Day One: a glimpse into the 'Real World'

Hello everyone!

My name is Bridgette Stephens and this is the first of four blog instalments to reflect on my internship experiences at Networking WA/Event and Conference Co. I am studying a double degree in BArts Journalism and BCom Public Relations at the Curtin Bentley campus.

As I began searching for an internship to work at to complete this Industry Placement Unit, I thought about the sort of Public Relations work I wanted to gain experience in, and where I saw myself working in the future. As I reflected on previous work experience I had done and units I'd taken throughout my course, I realised event management and media based work had been my favourite. So, when I found Networking WA/Event and Conference Co. I thought I had found the perfect fit.

The interview with the owner was brief and I was nervous to start the following Monday. I so nervous to start, I arrived 30 minutes early and sat in my car waiting for 9am. I think I expected to be overwhelmed with information, but my first day was, really, just a step-by-step process of getting myself connected to the server, being shown by other interns where to find jobs to complete, who to send completed work to, and how to label it. I felt a little more comfortable knowing I would be interacting with other interns who were also at Curtin University.

The majority of the work I will complete for the duration of the internship will be done independently and sent through to my supervisor at the end of the day. With so many assignments at university completed as group tasks, I think it will be interesting to complete them independently.

Did everyone else have the same experience as me? Or did you have a more fast-paced first day?

Bridgette

Keeping Up With The World

Media monitoring

Unfortunately, one of the most common tasks most interns will encounter throughout their experience is A LOT of media monitoring. Let’s be honest – media monitoring can be a long and tedious task. It resulted in me questioning the necessity of this task, particularly when it involves tracking the industries and competitors of your clients as well as the company itself. After this, the filing process is even longer as the details of each article is scanned, cropped, filed in several platforms, printed and calculated.

Each morning, I spend two hours flicking through various newspapers, scanning the articles for 23 names of clients, along with news concerning their industry and competition. Two ladies in our office have a job purely designated to newspaper monitoring – and they still need extra help in the mornings. Meanwhile, other workers in the office are scanning the online world for articles and news about their clients.

Fortunately, this means public relations has the opportunity to become extremely familiar with what’s going on in the world. I learnt to enjoy this task as I become familiar with events, politics and issues throughout Malaysia. 

Your public relations consultancy's client benefits from relevant news is filtered for them through to review without manually searching the media. The client also receives consistent updates with statistical analysis’s concerning the news value in print, online, broadcast and social media, allowing them to compare how the media is presenting their company from month to month.

Those interested in public relations should have an interest in the news and media, as well as a curiosity for the world’s activities maintains your interest through activities such as media monitoring.

Is Briefing Your Spokesperson Ethical?

Prior to an interview between one of our clients and the media, I was presented with a ‘Spokesperson Briefing book’ to review before the interview. This document ensures the spokesperson is prepared for the media’s questioning, and ensures answers will be diverted back to the well-being of the spokesperson’s establishment.

I have previously engaged in similar media preparation tasks for assignments at university, where we were told to “think like a journalist” – what would they ask the spokesperson?

This document contains four sections: interview details, media profile, anticipated media questions, followed by dos and don’ts.

As I began to scan through the first few pages, I began to question the ethical procedures involved with this spokesperson brief...

Does this interfere with the transparency and authenticity of the spokesperson? Does this mean a person cannot organically present themselves because public relations has twisted and tweaked the spokespersons dialogue and expression?

Alternatively, I considered the opposite side of the coin. The media has an established reputation of twisting statements and conversations made through every day conversation. They can utilize an unintentional statement and revert it against the spokesperson, for the purpose of their story.

This means spokespeople preferably need to be educated on their representation towards the media, in order to protect their reputation in the spotlight. Beneficially, this enhances their chance of positive publicity as media professionals (public relations) have studied how to effectively communicate with the media, to ensure honest and positive publicity.

Section four of the brief: Do’s and Don’ts. This was intriguing – I contemplated my previous impression of the brief as I now realized perhaps the spokesperson brief is ethical and necessary. Public Relations simply educates the spokesperson on being consistent in their messages, answering all questions, being clear and calm. The spokesperson is advised against memorizing answers provided by public relations. This ensures the spokesperson isn't spoon fed answers to the media, and still has the opportunity to naturally communicate with personal dialect. 

The Importance of Brand Ambassadors

The concept of a brand ambassador is something I’ve always understood in theory; they are a spokesperson or a celebrity endorser that promotes an organisations products or services and embodies their corporate identity. Interning with Activ allowed me to see this idea in practise, which was an experience I found extremely rewarding.

Brand ambassadors are a crucial part of Activ’s City to Surf campaign because their presence encourages media coverage, public participation, and fundraisers for Activ. For the last couple of years Activ has used Wildcat team member Damian Marten as their brand ambassador.  According to the communication team, he was absolutely perfect for the role because he was easily recognisable by race participants and had a sincere interest in the organisation. However, due to clashing commitments, he was unable to step up the job this year.

In the quest to find a replacement ambassador, I had the opportunity to research potential candidates and make a list of local Perth celebrities. In doing so, it became apparent that there’s a difference between a good brand ambassador and a great brand ambassador:

A good ambassador is easily recognizable by the general public and works as an organisational mouthpiece to reiterate their values and mission.

A great ambassador is easily recognizable by the general public and passionate about speaking up about their cause, values and mission.

The latter is so very important for Activ because the organisation isn't just fighting for brand awareness, they are fighting for advocacy from the general public. A great ambassador has the ability to inspire this support, and motivate people  to fight for Activ’s mission of choice and freedom for all. So, with that in mind, I’d like to present you Activ’s ideal brand ambassador - they can dream, right?

Ashton Kutcher, world renowned celebrity, has a twin brother with cerebral palsy. The combination of his fame and passion for disability rights make him the perfect choice for Activ (if only he was coming to Perth!). 

So, What's Next?

So very quickly, it is 2014! I'll start by wishing everyone a very Happy New Year!

 I'm into my last month at Brand Incorporated as an intern and I just cannot believe just how quickly everything has been flying by!

This time round, I would like very much to share my experience on my first media event in Brand Inc.

Our client, Pioneer Seafood, is in the food business, so the event was a tasting session. 

There were 3 days dedicated for the tasting in mid November. Before the days arrive, there were quite a fair bit of things to prepare. My supervisor was the media liaison between the client and media so what I had to was to assist her and ensure that items for the media were all packed into what I then identified; a press kit. 

The items that went in the press kit included a press release, question & answer sheet, history of the business and a menu stating their signature dishes the media would be having for lunch/ dinner, depending on the timing of the tasting session. 

When that day arrived, I have to admit I was actually really excited. My role was really simple, registering the media when they arrived before joining the tasting session. There were two sessions; lunch and dinner. The lunch session was arranged for print media and the dinner one was for online media, mainly bloggers.

The media whom were present for lunch on the first day represented: The Business Times, Singapore's Child, Square Rooms, 8 days.

Knowing who was going to turn up, I was excited. It's mostly because I was curious about the kind of questions they were going to ask our client. The kind of questions only journalists/ editors would be capable of asking. 

The lunch proceeded smoothly, with our client, Mr Lee introducing every single dish very enthusiastically to the media. He was so excited about the media coming down that he gave each of them a fresh fish of their choice to bring back. That was a really funny moment. The media were very polite in trying to turn down as they were heading back to their respective offices after lunch but he didn't take no for an answer. 

This is Mr Lee holding a parrot fish. It is just 1 out of the many different breeds of fish available for customers to choose in the restaurant (that's the one he made sure each media packed back!).

At the end of the 3 days, we all were glad that everything went really well. Not only was our client happy, but the media were as well and nothing is more important than that! Up to date, clippings of our client have been featured in the respective platforms. We are still awaiting the feature on The Business Times as the editor cannot confirm the date she will publish it due to many other pending articles on her side.

Something that I have observed and learnt? The characteristics of the different media. Taking the print media as a comparison, representatives of the online media platforms are not as afraid to speak their minds. After every session, Mr Lee would open himself for feedback from the media. Bloggers would bluntly speak their mind as to how they feel regarding the different dishes without even polishing their words. Some bloggers try, but most are very straightforward, as they like to be as honest as possible to their readers in order to be able to relate to them. Editors on the other hand, are more conscious of how they speak, stringing words to sound as diplomatic as possible without offending another. 

Very interesting! 

Summer Series - The Presets at Hotel Rottnest

The weeks are flying by at Zaccaria Concerts and Touring. We have been incredibly busy in the office lately with the finalisation of Kate Ceberano's WA tour, having sold sell-out shows in Perth, Albany, Bunbury and Mandurah. My last post described how we were experiencing difficulty with selling these shows and there was a chance of cancellation, however we pulled through and all concerts were a success.

Following on from this, we have been busy with the planning stages of The Presets at Hotel Rottnest as part of Rotto Live summer series - a subsidiary of Zaccaria Group and Hotel Rottnest together as partners. We announced The Presets exclusive WA performance last week and are promoting it with the tagline "The ULTIMATE Sunday Session", which my manager Pam and I decided on as a catchy and effective selling point. This particular event is safe in terms of ticket sales - at Zaccaria we know it is going to sell out because of the nature of the performing artist and the location, time of year, weather - so aside from sales, our main aim of this campaign is to raise awareness and hype of our brand Rotto Live and also our main company, Zaccaria Group.

The artwork my manager Pam and I came up with as the official promotional poster of the event

One of the main ways of raising awareness of this event and hence the Rotto Live summer series and Zaccaria Group, is by gaining the support of a significant sponsor. A key way of getting a sponsor on board is to design and develop an effective proposal, with the aim of winning the sponsor company's support because of the exciting content and details revealed in the proposal. Zaccaria's Marketing Manager Pam delegated to me the task of designing and preparing the proposal to send to Telstra Thanks in support of The Presets at Hotel Rottnest. Telstra Thanks is a promotional branch of Telstra, aimed at Telstra customers and poses as a customer loyalty program, much like Virgin's Velocity Rewards system. Telstra Thanks offers their customers the advantage of pre-sale tickets as a way of saying "thanks for being with us", where customers are able to redeem points and benefit from other loyalty-type promotions. For Zaccaria, having Telstra Thanks as the major sponsor of this event is a huge deal - we are having our event and our brand sent to Telstra Thanks WA customer database of over 50,000 people, which for us means a sell-out ULTIMATE Sunday Session at Hotel Rottnest. For Telstra, they invest a significant amount of money into our event which we use to help promote the event. Telstra then gains from the brand association with not only Zaccaria Group, Hotel Rottnest and Rotto Live, but also with The Presets.

So the preparation of this proposal to Telstra Thanks saw me conduct significant research on The Presets to develop a profile for the group, so that Telstra Thanks could identify in one or two paragraphs the significance and prestige of The Presets. I also had to search for recent artwork and photography to use in the proposal for the design and layout, which I developed in Microsoft Powerpoint and saved as a PDF - a very effective way of producing a succinct, professional looking proposal. The proposal also included tourism information on Rottnest Island and the WA market, so as to "paint the picture" for Telstra Thanks and basically outline the environment of the entire event on paper for them, to create an idea that would be as visual as possible.

After finishing the proposal and sending to Pam for review, we sent the proposal to the directors of Zaccaria for final approval, and then e-mailed the final version to the sponsorship and marketing coordinator at Telstra Thanks. Much to my delight, the proposal was successful and we now have Telstra Thanks as the major sponsor of The Presets at Hotel Rottnest. My research and copy on The Presets was also used on the Zaccaria website - check it out here to see a snippet of what I came up with.

With this sponsorship locked in, the next task was to start planning the radio and television campaign. Pam and I considered 92.9 and Nova93.7 as the key radio stations we would use for a radio campaign - however we had to choose one. To choose between the two, we liaise with the sales and production team at both radio stations to describe the event at hand, to which the radio station responds with their own proposal. Their proposal will include types of activities they will utilise to promote our event, timeframe, implementation, description and budget. From these proposals we are able to determine which station to use - in the instance of The Presets at Hotel Rottnest, Pam and I decided on both as we could target a significant share of our desired market. Listen out for our radio and tv campaigns in the next couple of weeks!!

There will be a lot of ticket give aways on both radio stations too, so make sure you tune in. Both proposals from 92.9 and Nova 93.7 were about 15 pages long and detailed some impressive campaign activities - here are a couple of pages from Nova 93.7's proposal.

I have found working on The Presets to be challenging and satisfying as I was only given the morning to come up with the proposal that was submitted to Telstra Thanks. I have found that most tasks in this environment are bound by time constraints and it is extremely important when researching or producing any work for publishing or professional, external submission, that it be correct and written tailored specifically for the target audience.

The hands on experience I have gained at my internship has been invaluable and really reinforces how important public relations, external relations and communications are imperative for business success, particularly in the music and marketing industry. Zaccaria have asked me to stay on after my internship, working for the company until the new year. I am excited to keep learning and gaining practical experience after the last three years of theoretical learning!

Til next time,
Delta

Branding: Much more than just a logo

I am now 10 days into my internship at Corporate Sports Australia working on the Chevron City to Surf for Activ and I have very quickly realised the importance of corporate branding.

Branding is defined by the American Marketing Association as a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. 

In the instance of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ, branding is vital due to partnership and sponsorship agreements made with external parties.

Every piece of documentation including but not limited to; press releases, emails, newsletters, event guides and marketing material needs to have the official Chevron City to Surf for Activ logo on it, as seen below.

Additionally, in written communication such as emails, press releases and published media it is essential that the event name is written in full, being the 'Chevron City to Surf for Activ' not the City to Surf or Chevron City to Surf.

Even when emailing press releases I am required to include a disclaimer note reading:
**Note: Please be sure to refer to the event by the official event name 'Chevron City to Surf for Activ' in all media.

By mentioning the disclaimer in my email I have reiterated the importance of branding and secondly I have covered myself in the instance that the event is not referred to correctly.

Due to Chevron's agreement as the exclusive naming rights sponsor for the event, Chevron must approve all logos and marketing material that is produced. This communication between Corporate Sports Australia and Chevron regarding the branding of the event allows both parties to have a sound understanding of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ brand and what it stands for within the community.

The first press release I produced I had several instances where I referred to the event as the 'City to Surf' but today having produced 15+ press releases it has become second nature to write the event name out in full.

In the instance of events; branding also allows the public to make the connection between the event and social media initiatives. In the case of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ, the hash tag #CTSjourney is being used via social media platforms including Twitter and Instagram. Through the branding efforts made by Corporate Sports Australia and associated parties this hash tag is immediately recognisable to the public to be in relation to the Chevron City to Surf for Activ.

So far I am very much enjoying my internship at Corporate Sports Australia and am looking forward to seeing all the behind the scenes preparation come together on the 25th of August. I look forward to updating you all on my progress and sharing my experiences with you.

The Hectic Life of a PR Intern

This is almost the end of my first week of internship and I am feeling extremely exhausted! Working in a media company is definitely not an easy task to do, first two days of internship was not that hectic as I was still on the orientation mode. But entering the third day of internship there are heaps of things for me to do, and there is definitely no time to lay back.

In SBO TV I was responsible for two events as mentioned in my previous blog entry, the preparation for the first event ‘Bazaar Ramadhan 2013’ was okay but not for the second event, ‘YMMF’. YMMF is a huge regional event and I was given the responsibility to lobby and follow up with 48 schools across East Java, where this event will start on July 18, 2013. From 48 schools almost half has not confirm that they are available for the event, so every day since July 10, 2013 I spent my day in front of the office computer, fax machine and telephone. For four days I did a data recap on the school list and had to lobby various schools through phone calls.

This was a big challenge for me as back in University I was taught by my tutors that public relations practitioners should be able to communicate effectively with the message receiver. This should not be hard if I lobby the schools face to face, but doing this by phone create a certain degree of challenge that forced me to communicate my self as clearly as possible in order to get my message across and convince the schools to join the YMMF event. Within four days of hard work on sending fax, being on the phone and doing online research of the targeted schools, I managed to get 44 schools confirmed for the event and I came up with a bank data that will help SBO for future events as it comprise of schools contact list.

My work is not yet finished! I still got the Bazaar Ramadhan 2013 event. So for those four days, in the morning I woke up and prepare. I went to work to lobby heaps of schools and in the afternoon around 2pm I went to the Bazaar Ramadhan 2013 event until around 7 to 8 pm. It was definitely not an easy job to do! As the event run daily I work Monday to Saturday full time. 

In my mind I think to myself how tough it is to be a public relations practitioners, because yes it is a 9 to 5 job. But in reality being a public relations practitioner eats more time than how I think it would. So I told myself that for my future public relations career, I have to make sure that I really love the job because not only that it is exhausting but also because it consumes heaps of time.

Taking responsibility

I’m nearly at the end of my internship with Shine Communications, which I have been working under the lovely Ruth Simpson. When I first started my internship I was very excited to get involved but was also quite nervous when it came to contacting people for an interview, I suppose I didn’t have the confidence yet. When I was given the task to phone someone up, my heart would skip a beat and without prompting, my subconscious brain would come up with a thousand different excuses that my conscious brain would will away and tell me to grow up – it wasn’t a good feeling.

I suppose I was just overthinking things too much, and was too focused on what I had to say and what I had to get out of the interview rather than just being myself and having a normal chat. But luckily for me, this feeling slowly faded away when I realised one crucial thing: the term ‘intern’ is known by most people as someone who is still learning. So, I found that although I was given a lot of responsibility as an intern, the average person knows how much responsibility an ‘intern’ should have, so if I made mistakes, I was forgiven more easily – to say so lightly. If I mumbled my sentence and had to start again, the person on the other line didn’t seam to mind, if I spelt their name wrong or got a date confused, they understood, or if I forgot to attach a document to an email or called them back for a clarification, I didn’t seem too unprofessional because in their eyes I was just an intern who was still learning. Once I had this knowledge in my head, my confidence grew, and the more mumbling and wrong spelling I was picked up on, the more I learned and the more mistakes I began avoiding.

There was this one mistake, however, that was my full responsibility and therefore something I couldn’t blame on my title ‘intern’. I had written a story for the Dogs’ Refuge Home in Shenton Park, which involved a Kallaroo resident adopting a dog. I had been in contact with the resident since day one of writing the story and during the whole process, he was nothing but kind to me over the phone. When it came to asking for a photo to accompany the story, he made it clear that he was very camera shy and repeatedly asked for someone to accompany him when the photographer came to his house. And in response to his pleads, I would reply (numerously) that I would attend the photo shoot and make sure everything runs smoothly for him, of which he was extremely grateful for.

As the date of the photo came closer, I was given more and more tasks to do for the refuge and so, as the day of the Kallaroo photo shoot approached, it became the last thing on my mind and it took until the next morning to realise I had completely missed it. What a feeling that was, I felt TERRIBLE. I immediately contacted my supervisor which she advised for me to call him and appologise – now that was one phone call I was nervous for! Once I had explained to him what had happened, to my surprise, he was very good about it and understood that mistakes do happen. In this case, I couldn’t rely on my title ‘intern’, I think I was just lucky this guy was such a nice and understanding person.

So, things that I have learnt:

- People aren’t so scary to call and talk to on the phone

- People are generally understanding and I shouldn’t be scared of them

- Never break a promise with someone who is relying on you

- Always take responsibility for your own mistakes

Socialite Media, New Chapter

Don’t get confused by the word Socialite. I don’t mean Socialite like “a person who is well known in fashionable society and is fond of social activities and entertainment” Socialite is a short-term word for an employer who works at Socialite Media is called a Socialite.

When I first arrived back in Australia from an amazing holiday, the countdown of finding the perfect job for PR 393 unit started in my head. I told myself that I have to organized myself, edit my resume, and hand out to companies I wanted to work at.  Everything I learned for the past three years of Public Relation Theories and Practices, I felt overwhelmed and asked myself whether I am ready for the real world.  

However, PR 393 unit is one of the best stepping stone for me to get a taste of what is like in the real job world. On January 25^th, 2013 I handed resumes at many companies I can think of. In the beginning, it was difficult to narrate down to what type of organizations I wanted to get myself into. Although, I didn’t want to be picky, so I was content with what company I ended up working for. All of a sudden, I got a call from Socialite Media.

Socialite Media is an implementation partner for organisations that wish to grow their social media presence.  Who says you need to manage your own online social media? It’s challenging enough executing a standard business strategy, let alone hourly tweets and daily Facebook updates. In fact, on average, Socialite Media spend 8 hours a week maintaining their social media presence irrespective of a strategy that actually generates results. Even though this organisation is not a PR Firm, Socialite Media is Australia’s leading company in social media solutions. They provide a holistic social media solution for any organisation.  

When I received my first interview call from one of the campaign manager, Julian Amistad, the first eerie question he asked me was “How social media addict are you?”

“I am a bit of a social media addict, but I love to go outside for fresh air”- my first response initial response of an interview question

Luckily Julian had a great sense of humour and asked me if I was interested in working for their organisation. It was difficult to contain my excitement, but I kept myself calm and responded on what day they would love me to start.  

We organised a face-to-face interview meeting and before I hung up, I told myself “This is a new beginning…”   

Before I walked into the office, I sat by a near café to look over my notes about the organisation and I brought one of my favourite books to read which was by Anthony Robbins “Awaken the Giant Within” (shown  photo above).

For those who don’t know who Anthony Robbins or known as “Tony” Robbins is an American self- help author and motivational speaker. He became well known through his infomercials and self-help books and he has travelled around the globe helping individuals with financial and personal decision of how we perceive by using NLP (neurolinguistics programming). 

He has been an inspiration and taught me that “know that it’s your decision, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny”(Tony Robbins). I took his word, looked at the time, got up, and head to Socialite Media and knew the decision I’ve made to get this far is the beginning of the new chapter. 

I wish everyone the best luck of their internship and if anyone is still looking for internship, please DON’T GIVE UP! =)

 

Blog References:  

• (2010). Socialite Media [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/050/Purple/1b/a7/2e/mzl.ybjmkzrl.png

• Diago Franco, E. (Photographer). (2013, January 29). Getting ready for an interview. A couple of wisdom and positivity in my mind. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://instagram.com/p/U47CKrpmrz/