Media Pitch - Scored!

This should most probably be my last post on this blog.

To end it off, I'm gonna post my best (by far) working experience at Ogilvy PR.

I was kind of rambling on about my love-hate relationship with media calls in my previous post. This time round, I got to do a little more than media call downs.

This week, half of my team were on leave. With that, my supervisor and I had to take on some of their job scope, one of which includes media pitching for a client. Although they may sound the same, the difference between media call downs and media pitching was quite big for me. When I did media call downs, all I had to do was to confirm if the media had received the email sent to them earlier.

My supervisor gave me the task to draft the email pitch for the media. Just when I thought the pitch was over, she told me to do the pitch calls for media. You could say I turned blue in the face almost immediately. I think at that point of time, only thing that was running through my head was, "What if I screwed this up?" It was a really important pitch.

So, practice makes perfect. My supervisor got me to draft out what I would say to the media on the phone and had me practice the pitch with her quite a number of times. With much encouragement and practice, I dare say I delivered the media pitching quite well.

Then came the email from a television broadcast station saying they were interesting in interviewing our client for their news program. Boy was I elated!

Okay, to cut the long story short, I became the media liaison between the client and the broadcast station, which was quite an experience for me.

Where does school comes into place in this situation? Media relations 250 definitely!

Apart from learning the importance of maintaining a relationship with the media, what else came in handy was the lessons from the interview assignment where we had to prepare an interview brief for the client as well as the "Do's and Don'ts" during an interview.

The client was invited to do a live television interview and my supervisor had to prepare the briefing documents for him and was asking around for some "Do's and Don'ts". Luckily for her,  I still had some notes from the lesson and could share it with her.

The 4 key things to note during an interview are:




1. Make the Point you want to make
2. Back that point up with a Reason
3. Provide an Example to illustrate your point
4. Restate your main Point again to make it really clear

A very great reminder!

And with that, this post marks the last entry of my PR393 Reflective Blog for internship at Ogilvy PR. The past two months has been eventful, and I hope the blog posts has been insightful and helpful to all of you!

Have an awesome internship everyone!

Media call downs - a love-hate relationship

This is how I feel when someone rude picks up my call.

One of the things I've done as an intern is media call downs. What is that? It's basically making follow up calls to the respective media from the client's media list, checking whether they have received a media invite/release and if they are interested in covering it. The media list usually consists of publications, trade publications, broadcast, online publications and bloggers.

Don't get me wrong. I actually do enjoy doing media call downs, because it means talking on the phone, and having the chance to get better each time. But there are the times when you face nasty people who snap and hang up the moment you mention where you are from.

I do most media call down for the same clients, as such, I would always make calls to the same few media. I think there might come a point where they start taking note of the number I used to call, and even my name. To this point, I realise that this comes under part of "forming a relationship" with the media. Yes, despite the nasty media I faced, there are a few media that I love speaking to and approaching. And when they hear my name, you could almost hear and "Oooh, hi it's you again" in their voice.

Having said all these, there are a few learn tips that I've got out from my media call sessions.

1. Be a goldfish

Don't take the nastiness from the media too much at heart. It builds a wall when you have to make a call to them again. So what I've learn is to have a goldfish memory towards their nastiness and pretend nothing happened the next time I have to call them again. However, this does not apply to remembering what some of the media requirements, which brings me to my next point.

2. Having a relevant media list
After many years of doing media lists for multiple school projects, I finally understood the importance of having a relevant media list. As PR officers, we love to have as many media cover our press releases/events. But the best way to get the most coverage is to pitch it to the most relevant media who might have the highest chance of saying yes. And this is to remember and noting down what preference the media has mentioned during the calls. By pitching it to the relevant media, not only does it save the media's time, it also saves our time and effort to reach out to media who would most probably say no.

3. Knowing what you're pitching
I remember when I first started doing my call down duties, I just called to check with the media if they had received the email sent. And that's it. It was only later a senior colleague came over to tell me that I had to sound more excited to excite the media, and also to explain details of the press release/email sent out to help the media because some of them might not have the time to look at it. I think it was then when I realised it was important to understand the content of the releases before starting a media call down. By knowing the content, I could better explain the event and direct more information to the media if they needed any.

This concludes my love-hate relationship with media call downs. Stay tuned for more updates! :)

All about my team - Impact

Right before starting PR393, I had taken the module PR Corporate 360. I have to say I never saw the relevance of that module until I started interning under my team - Impact. 

Here's just a brief overview of what the PR department at Ogilvy looks like. Ogivly PR consists of 8 teams: Engage, Pulse, Brand Marketing, Technology, Common Health, Social@Ogilvy, Corporate & Finance, and Impact. 

Each team handles a different aspect of PR.

Engage - motivate and assist consumers and other stakeholders adopt socially-beneficial behaviors that are good for individuals, good for society, and good for business.

Pulse - Consumer goods

Technology - migrates online, tech pages in major business media outlets are shrinking and new influencers are being recognized in bloggers and podcasters.

Brand marketing - connect with brands that engage through authenticit, purpose, relevance and a bit of fun!

CommonHealth - pharmaceutical and biotech arena

Social - integrated social solutions that combine deep disciplines like CRM, public relations and shopper marketing and rooted in what drives behavior.

Corporate & Finance - helps corporate clients achieve their business goals 

Impact - employee engagement and change management

My team is the smallest team in the PR department. Other than myself, there are three other people - Michelle, the team's director, Valerie, my supervisor, and Vanessa. 

So, what gave the 'Euraka' moment of relevance of the module taught in school? I've always thought PR was very much limited to media relations, B2B and B2C strategic planning. One of the topic taught during class was 'Change Management'. It pretty much talked about how leaders' role are important in Merger and Acquisitions (M&A), and the impact they have on corporate reputation and corporate culture. To that end, I just brushed it off as any other topics that have been taught in any other PR classes. 

Little did I realised how the knowledge would be relevant to what Impact does. While most PR practices focus on external communications, Impact handles a lot of internal communication towards corporations' employees especially during M&As. 

Unlike most strategic planning, the clients undergoing M&A require a lot of in-depth primary research work that include blueprint workshops, focus groups, online surveys, one-to-one interviews with key leaders.

I had the privilege of putting together survey findings and transcribing some interviews for a client who is undergoing merger. Honestly, listening to an hour-half recording can get really dry, but after awhile, I could hear some repeating issues and messages from the recordings. Some of the key takeaways I had were:

• Leadership has to be aligned during M&A to reduce uncertainty and distrust of employees
• Leadership of the various department do not necessary have the same feelings towards corporate issues
• Consistency of communications can become limited by technology
• Different hierarchy of employees have different point of view of what a corporate brand is
• Combination of different corporate culture can be a challenging task
• Mergers do not happen over night; it could take many years to change the mindset of employees and keep them aligned
• Employees look up to the action of their leaders and expect leaders to walk-the-talk

I have to say it is really cool to see how what has been taught in school become a "real" experience during internship. It does prove that as redundant as a topic may seem in school, you never know when it might jump back at you and become helpful.  

Monthsary at Ogilvy - Corporate culture

I can't believe that I've almost been at Ogilvy PR for almost a month. The past few weeks has been a really interesting journey for myself. But today's blogpost will focus on one aspect of my internship - corporate culture.

Let me start right from the beginning to when I had my first interview.

In school, we've learnt many things about corporate culture, the importance it holds not only as a corporate brand but also to the employees - and that was what my first interview showed me. Unlike the previous interview I had, as soon as I step into the O&M's reception lobby, I was overwhelmed by the physical environment of the company - the design, layout and colours. While most PR agency would choose more serious colours like white and blue for their layout, the reception lobby of Ogilvy was red. The colours were an indication of a fun and creative environment. In addition to that, I was attended to by a really warm and friendly receptionist.

As I proceed with the first interview, I came to learn that the interview was a test of communication and attitude compatibility, whether or not I could fit well with their company culture. I was impressed with how Ogilvy places high importance of culture compatibility when employing people. It was important to them to create an environment where everyone can work well with one another.

My interviewer later told me that Ogilvy has an open culture as well, which was quite evident in the layout of the office tables. During the course of my first month, it became apparent that the structure at Ogilvy PR was flat. Superiors sit together with their team in the same area. No one had a personal room to themselves. Even during lunch time, there was not a clear distinction between the director and those in the lower hierarchy. Everyone just sits together to eat.

The second interview I had was with my "team-to-be". Despite their busy schedule, all the team members appeared. It was nice to see how everyone in my team was interested in knowing who their new intern.

There were still many other instances during that one month which had shown me the kind of corporate culture Ogilvy carries around through its employees and physical environment. In short, Ogilvy has an open, creative and fun culture. As a fellow colleague had mentioned during my first staff meeting, Ogilvy is like the "Google" of Communication agencies. While the company carries a fun and open culture, it also carries a good amount of workload and stress.

Looking forward to experiencing and learning more. Stay tuned for more updates of my life as an intern :)