No two days are the same in consultancy

Hi Everyone,

We’re over half way through the semester now and it’s not long until that big report is due! Time is flying!

Over my third week at Professional Public Relations (PPR) I had undertaken a variety of tasks across the different divisions.

The Perth Fashion Festival clippings started to ramp up with more and more coming through the media portal. I had the opportunity to compile some media clippings for clients within the investor relations division. These clippings are created a little differently from those in consumer. There are no values required for the clippings and the coverage doesn’t come through in an alert from the media portal. I was required to search through newsletters and articles for the client names. At first I found it challenging as all the clients were foreign to me and coverage was scarce. In the end I compiled 5 media clippings for different companies, predominately those in the mining and resource industry.

I’m not sure if any of you have heard of a forward features list before, but this was the first time I had! Obtaining forward features is an extremely difficult task. Ultimately all it is it sourcing a list of the up and coming features that will be published. I contacted all the major print and trade publications that were specifically related to, or had sections related to small business, franchising and the coffee industry. I was met with rude and unwilling editors and journalists who were either reluctant to give the list out to a PR firm or opted to say they didn’t have one. When I did manage to source a list many of the time the features didn’t have much relevance to the criteria. The Senior Consultant I was assisting reassured me the task isn’t an easy one and what I came up with was sufficient.

I also got the chance to conduct a media kit and product drop for the Yarra Valley and Blue Cow Cheese Company. This meant driving around the city and personally handing the parcels to food journalist and editors. It was fun to get out of the office and away from the computer for a little while!

I’m sure you have all seen the advertising for the McDonalds Serious Lamb Burger, or some of you may have even tried it! Unfortunately I haven’t tried it myself but I did get to assist another Senior Consultant in compiling the exclusive coupons for the launch of the burger. The coupons were handed out in the Northbridge and allowed the first 500 customers to try the Serious Lamb Burger for free. The radio station 92.9 spread the awareness of the campaign. The Northbridge McDonalds was the first McDonalds to launch the Serious Lamb Burger in Australia.

Interns at PPR carry out a large proportion of administrative tasks. The organisation employs PR graduates in these entry-level roles before they can progress to become a consultant. During my internship I received great exposure to the various entry-level roles and confidently understand what’s involved!

I aided the administration assistant in sourcing 2012 media kits from Perth based print, online and broadcast publications. The values were then extracted and added into the Rates and Circulation spreadsheet. This ensures the values are up to date and calculations for the future media clippings are accurate. 

Something that is unique to PR consultancy is the “job bag”. Every minute of your day has to be accounted for. Each client has a billing code and your time spent working on tasks for each client is billed to them. Different rates apply for different consultants, clients and tasks. Throughout the week the consultants have personal reminders set and time allocated to fill out their time sheets, to ensure they are up to date and accurate. 

Whenever I’ve thought about where I’d like to end up working after graduation, consulting was never high on my list. I’ve always thought in-house suited me better. Having experienced first hand what consulting is actually like, I can honestly say it is an area of public relations I am considering entering. My day-to-day tasks have been far from repetitive and mundane. No two days have been exactly the same. My main worry with consultancy is that you don’t know the clients as well as you would if you had an in-house position. I’ve learnt that at PPR they invest time and money into nurturing their existing clients to ensure future work prospects are viable. Some clients have been with PPR for years and many are now on retainers. So in a way the consultants get to know and understand their clients just a well as those who work within the company.

Thanks for reading!

Gemma 

Client-consultants relationships in practices

Monday morning - I arrived at work to be greeted by the new database assistant, a soon to be Curtin University graduate, who I have previously done group assignments with. Sadly this also meant I no longer could use the spare workstation in the administration office. Down to the basement level for me it was. This wasn’t all bad though! Within the lower level of PPR is a semi open plan work environment. I was now in a position where I could listen, learn and absorbed ample amounts of information from all the consultants, senior consultants and account managers that surrounded me.

By the middle of the week I had capacity for more work and given there are over 50 staff at PPR I knew this dry spell wasn’t going to last for long. I sent out an email to the entire staff list, asking for additional work and also mentioning that I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to attend some client consultations. This turned out to be quite the success and the best day I had at PPR since starting. I floated around the office and met a couple of new faces. Throughout the day I became to go to girl if you wanted something done quickly! No job was too big or too small.

A highlight of this week was sitting in on the internal Australand work in progress (WIP) meeting with the account manager, senior consultant and two other consultants. Australand is a diverse property group with several PR related projects under way. I was able to discuss and contribute during the WIP and from this I was later assigned the task of researching and liaising with potential suppliers for an up and coming event.

Another highlight for me was accompanying the Investor Relations Account Manager on an external WIP meeting at the oil and gas company, Decmil Group Limited. PPR was responsible for writing Decmil’s annual financial report, corporate presentation, chairmans report and media releases. This meeting was used to go over the technicalities of the report with the Chief Financial Officer. In collaboration with Egg Design Group, the layout and graphics of the report were compiled. 

Both experiences were very insightful into PPR’s client relationships and how they are managed. PPR has an extensive list of clients from a range of sectors in society. Although the consultants work within one division (i.e. consumer) they may work on several accounts in that division at any one time. Due my studies of PR consultancy at university I have been able to identify key aspects of client relationship theory that translates into real-life situations. 

Practitioners have an obligation to deliver realistic and achievable objectives that align with the clients vision and direction. Although a majority of the client communication occurs over emails and phone calls, work in progress meetings are scheduled regularly to ensure the clients expectations are being met. Practitioners at PPR are effective forging mutual and sustainable relationships with their clients because of the following key points:

• Thorough understanding of each clients needs
• Consistent and timely communication 
• Flexibility - able to work across different types of organisations
• Accessibility - 24/7
• Ability to meet deadlines
• High standard of professionalism (i.e. confidentiality and trustworthiness) 

Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about client relationships. If you're working in-house how does it compare? What are your stakeholder relationships like?

Kind regards,

Gemma