The ups, the downs, the compliments and the critiques of the The International Cheese Awards

If you have been following my blog of my internship in London, you will know I have mentioned my work on the lead up to The International Cheese Awards in Nantwich which is located a few hours drive north-west of London. I did not get to attend the show myself unfortunately but the feedback I got back was very helpful indeed.


The show was a great success, it was a busy and fast paced two day show, however like most things in life it needs major evaluating! This years show was the 118th event in the town of Nantwich so it already has a good background and history. The show was run over two days Tuesday the 26th of July and Wednesday the 27th. The first day was Trade Day for businesses looking to sell their products and the 27th was open to the public.



 I found that it does seem that the interest in the show is declining by the media and public interest. As I was monitoring the posts on social media, I noticed on the lead up to the event that there were was not that much attention based on comments and likes on posts on a variety of social media platforms, which I thought was strange, as the event is supposed to be huge, plus there are many, many people out there that love cheese. I also think that there is much more communication efforts, techniques and strategies that are needed for the show in that when I contacted bloggers and magazines not many were familiar of when or where the show even was or what it involved (so that definitely lacks in communicative abilities by the event management of the show). However the media that I had contacted and told me they were attending came to the clients stand and got their goodie-bags and got to know the product. My manager also got a potential grocery store interested in the product however after delivering her pitch to them the week after did not go so well. (They were unhappy with pricing and some products etc).



I found that a lot of bloggers and media that did attend the show in previous years couldn't attend the show for reasons beyond control or had other commitments so maybe it was just quieter in terms of other events happening or maybe the event management and PR decided to cut back on event publicity this year overall. So to gain some more online feedback for our client I got in contact with two foodie bloggers (out of like 20 that I had tried). I sent them a cute little sample bag so that they could try them before the show and add to some of their cooking to post on social media.


So check out Taste Today's Instagram as she has produced some recipes from our clients cheese.
And if you're a cheese lover check out the ICA twitter for all the postings from all of the different dairy and cheese brands! It was a pleasure to be working on food brands!


As the work for the Clear Group has been a mixture of intensive non-stop work and also quieter days my experience gained from the company has been extremely eye-opening. Public relations is a really fun, exciting industry to work in, maybe it was just the environment I was working in, I even found the slower, more admin type jobs enjoyable that most others would think are boring, such as looking into mistakes on the clients webpage, as my manager said to me that their page once misspelled cheese, which surprised me, however being from an Eastern European background it was a mistake that could definitely happen. And of course the lots of researching I was required to do, it made the days go really fast but I did enjoy every single one of those days I was working for CG.


On my farewell, I knew that both the directors enjoyed their share of chocolates (as well as tea and coffee) so I went out and purchased some nice chocolates for them all and the directors got me a gift in return for my efforts, they are happy to all be a reference for work purposes for me and are very kind and caring people, I will always look back on this internship as a choice I will never forget.


Thanks for reading!


Jessica Abberton

The Importance Of Research

The importance of research;

Until recently my placement organisation Netball WA had been essentially flying from the seat of their pants in terms of communications strategy. While what they describes as a “going with the gut” feeling has evidentially not had any serious ramifications on their business success, it’s an approach they finally reconsidered. As far as I can gather from chatter with my supervisor (Netball WA’s Communications Manager) and those who work under him, the communications team was a one or two man show up until 2015. With the addition of four extra staff members, a ‘Communications Team’ appeared, complete with a Media Relations Officer, Social Media and Marketing Officer, Graphic Designer/Photographer and Events Manager/Membership Coordinator.

Under the Events Manager/Membership Coordinator I completed one of my first major projects at my internship, while that was a week or two ago, I was recently reminded of the importance of the work I was doing whilst in a Public Relations Planning and Evaluation seminar earlier this week. The seminar, entitled ‘making a case for communication’, explored the ways that research and evaluation in PR can help to justify the existence of communications teams in businesses and organisations.

Clearly, a core part of the business at Netball WA is to ensure the WA netball team (West Coast Fever) have well-engaged and happy members. The work that I was doing, while rather laborious, was to analyse membership feedback data from the recently finished 2016 season, compile trends and finally recommend some changes to the way the memberships were handled based on the feedback data. This kind of research is an example of the data and analysis that can contribute to ensuring that West Coast Fever members are well engaged and happy with their membership experiences. Not only does this kind of communication and research help to achieve this business objective, it allows a concrete connection to be made between the quality of this communication and the rate of member retention and registration. This kind of data gathering and analysis is not only a great example of a feedback channel in operation (part of the 2-way symmetric model of communication in action), but also a fine example of a way that professional communications justifies itself and it’s place in a business or organisation.

While back in first year, research may have seemed like an inconvenient prequel to an exciting PR plan, looking back through my third-year goggles I can definitely see that not only is research a fundamental foundation to the formation of clear communications goals and objectives, but it is essential also as an ongoing review and monitoring activity. Without this continuous reflection upon our PR efforts and their results, the efforts themselves are nullified in the way that we have no record of their effectiveness, and their results are practically invisible to CEO’s and organisational boards.

Research is an not only an essential starting point, but it comes into play at both the mid, end and review points of any PR activity in the forms of all kinds of feedback lines as well as the day-to-day monitoring conducted by PR practitioners.

This has finally solidified for me having seen the kind of tasks performed daily by the Netball WA Communications Team, without research no plan or proposal can be justified.

Reaching the Halfway Point

So I’ve finally made it to the halfway point! Only working one day a week makes it feel like sometimes this internship will last forever.

Looking back, I can see that I’ve already learnt so much and further developed my skills, and it confirms that public relations is definitely an industry that I want to work in. But it is not just my working skills that have improved; I feel that I have grown and matured further as a person. My department at Wesley College are constantly praising my work ethic and making me feel valued and respected here.  

One thing that has stood out to me in my time here is the way that the Community Relations department reviews each others’ work. One person will write a document, for example a media release, and it will be passed to someone else in the office where they “rip it to shreds” (as my supervisor calls it), making as many corrections as possible. Then it is passed to the Director of Community Relations, who does the same thing. The first time they reviewed my work like this it was quite disheartening to see the amount of corrections and suggestions made. But it was not just my work that came back with a million notes and red pen marks, and so after discussing the process with my supervisor I completely agree with the process! While it can be harsh for the document creator, it really does ensure that the best possible work is created. 

Thats all for now - I have something very exciting to share next time!

Work, uni, life... I was losing the plot!

As I mentioned in my first blog, I’m on secondment so I’ve been in my role for longer than the intern requirement of 20 days. I thought I had the INS and the OUTS of the job all figured out…BUT oh how I was wrong!

Last week my ability to take constructive criticism was really tested.  In this job I’ve learnt pretty quickly you can’t take things personally. Your work will be scrutinised by a number of high level executives before it even makes it to the Minister’s office. There are so many things to consider and get right….appropriate use of language, tone, structure etc. Get any of this wrong and you're back to the drawing board.

Before my work is sent for general manager approval, my line manager must approve it. More often than not he’ll make a few changes, which is fairly standard, and from there the approval process begins up the executive chain. However, last week not one piece of work was making it over the line. Key messages weren’t concise and clear and I was missing the point completely.

I felt deflated and pretty crappy about the work I was producing. I instantly started questioning myself – am I a good writer? Am I good enough to do this job? Should I be in public relations!?!

When I took a step back and really looked at the situation, I realised what I was feeling was just a lot of pressure and expectation I was putting on myself. I was really feeling the pressure of finishing up all my uni assignments, and combined with the pressures of my job, I was starting to lose the plot!

Fast forward a week late, uni assignments done and dusted, my work is getting the thumbs up and I’m far less stressed.  I know I’m a good writer and I know I can do this job. Everyone has bad weeks, whether you’re an intern, on secondment or you’ve been in the same job for five years. For anyone feeling the pressures of juggling their internship, study, work and family commitments etc., just keep on being your awesome self – I promise you, you’re doing a great job!