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!

it's just not the same without Gravy... Part 2

Gravy Events & projects is very happy to welcome a new client on board!! Contracts were signed and work began this week for The Brusbane Hotel. Ivana (Director of Gravy Events) and I first met with Craig Thomas (The Financial Controller and Business Partner in both The Brisbane and The Boulevard) to initially discuss The Boulevard Hotel, a similar bar/ pub to The Brisbane situated in Floreat which opened just over a year ago. The two although similar in style, architecture and ambiance, have been seen to be very different in popularity. This meeting's purpose was to discuss ways of building up The Boulevard's popularity much to the degree that The Brisbane is at. After the meeting and ongoing communication between Ivana and Craig, Craig decided to go in another direction for the time being with The Boulevard and reapproach that with Gravy 3 months down the track, and in the meantime, hire Gravy Events to help out with The Brisbane.

It turns out, during the meeting with Ivana and I explaining what we can do, it was realised that The Brisbane is actually lacking in the social media department and would be a great opportunity to refocus some attention back onto their star product. This week's focus for The Brisbane was thus to look at their Facebook page and revamp it. Actually, revamp is an understatement. The page was a completely blank page that may as well have not existed if it hadn't have been for their 1,400 likes (or fan base if you will) and somewhat 17,000 "check-ins" made by customers. All it had was it's name, and their contact number. Enter Gravy...

Ivana had delegated me the job (being the social media addict I am) to spend our total contracted hours this week to basically start from square one. This included adding information (writing the description and the about sections), creating a profile picture that stands out (which includes the logo and can be at it's most effective at the square box it is resized to by Facebook), changing it to a "Timeline" (which, not only looks better, but will automatically change by March 30th to all pages anyway so we have to be on top of this) which includes choosing a "cover photo" that sells The Brisbane to its upmost, adding photos (the albums I created where "The Venue.", "The Food." and "The Team" using the professional photographs given to me by The Brisbane) and lastly, COMMUNICATE with the 1,400 people they have at their fingertips (which included a small status alongside a picture of a cold beer with The Brisbane logo on it). By doing just these few tasks on Facebook, we had in 24 hours over 70 responses which including commenting and liking of photos on albums, writing on the wall and brand new page likes. The Brisbane were very pleased with the outcome and it was a very successful first week with them! I will most definitely keep you all updated with how business is going at The Brisbane and whether this exercise proves to be a good, profitable move by them.

Until next time...

--Sarah

Blogs Blogs Blogs – can’t seem to get away from them!

Hi all, hope everything is going well for you!

So, BLOGS. They seem to be popping up everywhere don’t they?! We’re asked to write them for university courses and often businesses rely on them to boost their reputations. For example, the beloved discount website ‘Scoopon’ has just recently moved into the blog life which you can check out here. However, what benefits is this giving them, if any? I’m not too sure if a pointless blog about funny websites or photos is actually adding any real value for organisations? On the other hand, I think creating online two-way conversations is a must. According to Jones, Temperley and Lima (2009)…

“how a company is perceived and the image their audience has is not only shaped by their communication efforts but is a product of conversations taking place online. These well managed and orchestrated online conversations can help companies to build and maintain presence, reputation and brand image.”

Due to the fact that Sunset’s Events brand awareness as an events company is not very well known, this year’s PR focus has been on online means such as updating of their website, social media activities and the introduction of an online blog. During my internship, I worked on all of these tasks. One of the main challenges I faced was having to research and find content to put in the blogs. I was told to research literally anything on the web that was ‘interesting’ and would get people talking. This proved to be a very difficult task! You can check out the Sunset Blog and some of the entries I worked on here.

The blog mainly concentrated on getting important info out there and also demonstrating to the public the work ethic and team that is Sunset Events. In my opinion, blogs such as ‘Totes Boges Yoges’ which expressed the work ethic and team environment as well as ‘Get some Southbound in your system!’ which provides helpful info are good blogs that help to achieve the objectives set out. However, I’m not too sure if blogs such as ‘Procrastination Grouch Monday’ are really necessary or if they have a positive outcome for the organisation? What do you think?

Having worked on and been a contributor of the ‘Southbound’ facebook page as well as the ‘Sunset Events’ facebook page, I was able to witness firsthand the real impact social media can have for an organisation. The pages have been very successful for Sunset in getting important information out quickly and also in developing a strong online presence. These PR tools have so far been successful for Sunset Events and their image (which was previously unknown) has now made an impact online through social media. It is in my opinion that creating an online presence including online conversations can be very beneficial to all organisations. From my work at Sunsets, I have to come to the conclusion though that blogs may not always benefit and organisations should only choose them as a tool if they have someone who is willing to work on them constantly to create a HUGE presence.

If anyone else has any experience within social media and blogging then please feel free to share!
Until next time,

Melissa
Curtin Bentley Campus