It Has Come To An End!

Hi everyone!

This is my last blog post and I would like to share with everyone what I have learnt. I have gained great experience interning at STORM Creative Events Agency as well as obtained a deep intuitive understanding of the PR industry.

Below are some of the points I have learnt and get to know after working in a boutique PR agency.

• It is challenging for a PR personal to serve as the middleman, dealing with both the client and the media.

• Understand your clients’ needs to meet their expectations.

• Do not over promise your client, if not, they will lose the trust in you when you cannot deliver.

• It is important to initiate a good relationship with the media, more important, to a certain extent, than initiating a good relationship with the client.

• Maintain a respectable working relationship with the team.

• One has to be able to multitask when there is a limited manpower at a boutique PR agency.

• One has to know how to cope with stress, as well as have good time management skills, while in charge of a few accounts.

• Complete the task before deadlines or on the dot, which helps to prevent tasks from piling up.

• Do not be afraid to ask when you are uncertain with the details.

• Make sure the addressing of the attentive is correct before the email is sent out to both the client and the media.

• Be brave to admit any wrongs, if you make a mistake. 

Throughout my three months internship, from the starting point where I had to adapt to the real working life, and until now have managed to get myself on track, I am so thankful to have my supervisor and colleagues to guide me along. I have learned a lot on how a boutique PR agency operates, the importance of maintaining a good media relationship as well as the importance of helping the client’s needs to garner public awareness. 

Regards,

Chia Shin Ru

1513 5858

Curtin Singapore

Media Interview at Channel News Asia

Hello everyone!

As for my third post, I would like to share with you all how a media interview is conducted in the real world.

In school, I have myself familiar with the term ‘media interview’ and was glad to obtain this rare opportunity to experience myself on how a media interview is being conducted during my lecture in PR Media.

The topic we discussed is in regards to the Asia Pulp and Paper (APP)’s environmental issues and illegal logging. Based on the article provided by the lecturer, we have to do an intensive research to obtain a clearer picture of how the company is operating and its role in the paper industry. Therefore, we would need to come out with a set of 12 Question and Answer (Q&A) document in before hand. During the media interview, my performance was not good because of my anxiousness. Nevertheless, this is still a very good experience I have ever had.

Due to the experience I had in school, I managed to get on the track when I was assigned by my supervisor to handle the client’s media interview at Channel News Asia with the assistance of my colleague.

The procedure in preparing a media interview is exactly the same from what I have learnt in school and how the media interview was conducted at Channel News Asia.

What makes a difference in conducting a media interview is that, as a PR practitioner, we would need to help coordinating the client and the media. We would need to get the interview questions from CNA to the client at least one day before the actual interview, so that the client can prep his/her answers beforehand, and will not make any mistakes during the actual interview. This preparation beforehand also helps the client to feel more confident about his/her answers during the interview.

An occurrence that set the interview back was when our clients arrived on set, and the interviewee (Dr Marshall) informed us that we had gotten his age wrong; it was stated that he was 72 years old, when actually he was only 71 years old. As we had obtained the information from our client, Dana, we did not conduct a fact check, assuming that she had gotten all the information correct. Although this mistake was quickly rectified by the CNA team, I learned that it is very important that all information, even the small details that seem less significant, must be fact checked before sent to the media team.

I felt so lucky to have this opportunity to visit to MediaCorp and to watch the media interview live!

MediaCorp, Caldecott Broadcast Centre

Channel News Asia TV Shows - amLIVE!

During the interview (From left to right: Dr Marshall, Yvonne and Patrick)

In this video, Clinical Nutritionist, Dr Marshall speaks about the Quantum Nutrition Effect, which is a theory derived from his own personal research. You guys might find this video useful as Dr Marshall shared with us his way to live healthily!

http://www1.channelnewsasia.com/amlive/2012/09/06/interviews-quantum-nutrition/

Till the next,

Chia Shin Ru

1513 5858

Curtin Singapore

The PR World Welcomes The Digital Era

Hello everyone!

This is my second post about my internship placement, and I am going to blog on how the PR world welcomes the digital era.

During my internship placement, I attended Hangouts On Air Training held by Google. Google held this training opened to public, and hence, I was provided with the rare opportunity to attend with my colleagues. I was so exciting when I was informed to get myself taking part in this hangout!

Event Pass

As the training took place in Sydney, and we have this opportunity to join this session via hangout from the Google Singapore Office. The aim to hold this training is to provide the attendees an idea on how best to utilise the Google+ Hangout platform.

Google Singapore Office

This is a great opportunity to learn more about Google+ and hear some great case studies on what it has been working from around the world. Google+ hangout platform plays an important role in today’s world. With the accessibility of Internet, everyone could easily get connected. Likewise, this is a good platform to obtain interaction among the public in creating a two-way communication – a remarkable channel in engaging a small group of target audience and meanwhile has the ability to reach out to the mass. 

The video above shows Kraft is tapping the social media platform to garner awareness for its newly launch mint flavour dairy milk bubbly bar. They utilised Google+ Hangout platform to link up nine fans to sample the new mint flavoured product live. Indeed, they managed to obtain a strong engagement between their consumers and the brand itself.

In today’s world, it is undoubtedly that social media platforms play an important role in assisting the traditional media to garner awareness among the public.

Till the next,

Chia Shin Ru

1513 5858

Curtin Singapore

Step Into The Real World

Hi everyone,

I am Shin Ru and currently in the midst of completing my undergraduate degree at Curtin Singapore. Having all the academic PR modules completed by June, and it is time to put my knowledge in the real world.

I have already completed my one-month internship with STORM Creative Events Agency. STORM is a boutique Events and PR Agency, that is both creative and innovative in its approach, taking a client’s vision and turning it into a remarkable reality. Specialising in F&B, beauty, lifestyle and fashion industries, STORM believes to bring a stronger presence for the brand amidst the general public.

My role in the agency is media monitoring / media clippings, social media updates at Facebook, media list updates, send out pitching stories to potential media, come out with PR proposal, and other ad-hoc tasks.

Having the fear in not getting a placement, I know I have to start my internship search as early as possible. In before hand, I have sought advice from seniors, and they told me that it would be better to gain hands-on experience from boutique agency. Also, I get to know that boutique agency handles fewer accounts in which the workload is manageable. This provides us, an intern a platform to utilise our PR skills learnt from school.

Ever since I was certain to work in an agency, I came out with a list of local boutique firms, followed by sending out resumes to them. In early June, I am glad to have my four-months internship secured with STORM Creative Events Agency starting 1 July 2012.

For the past month, I have myself adapted to the working life and able to get myself on the track to complete the tasks. My role in the company is to work on media monitoring/media clippings, social media updates on Facebook, media lists updates, pitching to media, PR proposals to potential client and other ad-hoc tasks. With the joyful atmosphere alongside the friendly colleagues, it provides me a good working environment – to learn and to gain lots of working experiences.

Till the next,

Chia Shin Ru

15135858

Curtin Singapore