Hiho hiho back to work I go!

Hello there,

And so begins the new year!

2014 will be exciting for West Australian Ballet with the world premier performance of Radio & Juliet. The show begins on the 7th February at the Quarry Amphitheater in Perth. The music for the performance has been written by the highly acclaimed and well-known English band, Radiohead. Shows to follow in the season include classics such as Gisselle, La Fille Mal Gardee and Snow White.

The public relations and marketing staff are busy with the preparations for Radio & Juliet. Copy for season and show programs and brochures are being created, websites and social media sites updated, posters and banners advertising the season are being dispersed throughout the city and media releases are being drafted.

Having spent a day writing constantly I thought it would be fitting to write some more and create a new blog post! To begin the day I found myself in a 'stop/start'mode of writing. I felt the necessity to reword and fix every word or sentence I typed. After about two hours of this I stopped.  I began to just write. What I wanted and how I wanted, deciding to fix mistakes later.  This has worked extremely well for me. I found that being to pedantic reduced the flow of my creative thinking. I believe this issue I have is a result of learning journalistic style. I will have to consider this and try leave my journalistic hat at the West Australian Ballets door step!

Oh my! I now have but only eight days left of my intern-ship to complete. Enjoy your experience! The time goes so quickly!

Life is a dance!

I have begun an internship at the West Australian Ballet. It is a wonderfully creative organisation and I feel extremely lucky and grateful to have been given such an amazing opportunity.

 I was instantly welcomed into the company and introduced to the office staff (of about thirty people). I was then treated to a grand tour of the large antiqued heritage-listed ballet centre. The building has been modernised and consists of a large communal office area, a grand foyer, a cafe space, three large dance studios, a lounge area, gym and physiotherapy centre.

I was given a copy of the company style guide to learn and a brochure of the current and coming ballet season. I noticed that the style guide is thorough with details of colours, text size and font. It also explores logos for different mediums, sponsor logos, details of ‘how to’ for email, telephone, fax, photocopy, paper size and style etc. One thing I found interesting was that the style guide also discussed how to communicate messages- the tone, the idea of quality customer service, professionalism and proper use of the English language. I am glad that I received a copy of the style guide the moment I commenced work and found this an incredible useful tool throughout my professional practice thus far. I know understand the importance of having a style guide. As a new employee it provided me with exactly what was expected. A style guide helps to ensure a standard that all employees follow. It also creates consistency and is engrained with the brands values, attitudes, and key messages of the organisation. The style guide formulates a consistent and memorable organisation standard.  The brochure was also useful as I gained an understanding of the ballet season. For 2014 the West Australian Ballet will perform one ballet titled Radio and Juliet at the quarry amphitheatre, three shows at His Majesty’s Theatre- Giselle, Snow White and La Fille Mal Gardee.  The company will also host a number of small genesis shows (contemporary solo dances) and public dance classes. A Black and White ball has been organised for sponsors and donators and a number of open days for the public.

I learnt quickly that the organisation is heavily focused on producing spectacular world class events and performances, increasing ticket sales and add-on sales, gaining support of ballet community (subscription packages), receiving sponsorship and donations, promoting ballet to younger audiences, ballet education, and efficient and effective public relations, marketing and advertising strategies.

I embarked on my internship during a busy period (The day before opening night of Peter Pan).  I was given a variety of jobs over the next two weeks including;

1.     A mock up of “Friends of WAB” pamphlet

a.     Create Mock up

b.     Describe what we want in a word document for the outsourced graphics teams

c.     Include all style, image, and logos

2.     SWOT analysis

a.     Where the company is at and how the shows this year have gone so far and what is in store for next season

b.     ‘In’ and ‘out’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

c.     Improvements

d.     Boardroom meeting with all important shareholders, directors, staff and dancers

e.     Categorise into most important and agreeable points

f.      Create a document based on findings of season

3.     Patron data schedule for tickets 2014 (for ticketek)

4.     Media Clippings of Onegin performance

5.     Draft of donations letter

6.     List of potential places to send pamphlets about Radio and Juilet performance at the Quarry.

a)     Draft email and send

b)    Received five emails back (sent 5 boxes of pamphlets to local shopping centres)

7.     Created a competition for the mid year newsletter – 10 double passes to see Bolshoi ballet at The Winsor Cinema

a)     Drafted letter for winners and a piece on who won for social media sites

8.     Survey for Onegin- results document in Survey Monkey

9.     Survey for Peter Pan (created) in Survey Monkey

So far I am enjoying my experience working at WAB. I am at the nine-day mark and have gained confidence in my abilities as a young PR professional. I have learnt how I can implement PR strategies and practices into a real life situation. I have found that in a real life situations results are more important than in an academic assignment. Throughout my university studied I never put much emphasis on the evaluation section however I now see the value in doing this. This is something I have struggled with personally as a student. I understand what positive effects can eventuate from PR practices that satisfy business goals and objectives and how important it is to measure these for increased productivity in coming years.