Let's make it personal

Over the past couple of weeks I have been tackling a lot of different projects including helping organise kids for photo shoots for the 2013 PMH Foundation calendar, interviewing and writing up stories of kids at PMH for the Ambassador program, visiting some in hospital dressed as the Stitches the Bear, writing and changing the monthly media report template and finding stories to pitch to journalists who wanted to write articles about the Foundation. Through all of these different activities I have been amazed at how versatile our team has had to be in adapting and accommodating key stakeholders. Each person has a completely different background, relationship to the hospital and the Foundation, interests and experiences. The Foundation does a lot of qualitative and quantitative research on its key publics through online campaigns, database information, commissioned reports and media monitoring to keep updated with changing social trends, issues and behaviours. I have noticed that the key concept used to successfully engage key stakeholders is to customise all messages and make things as personal as possible. Two recent tactics PMH Foundation is thinking of adopting to achieve this are email testing and a proposed online newsletter.

Email Tests

As discussed in my last blog, I have learnt a lot at weekly team meetings. We recently talked about testing donor responses to ‘thank you’ letters and welcome packs by sending one letter to half our database and a different one to the other half to see which one gets a better response. I was interested to learn how tests such as these help organisations better understand their key publics and tailor their messages and activities to suit their supporters needs and interests.

Online Newsletter Proposal

Another proposed activity was the idea of creating an electronic newsletter for our donors that could be tailored to suit individual interests. For example there are some donors who participate in certain events every year and are only interested in this, others are keen to give specifically to something like research and others who just like supporting PMH through buying merchandise. There would be significant benefits in creating a newsletter that could customise, and essentially personalise, information to suit certain stakeholders. The concept would be to make sure people are targeted individually and not made to accept a ‘one size fits all’ template. This way donors and supporters are not hassled by things they are not interested in and maximum awareness is stressed about things that do interest them. I have recently been involved with research into different online services that help to facilitate this sort of online newsletter, a service I never knew existed. I was introduced to http://mailchimp.com/, one such service that impressed me so much that I wrote up a recommendation and proposal for its use by the Foundation.

It has been fantastic to see how even up until my last days working at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation I have continued to learn so much about the many functions and activities associated with public relations. Although a lot of the activities I have been involved in often cross over into marketing activities, I still strongly believe that each one helps build relationships and communication channels with key stakeholders and thus falls under the PR banner. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Foundation and it has helped me better prepare for a life outside of university both professionally and personally. I would like to personally thank all the staff at PMH Foundation for having me and investing time into giving me such an amazing and beneficial experience. Thanks also for offering me a paid position! PMH Foundation is an awesome place to work and I love the added benefit of knowing I am helping sick children and the WA community. At this point I am proudly going to say non-profit is the best PR sector :)

A fly on the wall at staff meetings

Staff weekly meetings may sound boring to some but this is where I have learnt some of the most valuable things about PR practice while interning at the PMH Foundation. Monday morning meetings have given me a broader perspective and greater insight into the organisation’s ethos, team dynamics and values. They have also brought to the surface many issues, ideas and concerns that play a part in bringing the team closer together and more in tune with each other and the vision and mission of the organisation. I have had time to think over a lot of different things that have come up in the meetings and in broad terms (so some information remains confidential) I wanted to outline some of the PR theory I have seen being used in practice.

Communication and Conflict Resolution - Employee Relations

At a staff meeting one person raised the concern that something had caused a shift in the team dynamic. Instead of feeling a sense of teamwork this particular thing had caused a sense of competition to overwhelm the way people went about their work. I thought this was an interesting point raised and as a team they felt they had to step back and assess whether this concern was affecting the organisation as a whole. The matter was fixed fairly easily because the meeting allowed people to voice their opinions and find a solution that suited everyone and bring things back to the values of the organisation. I think this was an example of good employee relations at the PMH Foundation and showed good communication within and across its teams of people. Staff are able to inform each other of important announcements and keep them updated with new developments during weekly meetings and through an email system. Informal things like ANZAC cookie competitions, nachos and pizza days are also lovely lunchtime ideas that build community and a sense of goodwill among co-workers. According to PR theory we have learned, service and quality are built through loyal and motivated employees. I think the relationships and communication developed in a mix of formal and informal ways are a key part to achieving this (I found this online tutorial had some pretty interesting things to say on this and many other aspects of PR if you are interested http://www.edvencomm.net/pr.pdf ).

Public Awareness - Marketing in PR

In my last staff meeting we discussed one of the main issues the Foundation is facing, which I outlined in my first blog post. Basically, there is continual confusion and lack of public awareness of the separate identity of the hospital and the Foundation. In addressing this concern, the marketing and communications team came up with a variety of new strategies to raise public awareness, manage the organisation’s image and provide more ways for target publics to be involved with the Foundation. I learnt a lot just by listening to the input from different team members about this particular issue. Ideas, which will be implemented to address different target publics, included giving out PMH Foundation bravery awards and Stitches stickers to kids in hospital, sponsored tea breaks for staff courtesy of the Foundation and a TV commercial to position the Foundation as the key fundraising body of the hospital (look out for it on TV soon!!). Social networking sites like Facebook will also be key to establishing a separate (and more personal) identity for the Foundation. I will be interested to see how all of these tactics help to build awareness and a strong identity for the Foundation in the future.

These are only a couple of aspects of PR that I have gained valuable insight into at staff meetings. I sometimes have to smile to myself when I think of how much of what is discussed relates directly to the things I have learnt about strategic PR in all of my units! Always good to see how theory is applied in the real world of PR in practical ways.

The world from inside a bear suit...

Loads of Work Behind the Scenes
One of the joys of working with an organisation that specialises in children is that there are a lot of fun activities you end up getting involved in. One of the biggest annual events put on by the PMH Foundation is ‘Wear a Bear Day’, which takes months of preparation. I definitely have a new appreciation for the work that goes into organising something like this! Next time you go to the shops and see a pen or badge at the counter to support some non-for-profit group, buy it!! Seriously, so much work goes into getting stuff out there!

The Value of Volunteers (and Social Media)

I have also come to appreciate how valuable volunteers are, without them organisations like the PMH Foundation cannot function effectively. Despite how much they are needed, to find people who are willing to help out is a huge challenge. I spent the week leading up to the big day hassling all my friends into volunteering to wear the bear suit and go out during the week to fill money tins with the Nova ‘Casanovas’ (check out pictures at http://www.novafm.com.au/gallery/wear-bear-day).  Some friends didn’t need convincing however. They were born to ‘be the bear’ (this is where Facebook events come in handy...social media definitely has a place in PR). There is nothing like enthusiastic volunteers, non-for-profit groups thrive on these kinds of people!

The Big Bear Day
Finally the big day came and it was my time to shine. I was in the city by 7am sweating it out in the bear suit while the other volunteers were freezing around me, literally shaking tins. I think I filled two tins in the time everyone else filled one…no one can resist giving money to a giant cuddly bear. I decided to milk the opportunity and bring out the best of my acting skills for the occasion. If dancing and getting down on one knee to beg for money doesn’t work, a ‘crying’ bear does. I felt like I had been in a sauna for hours but it was worth it just to see people’s reaction when they saw a big bear face peering in at them through café windows. Other volunteers were selling merchandise from a marquee and gave out balloons to the children. The Nova team were also there pumping music out the back of their Ute, which helped to draw crowds of people.

Lessons Learnt

In the city alone we managed to raise around $15,000 but plenty more came in later with the help of shopping centres and other partner stores who helped to sell merchandise. From the experience I learnt the value of volunteers and also partnerships with other organisations like Nova, food outlets and shopping centres. You really have to be able to sell your ‘cause’ well to inspire people to get involved and be enthusiastic about it. You need to be proactive and passionate about it yourself. Events requiring a lot of work before, during and after, involve a lot of teamwork and good communication skills as well. I will take all of these lessons with me into future PR practices, along with my amazing mascot-wearing abilities.

Note to aspiring mascot wearers: Don’t cross any streets while in your costume…you have no peripheral vision whatsoever.

Taking a break from actually being IN the "Stitches the Bear" suit

PR at PMH?...Nooooo the PMH Foundation!

I had not really considered the existence of a PR body working for a hospital – let alone an entire foundation dedicated to it – until I started my placement at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.

Wanting to find work placement in the non-for-profit sector, I was amazed at the variety of different organisations out there in our community that can be easily overlooked. Although Princess Margaret Hospital is well known in WA for its specialisation in children, since starting my placement I have quickly learnt that its separate Foundation is often forgotten or confused with the role of the hospital itself.

The PMH Foundation is the official fundraising body for the children’s hospital and has a critical role in providing funds for vital medical equipment and research, as well as implementing various projects. They are involved in so many exciting activities including annual events like the  Urban Decent (where people can fundraise to abseil down a city skyscraper…check out the fun we had earlier this year... http://www.urbandescent.com.au/tag/pmh/), Wear A Bear Day and even weekly visits into the hospital wards with their mascot ‘Stitches the Bear’. More information about everything can be found at http://www.pmhfoundation.com/ if anyone is interested.

Right from the first day working for the foundation I began to understand one of the main challenges it faces. As part of what has become my weekly task, I use a media monitoring website called www.mediaportal.com to search for coverage of the foundation and write up a media report about all the articles and other coverage that it has been mentioned in. Through this monthly report the media content can be analysed by the board as to whether there has been enough public awareness and activities generated to assist with fundraising objectives.

The problem, however, is that all too often the journalists and outsourced consultants who write the articles simply write PMH instead of mentioning the PMH Foundation specifically. The public are often confused as to where they can donate money because of this mix-up. It also makes it hard to monitor what the Foundation has actually been doing for the hospital. I also think the PMH Foundation and its staff work really hard to create a good public profile for the hospital and it is a pity that they often do not get the recognition they deserve. I have spoken with my coordinator about what they plan to do about the problem. She said that they have started to put a note on all the information they send through highlighting the importance of having the PMH Foundation specifically mentioned in media releases and articles. Whether that is going to be enough is another story. Maybe I should ask if any of you have a better idea of how to tackle this issue? I’m sure my team would be eagre to hear your suggestions!