Which celebrities are disabled?

How about this for awareness?

Consider the following four dead-end kids. One was spanked by his teachers for bad grades and a poor attitude. He dropped out of school at 16. Another failed remedial English and came perilously close to flunking out of college. The third feared he'd never make it through school - and might not have without a tutor. The last finally learned to read in third grade, devouring Marvel comics, whose pictures provided clues to help him untangle the words - These four losers are, respectively, Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, John Chambers, and David Boies (Disability world 2012).

Utilising celebrities is one of the many PR Skills that grab attention from people. I thought a couple these quotes would interest some of you and maybe open your heart and minds.

"I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist." - Max Lerner

"Let’s stop "tolerating" or "accepting" difference, as if we’re so much better for not being different in the first place. Instead, let’s celebrate difference, because in this world it takes a lot of guts to be different." - Kate Bornstein

"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses." - Alphonse Karr

"Each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase, and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along, too." - Lawrence Bixby

This week was based on awareness for me and has really got me thinking. I have spent this week creating awareness throughout the community through initiating leads for Workpower. Positive responses are coming left, right and centre. Week two is going well.

I have applied for many different types of free marketing via radio and community based groups. In non for profit organisations there is obviously a lot of goodwill floating around. It is evident when you market yourself as a non for profit business, people, groups and organisations are a great deal more inclined to reach out to you. It has been proven by all clubs, libraries and radio stations who are more than welcoming to the idea of assisting in marketing Workpower Incorporated.

On the flip side, why wouldn’t you? Each organisation should have corporate social responsibility guidelines and show this through practise. This is an opportunity for business’ to utilise Workpower’s name to market themselves as not only productive and efficient, but also ‘socially responsible!’.

Corporate social responsibility has become like a marketable fashion accessory. It is something business’ put out there like Facebook or Twitter, just because they have to. But realistically, it is a document many organisations place on their website to cover themselves from any negative publicity. For example, Nike; we all remember when that catastrophe happened and I am sure is still occurring! For those who don’t know, Nike had atrocious working conditions, child labour and the hidden sweat shops. They were forced to create a corporate social responsibility document stating principles and guidelines on their website.

Is it just a facade? Do companies communicate this fake identity then do nothing of the sort? Definitely.

http://www.workpower.asn.au/

Jessica Shea

Curtin Bentley

Our Big Event!

Hey everybody,

I have now completed my internship and wanted to comment on the amazing event I helped organise along with some photos I took before the event. I've thoroughly enjoyed my internship and I am very sad to say goodbye to everyone in the office, especially those who I have been working alongside with for the last few months!

I had been working very hard on Peep Toe's Spring/Summer Miami launch party for the last few months and it was icing on the cake to see everything come together. The event was on a Wednesday so the company owner, the PR girls and myself went in on the Tuesday to start setting up props and creating a floor and action plan. On arrival at the club "Kit and Kaboodle" in Kings Cross, we were greeted with club's event manager, Kate who went through some of the protocols of the club (what we can and can't do) and we saw all the props that had arrived in time for the Miami themed event (mini palm trees, boat, lifeguard chairs, sponsor products). There was to be a number of things that were going to be hanging throughout the venue so we had to stick on all the wall mounts to give them 24 hours to set.

On the day of the event everybody arrived at the venue at 10am (the event started at 7pm) along with a change of clothes for the night. We started what turned out to be a 13 hour day! To make sure my post doesnt run to long, I will sum up some of the highlights or important tasks I had to do during the day and night;

- allocating where all the props were to be placed (the venue is over two floors so props and other products had to be distributed accordingly).

- Sponsorship: our sponsors were Wow Cow ice cream, Cointreau, Polaroid and the Cupcake Factory. Something we should all keep in mind is that there are certain rules every club has. So for example, we couldn't have a liquor sponsor that wasn't sold at the club (due to the clubs own liquor contracts) and although we wanted to use our Peep Toe water bottles at the event, we weren't able to as the club has a contract with Mt Franklin water. Those are some interesting tid-bits I had never thought of before.

- there were a number of celebrities who attended the event. Peep Toe often giveaway free shoes to entice celebrities to attend. I also found out that the famous DJ Havana Brown (who DJ'd on the night) was paid in money AND shoes!

- There were models for the event who walked around/sat on props throughout the night displaying our new collection of shoes and accessories. One of my tasks included helping look after the models.

- We had a popcorn machine, fairy floss machine and snow cone machine for guests to enjoy some sweet treats (as well as the savoury catering that was passed around through the night).

- There were over 200 goody bags to give out to guests at the end of night.

- Drinks flowed all night for guests.

- Photos from the campaign were displayed around the venue as well as on the stairwell leading into the venue.

- One of the sponsors was Polaroid so I had to go around and take instant photos of guests and give them the photo. We also kept some of the photos to send back to Polaroid.

- We took a number of photos of the models and guests with sponsors products so we can send them photos from the night.

- I also helped downstairs at the door to ensure everything was running smoothly. Luckily there wasn't much chaos and as the event was taking place at a club, we had a lot of help at the front of house from the club staff.

The event ran smoothly and the venue was packed with happy guests. However, we had to ensure in the days following that the event itself would get coverage in the newspapers social sections. We all rejoiced when the Peep Toe event was covered in both the Saturday and Sunday Sydney newspapers!

As this is my last blog post I just wanted to say how thankful I am to the company I have interned at for the past few months. Everyone at the office has been so helpful and patient and have shown me the kind of hard work that goes into creating a successful company and it was great to go to work everyday in a happy and fun work environment. I have learnt so many new things as well as developing on the skills I've already learnt at uni and I have been inspired to do another internship sometime next year, possibly at a PR firm in Malaysia (plans are already in the works).

I will have to leave this post with some photos of the venue and from before the event.
Good luck to everyone else still doing their internship!

Siobhan Finley

Events and Social Media

Hey everybody!!!

I’m continuing through my internship and have surpassed my halfway mark.

As usual, I had to do a number of magazine and newspaper PR calls based on specific briefs (as explained in my last blog post) to start the day off. My most exciting news is that I have helped in planning a big event for my company to launch the new spring/summer Miami collection! I have been researching information for which DJ we can have, catering and have started on the rather extensive guest list. We are also inviting a number of celebrities to the event and hoping that they come in return for free shoes. In doing research for the guest I learnt something new that I perhaps wouldn’t have learnt at uni. I have never really thought before how celebrities get invited to events. However, since I was working on the guest list a lot, I found that I had to research their publicist/management/agent and invite them through that.

Working on the event has been really eye opening. Peep Toe hasn’t really been around for that long (4 years) so this is one of their first big events where all divisions of media (journalists, publicists, magazine contributors), celebrities and designers have been invited to a big event hosted by our company. Like I’ve said before, Peep Toe doesn’t participate in any paid advertising, so I think that hosting an event this big for all those who have really helped the company grow and prosper is a way on building on important relationships as well as strengthening the lines of positive two way communication.
The past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot to help with the planning of the event! These are some of the things I’ve been working on in regards to the event:
- Researching information on which DJ we should have
- Ringing around about catering and props
- Working on the extensive guest list
- Helping with the invitations (they look amazing!)
- Writing a draft event plan and task list
- I have also been asked to start setting up/going through event plan with some of the other girls and the company owner the day before the event at the venue and I will be working a massive day on the day of the event at the venue (10am till 12pm).

We are hoping to invite around 500 guests with hopefully around 300 to attend on the night. My supervisor, Rosie, and the company owner, Nikki, say the more we people we invite the better, because obviously not everybody turns up on the night.

Working on the event has been great though. Peep Toe hasn’t really been around for that long (4 years) so this is their first big event where all divisions of media (journalists, publicists, magazine contributors), celebrities and designers have been invited to a big event. This event has been on the lips of everyone in the office! Like I’ve said before, Peep Toe doesn’t participate in any paid advertising, so I think that hosting an event this big for all those who have really helped the company grow and prosper is a way on building on important relationships as well as strengthening the lines of positive two way communication. I hope to use my last blog post to discuss the night itself (all PR aspects and the overall running of the night) as well as drawing my internship to a close. I’m a bit nervous about it as there is so much to do, but it should be lots of fun!

I have been writing draft media releases for my supervisor for the launch of the new Spring Summer shoe range (to be launched at the event) as well as media releases for the release of our brand in David Jones. I’m finding media releases so much easier to write now. I remember when I first started PR techniques, I didn’t quite get it, but now it comes a lot easier!

Lastly, I wanted to discuss the companies really good use of social media. I’ve found that Peep Toe have embraced popular social media such as Facebook, Twitter and an online blog and discussion board to embrace two way communication between the company and their customers. Focussing solely on their Facebook page, I’ve found;
- They have 40, 463 people who ‘Like’ Peeptoe Shoes (for anyone who doesn’t know what that means, it basically means they are fans).
- Peeptoe (i.e. the girls who run the website in the office) respond quickly to any questions or any random topics of conversation that Facebook ‘fans’ may have/post on their wall.
- For example, the regional manager, Sally-Jane posted this picture of her dog on the Peep Toe facebook page:

and it received 78 “likes” and almost 40 comments!
- Fans post up their own photos onto the page (i.e. a photo of a fans Peeptoe shoes collection)
- Peeptoe do regular status updates which receive an extensive amount of comments
- Peeptoe post very regular posts on everything happening for the company (i.e. pictures of new items sold in store, photos from events, photos from inside the store, photos of celebrities wearing Peeptoe heels).

Does anybody else's PR company use social media to create two way communication with an audience? It would be very interesting to get some feedback from everyone doing their PR internship!

That’s all for this week! I can’t believe my internship is almost coming to a close! I will give you all the updates from the event in my next post!
Signing off,

Siobhan Finley