My time with the Pirates has come to an end...

My time at Pirate 88FM Fremantle has come to a close and although I can’t say I’ve had the best experience, the placement itself has been an eye-opener.

I began my placement with the promise of PR guidance, an opportunity to really put the skills, knowledge and techniques learnt in my public relations studies into practice. Instead, I was faced with several marketing-related tasks, a severe lack of guidance due to miscommunication of staff roles as well as excessive staff changes, and a feeling of dissatisfaction that I was essentially wasting my time.

Fortunately for myself, I learnt to turn these negatives into opportunities. Where PR was lacking, I would suggest ways to implement it. Where staff felt unsure as to how or why to implement marketing/ PR for certain aspects of the business, I had the opportunity to explain. The fact that Pirate is such a small business (and very low budget) also, in a way, worked in my favour. Despite most of my tasks leaning toward marketing, I was able to suggest ideas and implement my own “strategies”, if you will, and play around with ideas - something that I may not have had the chance to do in a larger, more well-known organisation. It was a safe environment to experiment, I suppose, without too large of a negative impact should something go wrong.

Throughout my time at Pirate I have written weekly newsletters as well as redesigned their email-newsletter layout, worked on redesigning their website layout and look (which unfortunately was not implemented due to time constraints), updated and monitored social media, helped interview local bands, attended events and functions, developed promotional material, written and voiced radio ads, and completed other general marketing activities. I have also come up with a number of ideas as to how the organisation can improve their PR and marketing, in particular how to raise awareness, which I list in my recommendations for the final report.

I guess my disappointment stems from the lack of guidance I received. I will be honest in saying the business structure of the organisation felt quite disjointed and as a result, I didn’t receive the experience I was promised. I felt my purpose was more of the “recruit uni interns to save costs” strategy as opposed to being taken in to help broaden my horizons. Despite this, I have learnt several serious business lessons that I will take into my career.

I have been offered to continue my placement with Pirate, but have declined the offer. Although I would love to see the organisation grow and succeed, I feel it is necessary to now gain more relevant and challenging experience.

Good luck with your reports and I hope you have all enjoyed your placements!

All the best,

Emma