Hi guys,
This is my first blog for PR 393 so bear with me. I have been at my placement with Detail Marketing Communications for around 10 days now and my main role focusing on Walk to Work Day (WTWD), which is coming up in October. I will be working on the entire WTWD campaign so I will be doing my placement until mid October. It is quite early for this campaign at the moment so I have also been helping out with a few other clients.
Detail Marketing Communications is a boutique agency and this is fantastic as I get to see how the company works with a wide variety of clients including helping out at the Optus Apple IPhone 4 launch last week in the city. Detail was responsible for the media for this event and it was interesting and insightful watching the girls in the office work and how things ran on the night.
WTWD is a great initiative and this campaign is mainly focused on getting media coverage. It is a national event so we are also working with other PR companies around Australia.
My main jobs over the past couple of weeks have included updated databases, with the right contacts in both the media and various companies who can take part in WTWD, creating media releases and newsletters to be sent out and contacting the media and pitching stories for the event.
It has actually been really interesting pitching and implementing the media plan rather than just writing about what you are going to do. This is how a placement is soooo different to any unit at university. Our lecturers don’t teach us how to cold call a company and find the correct contact person or to actually speak to the media and pitch an idea to them. This has been the most daunting experience for me so far but I do have to say that after a couple of times it does get easier and after about 2 weeks of cold calling I am starting to feel at ease. Most journalists are actually happy to hear your idea because it does make their life easier if you pitch a great story.
Time management is really an important focus of my placement as well. You don’t really think creating a newsletter or updating a database should take very long but as attention to detail is so important in PR it is vital to get everything right and looking great. Some days it has taken me almost all day to fix a newsletter and finally send it out to the right contacts.
The last couple of weeks have been amazing. I have loved seeing how it really works in the industry and not just reading or hearing about it and over the next month my role for WTWD will be picking up dramatically. Detail Marketing Communications also has a few media launches and events coming up soon, which I will be involved in so stay tuned to hear all about it. Hope everyone’s placements are going well!
Enjoy
Chloe J
1 comment:
Chloe - I know what you mean about the difference between learning about creating media stories, to having to call up and pitch them. This is something I've been doing at my placement too, and it was definitely a bit daunting to start! Glad to see you've got the hang of it now.
After even just one call, you realise it isn't that bad afterall. I think the key is sounding confident, even if you're not. If you call up and don't know much about what story you're pitching, they aren't likely to take you serious.
I think that's one of the main skills I've gained - being comfortable talking to the media/other companies/people you thought might not be interested in talking to you. And by the sounds of things, that's what you've learnt too. I hope the rest of your placement goes well!
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