Diversity in PR team is the way to success

Hi everyone,

This is my second blog that I’d like to share with you. I have been practicing my internship with Whipper Snapper Distillery for almost two month now. However, I am still planning to persist as I am really enjoying working there and there is so much to learn.

I remembered it was my third week in the company, I was asked to join the team meeting regarding developing marketing strategy. Whipper Snapper Distillery is a five year old company and the market they are currently targeting is Perth and Australia.  When I sat in the meeting, they discussed about the need to bring more tours into the distillery, offering whisky tastings; on the weekend, they could also offer weekend classes to teach people how to appreciate whisky; in the evening, the distillery could offer dinner party venues and hold corporate functions. As a PR internship student, I may not as knowledgeable as the people who work there, plus I was also too shy to suggest any ideas. But in the end, I encouraged myself to suggest developing into the Chinese market as well. China has a long drinking whisky culture, so does Japan. From the migration chart, China is the third biggest
migrant in Australia. Plus Chinese people love travel to Australia, especially Perth as it is so clean and easy get around. The head of marketing department Onkie agreed with me and asked me to take charge of the Chinese market. I was so excited that I can use my PR knowledge to practice in the real world and I am in charge of it. First, I contacted the Chinese Radio Station and local Chinese Newspapers telling them about the first Perth whisky distillery, they are absolutely interested in, so I submitted the media release for them in Chinese. One week after, the Chinese radio broadcasted our news. Now, I am arranging one hour program with the station to teach audiences about how to appreciate whisky. I also contacted the Chinese consulate in Perth, I invited them to bring all Chinese governors to the distillery for free tastings of their local whisky and also provide them with a free function venue. Now, we have five tours sent by consulate to our distillery, they love our whisky and brought some back to China.

As a migrant, I took advantage by knowing the other culture. I bring different experiences in to the team and I help the company to open up to different markets which they never thought about. Diversity in the PR team is the way to success.

Annabelle Xiaoyong Tan

Work harder but smarter

               

My name is Annabelle Tan. I am studying a double degree at the moment. One is PR, the other one is Screen arts. Like you all, I am currently completing my 20 days internship at Whipper Snapper Distillery which is a Whisky Company located in east Perth. This is my first blog and I'd like to share my experience with you.

I started looked for my internship at the beginning of May and finally I found myself at the whisky distillery around June. I remembered when I studied PR principle in my first year. The tutor taught us about the ethics in PR. When we come into the real world to get a job, we have to be careful what we promote and sell, such as tobacco and alcohol. That’s where we have to obey PR ethics. The reason I took the position at the whisky distillery because this is the first one in Perth, plus it offers classes for educating people how to appreciate whisky instead of just drinking it.

The first day at my internship, I was a bit nervous. I don’t know whether my

knowledge is enough to be a part of the team. Luckily, I have a very helpful

supervisor named Onkie Cheng, who is head of the marketing department, assist and help me patiently. The first thing I got to do on my first day was to go out to get all kinds of newspapers, magazines etc and pay attention to who is in charge of the editorial for each section that was related to whisky such as Out About section in The West Australian Newspaper. I had to create the lists on Excel to write down all the information such as: the name of the newspaper, editor’s name, contact number and emails. The second day, my supervisor asked me to call them all and tell them about Whipper Snapper Distillery company to see who was interested in putting our story in their newspapers.

A couple days later, we had The West Australian came wrote a story named “Bourbon with a local flavour’; Perth Now News wrote’ East Perth warehouse home to Australia’s first bourbon-style whisky distillery’; Hospitality Magazine wrote ’Whipper Snapper release Perth’s first ‘bourbon ’etc.

Before I study PR, I never understood what the difference is between marketing and PR. Now, since I am practicing my knowledge in Whisky Company, I realize PR people work harder but smarter. PR can promote to wide variety of target audiences without financial contribution and it works!