Changing The World With PR: Women's Week

In the early part of my internship, Sarah my supervisor gave me few the working calendar and task to do during my internship at Topdog Factory, and one of the special occasion that I was given to handle is the Women's Day!


First thing that came to mind was the perception on Muay Thai and MMA was something not for the faint hearted, and especially for women, society may look at it as being very testosterone-driven sports, harsh and brutal. After some discussion with my director and also my supervisor, the idea of depicting "strength & beauty" was a go, to incorporate that idea in a short video and also announce of a one week promotion for women that sign up within that week with will get free 1 month training when they sign up for the yearly membership fee.

That week, we had more than 10 new clients (all female) that signed up!

Was it a good publicity?

For a short video that didn't take much time and money, yes.

The idea of a woman opening up a martial arts training centre can be very amazing. This itself was newsworthy and definitely has helped out in terms of having a good reputation for being very open to the idea of women practicing martial arts and self-defence techniques. It has encouraged many women to take the risk and try out something out of the ordinary.


Topdog Factory- Women's Day 2016 from Joshua Hajok on Vimeo.


Then, to enforce the idea of our Women's Day/Week promotion, we took it to the newspapers!

I'm happy to say that I've wrote a news article, and it was proofread by my supervisor. I was ecstatic!




:)


The process of connecting with the media or journalists would be on how to approach them on your article that you would like them to publish and the fact that having a 'connection' plays a big role in dealing with the news publishers, disregard of which media platform they are from. My supervisor helped me a lot in this, and i am ever grateful for that. Its not as easy as just e-mailing them the article but approaching them even on e-mail and follow up with a phone call to make sure they've received the e-mail. Then there's the media monitoring process. You can do the normal check-every-news for the next one week, or if you have strong relations with them, you could just asked them to tell you if they submitted it to be published. Definitely a good learning experience for me.



Joshua Anthony Hajok
16342222

Changing The World With PR: 4th Malaysian Invasion Mixed Martial Arts

A week after we got back from Bintulu for the TYT Cup, we had to fly to Kuching. Did i mention we prepared 4 of our clients for the Malaysian Invasion Mixed Martial Arts this time instead of our coach? :D


YES, WE PREPARED THEM TO FIGHT.

Instead of the normal training sessions that they paid, we gave them extra classes or we call it "fighter's class", where its a non-stop pad-work with the coaches, sparring and pure vigorous training.
We may not be sponsoring them in sending them off with paid hotels and paying for their fees in the competition, but the extra training sessions are something that any fighter in the world would regard as "consultant" standard, as our trainers are very experienced and well recognised. One thing that couldn't be bought or build from money was the time invested and bonding that was build during these sessions.

For now, we may not be able to measure the intangible goodwill asset this training centre has but this has definitely gave Topdog Factory, as a brand, a good image as a training centre that aligns itself with its motto "Keep Your Dreams Alive". In this process of preparing our client to fight, it has been their dream to compete in such event. MIMMA 4, is an event organised by Tune Talk and is increasingly popular in Malaysia. Clients were registered under our training centre's name and because we have our merchandise ready and prepared for this competition, Topdog Factory gain its popularity, and we made our presence known in Kuching!


The Fighter's Class



Topdog members lunching together.

Although it took me some time to warm up with the clients when i first joined, the consistent conversations and chats we have has made communication so easy. I can attest that they too have a heart for Topdog Factory to be the best training centre for Muay Thai and mixed martial arts. I can also now say that, i've achieved some pretty good customer relation skills (just to encourage myself)!

So far, work has been fun and also its such an adventure. Being able to travel and also meet new people, making new friends has been the best thing ever. People has been asking about our training centre as well. Its really amazing. We get to connect with other training centre owners and also get to know more of the key players of combat sports in Sarawak.



Our clients/fighters! They're all first timer!

Topdog Factory- Women's Day 2016 from Joshua Hajok on Vimeo.


Next post will be more media relations stuff!

Joshua Anthony Hajok
16342222