For the love of football

From the very first day of my internship at GO Communications (GO) I have been assisting in preparing for an event for our client Zurich Insurance Malaysia Berhad.

Zurich is running a Corporate Social Responsibility campaign called ‘Love for Football’. The campaign is in conjunction with Little League Malaysia and involves going to schools and teaching children essential football skills. Zurich will also be donating money to each school to be put towards football related expenses.

GO Communications’ role is to ensure the event gets coverage in the media. Two and a half weeks before the event my team members and I delivered the invitations to the media in the form of a yellow card. The invitations were hand delivered to about 15 media and emailed to over 50. For more information on the delivery of the media invitations refer to my previous blog ‘same same but different’ posted on 13^th June 2014.

In the days leading up to the event it was my job to call the media to get their RSVP. Unfortunately for us, most media departments do not assign their reporters until 6pm the night before. This means we often have to wait until 7pm at night before we can call them for their RSVP. On some occasions I was told to call back at 10pm. Zurich however, want to know final media numbers by 3pm the day before, a somewhat impossible task.

Today was the day the event finally took place. I woke up at 5am to arrive at the Football stadium by 6am. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself having to wake up so early, until I got to the stadium and met the event crew who had arrived at 1am in order to set everything up in time.

The event was MC’d by two local Malaysia personalities. The event program included a speech from Zurich CEO, a speech from the King’s brother, a performance by the keepie uppies and a friendly indoor football match between a local school versing some football legends and Little League coaches. The football legends include Datuk Santokh Singh and Abbas Saad who use to play for Australia.

Wondering what a Keepie Uppie performance looks like? Watch the video below.

My job on the day was to register the media and ensure they were well catered for and comfortable. It was really good to be a part of an event and see how much preparation goes into it. We ran through the script with the MC’s at least five times.

My fellow intern Felicity and I with our 'event crew' passes.

It was interesting to see the things that went wrong that you could simply never predict. During this event the wind picked up and blowing the balloon arch over and ants infested the media desk. It made me realise no matter how much you prepare something can always go wrong on the day that you hadn’t thought of. I guess now I have experienced those things going wrong I can prepare for them at future events. Note to self, always bring extra string and fly spray to an event.

Whitney

Is a crisis still a crisis if no one admits there was a crisis?!

My time at Swan Districts Football club as their PR intern has been interesting and last week I encountered the most interesting moment of all. What we would call a 'PR crisis'. Well, it wasn't a full blown crisis but something did come up that needed to be addressed by the club.

The interesting thing was though, not everyone within the club came to the same conclusion on how big the issue was. Some thought it was only slightly important, while others thought it was a non issue. This all comes down to a personal opinion but within a PR professional setting, opinion shouldn't be the driving force behind crisis management, there should be some specific motions in place that decides what needs to occur after a crisis occurs, but also to stop it from happening in the first place.

This got me thinking about the importance of communication plans within a company. Every person in every single company need to be aware of what their communication strategies are in order to relay a consistent message to the public and to the key stakeholders. This awareness comes from internal communication plans and making sure everyone is up to speed with the way they are expected to cooperate in the professional setting. This is why professional sportsmen are coached in how to deal with the media, and the whole reason behind having PR people there in the first place! What I discovered through some of the events last week is that it is integral for a company's growth and prosperity to have these plans in place for reference in the case of any problems.

Without specific strategies and communication plans, the professional face of a company can be damaged in a moment due to inconsistent messages reaching stakeholders and mix ups happening. These communication plans also have to be recognised by everyone in the company, to abide by, and every form of communication needs to be run through the public relations or marketing department.

The reason why I felt the need to write about this is because it surprised me when it came up in a professional setting. We, as PR students, are constantly reminded to make sure we have identified our key messages and communication strategies that it seemed odd to me that things can slip up in some cases, or go unnoticed to create problems. I think it's extremely important to develop these plans in order for that smooth transition of communication from company to stakeholder.

What has surprised you in your time as a PR intern?

Lucy

Am I the curse?

Traditionally, Paterson's Stadium has been a fortress for both Fremantle and West Coast, however the Eagles have lost all three matches they have played there this season. Am I the curse? Surely not, but we will have to wait until May 5 to see if they can beat the Western Bulldogs!

Yesterday (Saturday night), the West Coast Eagles took on Carlton, and lost once again.  It was my second match day at the Eagles and I was super excited to see what such a big game would hold.  Once again, I arrived an hour and a half prior to the match and we had to organise Nic Naitanui to be interviewed by channel seven.  When the time came for us to enter the hallows of Paterson's Stadium and find the big man, we couldn't locate him anywhere! We ran around looking for him for 15 minutes, luckily we had decided to look for him early. We eventually went to the place where he needed to be to find him standing there; he had decided to make his own way to the media, much to the relief of staff.  Once the team had run out onto the ground, we sat down to watch the game, however we noticed John Worsfold being interviewed by channel seven, something we didn't know about, however we later found out that the communications manager had taken John to the media.

After numerous tweets during the game, and directing players who were not actually playing to where they needed to be, the game finally ended and the rush started once again.  We made our way to the bottom of the race and watched as the players came off the ground disgusted with yet another home loss.  We organised Josh Hill, Scott Selwood, Shannon Hurn and Matt Priddis to be interviewed by different media including channel seven, 6PR, The West Australian and afl.com.au.  A really satisfying moment for me was when one of the players remembered me after we had been introduced a couple of weeks ago.  Once the players had completed their media commitments, we waited for Mick Malthouse's press conference to finish.  In this time, I was shown what happens post-game.  I watched as players were given Powerades, protein shakes, food, lollies and given a run down on the game.  I was able to see how they track how far a player has run and was introduced to some important people in the football operations side.

After all this, we were once again ushered to the press conference by security which was cool, considering it was only the two communications/public relations bosses, myself and John Worsfold.  I listened in on the press conference and saw another side of John Worsfold.  He shut down Braden Quartermaine when he asked silly questions and it was an insight into the world of a press conference.  It was also surreal sitting next to football journalists and experts including Justin Chadwick, Braden Quartermaine and Alex Malcolm.  After the press conference, it was home time and time to write my review of the game which is now online at www.westcoasteagles.com.au.

It was a really great experience, however hopefully the Eagles win the next match and I get to experience a win at Paterson's Stadium.  Tomorrow (Monday) we have our press conference with four players which will be great fun once again. I already know that two of them will be Ashton Hams and Scott Selwood.

Until next time,
Have fun!

Nathan