My first few weeks of my internship have made me a lot more
confident in my decision to pursue a career in PR, as I’m completely loving my
experience in the Communications department at LiveLighter WA.
LiveLighter is a not-for-profit organisation that aims to educate
Australian adults about the health risks associated with obesity, and is run in
WA, Victoria and the NT and ACT. Most people would recognise LiveLighter from their
TV commercials about the health risks of having a “grabbable gut” and “toxic
fat around your vital organs.”
I think a key reason why I’m enjoying my internship so much is
because I’m contributing to a cause that I’m passionate about and highly interested
in.
During the 10 weeks of my internship I’ll mainly be
completing tasks that assist with the day-to-day business of the organisation,
rather than any specific project. So far I’ve created a number of Facebook
posts, blog posts and an e-newsletter, as well as completing daily media
monitoring and research. The way LiveLighter uses their Facebook page to
promote their website and blog content is very effective and worth checking
out. My most recent 'topical' Facebook post:
I’ve started at LiveLighter at a pretty exciting time, as
there's a new TVC (television commercial) campaign being launched in April. It’s
themed around junk food and LiveLighter anticipates that its might ruffle the
feathers of the junk food retailers it targets. I’m excited to see how the
media attention around the campaign will develop.
My two mentors, Liz and Clare, have been pretty amazing.
They’re really approachable and have confidence that I can do a good job with
any work they give me (which makes me feel pretty confident too). They’ve taken
me along to lots of meetings and events with them so that I can get a feel for
what day-to-day business in PR is really like (hint: it involves LOTS of
meetings). Last week I got to see one of LiveLighter’s resident experts do a
video interview for Health and Medicine online, to accompany a story about "grabbable guts" in the West Australian.
It was fascinating how fast it all happened; the videographer
set up, asked her questions and packed up all in 15mins. It was a bit of a
reality check into how fast journalists and the media work, and how organised
PR practitioners need to be to be able to effectively work with them.
I also attended the Heart Foundation “Lock in the Love”
fundraiser in the CBD. The Heart Foundation and Cancer Council jointly fund the
LiveLighter program, so there is often cross promotion between LiveLighter and
these organisations.
It was interesting to see how a traditional fundraiser works
behind the scenes. Often for PR plan assignments we’ve developed the concepts
and “hooks” for fundraisers, but haven’t had to go into details such as
volunteer rosters and scripts, choosing locations based on
sunlight/foot-traffic/how far you have to carry resources, etc. It was
interesting to have to think about just how many minute details have to come
together for a fundraiser to function successfully.
Until next post,
Bec Byrne
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