Micro-sponsorships and prize giveaways!

I have achieved quite a bit over these past weeks. I even got to teach a newbie Will how things are managed as I am no longer the newbie! 

I have been sending out lots and lots of cheese packages and sausage vouchers and recipe books and having to be organised and keep up with names and contact details and calling and emailing the winners to congratulate them and find out when they want their prizes. I have done some research into events and key dates for the manager to do her social media updates and little bits and office duties in lead up to the cheese show! I think I will make the cheese show my last blog post as it will include the event, the success and the evaluation of it all. 

I think that working in a consultancy with all different clients can be really confusing. As I have worked on all different things for the different clients (multitasking a massive trait of skills for the PR practitioner, especially in a consultancy, I am realising). I get asked to do bits and pieces for all the different clients involving finding local newspapers and media for the sausage client which are involved in a competition with 2 other competitors within a particular grocery store as they are involved in micro-sponsorship schemes which involve them funding a particular amount to local/rural charities but only strictly grass-roots charities which help the charities events to gain more interest via marketing and activities. 

Both prize giveaways and this micro-sponsorship scheme strategies I think are spectacular ideas! 

A lot of people admire brands for getting involved in good causes and by sponsoring events for those that need it can be strategic communication to generate audience interests and as (Holladay and Coombs 2013) state in their article that the main purpose when focusing on media attention is to create a news story or something the public would be inspired by and generate trust to a company. This why I think that putting aside funds and budgets to give public prizes (especially in food) and sponsoring rural grass-roots charities is a strategic move for the client as it can form relationships between many stakeholders including the general public, the charity owners and employees, the people affected by the charity (or whom the charity is aimed at) and impoves the reputation of both the client and the consultancy.

Thanks for reading my third blog stay tuned for the International Cheese Show event details.

Reference:

Holladay Sherry and Timothy Cooms. 2013. The Great Automobile race of 1908 as a public relations phenomenon: Lessons from the past. Public Relations Review 39 (101-110). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.12.002