65 Days Later: will my PR journey end here?

So very quickly, internship is coming to an end.

In less than 5 days, it is going to be over.

The journey in Brand Inc. has been great; filled with more challenges than I can ask for. The big question is, would I like to continue doing what I'm doing?

So to answer my question above, I had one very important task to do- think. Think about the things I have done, think about what I did not like and most importantly, think about how much I enjoyed myself during the whole course of my internship.

Here's how my journey has been. I'll point it out by using key words and I'll start with:

Murphy's Law

Something I'm sure many students would have heard their lecturers say; esp PR lecturers.

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!"

And, it happens, at the worst times! From looking for fillers, to getting media gifts ready, anything can really happen.

To welcome the Malaysian media for the Far East Hospitality (FEH) hotel launch, my boss had in mind some gifts we had to prepare for the media. One of the gifts included welcoming them at the airport with artisan water. Since I was the one welcoming them, I had to ensure that I brought along the water with me to the airport. But, to lighten my load and make my trip to the airport comfortable (without having to lug too many items with me), I decided to purchase the 10 bottles of water from the supermarket that's in the airport. We had 3 terminals and out of 3, 2 of it had supermarkets in them, what are the odds of them running out of artisan water right?

WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. They went out of it. From Terminal 2, I called up the NTUC in Terminal 3 and asked if they had any artisan water at all and the lady responded that their stocks for water just arrived and they needed time to key it into their inventory before they could put it on the shelves. I was dumbfounded. In 30 mins, the media were arriving and I needed WATER. Thought in my head? Murphy's law. Thankfully there was a Cheers (convenient store) located at the departure hall of Terminal 2. I had to settle for Evian because at least, there was something! In case you are wondering, Starbucks did not have enough San Pellegrino. By the time they arrived, everything was all good.

Lesson learnt: Because Murphy's Law exists, never ever ever assume. (Even though there are 2 supermarkets!)

Media experience

Yes. Media experience. To be really specific, best media experience. Providing the best media experience. This was something my boss wanted us to ensure took place with the Malaysian media. Aside from welcoming them and showing them around, there was only so much we could do for them physically so, we had to think of how we could do more. Since they were going to be staying in Rendezvous Hotel, it meant that we had to be well aware of what is available in the surroundings so that we can offer as much assistance to them as possible; and it meant being well aware of halal foods within the vicinity. 5 out of 7 media were Muslims, so we had to be more proactive in getting relevant information for them. We scoured the area for halal certified restaurants and cafes, mosques and places of interest. It took us awhile to collate the info on hand. Thankfully, there was a mosque nearby and we could get prayer timings to include in a welcome gift from Brand Inc. A lot of hard work was put in from the time the Malaysian media arrived until their departure. All that was well worth because they sent us an email to tell us how pleased they were and how much they enjoyed themselves throughout the entire trip.

Brainstorming

Never ending sessions, one after another. As the team is really small, more contributions were required from each of us. When I started, I was quite shy with speaking my mind and contributing ideas. But it quickly became a routine I got used to. From brainstorming about concepts to press kit ideas, the sessions are crazy. It can drag from about 30 minutes to 2 hours. The ideas that come out from such sessions are really great. Of course not every session will be a fruitful one but at least there is always the chance that something might just work out from something in that session!

There are definitely a lot of other factors and points that make this internship really enjoyable but these are just some to name! I have enjoyed myself throughout this time and I hope all you readers out there enjoy your internship too!

It has been a great road thus far along with the awesome team in Brand Inc. and from what you have read, I'm pretty sure you know my answer already. Yes. I will continue my path in public relations and I'm sticking with an agency! :)

That is all from me and my internship journey!

Thank you for reading!! :)

Bye!

Memorable Events

They always say a picture speaks a thousand words, so I hope from these pictures, you are all able to see how internship has been :)

I am going to start with my first experience with a creative press kit! Can you guess who our client is? It's definitely not a pastry firm......

It's Mandom Gatsby! They had just launched their latest product- Hair Jam. From the name, I'm sure you are able to guess why the press kit looks like that! As good as it looks, getting all the items for the press kit was a huge challenge! We had to use about 2 packs of fillers per box of press kit to ensure that when the kit was opened, the Hair Jam wouldn't be at the bottom of the box. And the challenge- finding that particular shade of blue fillers. It was out of stock everywhere! We had to come up with 75 kits, so imagine the number of fillers we had to look for! Eventually, we managed to get 200 packs of fillers after combing different parts of Singapore.  

So after packing them all, out it went to the relevant media. All the hard work of brainstorming and finally putting the press kit together paid off when we followed up with them. 

Their reactions and responses were very positive and they had nothing but praises for the press kit. Each time they asked where we were calling from and what press kit we were referring to, all we needed to say was the loaf of bread and they would tell us how pleased they were with the whole idea. Absolutely satisfying.

The next big thing that we all had to prepare for was the pitch to Far East Hospitality for their Malaysian market. We were notified that there were 4 other agencies that were going to be pitching as well and we had the honour of going first. So 2 days before the pitch, we were informed that the CEO, Mr Arthur Kiong intended to sit in for the pitch. That, definitely added pressure.

16 Dec 2013, the day of the pitching came and I have to say, went really well. I was pretty stressed throughout the presentation. Mr Kiong decided not to go through the presentation that we had prepared because he roughly knew what we were going to say; instead, he decided to have to have a casual chat with us about Brand Inc and how we started out. That, was pretty stressful for me because I'm super new in Brand Inc.

About a day later, we were notified that we got the contract for Far East Hospitality Malaysia (FEH) and immediately, work began. Rendezvous Hotel was bought over by the FEH group in August 2013 and they intended to officially reopen the hotel on 17 January 2014; we had to ensure relevant Malaysian media contacts were present for it. The amount of work to be done was massive because we did not send out invites to the Malaysian media until January. Almost everyone was on leave in December! January came and up till now, has been insane! To ensure we understood the different properties of FEH, we had a site visit to all their properties on the 6th and 7th January. 

Things were going crazy in the office with everyone working their butts out and finally, the day came. Relevant media from neighbouring countries were invited to stay in the hotel from 16-18 January. Brand Inc, had manage to secure 7 Malaysian media presence.

(L to R: Ms. Kogi from 360Celsius, Ms. Nurul from EH!, Mr. Zamari from Santai Travel Mag, Mr. Khari from Libur, Ms. Heng from Travelution, Mr. Azhar from Newman and Ms. Dya from Jasmine.)

Michelle, my colleague (in the middle holding her passport) received the media in Malaysia KLIA Airport and flew in with them to Singapore. I received them in Singapore Changi Airport and from there, we all headed to Rendezvous Hotel.

16 January 2014: Media dinner at Food for Thought at Queen Street.

The theme in the restaurant was Restaurant of Reverse, which explains why we were having dessert for our first course. 

(Above) 17 January 2014: All the media gathering around Mr Kiong last night during the event, as he answered their questions.

The theme of the opening event was Fashionably Artsy because of how Rendezvous Hotel is being re-branded as; an arts hotel. Overall, it was a really good experience. Alot of hard work have been exhausted and seeing how everything has come together smoothly was truly gratifying.

Something that I have learnt from this that wasn't taught in the textbooks- creating the best media experience. I shall share that with everyone on my last post! Thank you for reading!

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

So, What's Next?

So very quickly, it is 2014! I'll start by wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!

 I'm into my last month at Brand Incorporated as an intern and I just cannot believe just how quickly everything has been flying by!

This time round, I would like very much to share my experience on my first media event in Brand Inc.

Our client, Pioneer Seafood, is in the food business, so the event was a tasting session. 

There were 3 days dedicated for the tasting in mid November. Before the days arrive, there were quite a fair bit of things to prepare. My supervisor was the media liaison between the client and media so what I had to was to assist her and ensure that items for the media were all packed into what I then identified; a press kit. 

The items that went in the press kit included a press release, question & answer sheet, history of the business and a menu stating their signature dishes the media would be having for lunch/ dinner, depending on the timing of the tasting session. 

When that day arrived, I have to admit I was actually really excited. My role was really simple, registering the media when they arrived before joining the tasting session. There were two sessions; lunch and dinner. The lunch session was arranged for print media and the dinner one was for online media, mainly bloggers.

The media whom were present for lunch on the first day represented: The Business Times, Singapore's Child, Square Rooms, 8 days.

Knowing who was going to turn up, I was excited. It's mostly because I was curious about the kind of questions they were going to ask our client. The kind of questions only journalists/ editors would be capable of asking. 

The lunch proceeded smoothly, with our client, Mr Lee introducing every single dish very enthusiastically to the media. He was so excited about the media coming down that he gave each of them a fresh fish of their choice to bring back. That was a really funny moment. The media were very polite in trying to turn down as they were heading back to their respective offices after lunch but he didn't take no for an answer. 

This is Mr Lee holding a parrot fish. It is just 1 out of the many different breeds of fish available for customers to choose in the restaurant (that's the one he made sure each media packed back!).

At the end of the 3 days, we all were glad that everything went really well. Not only was our client happy, but the media were as well and nothing is more important than that! Up to date, clippings of our client have been featured in the respective platforms. We are still awaiting the feature on The Business Times as the editor cannot confirm the date she will publish it due to many other pending articles on her side.

Something that I have observed and learnt? The characteristics of the different media. Taking the print media as a comparison, representatives of the online media platforms are not as afraid to speak their minds. After every session, Mr Lee would open himself for feedback from the media. Bloggers would bluntly speak their mind as to how they feel regarding the different dishes without even polishing their words. Some bloggers try, but most are very straightforward, as they like to be as honest as possible to their readers in order to be able to relate to them. Editors on the other hand, are more conscious of how they speak, stringing words to sound as diplomatic as possible without offending another. 

Very interesting! 

Selecting An Agency to Intern In

Alright. Let me start off with introducing myself.

My name is Joanne and I'm currently a student finishing up my last semester in Curtin Singapore. I have chosen to do the module PR Internship on its own because I would like to ensure that I do not imperil my grades for other modules, especially after I saw how some of my classmates coped with internship and school.

Before I enrolled for my last module, I was a little apprehensive about actually looking for a company to intern in. The main concerns I had were:

• Not being able to apply what I learnt in school to work, and
• Not being tasked with work that was relevant to PR at all (since interns are usually exploited to do extremely irrelevant chores).

To minimise possibilities of the above happening to me, I bore in mind these questions when looking out for a company to do my internship in.

• Is it in-house or agency?
• Is it a boutique agency?
• Am I comfortable with the genre of work that the agency specialises in?

There are no definite answers to these questions. Before I share my opinions, I would like to make clear that this is solely what I feel. For me, I'm certain that I would like to enter an agency, therefore, the first answer has got to be agency. Secondly, whether or not it is a boutique agency, makes a lot of difference. I am not after the name of the company and how established it is. On the contrary, I am looking for a boutique agency because it is where I personally feel, that has more learning opportunities.

Why so?

Simple. At a smaller place, because of the limited number of staff available, a single staff has to deal with way more than a single staff in a big organisation where manpower isn't an issue. From media monitoring to pitching, there is a higher chance of being involve in the company's operations in a boutique agency. With this said, the smaller the company, the better. But if you don't enjoy dealing with stress and crazy deadlines, you may want to opt for a bigger organisation; better still, an MNC.

I found an internship with Brand Incorporated Singapore. Brand Inc specialises in the lifestyle sector and is a small agency with a team of 4, including my boss. I'm glad it is like how I expected internship to be; very relevant to what I had studied, instead of regular intern exploitation duties like buying coffee and lunch for everyone else and doing nothing but filing. I started on 1st November 2013 and until now, it has been a crazy ride. I met clients on my first day, along with my boss and was tasked with a mission that was due on my 2nd day. I have to admit that I was overwhelmed when I was done with work on my first day, but I really enjoyed it because at the end of the day, I was happy and looking forward to next day. 

Well, that is what I would like to share with others my experience when it comes to looking for a company to intern in. All the best for everyone else doing their internship too! 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! :)