Completing the templates and guidelines...

My placement experience at Amnesty International has been a really rewarding experience. I would imagine it has been quite different from the experience I would have received at a consultancy. Amnesty International's Perth office relies on a lot of volunteers to assist them in facilitating the grassroots activism undertaken by the local action groups. The office helps to organise the local group's events and activities, prepares materials for them such as flyers and banners, and liaises with other Amnesty offices when necessary. Sometimes the groups or the office will be undertaking activities that they hope to get press coverage for. That's where my placement came in.

Though the office has one volunteer experienced in media relations, she's only able to come in a couple of hours a week. So I got a great opportunity to step in as the main office media coordinator for the 7 weeks during my placement. It was so exciting to be able to share all I had learnt about media relations during my degree with the Amnesty staff, and create materials that would allow them to write and send press releases with ease in the future.

I was able to get Amnesty some press coverage during my placement, so one of my main tasks was to create a local media contact list with the names of the Journalists I had contacted on it. I tried to make sure all the publications listed had the most relevant Journalist's email on there, as I had remembered we were told to always send straight to the Journalist in Media Relations. I also created media release templates so that any of the staff or volunteers could jump on to the computer and type up a press release without wondering how to structure it.

My supervisor also asked that I create guidelines for a media strategy so that others could implement a media strategy if they wished to do so. A lot of the information I put into this came from the Public Relations Planning and Evaluation unit. For example, I explained how important it was to have measurable goals and objectives to evaluate at the end of the time period so that they could determine the success of the strategy.

By the end of my placement I got the opportunity to guide two other volunteers and my supervisor through the materials I had created, which were in three folders- Media Guidelines, Media Contacts, and Media Releases (which included examples and templates). They were so grateful to have a system in place for issuing media releases, and I felt so proud when my supervisor asked if I would mind if they used the materials in Amnesty's other Australian offices. It seemed as though PR volunteers were quite rare at Amnesty, and that they really valued the fact that I was sharing the knowledge with them that I had gained from my studies in the last few years.

Of course being a student, a had a lot to learn as well during my placement. I often found myself googling things like 'the best ways to contact journalists' or searching my textbooks for practical information. My supervisor was also a great source of information and ideas, as even though he had not come from a PR background he'd had real world experience with media relations in similar organisations.

Though I was sad finish my placement at Amnesty, I'm trying not to think of it as goodbye. I'm planning to continue to volunteer there, because now I realise how much not-for-profit NGOs like Amnesty rely on volunteers to keep things going. And it is amazing to see how many people volunteer their time just because they truly want to help the world.

Until next time, Jolene x

Goodbye desk!.... (It's a little messy in this picture) 

Good vibes at human rights organisation

My first couple of weeks of a Media Coordinator placement at Amnesty International have been a whirlwind. I was thrilled to have secured the position as I was told that although they had  no internships available they would create one for me considering I had media relations knowledge. I had been wanting to work for Amnesty International for quite some time- they're the largest human rights organisation in the world and they work to assist with issues such as Indigenous rights, refugee rights and LGBTQI rights. I was surprised to find out at my interview though that they were receiving little media coverage in WA.

Therefore, my main goal in during my 7 weeks part-time internship was to get Amnesty International WA more press coverage. My supervisor informed me he hoped to get the media to run at least 2 stories about their organisation during my placement. And I'm happy to say that the press release I sent off on my very first day is going to run in the Joondalup Times. I didn't write the whole release myself, but I did make some changes. I added quotes, include more event information, added a letterhead and full contact details, and added a captioned photo that was similar to the sort that the publication normally featured. I then addressed it to one of the publication's Journalists and sent it off. Very grateful for all the things my Media Relations tutor Bridget taught me now!

So now we're discussing other article ideas, and I'm really keen to get started on some more press releases. As our office is there to facilitate the activities of the local groups I'll have to contact them to source more ideas. The action groups and the office are run mainly by volunteers who are usually only in for a couple of hours a week, so I'll be sending some emails out to see what they're up to.

As well as the strategy and press releases, I've been working to create a detailed local media contact list. Not the most enjoyable job in the world, but a valuable resource I'm sure! I've also had to do loads of research on Amnesty International to understand the organisation and current human rights issues. Next up will probably be a radio script to promote one of our events, and I think I need to try to secure the radio spot too. So, I've been up to a lot at Amnesty International but I love it! I'm now feeling excited about working in the industry, and  so glad that all the nervousness I felt at first has gone away. Will keep you updated on my progress, Jolene xx

A Night out at the Ballpark

Hey Everyone

I only have a few more days left at my internship with the Perth Heat. I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunities presented and am excited about seeing what impact my actions have on the brand visibility of the Perth Heat.

The season is only 10 days away now, and so a lot of my recent work has gone into game day initiatives and the various communication elements involved in preparing for a game night with the Perth Heat. For this post, I want to just give you guys a quick insight into the planning and implementation of game nights, and what exactly goes on. The following is a list (in order) of the tasks undertaken by communication staff prior to the Perth Heats first pre season game last Thursday night.

(The Calm Before the Storm.......Which turned into an actual storm on Saturday Night)

 

1. Confirm and allocate sponsor attendance
The Perth Heat have over 50 corporate partners, many of whom will regularly attend games at the "diamond lounge" (equivalent to a corporate box at the footy). It is the job of the commercial manager to organise which sponsors will be in attendance (mainly via phone communication), and begin allocating space in the diamond lounge, as well as prior transport for corporate partners.

2. Create social media and PA announcment schedule
One of the unique experiences of a baseball game is the degree to which PA announcements are used. As well as updating the play and score, PA announcements and video boards are able to be used by sponsors to promote their product to fans in attendance. Each sponsor has a policy regarding PA announcements written into their agreement with Perth Heat. A lot of the food trucks at the game for example, expect at least 1 social media mention during the game(https://twitter.com/PerthHeat/status/522724507622973440).
A few of the sponsors also sponsor game events such as Home Run's and Foul Ball's so it has to be ensured that these are conveyed over the PA announcment

3. Confirm first pitch, and 7th inning stretch entertainment
This was not included in pre-season matches, but is still an important part of the game night event operations. The right to throw out the first pitch is usually given to corporate sponsors to raffle off, whilst little league junior players are given an opportunity to run out onto the field during the middle of the 7th inning (much like what is done at AFL and Cricket matches). It is important there is a clear understanding of who is doing what, and having a strict schedule of when it will occur.

4. Finalizing Media Attendance
There is a press section allocated at the Barbagallo Ballpark. All games are streamed online, and broadcast through Sport FM radio station, so it is important to ensure that all equipment and facilities are set up and ready prior to the gates opening. Any journalists attending the game should have access to Wifi, and broadcast staff with the necessary equipment.

5. Finalise other arrangements with ground staff and team operations
The final step involved is to check that ground staff have completed their tasks, and the ballpark is in perfect condition to host game night. This step is really a means of checking off that all elements of the organization are ready for game night, not just communications


Then finally the lights are on, and the game begins. Luckily most of the hard work is done, so most staff can sit back and enjoy the game. However from a communications point of view, there are still a few things involved in game night opperations.


1. Ensuring all stakeholders are satisfied
This is really a job for all members of the Perth Heat organisation. Generally speaking the commercial manager will spend the game night in the Diamond Lounge with the corporate partners with the General Manager. Other non-event staff will hang out at the members bar, talking to Perth Heat members to ensure everyone is enjoying themselves. Communication staff are encouraged to do this also, but with more of a focus towards the press section of the stadium, ensuring that the media have everything they need to cover the game.

2. Live Social Media updating
One of the main aspects of game day for communications staff is to live tweet matches. The rule of thumb is usually to update the score at the end of each inning, or when a run is scored by either team. https://twitter.com/PerthHeat/status/523106417289338881
An effort should also be made to see if anyone else is using social media at the ground, and to retweet and engage with them using the official account.

(Guess the question correctly, and win a photo with a man in a dog suit!!!!)

3. Run Game-Day competitions and initatives
Usually there will be a few competitions run for fans attending the game. Prize packs are often given to fans who catch foul balls. One new competition that was trialled during the pre season game was a "find the mascot" competition. It was posted on twitter that the first fan to get a photo with the Perth Heat mascot (who was hidden somewhere in the ballpark) would win a prize. A lot of the time sponsors (such as monster ball or Hog's breath) will bring their own mascot to games to run similar competitions, and these are all outlined in the individual sponsor agreements.



So that is just a bit of insight into what goes into game nights at the Perth Heat. I found there was a lot of stuff that I had learnt in units such as PR Techniques and PR Media that I was able to apply to this situation. I hope that some of you found this post interesting, and may even check out a Perth Heat game sometime this summer.


Till next time
Simon

Oh, and for your information the Perth Heat won the game 9-2

Media: Best Friend and Enemy

We all know how important the media is for PR. We were all told we needed to build good relationships with journalists. We even had a unit, Media Relations 250, on how to maintain good relationship with the media. However, we also know it is impossible to control the message; journalists publish or broadcast anything they want to.

Recently, I came across a news article in a Mauritian newspaper about a crisis of an organisation which is a client of the PR consultancy I am doing my internship with. Several employees of the company were refusing to abide by some regulations and were threatening to strike. The journalist who reported the crisis took into consideration only the point of view of the employees. It was written in the article that some employees were threatened to be sacked for some invalid reasons and the reporter did not mention the reasons he or she considered as 'invalid'. How far is that ethical? What was the aim behind it? I don’t know. I only know that the content of the article portrayed a bad image of the company.

I used that case study in a presentation last week and asked the other students how they perceived the company. They all gave positive comments. I then showed them the news article with emphasis on specific paragraphs and asked them again how they perceived the company. I received only negative comments. Some even told me that the company was unethical.

A single news article changed completely the students’ perception of the company. Even if the whole truth was not reported in the article, the readers believed what they read in the papers. This is normal because the media should normally be trustworthy and reliable. No matter what good actions the company did before and the good services it provides everyday, a single news article succeeded in affecting negatively its image.

Coming back to what really happened. The journalist did not mention anywhere in the article why these regulations were implemented. Of course, there were relevant reasons to that. The most important one: for the safety of the employees! And there were no threats of sacking, few employees were suspended for some days because they refused to abide by the rules.

How did the PR agency react to that? A media release was issued with all the reasons and benefits behind those new regulations. The release was sent to several media outlets and it was even published later in the evening on the company’s facebook account. The next day, several newspapers published articles on the reasons and benefits.

The media affected negatively the image of the company, the media itself helped in bringing back the good reputation of the company. 

Throwing the bait!!

As a PR student, I did about five PR Plans. For each plan, we had a scenario where an organisation is asking us to come up with a PR plan/ Media strategies or pitch. I took for granted that in real life this is what would happen, companies would come to the PR consultancy and ask for help. I never actually asked myself what would happen if there was no demand from companies. 
In the course of my internship, I am understanding how the consultancy is implementing different strategies to get new clients ; how they are throwing the bait!!

Everything started when the 12 Monkeys’ team got the idea to create a charity sport event to raise fund for two NGOs; Link to Life and Breast Cancer Care. They came up with ‘Les Foulee de l’espoir’ which means ‘the strides of hope’ in French.  Once they found the idea, 12 Monkeys needed the funds and decided to call different companies. They finally had three positive responses from SICOM, Medine and Chantecler.

Before the event:

As SICOM was the main sponsor, it became kind of the client. Every single piece of work done had to be approved by them; we did a radio advert, banners, posters, leaflets and a Facebook page.

I never thought about how people did the ribbons you sometimes have in event, or the personalised bottles of water. We spent Thursday and Friday making 800 ribbons and putting stickers on 1008 bottles!

As to ensure the media coverage, I had to write a Media Kit about the event, the sponsors, the NGOs and the event planner for a press conference. I however had some issues as it was not in the same format I learned. Four days before the event I had to write an invitation to the press and then call every journalist to ensure that they received it.

The phone was constantly ringing as everyone wanted to be a part of the event. We started to be scared as we were expecting about 200 people and it seemed that more were coming, we thus decided to order more bottles of water as well as more bibs.

During the event:

The event was on Sunday 24^th, and it was a great success! We actually had 600 participants, it was kind of crazy! But an intense experience! There were so many people that we had to buy more bottles of water on the spot.

Once the race started, I had some time to think and observe. I was really impressed to see all the branding around me. It was quite incredible to see all the money the sponsors put into branding the event. I then realised that 12 Monkeys had no branding! And I asked my supervisor about it, she told me that ‘yes we created the event, but at the end of the day what we want is to have a client.’ At first I did not understand, but at the end of the event, while doing his speech, the main sponsor seemed very glad of 12 Monkeys. Then I understood that my company just threw the bait!

Indeed, I always thought that we as PR would be asked to ‘create awareness, help for the CSR...etc...’ But I never thought of creating an idea to propose to a client who did not ask for it! I think this is genius! However this also means that we have to be aware of what every company is doing and to always think about a new idea to propose.

After the event:

After the event, comes the most annoying part, the clean-up. Once the price giving ended, we started to pack-up. Part of the team went around the track to ensure that no bottle of water or any kind of waste was left there. Actually leaving bottles in the fields could have been a disaster as the bottles were branded!

On Monday, I had to put all pictures together and select 4 of them to send to the press along with a media release about the event. Indeed, as PR we all know that the more time we take to send the news, the less medias will agree to talk about it!

So basically, it has been quite hectic but I must say that I really enjoyed it! I was really impressed by the power of branding. I was also surprised to understand the strategy used behind the event.

To conclude, I really love my job! I am impressed of how much I can learn in a 15 days internship compared to a 3 years of study. Now I understand why my lecturer was always saying ‘you have to do internship during your holidays, this will help you!!’ I now totally agree and will definitely repeat it to everyone else.

Isabelle

The power of banners

Yesterday, August 9, Ciel group and its partners organised the 7^th edition of the Ferney Trail at ‘La Vallée de Ferney’. The Ferney Trail is an annual mountain race open to everyone as from 6 years old to 80 years old. Maluti PR and Communications was part of the organisation team. Maluti took care of all the press relations (local and international). Media releases were sent to the press and on the day of the event, results were given to radio stations instantaneously. Maluti also updated the Facebook page of the Ferney Trail with relevant posts. On the day of the event, Maluti ensured everyone had what they needed and helped with the organisation.

Unfortunately, I joined Maluti only a week before the event and I could not help much with the preparation. I did not do much during the trail too; I only took some pictures for the facebook page but I did learn much. Sitting in front of your computer and writing an assignment on creating, organising and managing an event is very much different from participating as the organisation team to a real event. I was amazed when I reached La Vallée de Ferney and saw so many participants and sponsors all around. At that moment, I thought of how much hard work there was behind the scenes. I reached there at around 7am and I spent the whole day observing. The first thing that caught my attention was the presence of so many banners.

At that moment, I put myself in the skin of the organisations and asked myself if it was really worth it to display so many banners! Then all over the day, I kept on seeing the reasons why banners are displayed for events. The first thing that comes into the mind of the common people when seeing a banner of a particular organisation at an event is that it is kind from that particular company to help organising the event and consequently help raise funds for NGOs. The objectives of that particular organisation was not only to help but also create a good image of itself. By only displaying some banners with the organisation’s name on it, the organisation showed everyone who was at the Ferney Trail that it helped in some way to organise the event and is consequently perceived as a good organisation ready to help others.

Another thing that was not noticed but confirmed is that however cautious you can be, no event can be without flaws. We were often told in class that when organising an event we should be as much careful as we could but we should also keep in mind that nothing could be perfect and we should consequently always expect some issues and be prepared to solve them. 

Things Can Happen, Preparation Are Required

It is true that press conference is still the flavor tool for the company to announce their latest movement, especially crisis communication. Two-way communication is one of the benefit which offers during the session; both parties are allowed to give their opinion or ask question during the press conference.

It is always encourage the organizer to inform the relevant department as soon as possible before holding a press conference. To achieve maximum impact, media conferences required well planed and publicized; which all of these actions need time to process.  

From the experience I learned from Eastern & Oriental Hotel, one of the organizer inform the Public Relations Manager in the very last minute (three days before the press conference) will create trouble to the hotel and also the organization themselves as they won’t gain as much as possible of media to come over to support on the event and publicity. As most of the press had already arranged their schedule and it will be difficult for them to switch their time. This is the moment to prove whether the public relations practitioners had done well in maintaining and building relationship towards media. When you manage to build a long term relationship with them, they will show support on you.

The following is the things that need to done before media conference:

·         Check on the availability of the venue. It will depend on the needs of the organizer. For example, will it require a projector or audio visual system to assist the press conference?

·         Invite the press. Send a media conference advisory at least a week before the event. Follow up with them two days before the press conference. One day before the event, call to the press and remind them regards the event.

·         Prepare background materials. A press release accompanied with the detailed background paper will help the journalist and press have a greater understand on the event.

Furthermore, try not to put two event under one press conference as it will confuse the press in their angle to write about the activities and also if separate two event in two different press conference will help the organizer increasing opportunities on publicity. Organizer should know about the goals of holding the press conference, thus it is organizer’s responsibilities to plan the press conference. Always remember to include something newsworthy to reveal, announce or discuss about.  

The most important thing is always be on time. The organizer cannot late then the press, as they might have another appointment need to attend and start on time can avoid this kind of situation. During the press conference, it is reasonable to give the press have a brief idea or background on the event and organizer but it is suggest to keep it short and straight to the point (it should not more than 15 minutes) and reading from the press release which already assigned to the press will not help them to get a greater angle on writing the news.

The day after the press conference, organizer can start to monitor on the media who had attend the press conference. By monitoring on the media outlets it will help you observe the impact of the event. Such as how many press published about the media conference? What is their angle to bring out the story? Did I achieve my objectives for holding a press conference? From the evaluation it will help the organizer to have a better idea on how to improve in the next press conference.

A well planned press conference will create a greater awareness on the target audience, increase the impact of the events and eventually achieve the organizational goals.

Soah Hui Sing

15414748

Miri Campus