Teamwork!

-----posted on behalf of Gwenda Tan--------

How time flies! We are now in the second last week of May. With regular deadlines and work-in-progress meetings with a huge serving of a media conference and launch event, the past two weeks have been insane for me!

The amount of preparation and the constant worry of “things that might go wrong will go wrong” matters have been driving the team to late nights and really early mornings. Only reaching home at 1 am to report the next day at 7 am – I have truly discovered the definition of fatigue.

Surviving on pitiful hours of sleep, we were on the roll when morning struck. From set up to IT logistics to last minute checks, we were running all over the place in heels, files and papers. When guests were streaking in, we had to ensure that they knew where to go, answer any queries and direct them to persons in charge.

At the same time, we needed to keep an eye on the media that we have been assigned to. “An eye” includes programme briefing, informing them of highlights and photo opportunity, arranging interviews and doorstops, asking them possible interview questions, responding to media queries…

But truth be told, I do not regret any of it. Our media conference and launch event were a huge success. More importantly, the late nights and long hours of interaction has brought our team of 3 much closer. We would scream across the office, joke that all the work had drove us mad and laugh hysterically. More importantly, my team appreciated my help and I was so glad I was part of this team and not any others.

Be a team player. Effective teamwork and success go hand in hand, always remember that! 

Love, Gwenda

Seeing is not believing

--------posted on behalf of Gwenda Tan------- 

Hi guys, I am nearing the last month of my internship. It has been an invaluable eye-opening experience for me and I truly appreciate the opportunity and exposure that this module has given me. I’m sure we all feel the same way!

This post is a little sensitive in my opinion. Honestly, I do not know how much I can reveal about what I observed over the past 2 months, but certain things we will only really know when we are the surreptitious drivers. Should these be counted as trade secrets?

In Public Relations, our job as a consultancy is mainly to provide expertise and knowledge to fit in with our clients’ key messages, mission and vision. As such, we should be doing what we are told to do in order to benefit our clients. Then again, there is that ever-persistent issue with ethics.

Over the period of my internship, besides drafting media invites, releases, factsheets – simply media documents for clients, I have also learnt that talking points and quotes supposedly deriving from clients are also drafted by the PR agency. These documents then go through levels of vetting and approval before they go out to the media.

Simply put, I draft what I think you should say, I send it across for approval, you think the quote I came up with is acceptable, I send that out. This process has led me to consider of the true credibility of PR.

We have often been reminded that advertising and PR is different, in the sense that advertising is paid promotion, and PR is more “real”. However, after I have been exposed to this, I begin to doubt the credibility of news. Where I had always known PR to be more truthful, the phrase “Seeing is believing” is now “Seeing (behind the scenes), is believing”.

Have I said too much?

Wordplay

---------------------- Posted on behalf of Gwenda Tan -------

Presentation can be one of the most intimidating things to do, especially in front of a large audience or even high-ranked professionals. More often than not, the responses we receive will stem greatly from how a presentation was delivered and the manner in which the speakers carry themselves. After close to a month of my internship, I have learnt one skill that PR professionals proficiently employ - the art of wordplay. Consider the two statements below:

“I prefer my usual taste but I can explore.

I can explore but I prefer my usual taste.”

Stated with the exact same words but rearranged, the line takes on a whole new meaning. Typically, whether we have said all that is needed, whether we have communicated our ideas across, and just so the overall presentation will be accepted, the way we phrase ourselves makes all the difference.

I learnt this invaluable lesson during an organising committee and client meeting. Meeting with the big guys, none of the vendors (Events, Advertising and Promotion and Public Relations) can afford to slip up. They are a group who will scrutinise our every word, shoot us down with harsh criticism and comments and ultimately make the final decisions.

When the events team was presenting, they struggled with words and were thoroughly grilled by members of the committee. Their presentation took over 40 minutes. When it was our turn, my director delivered our PR part effortlessly, received minimal comments and most ideas were accepted. We took less than 10 minutes!

Gratefully, my director shared her rich experience with me and enlightened me on a few things to note. We should know exactly how we want things to turn out and therefore steer our presentation in that direction. That is, to position our presentation in a way that we will (and must) get our desired outcome. I quote, “We sort of let them think they have the final say, but you know we really have already made our choice and they will agree. It's how you deliver.”

Brilliant!

Internship: Same same but different

----posted on behalf of Gwenda Tan --------

Hi all! I hope everyone is having fun with their internships. This post is a little late because we only just got access to the blog, but do bear with me and hopefully I will be able to share some of my humble insights.

Firstly, there is a common association with an internship as doing mundane odd jobs at a very low pay. Being introduced to Public Relations, we have been instilled with the idea of doing regular media monitoring, and that IS the case in the whole PR field. Every morning, we were told to skim through every newspaper and online sites available and to clip articles with regards to our client. But that shouldn’t be all that interns do!

Though the task of media monitoring is easy, the process of scanning and preparing media clips is time consuming and over time it can become a taxing, tedious routine. These clippings are collaterals for the client, as well as contribute to the company’s key performance index (KPI). As we know, the company’s KPI is a measure of how successful the agency has done its job for the client.

Perhaps one way to make media monitoring and (an intern’s task) more fulfilling is for directors to share the purpose of the clippings, such as what it will be used for, what exact search criteria is needed. Also, the directors should provide insights on how these clippings will contribute to the company’s KPI. For example, say the client was in an automobile industry and focuses on Lamborghini cars, it will not make sense to clip an article about a man who wears a Lamborghini cap. It is not what the client expects to see as coverage of their products or brand, nor is it an accurate measure of the agency’s KPI.

Also, more effective and efficient search engines should be used to flag out articles specific to cars and not just the term “Lamborghini”. This will help reduce the total of articles that we have to look through every morning and save time and effort. And in PR, one can only wonder how much can be done with time!

Gwenda

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