some client work, such as putting together
itinerary suggestions for Celebrate WA’s WA Girl Abroad trip in which a girl
from Perth had won a trip to London to represent the state as part of their
#WADay campaign earlier this year. You can see what Celebrate WA’s WA Girl Abroad
got up to on her trip here.
Through
interning at Clarity I have developed a greater appreciation for research, as I
have seen first hand how vital it is to the work of a communications
consultancy. Research provides consultants with a strong understanding of each client’s
business, competitors, customers, opportunities and threats, thus ensuring the
services delivered are of value and relevance to the client. So, although some may find research a little
dull, I felt that my work was providing valuable insight to the strategy team
and provided information that could be used in the development of strategies
and pitches to clients.
I
also got the chance to do some writing, an area that is of particular interest
to me. I was asked to shadow the writing of two media releases for Kentz, an
international engineering solutions firm. This was an exciting task for me,
as I was able to compare my writing to that of an experienced public relations advisor.
The subject of both briefs was technical, but I enjoyed the challenge and the
feedback provided to me upon completing the two media releases was invaluable.
To
top it all off I got invited to write a blog post about a topic of my choosing
to be published on the Clarity blog, A
Moment of Clarity. This was a fantastic chance for me to showcase my
writing style and creativity to my supervisor. I also knew that my blog post
would not only be reflecting upon myself, but also the firm, so I put a lot of
effort into writing a piece that I was proud of. Hopefully I will be able to
share the link to my post on this blog before the end of semester!
And
that was the end of a busy first week at Clarity! I can’t wait to see what the
next week brings. How was your first week of interning? Tell me about it in the
comments below.
Candice
3 comments:
Candice, so glad to hear you have many hands-on tasks at Clarity. I feel the same way as you in regards to research. At university, research can often feel very dull and meaningless in some cases. However in the workplace you see how vital the information is and are in-turn more motivated to undertake this task. I love that Clarity have you working on numerous clients that are all vastly different. I have the same within my internship and it gives you a sneak peak into different industries, some that you would never think to work in before.
It is also great you have been given feedback. I am so thankful for the feedback I have been getting as it really does help you improve your skills.
I look forward to seeing your blog post when it is published.
Enjoy the coming weeks.
Liv xxx
It's good to know that the research your working on seems more fulfilling now your out in the work place.
My experience in my PR internship was not quite as positive. When working on very long Media Lists or Media Profiles, the constant search for journalists contact details can be incredibly dull. I think it's important to see how these tasks fit into the overall strategy or objective. That way, even when tasks aren't overly exciting, you can still see how you are working towards a success for your client or employer.
Thanks for a great post.
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