“Creativity is intelligence having fun” - Albert Einstein

Why the quote you may ask? I will explain the logic behind the use of this quote shortly…  I decided to write this post upon reflection of the role creativity plays in business and in PR.

I thoroughly enjoy being given the opportunity to be creative. In fact, one of my primary motivations of pursuing a career in PR/Marketing is to be able to be creative whilst also business minded – the best of both worlds in my opinion. So, it was really exciting for me to be invited on a number of occasions to brainstorm ideas for clients and to contribute my own ideas to a number of client jobs.

For example, the strategy team got together to develop ideas for a rebrand of a not-for-profit. They were requesting ideas for a new name, claim (a slogan) and a call to action to be implemented before their upcoming campaign. So, we split into groups of 2 and devised a number of suggestions for the rebrand. Once coming together again we shared our ideas and agreed upon three to be submitted to the client. The brainstorm, although dependent on our creativity, also required intelligence (hence the use of Einstein’s quote). Why? Because when coming from a PR standpoint we needed to develop a new name that was politically correct, would not offend those it was helping and would make sense to those who were donating to the cause. So, it was a brainstorm that required not only creativity, but business savvy and an awareness of wider social and political issues too.

Therefore, although it is often argued that people can only be one: creative or business-minded, it is evident in the context of communications that it is vital that the two approaches be adopted together. Creative ideas need to be thought through logically to analyse the potential backlash, response or acceptance by publics. An idea for a campaign or rebrand could be tremendously unique and avant-garde, but if it is going to ruffle the feathers of your most important publics, it might just need to be backlogged for a more suitable client or time, or potentially not implemented at all.

Therefore, it has become evident to me that PR practitioners need to have both sides of the brain switched on, especially in this competitive market. Only the most creative AND commercially viable ideas (campaigns, brands, publicity stunts, events) will make it when revealed to an increasingly discerning public. In fact, PR practitioners could also be seen to play a ‘gatekeeper’ role between the creative departments (graphic designers etc.) and the finance department because not all great creative ideas will prove beneficial for the client (profits, reputation, customer sentiment). We need to be able to monitor what is released to the public domain, because as many organisations have learnt from experience, there will always be someone out there who will take your idea the wrong way. 

What do you think? Have you had the opportunity to contribute your own creative ideas during your internship? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

Candice

Learning How to Socialise

Wednesday 12^th August 2015

Hello, it’s time again to reflect upon my learning at Clarity Communications. The past few days of my internship have largely involved social media, an area that I have been looking forward to learning more about.

I was given the opportunity to have a go at social media content creation and scheduling. This was a great insight into how brands and businesses plan out their social media posts across all platforms to be published over a given time frame. In this case I was scheduling posts for the months of August and September for Celebrate WA, a not-for-profit celebrating the people, places and past of WA.  

I wrote the content for the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts in an Excel spreadsheet document. Content was driven by the direction of the client with some additional suggestions such as events and articles that could be included. A screenshot of the content schedule template can be seen below.

 

A screenshot of the social media content schedule used to plan posts

After the client approved the schedules I was allowed to log into the various social media management tools online to schedule the posts for the months ahead. Facebook posts were planned on Facebook, while Hootsuite was used for Twitter and Postso was used for Instagram. Prior to doing this task I was naïve to the fact you could schedule Instagram posts, which in hindsight seems a little silly as there seems to be an online tool to help businesses complete every task possible!

A 'conversational' Facebook post for Celebrate WA

Through being involved in the scheduling of posts I also learnt to plan posts for times when social media platforms are their busiest: early morning as people wake up and leave for work, mid-day when people are on their lunch break and late afternoon/evening when people are settling in for the night.  Therefore, posts were scheduled at times such as 7am, 8am, 12.30pm and 7pm.

The challenges of social media content creation, for me, were finding a suitable image for each post (using sites such as Iconosquare) and developing content that was interesting and relevant to followers. It is so important to make the effort to discover what types of people are interacting with your social media channels in order to curate content that engages them time and time again. For the purpose of Celebrate WA’s social media pages content is created to interest people living in WA and who share an interest in WA events, people, news, special interest pieces and places.

Getting involved in the social media for clients at Clarity has been one of my favourite tasks so far.  I have discovered so many new tools and resources, so I am really looking forward to seeing what else I can learn during my internship!

What has been your favourite learning experience so far? Let me know in the comments.

Candice

Research and Writing: Two Pillars of PR

Friday, July 10^th 2015

I am back on the blog after 7 days of interning at Clarity and I am really enjoying it!  The first few days I was busy researching various opportunities for the firm, including a ‘reverse brief’ to be delivered to a property client who was looking to repurpose their CBD office building. For those who are unaware of what this is, as I was until it was explained to me, a reverse brief is when external agencies are asked to provide the client with an indication of their understanding and interpretation of the brief.  One of Clarity’s campaign strategists had suggested the prospect of co-working space, so my research involved compiling a document detailing the opportunities for co-working spaces in Perth, existing spaces and creative ideas to be given to the client.

My other tasks involved assisting members of the strategy team in researching topics such as niche foodie publications for a food truck event, the battery industry for an energy firm entering the Australian market and Scottish social media communities and publications in Perth for a potential event job. I was also invited to provide my own creative ideas for some client work, such as putting together itinerary suggestions for Celebrate WA’s WA Girl Abroad trip in which a girl from Perth had won a trip to London to represent the state as part of their #WADay campaign earlier this year. You can see what Celebrate WA’s WA Girl Abroad got up to on her trip here.

Through interning at Clarity I have developed a greater appreciation for research, as I have seen first hand how vital it is to the work of a communications consultancy. Research provides consultants with a strong understanding of each client’s business, competitors, customers, opportunities and threats, thus ensuring the services delivered are of value and relevance to the client.  So, although some may find research a little dull, I felt that my work was providing valuable insight to the strategy team and provided information that could be used in the development of strategies and pitches to clients.

I also got the chance to do some writing, an area that is of particular interest to me. I was asked to shadow the writing of two media releases for Kentz, an international engineering solutions firm. This was an exciting task for me, as I was able to compare my writing to that of an experienced public relations advisor. The subject of both briefs was technical, but I enjoyed the challenge and the feedback provided to me upon completing the two media releases was invaluable.

To top it all off I got invited to write a blog post about a topic of my choosing to be published on the Clarity blog, A Moment of Clarity. This was a fantastic chance for me to showcase my writing style and creativity to my supervisor. I also knew that my blog post would not only be reflecting upon myself, but also the firm, so I put a lot of effort into writing a piece that I was proud of. Hopefully I will be able to share the link to my post on this blog before the end of semester!

And that was the end of a busy first week at Clarity! I can’t wait to see what the next week brings. How was your first week of interning? Tell me about it in the comments below.

Candice

Finding Clarity

Monday, 6^th July 2015

Hello, welcome to my blog! I am Candice Stevens, and this is where I will be reflecting on my experiences throughout my internship at Clarity Communications. First, let’s start off with how I got to where I am today: an intern at Clarity.

When completing the PR Consultancy unit in semester 1, my interest in public relations consultancy was piqued.  Initially, the concept of consultancy was unbeknown to me. I had obviously heard of companies that provides communications services to other companies, however had never really stopped to consider what a career in consulting work could entail. There was a lot of discussion throughout the semester over the pros and cons of in-house vs. consultancy. So, I decided that I wanted to apply for an internship position within a public relations consultancy so that I could decide for myself if consulting work was for me, or whether I would be better suited to working in-house.

Having done some research into the consultancies that were in Perth, I decided to call Clarity Communications. A meeting was organised and not long after that I was preparing for my first day in the Clarity office.

Clarity Communications is a boutique communications agency in Perth offering a full suite of services to organisations such as Mirvac, Celebrate WA, Wesfarmers and City of Armadale. The firm is divided into Strategy, Creative and Digital teams, with consultants working together to deliver public relations, graphic design, and digital and social media expertise to clients. The firm is well known within the industry and services a wide range of clients, so I was excited to have been given the opportunity to learn from their experiences. 

I was feeling a little nervous by the prospect of my first day in a professional office, however I was thrown into it from the moment I arrived so there was no time to get overwhelmed!

I was welcomed into a meeting with the strategy team, who were in discussions over their activities for the coming week. It was in this meeting that I met the public relations consultants I would be working alongside and was given my tasks for the day. 1) To find the Twitter handles for each contact on Clarity’s extensive media list (100s upon 100s of local, national and international journalists and publications) and 2) to compile research to be used in the development of a proposal for a potential client in the property industry.

Finding the Twitter handles was an arduous but necessary task, so although it was eye-straining work, I knew my efforts would be appreciated. While the research I conducted for the strategy proposal was interesting and introduced me to the diversity of work a public relations consultancy is involved in.  So all in all the first day was a valuable learning experience and a sign that I was embarking on an internship that would deliver exciting challenges, opportunities and insights.

To wrap up, I have devised three questions coming into this experience that I will hopefully be able to answer upon completing my internship in a few months time. These are:

1.     Am I suited to consultancy work?

2.     What attributes do I value in a workplace?

3.     What skills and knowledge do I still need to work on?

Now I’ll throw it you: what questions do you hope to have answered by the end of your internship experience? Let me know in the comments below.

Candice