A Happy Ending Before a New Journey Begins!

I can’t believe the time finally came, my final day as an intern, my fourth and final blog and my final semester at uni. I must say it has all gone rather quick, but I am so thankful for all the experience I managed to gain. In total I completed 22 days as an intern at Linc Integrated, a marketing and communications consultancy, and it was an absolute blast! (If you would like to know a bit more about Linc look here).

My last day came all too soon, even though I started my internship in July it has all flown by so fast. When I arrived at the office I still had a lot of work to finish off, even a few media releases and blog postings that needed doing. I also wasn’t the only one who was a bit sad at the upcoming departure, my supervisor Bec sent an email to all staff congratulating me on the internship and announcing it was my last day. The Managing Director was also a little sad at this news as he used to always sing “Tell Laura I Love her” in the morning (he was a bit quirky like that) and needed to find a new office tune.

As the day drew to an end the PR team gathered together for a happy photo in the office. They gave me a card signed by each of them with messages of thanks and best wishes for my future career. I was so touched by this gesture and realised just how much I would miss coming to the office.  As it was a Friday we all decided to hang around for a celebratory drink with other staff members, and then it was time to say goodbye. I took one last look at the place that had taught me so much (especially that there are no set rules!) and headed out for the very last time.

Looking back I can see that I’ve learnt so much during my time at Linc that I will take away and apply throughout my career. It was an absolutely fantastic experience and I couldn’t have asked for anything better considering the range of work I had. Not only did I learn a lot about PR work, I also learnt a lot about myself and I’d really like to share the most valuable experiences I gained. So here they are! The best lessons from my internship have included:

Event Management is Stressful! – I got a huge insight into event management in my first week at Linc when I got to help manage Bankwest’s Six Days of Happy. This was a huge event and very stressful for all staff. I learnt the importance of micromanaging and that you really need to understand the results the client is after in order to improvise successfully (particularly if anything goes wrong). I also helped to develop a guest list of 300 people for another huge event that is coming up for Linc and found hunting for contact details a painful task to complete. Although events can provide you with a range of great experiences I’m not sure I could become an event planner, but the experience I gained was definitely worthwhile.

Understanding Your Client is Crucial – This was very obvious at Linc and I learnt just how important this is through a range of work, particularly media releases. As I completed tasks for a range of clients I discovered each had their own style (more how they wanted to be presented to the media). Some clients needed their name emphasised in all work, some were less worried about their name and more focused on promoting their achievements. No matter the client they each had their own style and as a consultant that needs to be reflected.

Becoming a Master of Time Management – I’ve always understood PR work involves a lot of effective time management, but wow have I improved at this since my internship. Balancing full-time uni, working and completing an internship is quite the challenge; I’ve never felt so busy! I think this will be a really valuable quality when I enter the workforce.

Creativity is my Biggest Talent – Coming towards the end of my internship I was given a lot more responsibility to generate ideas for a range of work for clients and it turns out I’m quite good at this. The PR team praised me for my ability to be creative and recommended that I possibly pursue a career in a creative environment, as this stood out as my biggest strength. This is definitely something for me to think about now and I am so thankful to have had my supervisors approach me and be honest about this.

All in all, I really do believe my time at Linc has been extremely valuable, and I think overall most internships are. Throughout my own I have been checking out a few PR blogs on the internet from interns and lessons they have learned to compare my own experience. This one here in particular, is a really interesting insight from a graduate who realised Disney was teaching effective PR in all their movies. I also found another interesting article on how to make the most of an internship, which you can check out here.

At my own internship I ended up completed a number of PR tasks including researching, media monitoring, valuing PR coverage, event management, developing ideas, sitting in on client meetings, blog posting and developing media releases (just to name a few!). I not only feel that I’ve been able to apply what I have learnt throughout my degree, but also believe this internship has strengthened my understanding of a lot of theories and concepts. For example I’ve learnt so much more about how PR consultants work and the relationship they have with the client. I’ve discovered there a lot of differences between writing for assignments and writing for an actual job (there is so much more focus on making it appropriate to the client rather than trying to address marking criteria). And I’ve also really noticed the difference and rather the improvement in my own work. Not only am I able to produce pieces in a lot shorter time (i.e. instead of taking a week to make up a media release for an assignment I can now do it in a few hours) but I think my writing in particular, has branched out to become more appropriate professionally.

I’d like to just conclude with the fact that in the beginning I didn’t intend to complete an internship in a consultancy, as I’ve always had more of an interest in-house work. But I am really glad that I ended up spending my time at Linc, as I’ve developed so much more understanding of PR consultancies and the opportunities they present. I have learnt so much in 22 days and I can see pursuing a career in this type of work would be extremely valuable. Most importantly I have come to realise how much I love marketing and public relations and that this is the path I want to pursue (considering I started an architecture degree). I can’t wait to graduate and get out into the world of public relations (whether that be as part of a consultancy or as in-house). As this journey has come to an end I can see how much I enjoy what I am doing and how exciting my career can possibly be!

See you out there in the industry!

Laura Tirli x

From Intern to the "Idea(l) Woman"

Throughout my internship at Linc Integrated (a marketing and communications consultancy) I have learnt so much more about PR and its application in the real world. As this is my third blog I thought I’d give a bit of a run down on some of the more exciting things that have happened and the new concepts which I have learnt along the way.

One of the most exciting things that happened has resulted from some work I have been doing for Linc’s client, AMP Capital (who own Karrinyup Shopping Centre and Garden City Shopping Centre in Perth). I got asked by one of my supervisors to develop concepts for a competition the client want to hold in order to promote tickets to watch a screening of the AFL Grand Final. I ended up coming up with a few different ideas in order to target children to enter the competition and got quite creative trying to incorporate sport and Facebook in order to help create awareness.

It so happened that my idea for the competition ended up being the one that the client wanted to run with! How Exciting!

Ever since then the team at my internship got me more involved in brainstorming for clients and coming up with concepts that address briefs that Linc have been given. Each of the briefs I have been given usually involve a very specific outcome for the client. For example, I was given one where I had to come up with an idea that would increase Facebook “likes” on the client’s website by 5000, within two months.

 

As I got given more creative work, I then became known as the “idea woman” around the office and got to be involved in more team brainstorms and even developing ways to promote events, such as the spring/summer fashion launch for the shopping centres. I have also been invited to attend meetings with clients such as Pro Subi to join in on developing ideas for rebranding Subiaco, and I later got to follow up this progress a few weeks later. It was really interesting getting to meet and work with clients and then seeing the progress of the initial ideas develop into stronger concepts.

I’ve also learnt a lot more about everyday PR work. In all our units we have to apply the theoretical concepts we have learnt into our assignments and even pick out in case studies the application of PR theory. We all get told to make objectives that are S.M.A.R.T, media releases that must follow an inverted pyramid, frameworks of communication and how a crisis should be dealt with. But are we actually going to use this when we enter the real world of public relations?

I’ve found that during my time at Linc, particularly working in a consultancy, that there really aren’t any stringent policies inferring that I have to follow the methods of application I have learnt throughout my degree. The main focus is always on achieving what the client wants, and this really varies according to the work they require. I’m not quite sure if it’s the same case with in-house public relations, but I am sure there would be a strong focus on following the organisations internal goals and values, ensuring that all work done through the public relations department really aligns with the organisation itself.

One concept that has really stood out to me throughout my internship is “PR Values”. And I am very thankful that my supervisor took the time to explain to me the importance of valuing public relations work and why it is really important once you are a PR practitioner.

PR Values are essentially the monetary value attributed to a piece of coverage that has been attained by the PR team for the client. It is used as a measurement tool for coverage by considering the dimensions, size and advertising rates. Basically if I gain a column in a newspaper then PR Values help to explain to the client how much the coverage is worth, which ultimately helps to determine the effectiveness of PR activities.

I’ve been working quite a bit with PR Values and have ensured that I regularly media monitor and then up-date the value of the coverage into the appropriate monthly report. This also involves making sure I get the circulation rates for the particular medium so that I am able to determine its advertising value. The PR Value is then calculated as three times the worth of the coverage if it had of been a paid advertisement. Check out this article here which helps to explain the difference in value between advertising and PR.

I do remember hearing something about PR being worth more than advertising in one of my lectures, but I never knew there was an actual formula for this!

My supervisor did note to me that although they use PR Values the formula is more just a way of demonstrating the worth to clients and that it’s actual accuracy and how it came out is not exactly certain (kind of fitting I thought considering PR itself is hard to define by many). But I have done a little more digging into these “PR Values” and found that it is quite a criticised method as discussed in this article here, released by the PRIA.

Throughout my internship I have continued to make sure all coverage gets valued, including online and ensure it is listed by its date, source and the topic it promoted. This ultimately helps the client to see what has been achieved and I guess it’s a really good evaluation method as well, particularly to determine the most effective media for the client and particular story angles, as well as how effective the consultant has been in attaining coverage. Linc itself is very much focused on demonstrating results to their clients, particularly as clients themselves are very orientated towards monetary achievements. Overall I do think that PR Values are a good method of demonstrating results in a way that is easily understandable to the client. I’m just a little unsure as to how accurate the actual method itself is.

In addition to becoming the “idea woman” and learning about PR Valuing I have also been given a lot more tasks at my internship, including the opportunity to work on developing more media releases for a range of clients. This has been really enjoyable, as I love writing and I’ve got to mark a lot of my work for approval by the client, with some pieces even getting published! This was very exciting and one of my first published pieces was a release for Amana Living, a not-for-profit providing aged care in WA. It was such a great feeling knowing that my work had actually resulted in coverage and that it turns out to be quite a valuable achievement (according to its PR Value).

Well, that’s a few of the more exciting tasks that I have been given and really enjoyed. Developing ideas is such a great opportunity to be creative and I’ve learnt that working in a consultancy definitely provides you with the chance to think of ideas for a range of different types of work and clients.

Until next time!

Laura x

Linc-ing Myself to the Consulting Life

My internship is now well underway and I thought I would focus this second blog post on PR consulting and what I have learnt so far about this type of work. Ok, so I’ll admit it, when we have the whole discussion of ‘what would you choose, consulting or in-house PR?’ in class, I usually end up on the in-house side of the fence. But now that I have been at Linc Integrated (a marketing and communications consultancy) for a while, I’ll admit I’ve learnt a lot more about this style of work and what it entails. I guess you could say I’ve developed a whole new appreciation for PR consulting work, and maybe even sparked an interest in this area. So here it is my new insights on PR consulting!

Firstly, I never really took into account how specific clients were, well I did, but not to the extent of which I have seen now. I know the logistics of how a consultant works, and to me it never really appealed having a range of clients. I felt with consultancies you wouldn’t be able to get as much of an in-depth insight into your clients and ultimately you would more ‘touch base’ on a range of work, rather than really getting to the nitty gritty of working for one sole client. I’m not the only one who seems to think this; there are quite a few articles which address the fact that consultants can’t invest 100% into the client, such as this one here.  To me it really appears that in-house allows you to develop more of a connection, almost like watching something you’ve worked hard on succeed in the end and following their achievements over time, something you can be proud of and look back and say “I made that happen”, this is something I really want to be able to say at least once in my career.

But I think my time at Linc is slowly changing my perspective on consultancies. Linc work with a HUGE range of clients, from not-for-profits such as Amana Living, to big clients such as Bankwest and even AMP Capital (which owns Karrinyup Shopping Centre, Garden City and Ocean Keys). Each of these clients have different objectives that Linc are trying to achieve, and of course each of these clients are very different on a number of other points.

I’ve so far worked on all three of these clients during my internship and the thing that has really stood out to me is the fact that I have to understand the client’s personality and style (yes they each have their own!). This really became apparent when I did my first media release, which was for Amana Living and then I did a media release for Garden City a few days later.

You see, Amana Living is more focused on demonstrating the benefits they have provided rather than promoting the organisations name. Garden City on the other hand had to have their name as the first word, in the first line of every release. And so, each client has their own style of writing and personality that is presented to the media, which must be reflected through the consultants work.

Previously I think I’ve always imagined that the consultancy itself more imprints a bit of its own style onto the clients work, but this appears not to be true from what I have seen at Linc so far. It appears consultants are a shadow of the organisation, and although they aren’t directly working with them, they must still reflect the ‘brand’ consistently.

In a sense, I guess I’ve learnt that as a PR consultant you ultimately put yourself in the shoes of an in-house PR person for that client anyway. As I’ve began writing more media releases I know now to put my ‘specific client hat on’ and try to really reflect the organisations style. I did struggle with this at first though, which I think came down to the fact that I hadn’t met the client and I hadn’t gotten familiar with how they want to be presented by Linc.

Another thing that I have learnt about consultancies from my internship is that they work in sync with the PR or communications team of the client. I found this a little odd at first because to me if you already have a PR team behind your organisation, then why would you hire PR consultants (especially since your own team would have a better understanding of your organisation and what you’re trying to achieve)? This question had me stumped for quite a while, and I ended up approaching my supervisor about it as I couldn’t understand why PR people from the client would send me an email asking me to draft up a media release, when I’m sure they are more than capable of doing it themselves (and not to mention their email signature says they are a PR Manager). I’m not talking about organisations that have one PR person, but some clients even have their own communications team yet are still engaging in outside PR through Linc.

Ultimately, my supervisor explained this is because most of the clients we work with, who already have public relations, either focus strongly on internal communications within the organisation or have little time to organise bigger events and achieve increased media coverage. Interesting isn’t it? I thought consultancies would more focus on working with clients who had little or no public relations going on and needed someone to provide them with this advice (or rather weren’t doing it to the best of their ability). I find it a little funny that a PR consultancy advises and develops ideas for a PR team (and not to mention these clients would probably be more critical of the consultancy and their work). This has happened quite a few times in my internship where I have been to meetings and we are pitching ideas to PR teams, and I guess it makes me more nervous because they actually do know what we are talking about. But nevertheless this is yet another lesson that I have learnt!

So would I still pick in-house over consultancies?

 

I wouldn’t say my answer is so firmly locked in anymore. From what I have seen so far it looks like even if I do go in-house I could end up being the client of a PR consultancy and they may do a lot of the external public relations. I definitely can see that consulting requires A LOT of understanding of each client and it really is a difficult job to juggle clients and each of their priorities (I’m learning this really quickly!), whilst still trying to effectively represent them.

Like anything else, each type of work has its pros and cons, and I think it will really come down to experience and how a person likes to work. For example, by working in-house it would be a lot easier to organise meetings and your attention is obviously focused on that organisation, whereas consulting you are still really on the outside but you get a better variety of work.

Overall I am really glad I’m getting this experience in a consulting environment, I can see that this type of work requires a lot of flexibility and the ability to be able to adapt to different clients. This article here from PR Week sums up choosing between in-house and consulting quite nicely, by finishing with the point that "The big similarity is that wherever you are, you are dealing with human beings and you have to be good at understanding how various personalities work and have real empathy”.

Well, they are my thoughts on consultancies. I’ve really discovered that it won’t matter if I end up going in-house or consulting, as either one will eventually provide me with the opportunity to look back and say “I made that happen” and it will ultimately depend on which suits me at the time.  

Until next time!

Laura x

And So The Journey Begins!

On Monday July 2, 2012 I began my PR placement at Linc Integrated. Linc is a marketing and communications consultancy in Perth, that is quite well known for their work and focus on achieving results for their clients. I was very excited for my first day as I knew I would be able to be a part of something really big that week.

After arriving at Linc in the morning (and after having trained it for the first time in about five years - it was an experience, I’ll leave it at that) I met my supervisor and the rest of the PR team. My supervisor Rebecca introduced me to the Linc team (which includes the dog 'Poppy') and took me for a tour around the office. Although Bec would be my supervisor I would be supported by the rest of the Linc PR team, which included a few full-time and part-time members as well as other employees from different disciplines who help to support the work done for their clients.

We started off with a briefing between the team, and I got the low-down on why this week was to be one of the biggest and busiest of their year. I was to spend my first week of work experience assisting them to carry out Bankwest’s Six Days of Happy. Essentially the point of Six Days of Happy is to celebrate the opening of the clients’ new flagship store in the city. The fact it ran for six days was to relate it to the feature of the store being open six days a week, which differentiates the client from their competitors. Each of the days would have a distinct event at the flagship store in the city as part of their celebrations.

The events are listed here in a media release.

In order to familiarise myself for the first day "Main Event Monday" I took a good read of the running sheets, media releases, spokesperson briefs and speech notes. It was then time to set out and manage the event!

 

 

When we headed to the store I got to meet the clients’ team. After helping to set up outside and ensuring appropriate brand coverage, our special guests began to arrive. Main Event Monday was to feature the Western Force going head-to-head in a fitness challenge against the WA Ballet and Nathan Pocock from the Force would also be doing a book signing in the store.

I'll admit I was pretty excited about this, mainly because I have a background in ballet and I frequently have the argument of "dancers are the fittest" with my boyfriend who is a sports fanatic! Main Event Monday was going to finally set the argument straight once and for all!

Overall the event went really well, the WA Ballet smashed the Force boys in the five fitness exercises (as I knew they would) and we managed to get quite a few people down to watch. It turned out to be a crowd-pleaser but Monday was only the beginning!

On Tuesday we headed down for another big event. We were going to have Andrew Embley and Josh Kennedy from the West Coast Eagles (WCE) come down for a handball competition and some merchandise signing for "Tackle Tuesday". When we arrived it was really noticeable that the Eagles’ appearance would be a key driver for public attendance. Die-hard fans were already waiting for them to arrive before we got there. It was also essential that branding was in the appropriate places, particularly for the signing inside the store where photos would be taken of the players. I had the very fun job of coordinating the mascots which included Rick “The Rock” from West Coast and the clients own Gary the Squirrel. It was quite fun being put in charge of making sure they were in the right places at the right time to ensure photo opportunities.

  

In comparison to Monday, Channel 9 came down to the event to film and the footage ended up on their news report that evening, which was a great result. I also ended up appearing in a shot, which gave my mum a good laugh when we watched the news and managed to get my own signed autograph and photo with the boys (I must learn to not blink in photographs!).

When I returned to Linc on Wednesday everyone was buzzing! It was "Wi-Fi Wednesday", which would showcase the first Tweetathon in Australia! Every tweet between 8am and 6pm which included @Bankwest @Telethon7 with the hashtag #tweetforkids would result in the client donating $1 per person to the charity. I was really impressed with this idea when I heard about it as it’s good to see social media being put to use for a great cause. I also knew I was going to be facing a very big day that would be incredible to be a part of. Of course, as the event was on Twitter we all spent most of the day with our eyes literally glued to the computer screen. Every few minutes one of us would announce one of the high profile tweets we saw to the others, and there were a lot! My job was to ensure I screen captured all the high profile tweets. I ensured I got everyone who was well known and had a lot of followers. There were some big, BIG names including, Johnny Ruffo, Mel, Kochie and Mark Barretta (from Sunrise), Jen Hawkins, Megan Gale, Matthew Pavlich, Danny Green, Mick Malthouse, I mean the list just went on and on and on. I must have compiled about 25 pages of tweets just from high profile people.

Check out some of the coverage online by following this link.

We also headed down to the flagship store where the client had arranged staff to wear special shirts whilst tweeting outside the store in the plaza (again, note the branding placements). Channel 7 had come down to film as it was the first event of its kind to happen. The Telethon Director and Fat Cat also came down and tweeted in the shots which helped to display the clients’ partnership.

It was really interested going down to see this because you just don't realise how different something is from how it appears on television and how 10 seconds of footage is drawn from 10 minutes of actual film, not to mention hours and hours of preparation. What was even more interesting on Wednesday is that I got to see an on the spot interview. This really showed the importance of briefing your client and preparing Q + A documents, as well as spokesperson briefs.

  

Overall it was a really exciting day to be a part of and follow so closely. It demonstrated not only the power of social media but also how to properly manage it. At the end of the day we ended up with 10,890 tweets and the event ended up getting great coverage on Sunrise in the morning, who promoted it during their show and on Channel 7 news that night (I also made another appearance in a shot which generated more laughs from my family).

Although I didn't help with a lot of the preparation in the lead up to the event, I learnt a lot about event management in those first three days of my internship ,which included:

·        If something can go wrong, it will go wrong!: As prepared as Linc were you can't control the inevitable, one of the Force boys was late and there really isn't anything that could have been done (you can't magically make someone appear as much as you try).

·        You can't control the media: This was probably the eye opener for me. Linc had managed to get into contact with Channel 10 Monday morning for Main Event Monday, who said they would head down to get coverage. But unfortunately as one of the Force boys was a bit late the event was delayed a few minutes and Channel 10 ended up leaving for something more newsworthy. Also you can't control what they are going to actually publish so you have to be sure to provide as many opportunities as you can whilst also ensuring you are happy with what could possibly be covered.

·        Micro management:  It was really good coming along and seeing how an event is managed. I payed close attention to my supervisor, Bec was great! She knew what shots the photographer should go for, where they should set up to get the best coverage of branding and making sure everything ran smoothly. I think that it is key in events not only to be prepared, but also to be able to improvise on the spot and know really well what it is that the client is after in terms of results.

·    The importance of sponsorships: The WCE really demonstrated the benefits of an effective relationship; they drew large crowds and got lots of media attention for the client. Their profile in Perth was definitely a huge advantage for Tackle Tuesday, without them I highly doubt we would have been able to get coverage on the news.

·       The power of social media: It is still an extremely new tool! At one stage we were worried the Tweetathon would blow out too much as some of the people who were tweeting had 100,000's of followers on Twitter. This in turn led to some negativity surrounding the idea as one blogger commented that no one would donate that much money so it was unfair. Of course on the flipside, such an innovative concept would not have been possible without these platforms and it was able to reach such a large amount of people in a short amount of time. We even ended up capturing international tweets and some people were still tweeting about it the next day!

·        Make sure you open your eyes in photos and avoid distinctive scarfs your family can recognise on TV: I think this one pretty much speaks for itself.

Well this blog turned out a lot longer than I anticipated, but I really wanted to cover each of these events in the same post to help everyone get a better understanding of how the week was to work together. I had a really great time those first three days and although I have never had a particular interest in event management, it was fantastic to be able to get this insight and I thank Linc for allowing me to do so. Event management is extremely important but I don't think I would be able to focus my career solely on this type of work; nevertheless I still had an amazing time helping out to make the Six Days of Happy a great week!

Until next time!

Laura Tirli