Butler Station Opens

Since the beginning of my internship at the Public Transport Authority I have been planning the opening of the Butler train station.

It was my role to organise most of aspects of the event, from organising the plaque, the ribbon to cut, the community involvement, completing the run sheet, to writing promotional material in the lead up to the event.

While my boss did the very important tasks such as writing speeches for the Premier and managing media, the planning was very much left as my responsibility. 

A week prior to the event everything was on track for a perfect event. The weather was to be 28 degrees and sunny with minimal wind. Until three days prior when a storm began to develop. It was to hit at 10:00am on 21 September, which coincidentally was the start time of our event.

Contingency plans swung into action. Many of our plans had to be cancelled or changed. Being a train station we had very little room inside. Enough room for the guests, but not enough for community activities. Due to the weather two community activities had to be cancelled. The remaining groups soldiered on but struggled to proceed in the rain.

Despite the poor weather the official proceedings went ahead perfectly. The Premier Colin Barnett and Transport Minister Dean Nalder both gave fantastic motivational speeches to all that were present. The guests then made their way down to the platform and rode the very first train from Butler Station.

Click here to see Channel Nine’s coverage of the event.

If you pause this video at 11 seconds you’ll see me in my two seconds of fame on the right side of the screen in a bright orange t-shirt.

It very was satisfying to see a project I had built up from the ground successfully come together.

Whitney

Sssshhh, it's a secret

I am currently interning at the Public Transport Authority and finding it really interesting to be working in a department whose actions actually affect everyday people. The PTA is responsible for the public transport infrastructure, this includes building train lines, stations, bus stops ext.

Stakeholders

There are so many different stakeholders to consider, from local residents opposing plans for a new train station being built near their home, to the state premier who needs to ensure the PTA deliver on his election promises.

PTA projects can have significant effects on various communities and individuals. When making decisions about projects the PTA must consult with various other government departments, shires, agencies and of course the public. It is important that the public are consulted, because the projects are being funded by tax payers contributions.

Keeping it under wraps

From a communications point of view including so many people can be problematic in preventing information from being leaked to the general public. The more people that know a secret, the harder it is to keep.

Last week the PTA had a case where information about the new underground Perth Busport’s second entry had been leaked to the media. At that point in time the PTA had not yet informed the public of the decision to include a second entry in the busport.

Fly through animation of the new underground Perth Busport.

For more information on the Perth Busport second entry click here.

The art of being prepared

Information leakages are difficult to manage because so many other departments and agencies have to have access to the information. I was very impressed with how my supervisor, the Communication Project Manager handled the situation. She had all the documentation already written and ready to be sent out. Had she not been prepared she would have had to work all night writing and finalising fact sheets, media releases and speech notes.

It just goes to show how much being organised pays off.

Whitney

In-house vs consultancy

I am 15 days into my second internship at the Public Transport Authority (PTA). The PTA is responsible for the public transport infrastructure; this includes building train lines, stations, bus stops ext.

My experience working at the PTA has been the complete opposite to my time at GO Communications (GO). GO is a public relations consultancy firm in Malaysia, while my role at the PTA is in-house for a Western Australian Government department. As far as public relations goes I think they are as different as you can get.

Media communication

Working in a government communications department is different to consultancy in so many ways. One area that particularly stands out is media communication. 

At GO we tried so hard to get media attention, whereas the PTA never has trouble getting media to a press conference. In fact they are often trying to deter media in an effort to keep information quite to avoid premature release.

I guess this is because the PTA are working on projects that directly affect so many people. As well as this, they are spending tax payers money. The media will report on what people want to know about, and everyone wants to know if their tax dollars are being invested wisely.

Budget

Another thing that is very different is the budget. Working in a consultancy the client determines the budget. I was surprised to see the extravagant things clients expect for such little expenditure.

In a government department the state treasurer determines the department’s budget. It is interesting to see how big the project budgets are for government, and just how much things actually cost.

At the PTA I am currently organising the opening of the new Butler Train Station (click here for more information on Butler Station). It is my job to arrange the stagging, seating, the community activities, signage, the opening plaque and the budget, among various other articles. In sourcing quotes, ordering numerous items and keeping track of the budget, I was very shocked to see how quickly costs add up. 

In a consultancy you have to try and convince the client to spend money on all these extra little things to make the event perfect. This can be a hard task. At GO, my team spent days trying to convince a client to hire a professional photographer to capture their event.

PTA

I have really enjoyed my time at the PTA so far. I have had loads of exposure to all kinds of different communications. I have written stories for the intranet, attended meetings with internal and external stakeholders and been involved in event coordination. I like working for the PTA because I feel like I am contributing to making our state a better place, rather than simply helping big corporations get richer.

I am interested to experience working in-house for private organisation so I can compare it to consultancy and government.

I'd love to hear whether you'd prefer to work in-house or in a consultancy?

Whitney

This is the end... but not goodbye!

Hi everyone!

This is my last post to sum up the three months being an intern in CROWD PR Agency.  The internship had broadened my perception of Public Relations immensely.  I considered the three months as a defining moment to determine if public relations will be the career path for me. Alas, I’ve found my answer.

Nearing the end of my internship, I have accepted the full time position offered by my supervisor.  I believe I am up for the challenge to deal with demanding clients, having ideas turned down for the zillionth time and having quick lunch breaks that could barely fill my stomach. (Hey, just dramatising the life of a PR practioner.) On a positive note, I’ve figure that the challenging moments are also the most gratifying moments of the job. Given the test-run for 3 months, I believe that I fit the bill for this job.

A couple of days ago, I’ve chance upon an article from the PR Week discussing the traits of an ideal PR consultant. (Link) The writer believes that the ideal new generation PR professional should have 1) the right mind, language and behaviour, 2) Take initiative to network and 3) exert assertiveness.

I couldn’t agree more with the writer that apart from technical skills, these soft skills helps to make one a better consultant. It serves as a reminder to me that despite being “promoted”, I should remain grounded and possess the same determination and assertiveness as previously in my intern role.  

I hope that this article will inspire you just like how it did for me, and hopefully through this internship journey, you would find your answers too!

(My colleagues and I hanging out at our recreational area)

Ending my last post by sharing a quote by the famous Oscar Wilde. 

“There Is Only One Thing In The World Worse Than Being Talked About, And That Is Not Being Talked About." – Oscar Wilde

Cheers,

Candice

What I did in 20 days!

What I did in 20 days!

 

As my internship comes to an end, I wanted to reflect on all of the differing types of PR activities I have been exposed to over my 20 days at the Department of Transport. Before I do I wanted to express how much this internship opened my eyes to the real world of PR and how much more excited I am about starting a career in this industry!

 

What I’ve been lucky to see, do and experience:

Internal communications

Raising awareness among DoT employees of projects and initiatives, working to keep employees engaged and acting as a forum for feedback from across the business about what communications channels are working and what isn’t.

What I did: Wrote, edited and produced an eight page electronic newsletter for staff – GO!

Media relations and management

Providing media management 24/7 whether it be reactively providing support to contentious issues and responding to any media enquiries received or proactively providing support for any media statements relating to DoT project milestones. A media monitoring service is also provided.

What I did: Daily media monitoring and editing of Ministerial media statements that came from three transport agencies – DoT, Public Transport and Main Roads – You would be surprised, even professionals make mistakes!

Event management

This includes the management of regional shows, industry events or corporate events to ensure there is a coordinated approach to events so a professional and consistent DoT message is presented.

What I did: Helped organise the portfolio leadership forum which will take place in July – I’ve been invited back to the session which I’m really excited about as I get to hear Andy Weir from Bankwest discuss the impact technology is having on customer service in modern organisations!

Issues and crisis management

Planning strategies to address issues, reputation and brand management.

What I experienced: I was interning on the days the former Minister for Transport Troy Buswell hit the media for crashing his ministerial car and also plagiarising a report – Departmental chaos ensued!

Stakeholder and Community Relations

Acting to maintain good relations with portfolio counterparts, the transport industry, local community, state and federal government and contractors.

What I did: Ran the Right Move Perth twitter page and responded to public questions about the app – nerve racking but worthwhile!

 

Thank you DoT and PR Internship 393!!!

Building relationship with media friends

Hello Everyone!

This is my third post, which means my internship journey is nearing to the end.

Today I'll be sharing my thoughts on building strong relationship with our dear media friends. The media circle in Singapore is very small due to the limited number of local publishing house. You could even count the number of publishers with both hands!

With a small media circle, it is important to have media friends on "our side". Here are some observations that I have concluded on building good relationship with media.

• Make an effort to find out what type of story angels the media is looking for. It would be easier to fit in their shoes if news given are timely and appropriate for their magazine/newspaper column. 
• Apart from work, go the extra mile to mingle with media friends. When a common interest is found, a good rapport will be established
• With that, it makes negotiation easier, should there be tight timeline to rush or last minute changes given by the client. 
• The best part of having a close relationship would be the entitlement to their personal mobile number. This means that you do not have to get through the main line, which is often engaged.

Apart from the local media, it is also important to keep a good relationship with influencers. I'm speaking in the context of lifestyle products. In Singapore, Instagram and Facebook are two of the most popular social media tool. 

Therefore, to penetrate into the crowd, we often touch base with lifestyle influencers to share new products to their avid followers either via Facebook or Instagram. This is typically known to attract the younger age group varying from 17 - 28 years old. 

So much on bridging good retaliation shop paths it seems that a good PR practitioner requires a wide connection of media friends and reputable influencers. 

On a fun note, the crew from Channel News Asia popped by my office this week for a short filming session! My boss had agreed to an interview about companies that are open to flexible working hours during the World Cup period. This is to accommodate football fanatics that are up at the wee hours to catch the match.  It was an interesting role reversal as my boss used to be off screen prompting clients with their scripts instead of being filmed.

Overall, it was an interesting experience for me albeit participating in the background. I have also used this opportunity to extend my connection with the reporter and hopefully in time, this connection will come in handy. 

And by the way, I'm rooting for Germany this coming World Cup, what's yours?

Till then, 

Candice

Crisis Management: Being Ready 24/7

Hi Everyone!

This is my second blog contribution. Instead of pointing out my daily routine at work, let me share more on my thoughts on the topic: Crisis Mangement.

I've been working in CROWD (A boutique agency in Singapore) for more than two months now. Some days consist of routine deskwork, while other days gets a little more perked-up. 

Well, I wouldn't exactly say meeting a crisis is exciting for account managers, it is however an eye opener for me. I’d be sharing three cases of crisis management from various incidents:

The first crisis ignited by a protest from an activist group, whom publicly displayed their unhappiness towards our client for supporting animal cruelty. The activist group involved was PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), known for their strong believe in animal rights. I will not divulge too much information due to sensitivity issue. But in a nut shell, PETA did managed to get it's message thru to the media. As a result, the news featured had reflected negatively on our client's reputation. I recalled having a discussion once during International Public Relation 340 module, that activists group have obtained a higher power of influence to the public than before. Therefore, it is important for companies to work with activists group rather than going against the tides.

The second crisis happened during a sports competition. The roof of the event venue was reported leaking due to heavy downpour and poor maintenance of the infrastructure. The leakage had delayed the match schedules, as the slippery floor needed constant cleaning. This issue had caused some displeasure amongst top-notch athletes and reflected badly on the event venue. The crisis did not directly affect our agency as we were not representing the event venue. However, our agency do have to give an official statement considering that we are the media liaison for the event. During such times, it is important to draw a clear line of whose responsibilities should it be, to refrain from getting  unwanted complains. 

Last (and hopefully the least), was an internal management crisis happened just yesterday. An athlete from the Singapore's team had abruptly announced his/her departure from the team prior to an upcoming international competition. As a result, the players list needs to be restructured in order to replace the athlete's position in the competition. The athlete's departure was based on his/ her own accord, thus I would say that our client, the sports organisation, was being "blind-sided".

These three crisis that I've mentioned above might be familiar to some. There may even be some resemblance to scenarios given in previous exam papers. Through this series of unfortunate events, I've observed and learnt how to handle such sticky situations.

• It came to my realisation that crisis can never be anticipated. We are however, able to get ourselves prepared with a contingency plan. 
• In times of chaos, we need to stay calm and resilient. 

• As client's representative, we must always ensure  that our client approved the official statement given to the media. 

• High efficiency in delivering official statement to the media would reflect well on the client's reputation.

• Account manager needs to brief their client clearly on the boundaries of information being divulged to the media. 

• Lastly, committing to the job meant committing to a silent agreement to be contactable at any time of the day. This meant sacrificing your personal time even on a weekend. When crisis occurs and the call arrives, you need to be on your way.  

Well, are you up for such commitments?

Till my next post,
Candice

How to stand out from the CROWD?

Good day everyone!

This is Candice from Curtin Singapore. I am very psyched to embark on this internship journey, which also marks the last semester of my studies. Personally, I felt that the internship program was appropriately designed which allows students to display what we have learnt in the classrooms, onto real life situations. Furthermore, to gain valuable insights from the Public Relations sector which was not taught in school. After much anticipation, this is the time to get our hands dirty!

I am currently interning in a boutique agency, named CROWD. Here's four things you should know about CROWD:

1) Our passionate team of PR professionals understands the importance of engaging audiences. Dynamic and cost-effective, but creative solutions are our mantra.

2) When we say something, we do it, and we do it well. We know the media and we know what they want. Simply put, we get results.

3) Let us over-deliver and overwhelm you with what can be achieved. The results speak for themselves.

4) Our services includes PR & Communications, Social Media management, Event management, Crisis management and Influencer Marketing.

(Source: CROWD Pte Ltd)

It has been a good one month working in CROWD. For my first post, I would like to share about my personal thoughts on three skills that I have picked up along the way.

Sending press releases to media
I remembered the first time I was tasked to send out a press release to our media friends. Even though I didn't had the chance to craft the press release, (Understanding that this is only the beginning of my internship), I was given the chance to craft the email message nonetheless! It was a mixed of excitement and nervousness. Thoughts running through my mind were "What I should write?", "How should I craft an eye-catching email subject?", and not forgetting, "Am I able to impress my supervisor with my writing skills?". I wonder have anyone felt the same way before?

Time also plays a crucial part in sending out press releases as it determines news worthiness. Therefore we need to be swift and precise when sending out press releases. To assure that information are accurate and timely. 

Media Valuations
Valuations.. Valuations... I have heard about valuations briefly from my lecturers but never came about to learning the formulas to calculate the magical sum. I have never thought that calculating valuations had to be so precise till the extend of measuring newspaper coverage with a ruler! I got hooked onto calculating valuations as I felt that it gives the agency a sense of achievement for the efforts they have put in to garner features for our clients.  Also, each valuation is one step nearer to our KPIs. 

Newspaper Summaries
To be honest, reading newspapers daily is my least favourite task during this internship period. However, looking on the bright side, this helps to train my patience and attentiveness in searching for news articles. Scrutinizing on every headlines to ensure that all possible features were not missed out. Thereafter, I would have to translate these articles into simplified pointers for our clients' easy reading.

I believed the three tasks mentioned above are some common duties of a PR intern. This marks a good beginning of discovery and learning the rightful skills to be a professional public relations practitioner.

Press on, my fellow comrades!

Till then,
Candice

Rock and Roll - PR in the Music Industry

I am into my second week at my internship for PR 393. I was lucky enough to secure a placement with Zaccaria Group - a Western Australian market leader in the music concerts, touring and event management industry. Zaccaria Group is comprised of Zaccaria Concerts and Touring - the music management branch, and House of Zaccaria - the fashion label, which is great for me because I happen to love music and clothes! Zaccaria also has offices in Hong Kong and Nashville, USA. Zaccaria Group also runs a not-for-profit organisation called Strike A Chord. For my internship, I am primarily involved with the marketing, communications and public relations activity for Zaccaria Concerts and Touring, and so far it has been really exciting! Zaccaria's portfolio of clients to date includes Stevie Wonder, Tina Arena, Duran Duran, Michael Buble, Sting, Kate Ceberano, Santana, KD Lang, "So You Think You Can Dance"and Tears For Fears, to name a few. To see more about Zaccaria Group, check out the website here.

I am completing my internship two days a week for ten weeks, and am currently onto my second Monday. My duties so far have mainly been related to marketing and communication strategy, including updating and evaluating concert marketing budgets - at the moment I am working on Kate Ceberano and her four concerts coming up in October in Perth, Mandurah, Bunbury and Albany. When a concert is in the planning stages, we evaluate and produce marketing and advertising activity suitable for the desired target audience. This includes securing 15 second advert spots on radio (usually Mix 94.5 and 92.9) and 30 second advert spots on television - could be any station, depending on the target demographics. For Kate Ceberano, we are using regional television station WIN (Channel 9 equivalent) and using Mix 94.5. To secure spots with these advertising mediums, we have to liaise with the production team, who will send us a proposal report outlining the potential spots we can secure - for tv it is usually 20 x 30 second spots in a week for the duration of the campaign (usually 2 - 3 weeks), and will occur during peak times. We then compare the proposal to our marketing budget to ensure the forecasted cost is not exceeded by the proposed cost provided by the tv or radio station.

With the production of such television and radio adverts, we have to first secure with the artist's management the materials we are allowed to use. For example, Kate Ceberano is touring to promote her new album, so we were told by her management to use mostly her new songs and one or two of her old songs (which the public would recognise) as well as only the new album artwork, head shots and themes, to align with Kate's new image. We write the copy and scripts for the adverts (what we want the radio stations to say) and prepare the 15 second sound-bed (the music and sound effects in the background) by liaising with a technical producer/graphic designer, get it approved by management and CAD (television governing body that classifies commercials before they are broadcast), then send it off to the radio or television station to confirm the start of the promotional campaign. The idea is to align the start of the advertising campaign with the announcement to the public of the touring artist. We then track ticket sales and determine the correlation between when the adverts air and the spikes and troughs in ticket sales (which we monitor by logging onto a program called InSight, which is linked directly to Ticketek). By doing this, we can determine if the campaigns are effective. See below television advert that has just been approved by CAD and is going to air this Wednesday.

I have also been involved in reviewing the CMS for all recipients of e-mail direct marketing (eDM). Zaccaria has a total database of over 40,000 customers, which is then broken down into different sub-databases so we can target different demographics depending on the type of artist and concert we are promoting.

Zaccaria is currently in the process of reviewing the feasibility of bringing an exciting and well-known artist to WA towards the end of the year. I hope it happens and cannot wait for the announcement - at the moment I am not allowed to say anything! For determining if a project is feasible, management will have to review how much to price tickets at, which venue to use to host the artist (Perth Arena or Sandalford Winery - Zaccaria's competitive advantage over other players in the industry!), which ticketing website to use, which communication and promotional platforms to use, decipher the probability of a sell-out show and if not a sell out then how can we make it one (secure an exciting support act), review how "big" the artist is in Australia compared to the rest of the world, and the list goes on. I have just sat in on a marketing and finance meeting with the directors, which was really interesting to observe. I have realised that finance and marketing in this type of industry go hand in hand - forecasting, budgeting and reporting is so important to continually be working away at and allows the marketing team to plan campaigns according to statistics compiled by the finance team. The meeting reminded me of the unit Business Capstone - think lots of spreadsheets, talk of ROI, graphs, and numbers, numbers, numbers aka my worst nightmare! It is cool to be able to have a real life comparison to the things we learn at uni, and definitely makes all the theory come to life and just click like it usually doesn't in the classroom!

I am excited to be here to keep learning new things. I have realised that public relations is largely a very broad profession and can be applied to almost any job, so I am enjoying the fact that my internship has a strong marketing foundation. I also am well aware of the fact that it's so important to have contacts in an industry if you want to be a leader and succeed. The number and calibre of contacts and talent that Zaccaria has is overwhelming and exciting to be able to experience.

That's all I have time for today, but will keep updating as the weeks go by.

Delta

How do you e-introduce yourself?

As we all know, a vital part of the public relations practice is based around networking. Networking not only with other public relations professionals, but with journalists also.

It may sound like a simple ‘meet and greet’ at an event or even over the phone, but how do you introduce yourself through an email?

Interning at a public relations consultancy requires me to be in constant contact with journalists over the phone and also through email.  However having not met the contacts that I am pitching to makes me extremely nervous and has left me re-reading hundreds of emails before I hold my breath and press “send”.

After a consultation with my supervisor I found that the best way to introduce myself was to write a short sentence in front of my pitch advising the journalist of my recent arrival to the company and my position as a PR Assistant, along with the campaign I am currently working on.

Aside from email introductions, I have found communicating in a professional environment to be extremely easy. Once you have established a connection and assessed the way the journalist communicates you can tailor your language to suit in your replies. 

Blogs and Database Management

As I am getting closer to the end of my internship at SurfAid I have noticed a considerable improvement in my work and also the responsibility I am taking on within the PR department of the company.

I was recently given the opportunity to write blog posts for the SurfAid website for the Lawler SurfAid cup. While I have read numerous blogs, I haven't had the opportunity to write one one in a professional context, and found that I enjoy writing this material. Working alongside the communications manager we looked at changing the information from the press release material from the event into a less formal style of writing for the blog, which accompanied a video from the event.

I also had the opportunity to look at the internal management of the customer database from the SurfAid website. This was really interesting as it allows to see how successfully communications are received by the database, which I think is a really effective way of looking at how changes can be made to online communications. By looking at the people who receive and acknowledge communications, alternative methods of can be made for the future based on the demographics and figures provided by this information.

Throughout my internship I have learnt that are so many different aspect to public relations as well as tools and online resources that can be used to make our job a lot easier! It's fantastic to be exposed to all these resources and have the opportunity to learn from them and also consider what I would and wouldn't use in the future.

With one week to go I am that I have a lot more confidence in dealing with corporate clients and I have noticed a significant difference in my performance and my understanding of the industry!

New Challenges, New Experiences

Hi everyone. My name is Deva and I’m currently in my final semester of my Mass Communications degree. This will be my first blog post for the unit.

Last year, I completed my placement at WA Water Polo. Being a person that doesn’t really play much sport and having no prior knowledge on water polo, I figured that doing an internship with a sports organisation would present a good challenge for me. Unlike AFL or rugby, Water Polo in Australia isn’t a particularly big sport and has a smaller fan following compared to some of the others. WA Water Polo is a small not-for-profit sporting organisation that is the peak body for the sport in WA. The organisation consists of a small team of 2 full time staff, the CEO and the Competition and Development Manager. I knew that working in a small organisation would be highly challenging and a good learning experience at the same time. At WA Water Polo, a member in the committee handles the media and public relations and there is currently no dedicated communications/public relations department. As such, on occasion, the full time staffs at the organisation also handle certain aspects of communications. On my first day, I was briefed about the current communications and public relations policies and was tasked to help out and further develop certain areas within them. Tasks included carrying out basic communications needs for the organisation such as creating a Facebook page for updates to more challenging activities that involved helping to draft out a sponsorship proposal for tournaments and creating a newsletter. Besides media related tasks, I was also asked to be involved in planning and executing upcoming events for WA Water Polo. I felt that the opportunities that were presented to me at WA Water Polo covered several different aspects in public relations and communications and even areas beyond those. I also learned more about the sport itself and even got several opportunities to interact with staff members from other sporting organisations to learn and understand how they operate at a state level.  Most importantly, I learnt that despite the lack of knowledge or experience in a particular area, it is always important to have a positive learning attitude and be willing to put in as much effort as possible.