Oranges and Apples.

Hello fellow classmates and welcome to my first PR393 blog post.

I figured with a four week internship it would make sense to post at least once a week, so here goes.

Week one at Go Communications, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

One of the biggest requirements for this unit is to relate the lessons we learn at University to the experiences we gain from our internships.

Already, one week in, I've realised that Public Relations in Malaysia differs quite a bit from the practices we learn in Australia.

One of the first things we learnt in PR Consultancy at Curtin was "the importance of billable hours". From day one it's stressed to us that as consultants it's crucial to record our activities. Our time must be accounted for and this is commonly done through a time-sheet; a sheet that records every minute of our day to ensure the right clients are billed for the correct amount of time worked.

At Go Comm's, they use a different practice to account for their efforts and to show the worth of their work.

This brings me to one of the biggest differences I've noticed so far. At Curtin we were taught that charging clients or showing clients the PR Value of media articles and clippings is old practice and no longer used in Australia, although we weren't really given an exact reason.

In Malaysia this is one of the biggest techniques used by consultants to prove their worth. After discussing this with one of my fellow interns who has grown up in Malaysia but studied in Melbourne he believed this might be a cultural thing. In a paraphrased version of our conversation he went on to say that Malaysians generally want a dollar value to everything, a receipt of their spending so to speak. This made a lot of sense to me and has given me a temporary answer to the oranges and apples of PR worth.

It was interesting to learn the formula, for calculating PR value which went a little something like this.

Article Height X Article Width (which gets converted into columns) X Casual Rate + Colour Cost X likelihood = PR VALUE

The columns, Casual Rate, Colour Cost and Liklihood is derived from a published book called Media Planner Guide Malaysia 2013.

The casual rate and colour cost changes based on the media source and pretty much means the cost of the article and the added costs if published in colour. The likelihood, is a scale from one to ten determining how easy or hard it is for that industry to get published with ten being the hardest, when a number is not provided by a supervisor the default is 4.

It was fun to add a bit of math to my day as it's not overly common in PR.

Once a PR Value is determined we type up a media clippings form, paste in the article and add it to the clients media file, very similar to the Media Clippings activity in PR MEDIA.

The next activity I got to do was a Media Landscape, this was a document we prepared to send to a client. The document listed all the media sources we contact on their behalf and a brief explanation on the type of media they are, including circulation rates and frequency.

It was interesting to have such a broad list of newspapers and magazines as Malaysia has three dominate languages; Malaysian, English and Chinese. Go Communications operates in all three languages to ensure clients reach all potential media platforms.

The most interesting part of my week was when the COO (Chief Operating Officer) asked myself and fellow intern Eve to put together a proposal for Puma. The firm received a really brief, brief (my attempt at PR humour) from Puma, the brief wanted a list of PR tactics that would gain exposure for the Puma Leisure line, underlining that Puma isn't just a sports brand.

Eve and I had just one day to put together as many ideas as we could to present to our boss. It was really interesting to bounce ideas of someone with such a different background to myself and also someone I had just met.

We both agreed that social media needed to be a strong part of our pitch and through further research decided that we needed fun PR activations to gain public exposure, the idea was that these ideas would be interesting enough for the general public to want to post online.

The pitch is this week coming so I better not give too much away but some of our ideas included a touch screen wardrobe, human mannequins, 3D lifestyle backdrops and an online treasure hunt.

Although the week started slow, it went by really quick, I'm not sure if it was because of all the learning or the fact that we had two public holidays. Malaysia has over 18 public holidays a year... I knew I lived in the wrong country.

Until next time.

Hannah

PR Valuing - Inconsistent or uneducated?

A major aspect of PR that is not covered throughout the PR degree is valuing of media coverage. This may be due to the fact that each consultancy might value differently. For example, one of the major PR consultancies in Perth determines the PR value to be 2 times the advertising value, while another is 5 times – a significant difference!

I believe the basics of valuing - column centimetres, modules and page rates – should be highlighted more during the PR degree, instead of the brief mention I can vaguely remember. These valuing techniques are different for most publications, and can change over time, but learning how to apply these techniques so students do not go into the workforce blind would be a huge advantage.

So far during my internship I have had to do valuing for various clients, and while the account managers are always happy to help with any questions I may have, I think they would rightly expect that I should have some grasp of the techniques coming out of my university degree.

I guess I do have the disadvantage of being at a small boutique consultancy, where there is not really a comprehensive database of rates of all publications and media outlets (most publications are there, online news outlets are lacking). However this has taught me that in PR if you want to find out something (e.g. advertising rates) – you must call to find out. Spending hours trawling through websites is just not practical.

It is important to highlight the importance of getting a PR technique like valuing correct. It does not look very good for the agency if the value of coverage received by a client is significantly incorrect. Consultants use the amount of PR value gained as a way of determining how successful a campaign or strategy has been. I believe it is an important tool as a way of ascertaining the return on investment by a client, however it could be argued that media coverage does not necessarily determine how much work has been put into a campaign. Regardless of opinions surrounding PR valuing, it is a tool adopted by consultancies as it is usually expected from the client.

The livALIVE Media Launch – My Experience in the Up’s and Down’s of Event Planning

While the picture above is perhaps more relevant to wedding planners it rings true in a sense for a media launch because when you’re planning an event you have to think of EVERYTHING. The pressure to do this is tenfold when it is a media launch – your job is to secure coverage and that is determined entirely by the success of the event you hold.

My second week at Linc centred on the launch of the livALIVE campaign. The process was undoubtedly an interesting one. It began with documents – a lot of them – that needed to be written, proofed and then proofed again. I was responsible in large part for the action plan along with proofing and fact checking - an undervalued part of the process I feel. If the media were to come across an untrue statistic or statement, the brand might have been in the paper for all the wrong reasons and as we savvy PR folk know, it is an absolute fallacy that ‘all publicity is good publicity’.

Just ask any of the cast members of Jersey Shore. They may be very public.. But their reputations aren’t exactly favourable!

As with every event, what could go wrong did go wrong – the most notable instance of this being when the key speaker pulled out the day before. It was a mad rush to find a replacement and update everything according to the last minute change, but we got there.

The event itself was hectic but enjoyable and produced a reasonable result. Unfortunately, a breaking news story involving an 80km police chase dominated the news that night. As a direct result, the camera crews that the PR girls had spent several hours talking to that morning, who had promised coverage, did not show up. This is the dilemma of every PR launch – the news for the day can turn at any moment from ‘slow’ to ‘breaking’. However, coverage was received in The West (online and print) and on Perthnow along with several Community News stories.

Another important lesson learnt that day for me was the difficulty of dealing with clients. Despite the immense effort the team put into the event, the client felt it was not enough and that the event had been an expensive failure. To combat this, I was asked to prepare a document detailing the outcomes of the launch (part of which can be seen below).

PR Valuing is a point of contention for many PR pro’s. Most resent the practise as it reduces the value of PR to a monetary figure which can’t ever be accurately recorded. A reputation is a collection of societal impressions; not a number. Yet sometimes we resort to a table with dollars in it to show a client who might not be able to grasp it any other way. It is another one of the unfortunate quandaries that each PR person will encounter at some point. It is worth remembering that the true value is far greater than what any bean counter might think. Having a good reputation means much more – I read recently that 51 percent of people punish or reward a company based on their perception of that company’s corporate personality. Ask an accountant to put a dollar figure to that..

Well that’s me for the week – hope everyone is having fun at their placements still!

Beth Caniglia

Peep Toe- First Quarter Update

Hey everybody!
I hope all of your internships are running along smoothly!

I thought I would write a little about my time at the Peep Toe Shoes Head Office in Alexandria Sydney. I live in Sydney now and am doing most of my final units externally through Curtin and Open Universities which has made life extremely stressful! I think I will have to give a bit of background into my company before explaining everything I’ve been doing.

I have been interning at Peep Toe Shoes, which has an almost ‘cult’ following, especially over east. Some loyal customers have upwards of 15 pairs of these shoes. I thought this company would be great to intern for and an excellent company to write my final report on because the owner has basically expanded and succeeded purely through the extremely good use of Public Relations. It’s not just an ordinary Retail store selling shoes. It is an Australian brand that can charge an average of (around) 300 dollars for a pair of heels, yet, the company has never used advertising to sell its brand which I think is just amazing. The owner Nikki was only 26 when she opened her first store in the very trendy suburb of Paddington and now at 30 she has 4 stores, is stocked in David Jones and is soon to be opening yet another store in the CBD.

Peep Toe has really made a name for itself in the fashion retail market. The fact that Peep Toe have never advertised their product emphasises how successful and effective their PR has been. They have certainly built relationships with the media (stylists, events, media releases, sending items for magazines and newspapers) and they also have a big celebrity following.

Anyway, I will get back to my first five days at Peep Toe.
The Peep Toe Head Office has a large conference-like room called a ‘showroom’. This showroom is for important meetings with clients such as:

- Potential wholesale opportunities/clients (Peep Toe has a number of stockist around Australia)
- Current wholesale clients (mainly who come in to look at the new season stock)
- Models (perhaps for a photoshoot or to obtain free shoes)
- Stylists (to borrow product for magazine shoots either on models or done using flat lay photography)
- Celebrities
- Internal meetings between the employees in the office
- Journalists

The room is filled with beautiful cabinets and displays to exhibit various products (jewellery, bags, heels). The other side of the room is where the PR products are. It is basically an area where Peep Toe products (numerous shoes, bags, accessories) are kept purely for Public Relations purposes. I deal with this area a lot.

I complete around 3-5 PR calls every day. The magazine/newspaper or whatever medium it may be (mainly through stylists or stylists assistants) send the brief of what theme they are looking for with some inspirational photos and I have to choose the appropriate product, pack and send off (via courier that same day) for them to borrow. This will then be pictured in (for example) an upcoming magazine. The stylist/company using the product are then meant to send back the product in a reasonable amount of time , however, if it is not sent back, I give them a friendly call and follow up email to let them know the product that is overdue and to ask if they could send the items back as soon as possible. When these items are returned, they can be sent out again to yet another communications medium and the process repeats itself.

After doing a few of these PR calls, I had to print screen all the shots where Peep Toe Shoes (heels, boots and jewellery) appeared in the promo for Australia’s Next Top Model (ANTM) on Fox 8. Peep Toe is featured in the show and other things relating to the show (such as ANTM photoshoots in magazines). From what I gathered from my senior advisor and publicist, Rosie, Peep Toe have built a relationship with the show where by sending them free product to use they will be featured on the show and any other ANTM related media.

Peep Toe receives a lot of coverage throughout all forms of media (from magazines to radio to newspapers) and they like to keep all members of staff aware of this coverage should any customers, clients or celebrities request a certain heel/boot/accessory or bag that has appeared in the media or any upcoming product. This weekly email is sent to everyone within the company to show the products featured and in what magazine/newspaper/publication. This is an example of part of the newsletter I helped with:

Basically we scan every publication featuring our product and circle the product.

Well I can’t believe how long my first post is, I guess there is a lot to talk about in the first quarter of the internship!
I hope everyone else is having an amazing time!
Sincerely,

Siobhan Finley

Media Monitoring: No Laughing Matter

The first time we met, my Managing Director made sure I understood the importance of media clippings to our business. "I've come down very hard on interns, employees, who miss clippings," he warned. There was once someone missed a clipping on our client and he instantly demanded to know who it was.

Media clippings, quite simply, is the Return On Investment (ROI) of PR. It is how we demonstrate to our clients that we have done our jobs. Just as advertisements are the product of advertising agencies, media clippings are the "products" and the "results" of PR. This is because the information that led to these clippings usually originate from press releases produced by PR agencies.

But more importantly, media clippings allow us to track and understand how the press responds to our PR activities. If the press release is dull, for example, or if our press conference was not well attended by the media, we can only expect that press coverage will be minimal (and clients will be screaming!). At the end of the day, it is the clippings report that our clients will refer to when evaluating our performance.

It isn't surprising then that media monitoring is our first task in the morning when we arrive at work. There will be a stack of papers waiting for us, and each person has to grab at least two on the way to his or her workstation. Certain clients expect their clippings report in by 11am everyday, so we can't take our own sweet time.

The relevant articles will be cut out and pasted on a clippings template containing several details such as publication, page, date, and section. In addition, there is a specific way to quantify media coverage, called the advertising value equivalency (AVE) and PR value:

AVE = Height (cm) X Column size X Advertising rate + Colour surcharge (if article is in colour)

PR Value = AVE X 3

The reason why PR Value is three times that of AVE is because PR professionals believe that news articles are more credible than advertisements and thus worth more for the same amount of space. It should be noted, however, that AVE is a controversial measurement. We were taught in class that it is not a suitable formula for evaluating PR, and the US Institute for Public Relations (IPR) has formally rejected it.

AVE is deemed unethical as there is no scientific evidence to prove that news articles are more effective that advertising. If you have the time, click here to read the IPR's informative discussion of the various issues concerning AVE.

Nonetheless, there is no denying that AVE puts a dollar value on media clippings, not to mention that some clients actually demand it as proof of an agency's work.

Cheers,
John.