Brainstorming and moving forward.

Hello friends,

Week 3: 

In my first blog/week I got to pitch some ideas to our senior management team for our potential sporting/leisure client. In my third week our COO was collating the official pitch for our presentation to the client and asked myself and a few others to expand on the initial ideas. 

I was paired with one of the Brand Executives I hadn't yet worked with, to explain the original concepts Eva and I created, as well as discuss some of his ideas. It was a really great brainstorming session and no matter how big or small the idea, it could be bounced off of one another and potentially expanded.

It reminded me of a PR Consultancy class last year where we learnt and trialled creative brainstorming tactics; one of the tactics was to think of the craziest ideas we could to solve a global problem or issue; if ethics, money and environment were not a factor.

The tactic was designed to teach us that the craziest ideas are often the start of innovative and creative approaches. I found this worked really well for me personally, as there were less restrictions and boundaries in the creative process. I tried to apply this to my thought process when working on the pitch.

We eventually narrowed our brainstorm into a few major ideas and presented these to our COO in a power point presentation accompanied by the relevant target media for every idea.

Our COO collated our team’s ideas to present to the client. I was lucky enough to attend the official presentation, which was extremely beneficial. I had never been on the consultancy side of a professional presentation before, other than in an academic setting so it was interesting to see the delivery and communication style between my senior management team and the client.

During the meeting our client was also given the chance to express more of their wants and expectations. This was a great opportunity to see how we could adapt our thought process and original pitch to create a successful PR plan (if hired).

Well, until next time. 

Hannah 

Like Clockwork.

Hi Everyone,

Elliott Telfer Back again for his 4^th and final contribution to the PR Internship blog! Elliott Telfer is currently employed by RugbyWA/Emirates Western Force on a seasonal paid internship in Events. Elliott Telfer is referring to himself in the 3^rd person because he has been required to do so in the last four days of his internship. He has been required to write the run sheets for the remaining five home games (a full timed plan of how each game/event will run, right down to the amount of sausage rolls in the match day photographer’s room). This Saturday night, the Force take on the Reds in what will be one of their toughest, most exciting challenges yet, and the whole event will be running according to Elliott’s plan.

Whilst writing a run sheet, not only does Elliott have to guesstimate how long the 150-odd individual tasks will take over the course of the day, but it has match up to that of the venue and television schedules. Furthermore, he has to assign himself and his fellow staff members (most of whom he hasn’t yet had the pleasure of meeting) mundane tasks that no one wants to do. Each day at the RugbyWA office, he meets with different departments from within the organisation to negotiate how they want the event operating, unfortunately he can’t let everyone get their way.

The typical run sheet has three columns, one for ‘Time’, ‘Activity’ and ‘Responsibility’. The Time column outlines when an activity must occur, not sooner, not later, but dead on the stipulated time. Activity outlines the task to be completed, for example a task Elliott is allocated for every game is “Final Check of Team Line-ups. Changes relayed to Media Manager, Fox Sports and Lloyd Events.” Under the Responsibility column is the duty in which this activity has been assigned to, for example ‘Telfer’ is printed as the responsibility for the activity above. If anything is unclear, or a task doesn’t get completed because it wasn’t stipulated on the run sheet, its Elliott’s head on the chopping block.

So, for all those that are so kind enough to read this, if you do not hear from or see Elliott following this Saturday’s game, and you happen to hear of an error in the game. Elliott Telfer’s has most likely been decapitated by his superiors. However if you do hear about him following this (and he is alive), everything would have run like clockwork and he will live to see another day.

Elliott Telfer extends his greatest gratitude for reading his past four blogs, they have been a lot of fun for him to write and he has thoroughly enjoyed sharing his experiences with you all.

Best of luck to you and your Internship.

Elliott Telfer (in the 3^rd person)

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The Man with the Plan

Hello everyone! I'm Pamela from Curtin Singapore. Here's my 2nd blog entry. I named my entry 'The Man with the Plan'.,,,,Well I am NOT a man but just for the sound of it. You know during projects, we come up with all these brialliant ideas for PR plans solely for the purpose of the module. I had to come up with a 3 month plan for a client in the flavour industry. The catch was, I was given a day to do it. I very quickly got down to it and started looking through various editorial calendars. And then after 2 whole hours, I sat back and asked myself, 'What the hell are you doing Pam?' I was merely seeing where my client would fit without having a look first at the type of articles published by the various magazines.

My director uses the analogy of 'hugging' your customers. I know it sounds extremely cliche to be honest. But it just means to put ourselves in our client's shoes. If i were the client investing thousands of dollars and trust in a PR company, I would expect great work, far from shoddy!

So I collated the spokesperson's travel schedule, looked through the different editorial calendars, read each one of the publication (or least browsed), understood the client my hard and trust me, the the blanks on the plan were eventually filled.

To be honst, the plan does not have to look impressive without any substance. It has to ultimately be achievable.
Have a great evening and enjoy whatever is left of the weekend!!

Pamela Philip
1423776
Curtin Singapore