Work experience, WASO and what it's all about.

It is hard to believe that in three weeks time I will have completed my university degree and this therefore brings with it the looming realisation that the ‘real world’ of full-time work awaits.

When thinking about the topic for my final blog post it seems necessary to reflect upon not only my time at the West Australian Symphony Orchestra but also what I have learned from the various internships I have undertaken throughout my course.

Having started at WASO as an intern and eventually coming into my part-time role that I have currently, has made me appreciate hard work and the diverse nature required of their marketing department. With hundreds of concerts per year to organise promotion and ticketing for, alongside the constant planning ahead for the next season saying that time management is a requirement for working in this type of environment is an understatement. Despite this the WASO team are always more than willing to answer questions I have or show me when I have trouble with something (usually this involves the printer which seems to desperately hate me) and they are genuinely lovely people to work alongside.

From working here I have definitely gotten a taste of what goes into the weekly running of the marketing department and concert preparations. A few other opportunities that I think have definitely aided in my understanding of a marketing/PR role have included coordinating the volunteers for WASO’s Symphony in the City event which is an annual free concert with around 20,000 attendees and organising rates incentive prize schemes with the city councils.

I think it goes without saying that the best thing someone studying in the communications field (whether it be public relations, marketing or journalism) can do is volunteer for as much work experience and networking as possible. In my experience I have learned so much from observing how ideas originate, the processes it takes to put these into reality and also what is involved with monitoring press coverage and its results. Seeing how everyone communicates, PR and journalists alike, and the conduct of an office environment is extremely helpful too and certainly makes entering the work force a lot less daunting on a graduate.

Interning is a great deal about attitude too. You can be the most efficient and well spoken and written person but unless you want to be there giving up your time isn’t worth the while of either you or the employer. It can be really intimidating walking into an office as an inexperienced student who doesn’t know anyone but taking the time to smile and talk to people shows your interested (even if you are seriously intimidated sometimes!) and want to be there.*

I have learned that there really is no job too small, sure it can be frustrating when you have to update media lists, searching long and hard for contact details, or are asked to package and mail out 500 letters by hand but they really are important to the company and contribute to its profitability- otherwise these tasks wouldn’t exist.

As my other major is Journalism I have interned across a few media companies in Perth and feel I have an understanding of the relationship between the industry and public relations. Knowing what journalists need from PR professionals, the main of which is prompt and accurate information when requested to meet their strict deadlines, is imperative. In addition to this establishing good relationships with the media is paramount to being successful in PR- a journalist will never forget unsatisfactory behavior made by PR consultants!

If I could go back and do anything from the beginning of my degree over it would have been not to wait until second year to start interning. I think a lot of students hesitate to start volunteering, even for one day events, because they are afraid they don’t know enough yet but I don’t believe this should be the case. I know personally I have learned just as much from being emerged in an organisation as I have from my course.

Being a member of the PRSC has contributed also to my learning and through organising events with PR professionals you really get an appreciation of the fact that Perth is small and everyone really does know pretty much everyone else in the industry. That being said, I look forward to seeing most of you inevitably out there in it!

Vanessa Costanzo. 

*For anyone interested there is a blog called My Interning Life which was started by a La Trobe University media studies student. It is dedicated to getting varying opinions and insights into interning in the media/communications field. It’s nice to get an Australian view, as a lot of similar sites tend to be American or English.

Engaging your audience online

As has been taught not only through out my university studies but is also evident through any work experience, social media is the growing area in which businesses are connecting with their stakeholders.

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) has of course their own website, and like most companies also a Facebook, Twitter, and because they are a performance organisation- event listings on Perth websites such as ShowMePerth. What many people may not know however is WASO also live streams various concerts throughout the year to the Northbridge Piazza through its partnership with iiNet which is a great way to make classical music more accessible to the wider public.

This week in PR International the discussion focused on social media and the rule of 80% engaging posts to 20% informational whenever you are posting anything online to your followers.

I feel this is a valid rule and I applied it to WASO’s online media presence. For example, recently WASO performed a concert titled Symphonic ABBA and instead of just promoting the concert itself on Facebook, there was uploads of ABBA songs via YouTube, a picture was shared on Twitter and Facebook of the disco ball concertgoers could expect on the night at the Perth Concert Hall and later reviews were posted too so people had a chance to have their say on how they found the performance.

My personal contribution recently to the online communication of WASO was to put together the monthly e-newsletter which is received by around 5,000 people. According to WASO's Digital Marketing Coordinator the email involves writing a blurb for various upcoming concerts in a more casual manner, which I found surprisingly harder than writing from a sales focused point of view! Part of this task involved getting in touch with a musician from the orchestra and approaching them for the introduction of the email as well as liaising with the WA Ballet for a ticket giveaway to Pinocchio, their new performances which WASO provides music talent for. 

Seeing all of what WASO displays online, triggered by this week’s conversation in PR International made me consider further the different approach that should be taken on social media as I see followers of a company page on Twitter and Facebook as generally being there because they already love the brand (particularly in the case of a music organisation). Therefore they shouldn’t be advertised at quite so much as engaged and made to feel included with the company, something I think WASO does well.

Launching 2013

The week just passed saw the launch of WASO’s 2013 concert season and it was beneficial to see the many components of the company coming together from start to finish to ensure everything was ready to go on time for one of the year's biggest media opportunities.

This blog is dedicated to discussing some of the tasks I have been helping with in preparation for the 2013 season launch- and there are some great concerts to look forward to!

I sat in on a strategic marketing meeting for the 2013 season a few weeks back and it was interesting to see how ideas for promotion originate. Topics covered included social media, advertising and how to better engage with each target market. This is especially relevant as WASO has so many different types of concerts (for example, there is special popular events such as the Pirates of the Caribbean full feature film being played with live soundtrack accompaniment by WASO, as well as standard classic concerts featuring the works of Mozart, chamber music, kids concerts and more) I got to understand better how dynamic and targeted the marketing strategy for each concert series has to be.

A task that I recently undertook was putting together media kits consisting of a press release, season brochure, and media kit brochure. As media kits and press releases were a large focus of both the PR Media and Techniques units of my degree this task definitely was a reflection of university teaching and it was good to see how it is used in the real world effectively. 

Putting together 130 kits in two hours to make it for that day’s mail was a bit challenging (including during this time remembering how to put together the always tricky mail merge) but we got them all out on time! As I had also sat in on the media kit meeting between WASO’s Public Relations Coordinator and the Executive Manager, Artistic Planning (who heads the department which put together all the repertoire and artists for each concert) about how best to promote the 2013 season to the media a few weeks earlier, it was great to see the complete product and know prominent journalists around Perth would be receiving this to write their stories (such as The West’s seen here). 

I also helped proof read the season brochure and seeing that finished product is really nice. You can view it online here if you are interested. After working from the draft copy and using the pdf version as a reference when putting appropriate hyperlinks throughout the website in preparation for the online launch of the season it was lovely to see the brochure in print- nothing beats a hard copy!

Vanessa Costanzo.

A look into the promotion of regular concert events

My placement is with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. While I have been employed with the organisation previously, professional practice is encouraging me to view WASO with greater PR perspective and to get involved with more PR activities.

For my first blog I have chosen to focus on what I have been doing in my role, as well as on the marketing and PR that goes into an average WASO concert. As the orchestra presents over 175 performances a year that is a little hard to define, however their main home base for performances is Perth Concert Hall and this is what I’ll refer to as ‘average.’   

Last week WASO held two performances of Tasmin Little Plays Bruch. I was involved in organising seat drops, posters, getting in touch with ticket competition winners via a Facebook promotion, and ensuring all correct WASO promotional materials are on display at the concert hall.

Until I properly scrutinised all that goes into the promotion of every single WASO concert, from getting the message out through the media and online to the amount of coordination at the concert itself, I don't think I fully appreciated the amount of targeted effort the marketing department undertakes.

In the lead up to an average concert there will be print advertisements in the West and various other publications, social media conversations about the performance including Twitter and Facebook. and e-mails or letter mailouts are sometimes also used to communicate any possible specials in ticket prices.

If there is editorial on upcoming concerts or interesting soloists that is due to WASO’s PR Manager, who also sees that all major newspapers list WASO events in their upcoming events sections.

I monitor press coverage by collecting all media clippings relating to or relevant to WASO and enter them into a database. I then keep the hard copies on file and a daily email is sent to all staff to keep them informed about press coverage. When a concert has concluded, any reviews are also kept and filed, as well as uploaded to the website.

In addition to WASO’s set out concert schedule, this week a quintet will travel to Geraldton for a free concert as part of their ‘on the road’ program which visits regional WA areas. This requires a different kind of promotion, including sending e-mails and posters with information to local governments, businesses, music stores and schools in the area. 

The main skills in my view that are required for this role (and is probably true for most students undertaking this unit) is the need for time management and organisation. Writing skills are also essential and it’s important to have the ability to not only complete a task well, but think about ways to improve the efficiency of tasks if you can too. As almost each week brings a new concert and requires a need to stay on top of everything happening, I think this is definitely relevant to the WASO office!  

Vanessa Costanzo

Curtin University