Setting the Stage

I am over halfway through my placement and overall it has been a very positive experience! To say it has not been challenging would be a lie, but I have learnt so much and the pluses definitely outweigh the minuses.


Background

I’m interning as a PR & Marketing Assistant at Student Edge (www.studentedge.com.au), Australia’s largest student membership. They offer a free card that can be used to ‘flash and save’ and through their website they offer discounts, comps and jobs to students Australia wide. The card is kept free through partners advertising to the database. I have actually previously worked for Student Edge for most of 2011 as a full time Account Manager (advertising point of view) so it is fascinating view an organisation that I know quite well from a public relations side.

The role of public relations in any organisation

For example, previously when I was an account manager, it was all go go go! Emails to check and reply to, internal and external meetings, following up clients for creative, scheduling and proofing media. Whereas working as a PR & Marketing Assistant is quite different. I am still working for the same organisation but spending a lot more time thinking about “the bigger picture”, rather than day-to-day detail. I definitely there is this element of ‘big picture thinking’ across all organisations to an extent. Parts of the PR team will have day to day campaigns to run, whereas senior PR personnel, especially those who work closely with management, will be looking at the role of PR in the organisation strategically. As one of my PR Lecturers Jacinta argues – public relations should not be in the School of Marketing at Curtin University, but the School of Management! I agree with her position.

Public relations and Student Edge

The first part of my placement was spent ‘base-lining’ – what is the role of public relations in Student Edge at the moment? Student Edge has previously never had a dedicated internal PR person. A national marketing director was bought into the organisation in December 2011, and prior to that both marketing and public relations was done on an ad hoc basis by interns. Student Edge is in the process of executing an ambitious but achievable marketing campaign over 2012 to meet business objectives. The organisation uses an external public relations consultant who sits on the board and works closely with the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer. As mentioned, because Student Edge has previously not had a dedicated public relations employee internally, the first part of my placement was spent establishing where public relations fit in with the strategic marketing plan and overall business objectives.

“The world is flat” - Thomas L. Friedman

Sharyn, the marketing director, has had extensive experience in the youth, marketing and public relations sector and is acting as my supervisor for my placement. Sharyn is based out of the Sydney office (as of January 2012) so it can be challenging not having her around all the time! But, the joys of technology – we Skype, phone, email and DropBox regularly throughout the day to make sure I’m on task so she’s always close by!

What I’m working on

I’m working on a number of communication projects as we speak, so stay tuned – all will be revealed soon! How has your experience been so far?

- Rachel