A Day In The Life

Hello There,

So as I got more accustomed to my internship, my primary responsibilities included carrying out daily media monitoring for the Ministry, with a majority of it being on newspapers as form of traditional media. Although I was not new to this, I found it interesting that after highlighting all the mentions of the Ministry's activities in all the major newspapers, we would summarize all the information and email it to all the Ministry's employees. 

I think this is a brilliant tool as it not only enabled us as Public Relations personnel to know what is being said about the organization in the public but it informed another important stakeholder group of the Ministry; the employees, of the organization's activities that they may not be directly involved in and so aware of.

Daily monitoring and briefing of all major newspapers.

Another of my recurring tasks was that of writing media releases on the different activities done by the Ministry. This was one of my favourite tasks as it enabled me to put in practice all that I learnt from my modules and improve on my professional writing skills both in English and Swahili, that are both actively used as a means of communication in the country. I learnt that although writing for Public Relations may differ depending on the organization and industry, the format for media releases usually stays the same, following the 'inverted pyramid'.

To date, the most fulfilling day has to be when one of the media releases I wrote was published in the front pages of one of the major daily newspapers in my country.

A media release in Swahili in the 'Mtanzania' newspaper.

A media release in English in the 'Daily News' newspaper.

However, I was pleasantly surprised at how involved the Public Relations department was in the Ministerial meetings, that I frequently had to attend. I learnt that our role in the meetings was that of communicators and mediators between the Ministry and the general public. The meetings were a great source of information for media releases as that is where most important statements were made and contracts signed. It was a pleasure to see the role of Public Relations extensively appreciated on a governmental platform,

I should note that the amount of work did fluctuate depending on the Minister's schedule, with some days being fairly hectic and others involving nothing more than daily media monitoring. Regardless, it is best to give your all in all scenarios as it shows that you are proactive and not reactive towards your work. Do not be afraid to ask what else you can help with when the work load is low. Besides, this is a great way to keep monotony away and learn new things. 

I hope that this has been an interesting read.

Until next time.

Latifah Mzee Hamis Salim Boma
17223946/ 7E3A1749
Curtin University, Sarawak Campus

Kicking it off at the Department of Sport and Recreation

Two weeks ago, I started my internship at the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR). Before I started, I was feeling kind of anxious as I had no idea what to expect. But my anxieties were laid to rest on my first day, as everyone I met in the Department were so friendly and welcoming. The communications team (where I will be placed with over the coming weeks) is quite small, but they are all especially friendly, close and funny.

The past few weeks have been crazy, and I am learning so much. Amazingly, half of the stuff I have learnt is about filming and photography, which perfectly complements PR. This is due to the fact that my table is right next to the filming crew, so they sometimes take me to different events that they are filming at, such as the NAIDOC Netball Carnival, and I get to see what goes on behind-the-scenes in making a video. 

I have participated in the following PR-related tasks so far: media monitoring, writing a media release, proof-reading the reports about their different programs (which gave me a good insight into what the DSR does), and attending their event planning meetings, one of their media events and one of their media ops.

The media event I went to was about the announcement of DSR's new online planning tool for sports clubs. Not a lot of media attended this, as I believe that it had little news value to them. But it was interesting to note that the media, who did attend the event, were only interested in asking questions about the new Sports Stadium at Burswood-this was a completely different topic to what the media event was for. As my boss told me later on, this kind of thing happens quite often. 

The media op contrasted to the media event. The media op was about the State government injecting $7.2 million into 47 State sporting associations. It focused on inviting the media to the NIB sports stadium, where around 10 young athletes from local sporting clubs and the Sport and Recreation minister, Terry Waldron, would be there for the media to take photos and ask questions. Unlike the media event, the media op was more focused on the topic. The West Australian published the resulting story: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/24468553/7-2m-kicked-in-to-sports-clubs/

(Behind the scenes of getting the right photo)

Every week, the DSR has a performance review meeting with all the different divisions within the department. What I found really refreshing was that, instead of using technology, they used an old-fashion pinboard, pieces of paper and coloured markers to keep track of what each division was up to. I really enjoyed the performance review meetings, as I got to see how the communications team contributed to the overall success of the Department.  

I look forward to seeing what else the DSR experience will bring me in the next few weeks.

Starting the day 'happy'

One of the teams at the agency is running a radio campaign for a client.  They have sponsored a daily news program on one of the local radio stations named 'Happy News', where only positive news is featured.  They have asked the office to send in ideas for news topics each morning.  It is a fun and positive way to start my day, looking for 'happy' articles while doing my daily media monitoring. A few of my suggestions made it through to be aired on the program.  I think this is a clever campaign to associate the company with a happy, positive, feel-good image.

Something I have found very useful throughout my internship is that my supervisor often CCs me into her discussions with clients and journalists.  It has been a good way for me to see how she develops and looks after her working relationships.  I can also see how she pitches stories to be published and how she handles awkward or difficult situations.

A form of crisis management

As the end of the university semester approaches so to does the end of my work placement at Scitech. Next week will be my last week with the Communications team so I am now in the process of wrapping up my final tasks.

After spending a couple of days each week here for almost 3 months it has come to be a part of my week I so look forward to and thoroughly enjoy, and its safe to say I will miss the girls that make up the Communications team a lot!

Over the past few weeks Scitech has appeared in the media many a time regarding the Liberal governments promise to move the centre to Burswood. This move has now been confirmed and if all goes to be planned the new centre will open in 2018. This is a huge announcement that has obviously caused some positive and some negative reactions amongst the public.

This has allowed me the experience of seeing Scitech almost go into a type of crisis management mode. Although not as severe as this there has still been a lot of discussion about how this information will be communicated to the public and what can be done to reassure people unhappy with the news.

I have been involved in preparing Facebook and Twitter posts as well as adding a comments section to the main Scitech webpage in order for people to share their thoughts on the move on the relevant article. I have also assisted with a mail out to all Scitrekkers (Scitech membership holders) asking for their thoughts and opinions on the matter directly.

I am glad this has happened before I’ve left Scitech as it has allowed me to witness firsthand how a company responds to a huge announcement that garners a lot of negative feedback. A number of people have posted on the Scitech Facebook page expressing that they are unhappy with the move of venue.

The way Scitech has responded has supported my learning about this area; you must be open and honest maintaining transparency with your stakeholders at all times. Announcements were made by Scitech to the public as soon as definite decisions had been made. You must make your stakeholders know that their thoughts and opinions are of importance to you and give them a channel to communicate this through.

As I write this blog Scitech are continuing to monitor the web as planning for the move to Burswood begins. The comments section on their web page is proving  to be a more effective outlet than Facebook, people are posting valuable and thoughtful insights as to how Scitech could improve by making changes to the set up and layout in the new building.

A lil' bit of this and a lil' bit of that and realisations!

At Sunsets there is no distinguished PR team, rather it seems to intertwine with the marketing and events management. This is interesting to experience as I am able to experience a bit of PR, marketing and events management all in one! As Sunsets is such a small team environment with only a handful of full time employees,  I have also been lucky enough to work with a range of people in both junior and senior roles and learn from them immensely.

Some of the tasks that I have been given over the past couple of weeks have dealt with issue management, stakeholder relations and media relations. I was delegated the task that I think every PR intern is asked of media monitoring. Although a tedious task it is also probably one of the most critical. It involves monitoring press; online and print publications of sunset related media, which are collected, dated, scanned and stored for future references. Also, looking at Sunsets social media and blog postings or more formally known as 'buzz monitoring' to see what people are talking about sunsets and how they are using Sunsets social media. Overall, Sunsets uses media monitoring to stay on track of what media they are being promoted through, what is being said about them, what is trending, their competitors and staying on top of media news.

Another task that I embarked on was a research and write out responses for the Fremantle Business Awards 2013, which Sunset Events were entering themselves into. This was an important task and my grammar and spelling had to be impeccable. I learnt a lot more about the company while writing the report out and was surprised that my supervisor, Madi was extremely impressed with the written work and left it as it was before sending it off. Job well done for myself I say and a small confidence booster in writing business documents for the future.

After reading several blog posts from other students placement positions, I have come to realise even though, I have been given a great opportunity at Sunsets I don't believe I am experiencing everything that I want to. One task I would of loved to have been able to do is write media releases, so that I could get feedback on what I need to improve on as I feel media releases are a major part of public relations that really needs to be practised continuously. However my time at Sunsets so far, has made me realise that events management and especially in such a small team is not where I want to be in a future career. I think that rather, I would be more suited to somewhere more corporate, in a larger team, dealing with clients that I can interact with!

Until next time..

Ella

Note to Self: Keep Breathing! It's only your first day!

Hello everyone! Let me introduce myself before I go telling you my little story about my first day at my internship. My name is Cassandra Lu, but you can all call me Cassie. I’m currently in my final semester (at the start I couldn't wait for this day to come, but now I'm slightly sad to see my university life come to an end) at Curtin University. I'm currently undertaking a double major in Public Relations/ Tourism and Event Management. 

I was privileged enough to have the opportunity to complete my internship at Linc Integrated. Linc is an advertising and marketing consultancy in Perth, Linc also provide other services including public relations, web designing and other various service in relations to marketing and advertising. The company consists of around 15 to 20 employees but the PR team itself consists of Rebecca Johnston (Strategic Advisor), Lisa Barratt (Senior PR consultant) and Conrad Natoli (Public Relations Consultant).

Before I go further on, I should mention my brief history with Linc Integrated. This wasn't the first time I worked with Linc and my supervisors Rebecca and Lisa. I had first met these two lovely ladies as a student volunteer for their work on Bankwest Launch event at Raine Square in October.

Although, I had met everyone on the team, I still had the jitters. As I walked to my spot, I greeted the team and was welcomed with nothing but big grins and “Hey Cassie”. After having a quick chat, I sat at my desk and began my duties as a intern.

After 30 minutes! I finally got my computer and email ready and began my first task assigned for the day; Media monitoring! Easy peasy. Media monitoring at Linc was pretty straightforward. We would each be allocated a publication, which we would then read and take note of what was technically making “headlines” and would be relevant enough to apply to our company and clients. The document only had to be 7-10 bullet points and a sentence describing the news would be enough.

Now I was up to my second task for the day. Bec briefly explained various projects that were currently active at Linc, one of which was a online/magazine portal aimed for the baby boomer market. The portal would offer content relevant to the target market and provide accessibility by allocating it all on the site.What I had to do was find blogs that “over 50’s” would most likely resort to when wanting to source their information. Topics could include current affairs, sport, finance, travel, health & wellbeing, lifestyle, events and other related topics. Putting myself in the mindset of a baby boomer, I began researching what I personally would type into the web to source my information.

After my lunch break I was given a task as a break from all the research I had done. One thing I know for sure that i've learned from this task, was the copious amount of research needed for a client/project was essential but given the limited amount of time it can be quite daunting and difficult to meet deadlines. The amount of research needed for a project can take up so much time without knowing.

Once all that was out the way, I got to the true nitty gritty areas of Public Relations! The good ole media release writing. Given time to read the client brief and various materials related to my media release, my mind was racing with a million questions such as “OH NO WHAT DO I WRITE!” Once I had finished reading the brief and understanding what my client did and what my media release required, Bec came over noticing my nerves she smiled and told me “ Don’t stress Cassie, just think of it as writing down ideas on a paper and it will eventually come naturally”.

*15 minutes later* I was literally sitting there at my desk with nothing but mind blanks! I couldn’t even come up with a title. Not wanting to look like a fool with a blank document on her first day, I began forming random titles and random paragraphs and piling information and formatting the media release with skills I had learnt in my past PR techniques classes. Quite glad I still remembered some of those skills such as proper punctuation when quoting, the triangle of information and other important media release writing techniques especially after the long uni break we all just had.

Once I began putting my ideas and thoughts onto the pages, I had noticed I had begun to form my media release and all I had to do was put the correct formatting and added quotes as requested. Once I checked and re-read my media release I handed it back to Bec and was provided with feedback on areas of approval.

First mistake I had made, which I called a rookie mistake was keeping media release to sentences not paragraphs! After reading through my mistakes and correcting my media release I sent my final media release and Bec sent me the release she had prepared earlier. Reading the two and comparisons, I learnt a thing or two and what areas I had needed to improve on for future media release writings.  

Without even knowing, that was the end of my day. Not even realising till I was told to go home by my supervisors! Who would have known it was already 5:30pm and my first day at my internship was over. Saying bye to everyone and walking out of those doors, I realised I was in fact “home” and I had chosen the right degree despite the years of doubting. I was already looking forward to my second day!

Mellen Events: Show Time

Hi all,

My name is Danielle Gough and I am (like a lot of you) on my last leg of University completing a double major in Marketing and Public Relations. I am excited to finally start my blog and hope you get enjoyment out of reading it. I had the opportunity to complete my placement at the start of this year (2012) for reasons too long to explain I missed the opportunity to blog at the time. To my luck I have been allowed to enter the world of blogging and will take you through my journey from start to finish.


Mellen Events  
When I first thought about where I would like to do my work experience I never thought I would have had the chance to work for one of the leading promoters in concerts, events and festivals in both Western Australia and nationally. In my first week of being there, I was sure glad to have the opportunity.


With holding such well-known events such as Summerdayze, Future Music Festival and other concerts such as 'A Day on the Green', I was eager to get started and see what the 'real world' in PR had for me. 

Roles of Public Relations
Originally I thought I was going to be placed in a set PR position, I was quick to realise each title role within the company (Events Management, Marketing, Operations Manager) intertwined public relations in one way or another. Primarily I have been placed in the department of marketing and advertising. This department has a great deal to do with media relations, with one side ensuring the media coverage in key publications, through media statements and organising interviews with touring artists, and the other having to book controlled communication, through advertising.

Media Watch
This leads to my first assigned task of 'Media Monitoring'. Media Monitoring is a weekly task undertaken to monitor the output of the print media concerning particular published adverts. My task was to find the advertisements and articles in print media for Mellen Events upcoming shows and keep record of each in a portfolio for future reference. An example shown below.

Upcoming Opportunities
In the upcoming weeks I am going to prepare a graph comparing the amount of tickets sold per day (for each event) against the marketing promoted in the areas of media relations, community relations and online communication. In theory, results will show what type of communication reaches target audiences the best, giving Mellen Events the advantage to stream forward with the strongest channels.

Objectives
So far I am loving my time here with music being the focus of 'work'. I am very lucky to be involved in a work environment that interests me. With giving a helping hand in the up-coming promotion stages of each event, I am keen to see how each event runs on the day. Hopefully if I show enough initiative I will be lucky enough to work behind the scenes on the day of the event too... 

I will keep you posted!

PR at PMH?...Nooooo the PMH Foundation!

I had not really considered the existence of a PR body working for a hospital – let alone an entire foundation dedicated to it – until I started my placement at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.

Wanting to find work placement in the non-for-profit sector, I was amazed at the variety of different organisations out there in our community that can be easily overlooked. Although Princess Margaret Hospital is well known in WA for its specialisation in children, since starting my placement I have quickly learnt that its separate Foundation is often forgotten or confused with the role of the hospital itself.

The PMH Foundation is the official fundraising body for the children’s hospital and has a critical role in providing funds for vital medical equipment and research, as well as implementing various projects. They are involved in so many exciting activities including annual events like the  Urban Decent (where people can fundraise to abseil down a city skyscraper…check out the fun we had earlier this year... http://www.urbandescent.com.au/tag/pmh/), Wear A Bear Day and even weekly visits into the hospital wards with their mascot ‘Stitches the Bear’. More information about everything can be found at http://www.pmhfoundation.com/ if anyone is interested.

Right from the first day working for the foundation I began to understand one of the main challenges it faces. As part of what has become my weekly task, I use a media monitoring website called www.mediaportal.com to search for coverage of the foundation and write up a media report about all the articles and other coverage that it has been mentioned in. Through this monthly report the media content can be analysed by the board as to whether there has been enough public awareness and activities generated to assist with fundraising objectives.

The problem, however, is that all too often the journalists and outsourced consultants who write the articles simply write PMH instead of mentioning the PMH Foundation specifically. The public are often confused as to where they can donate money because of this mix-up. It also makes it hard to monitor what the Foundation has actually been doing for the hospital. I also think the PMH Foundation and its staff work really hard to create a good public profile for the hospital and it is a pity that they often do not get the recognition they deserve. I have spoken with my coordinator about what they plan to do about the problem. She said that they have started to put a note on all the information they send through highlighting the importance of having the PMH Foundation specifically mentioned in media releases and articles. Whether that is going to be enough is another story. Maybe I should ask if any of you have a better idea of how to tackle this issue? I’m sure my team would be eagre to hear your suggestions!

Hand over Day...

Hi,

Excitement is brewing and I will say I am rather nervous. My supervisor left on holiday on June 1st, this meant that she had to hand over tasks to all of us in the office as she will be away for 5 weeks. Today the CEO Fiona Kalaf, took us out for lunch so we could have a proper de-briefing session, coffee and macaroons!

Melissa handed over to me the following:
. Social Media
. HBF Run Prizes
. HBF Run database log
. Media Monitors
. Stress Down Day
. Suicide Prevention Month
. BDSC - Wine Wall
           - EDM
           - Fashion Shoot
           - Social Media (Twitter Account) 

It seems like a lot but I am very excited to take over and be able to show Lifeline WA what I can do. Of course I still have a supervisor, Natalie Bird, Fundraising coordinator, I report to her and she tracks my progress. I am excited to be able to take on these tasks and really use what I have learnt, I will admit I though it weird at first for a company to hand over so many different jobs to a volunteer. I have realised that it must mean they think I have the skills necessary to be able uphold and do these jobs well. The one task I am looking forward to the most is Stress Down Day.

Stress Down Day is a National Lifeline initiative that all Lifeline networks get on board. Lifeline WA are taking this initiative and putting a spin on it. What they have asked me to do is put together a booklet of information using both Lifeline's information and my own research that ask for a call to action from corporate clients to fundraise for us. Within the booklet I must talk about where the donations go, how to donate, what stress does to the body, fun activities that work places can get involved in etc... I then have the privilege  of sending these to our corporate clients. Along with that I also must come up with an idea that the Lifeline WA offices can get involved in as well.

I look forward to posting about how I'm going on all these new tasks, till next time...

Regards,
Karla Cavalli

Sunset Evaluations

Hi guys, this will be my last blog for this unit but I doubt it will be my last ever! I have chosen to look at the topic of evaluating within PR.

At Sunset Events, evaluations were made with the use of media monitoring, surveys and various figures such as sales. I was able to get some experience with 2 out of 3 of these evaluation methods. Throughout my internship I did a lot of media monitoring (both print and online). This involved searching through publications such as The Wire, X-Press and Drum Media (which wasn’t very painful to do!) in order to find articles related to Sunset Events and their festivals. Once the articles were found, I needed to scan and upload onto a document stating the date, publication and page number. However, sometimes it was hard to find all articles as a lot of the time Sunset was mentioned on cover pages or in just a timetable stating when the event was taking place. According to my communications manager, these were to be included in the document also! They were sometimes mistakenly missed when scanning.

I also did some online monitoring. Sunset had an outside company ‘Meltwater’ that would send through its online monitoring for them, but this wasn’t entirely accurate, so I was left scanning through the internet trying to find articles (Google news was a great help!). When it was time to report on the results of the media monitoring at the end of the festival, AVE’s were determined. I worked on calculating some values for the work I did, however, once I had the values my communications manager thanked me but then informed me that in the evaluation report, the AVE amounts were usually just estimated at $1,000,000! Does this then therefore diminish the AVE amounts??? In my opinion, they are not very accurate for the media monitoring Sunset does, as like I explained previously, monitoring includes just the mention of the Sunset name or an event name. So this really has no advertising value.

The other evaluation method I worked on was surveys. An online survey was sent out to ticket holders of the West Coast Blues ‘n’ Roots festival via Sunset database after the event had taken place. This survey evaluated results such as experience, favourite acts, prices, sponsors, green initiatives etc. I then wrote up a report with the results of this survey. Well know that you know a bit about evaluations at Sunset, I’ll now evaluate my internship for you!

Overall, it was a great experience! I really enjoyed working for the team and it was a fun, creative environment. I gained a lot of insight when it came to web, social media and other forms of online communication. I also received some great experience in terms of how to run and promote an event (it isn’t easy!) and got some great contacts in the industry J I really enjoyed the event side of both Marketing and PR and was grateful to Sunset for taking me on! How did everyone else evaluate their internships?? Hope they were a great experience as I’m sure they were!

Signing off for now,
Melissa
Curtin Bentley Campus

Busy, Busy Bee

Hi All!

Since my last post, I've been asked to do monthly media valuation reports for clients. I get a shock when I do the calculations (as you know.. PR value is three times of Ad value) to the extent where some times I do over at least three times to make sure I didn't do it wrongly.

Also, I've learnt that media monitoring is not just about flipping through the papers. Even though media monitoring may be the most basic thing in a PR company, one really needs to be not only meticulous but also have the ability to anticipate what might be useful to clients.

You can expect papers to be flying everywhere on Monday mornings because we've got to trawl through 4 days worth of papers (over the weekend + two publications are only published on friday night). Most of our tables are black with fingerprints inked from the papers.

I've also done a survey as part of research for a client, media call downs and over the phone interviews. I was delegated the task of calling some volunteers to find out what was the one thing they did good for the year. It was really cool because I realised that there are actually people with very good hearts.

One volunteer, went to a one room apartment with four other people, and they helped to clean the house. It belonged to a 70 year-old man. She went on to tell me how the apartment was really dusty and it had no television or radio. That experience was an eye opener for her and it taught her not to be complacent.

After the phone conversation I actually felt inspired to be like her! And that thought made me realise you can actually learn a lot more things other than just how to do your work well.

Till the next post!

Media Monitoring: How it is done at Perfect Relations

I was involved in making a media coverage report for a hospitality client. So needless to say, spent some time monitoring the media in the IMM division (Indian media Monitoring) of Perfect Relations Hyderabad. So let me share with you all a step by step process of media monitoring.
1) Browse through the different sources of media (newspaper, magazines, radio, television and even websites) and mark the client.
2) Scan the clip in case of publications.
3)The scanned clip is then measured for its dimensions (area in Sq.Cms)
4) Once the clip is measured, it is then copied to a ftp client called 'pr-prism.com' for online view.
5) The copied clip from pr-prism is then uploaded to a media monitoring portal called 'immservcies.net' where the clip is categoried with details of headline, publication, date, page number and client name.
6) Once this process is done, the clip is seen in the database of Perfect Relations accessible to all clients, media and staff through 'perfectrelationsconnect.com'.

So each day, this process happens and the database is updated. I monitored the Ista Hotel coverage for two days and had great fun doing it. The media coverage report that is generated after this process of media monitoring is complete is an important element in demonstrating the ROI to clients.
I am wondering how is the media monitoring process done in other countries like Australia? Your comments regarding the same is highly appreciated.
Regards
Suhas
Miri

Media Monitoring. What is that?

This had happened since the first PR module. I remember very well how my lecturer, Ms Vaneetha used to ensure that every single student in class understands how important media monitoring is to an organization. She told us when she worked as a PR practitioner, the first thing she did every morning when she reached her office was to read the newspaper and get what is on in summary for her boss.

And then when i come to this company, i was told that i can only read a newspaper when I have extra time in my lunch hour. Er... ...

The truth is, there is no such thing as 'media monitoring' in Mawar (let's used this as the short form for MRMC + PHM). The most they did was to cut any news about the chairperson (because he is a political member) when they are appointed to. Such practice contributes to my doubt about what exactly media monitoring is in the industry and are they really necessary?

I start researching about it and eventually, I come to the conclusion that benefits of media monitoring are unexpectable and unpredictable. Here are the few key points that I have concluded:

First of all, we have to understand that by the term 'media monitoring' means monitoring the media which is formed by print, electronic, and new media nowadays while World Wide Web is known as one of the most powerful media of today because it simply represents the infinite. easily accessible. information.

The most basic format of media monitoring is of course to search any information or exposure of your company's name. The purpose of this includes to check whether events that you organized was publicized, any positive or negative testimonials are done publicly towards your organization, and how does your organization stands in the market place.

Of course, a PR team can customize it's own objective of media monitoring, then list its relevant keywords for everyone to come back with related results. You may want to concern about what is up with the competitors in the news or any new announcement about the regulations of your industry line today.

Information a.k.a. knowledge. Everyday, there are coverage of new piece of share, opinions, or ideas that one can find in media. As a PR person, one should always be knowledgeable enough to tell his/her profession. Keeping up to date of news is one of the best way. These timely opportunities are always hard to tell and therefore allows new insights of different angle and perspective related to the organization to be gained unexpectedly.

Honestly, I really thought that I understand what media monitoring since my first PR module but not until I did my intern. I would still like to thanks Mawar because in a way it makes me really think about why billions of dollars are spent worldwide each year in media monitoring (Meltwater News, 2008).

Now guess if Miss Vaneetha media monitor her own name? See you guys :)

Media Monitoring: No Laughing Matter

The first time we met, my Managing Director made sure I understood the importance of media clippings to our business. "I've come down very hard on interns, employees, who miss clippings," he warned. There was once someone missed a clipping on our client and he instantly demanded to know who it was.

Media clippings, quite simply, is the Return On Investment (ROI) of PR. It is how we demonstrate to our clients that we have done our jobs. Just as advertisements are the product of advertising agencies, media clippings are the "products" and the "results" of PR. This is because the information that led to these clippings usually originate from press releases produced by PR agencies.

But more importantly, media clippings allow us to track and understand how the press responds to our PR activities. If the press release is dull, for example, or if our press conference was not well attended by the media, we can only expect that press coverage will be minimal (and clients will be screaming!). At the end of the day, it is the clippings report that our clients will refer to when evaluating our performance.

It isn't surprising then that media monitoring is our first task in the morning when we arrive at work. There will be a stack of papers waiting for us, and each person has to grab at least two on the way to his or her workstation. Certain clients expect their clippings report in by 11am everyday, so we can't take our own sweet time.

The relevant articles will be cut out and pasted on a clippings template containing several details such as publication, page, date, and section. In addition, there is a specific way to quantify media coverage, called the advertising value equivalency (AVE) and PR value:

AVE = Height (cm) X Column size X Advertising rate + Colour surcharge (if article is in colour)

PR Value = AVE X 3

The reason why PR Value is three times that of AVE is because PR professionals believe that news articles are more credible than advertisements and thus worth more for the same amount of space. It should be noted, however, that AVE is a controversial measurement. We were taught in class that it is not a suitable formula for evaluating PR, and the US Institute for Public Relations (IPR) has formally rejected it.

AVE is deemed unethical as there is no scientific evidence to prove that news articles are more effective that advertising. If you have the time, click here to read the IPR's informative discussion of the various issues concerning AVE.

Nonetheless, there is no denying that AVE puts a dollar value on media clippings, not to mention that some clients actually demand it as proof of an agency's work.

Cheers,
John.

So It Begins...

Hello all!

I'm John from Limkokwing University and this would be my first post. Its been two weeks since I started my internship on December 1, 2009. I honestly didn't think it'd take me two weeks to write my first entry, but work has been all-consuming!

I managed to get a spot as the only intern in DDB PR, Kelana Jaya. Being the only intern in the office means that many administrative tasks will fall to you i.e. labeling CDs, stuffing press kits, filling out media lists, scanning, photocopying, faxing, emailing and such. Although these tasks may seem mundane, they are actually the foundations of what it takes to be a PR executive.

But first, a little background on my company. DDB PR is a consultancy which handles everything from political PR to luxury brands to charity organisations. I guess I'm lucky to be in a company with such diverse clientele. Most of what I know about this company was relayed to me during a 40-minute pep talk by my Managing Director. It was inspiring - he didn't just go on and on about the dos and don'ts but rather explained my specific role in the organisation. I was to be a fully accountable employee, he said, not merely a temporary hire. I am to be as responsible as anyone else, and therefore I owe them nothing less than my best effort.

My general task is to assist the Account Executives in their day-to-day work. A major part of what we do is media monitoring. Every morning when we step into the office everyone has to pick up one or two newspapers and look through them to find news on our clients, their competitors and the industries in which they operate. The relevant articles are clipped and/or scanned to be sent to clients. Besides that, I've been taught to write cover letters for emails to be sent to editors.

It has only been two weeks, but one thing I've noticed is that theory differs greatly from practice. A good education will give you the fundamental skills to kickstart a career, but nothing prepares you for the real world like the real world. But all said and done, I'm looking forward to many more challenges and new experiences in the coming months.

Until next time, take care!

Cheers,

John.