9 September 2014
I had to learn the hard way that the client can let you down.
Over the course of my internship I have started to take on a lot
more client work for one of our biggest clients. However, the relationship is set
up such that, the internal marketing team works with us, their consultancy, to
come up with and organise stories that might be of interest to the media. The
problem with this is that we often rely on them to play the ‘middle man’ and
sometimes details are mistranslated or forgotten.
I’m fast learning that direct contact with the parties immediately
involved in the media opportunity is necessary, especially when I’m responsible
for liaising with the media regarding where and when media opportunities are
occurring.
I was responsible for organising a photocall for an ice bucket
challenge that our client was doing in memory of a resident who had passed away
from ALS. I managed to secure a few local reporters who were interested in
covering this story and part of my role was to coordinate the timing of their
arrival, so that their photographers could capture pre, during and post event
images. One day prior to the event I made email contact with the team leader
organising the challenge at the site and confirmed the time and location that the
challenge would take place. I then relayed this information to the reporters
via email that afternoon, securing a time for them to attend the event the
following day. I really thought I’d covered all bases to make sure this
photocall ran smoothly.
However, this was not the case. There was a last minute change to
the timing of the event – it was brought forward by an hour. Therefore the
reporters arrived after the challenge had taken place, resulting in the
photographer missing the photo opportunity and the reporter missing an
interview opportunity.
Successful Outcome
Fortunately, the story was still published. I received a call from
the journalist who attended, informing me that the event had taken place
earlier than advised and that they had missed the photo opportunity. Luckily I
had a good relationship with the journalist and when I explained what had
happened, they understood. To make it up to them, I managed to track down some
images that had been taken at the centre and arranged for a telephone interview,
so the story still ran.
What I learnt
My first mistake was assuming that nothing would change from one day
to the next and my second, was not triple checking everything the morning of
the event.
Additionally, I learnt that although it’s in the best interest of our
client to accommodate the media, the parties involved, for this particular
client, are usually based in centres around Western Australia, not in head
office, so they don’t understand the protocol when it comes to the changing of
event timings, nor the value of not wasting a reporter’s time. I learnt that clients
require explicit instructions – the process and consequences of not following
this process need to be clearly explained to them, preferably by phone, rather
than by email.
Finally, I learnt that relationship development is the most
important aspect of public relations – with both the media and with clients.
This is also best done in person or via telephone – emails are less personal.
