Overall knowledge acquisition at Watermelon Communications

Hi everyone,

This will be my last post about my internship at Watermelon Communications. I will be reflecting on my experience during my internship placement. I observed and learn a lot during this internship as it gave me an opportunity to be take my first step out to the working world.  The experience I gained is too much to written in just one blog. I shall touch on the most basic PR activity.

The most basic job scope – media monitoring. In Curtin, I learnt that media monitoring is to monitor newspapers, magazines and online for coverage. Although I knew that was for evaluation purpose, I thought all these evaluation methods are written “for the sake of the report”.

However, during my internship at Watermelon Communications, I learnt that media monitoring is actually a very important aspect in public relations. Other than monitoring coverage, screenshots have to be made and compiled into a coverage report to be sent to the client. The success and failure of the each PR initiative, be it traditional PR or digital PR depends on the numbers and type of coverage.

In depth discussions will revolve around the coverage report, to decide on the next direction and requirements of upcoming campaign. The objectives and methods will be amended according to it. Clients learnt from the procedure and results of the coverage report. Other than it, the coverage also allow client to see a balance and clear picture of their positioning in the industry.

From just media monitoring, I learnt to look at different aspects of PR activities in different perspectives. Every activity plays a different role and each of it is impactful to PR initiatives. Other than that, I have also learnt how to work better in a team.

I mentioned in my first blog post that corporate culture is very important in a company. The corporate culture in Watermelon Communications also allows me to speak out comfortably whenever my opinions differ from my colleagues. The comfortable working environment allows me perform and learn. I believe that the experience I have gained in Watermelon Communication will assist me to be prepared for the PR industry when I graduate from Curtin Singapore.

All in all, besides dreading to wake up early everyday for work, i LOVE my internship placement at Watermelon Communications.

SONG XINYING

15646570

CURTIN SINGAPORE

Haagen Dazs event

Good morning everybody,

This will be my third blog post, which will cover my experience in getting involved in Haagen Dazs (my first media event!). I am pretty sure everyone knows this ice cream brand.

Some background information about Haagen Dazs:

Haagen Dazs – It was founded by Reuben Mattus in New York.  Going in line with their philosophy of using only the richest and finest ingredients in the world, Haagen Dazs had successfully expanded their ice cream empire. It is now available in 50 countries including Singapore.

HAAGEN DAZS EVENT

The Haagen Dazs contract was signed before I start my internship in Watermelon Communications. My associate director handled this project with other 2 interns in the company.

In conjunction with the mid autumn festival, Haagen Dazs organized a media event at Clark Quay outlet to promote ice moon cakes. The media event was held for 2 days – 15 & 16 August 2012. Watermelon Communication is in charge of contacting the media and bloggers for moon cake tasting on both days respectively.

Similar to the blogging initiative I mentioned earlier in my second post, I helped to search for relevant food bloggers online to attend the media event. My colleague is in charge of liaising with the bloggers and inviting the media to the media event. I recalled that my lecturer invited a speaker from a PR agency to conduct a talk on PR industry. He enacted a scenario to show a journalist communicates. We were taught the dos and don’ts while communication with a journalist. In the office, I heard my colleague calling one journalist after another, asking them to turn up for the event. Oh my, it wasn’t easy. Like the scenario the speaker enacted in class, you have to be quick and persuasive to invite media down to a media event.

On the media event day, we prepared media kits (includes press release, brochures, relevant material, disc, name card of Haagen Dazs contact person) for the media and bloggers. Watermelon Communication also hired an orchestra band and MC to hype up the atmosphere at the event. For interactive session, a Question & Answer session was conducted and winners are entitled a $20 Haagen Dazs voucher. The topic of the question revolved around the history of mid autumn festival, to educate the audience.

Some media did not turn up for the event as promised, some media turned up late. I have always thought the media were the ones “hungry” for news on their column. However, since internship at Watermelon Communications, I learnt that actually companies are the ones “begging” for coverage on the newspaper.

This incident had made me reflect on the relationship between the media and the PR industry, Public relation is an entirely different industry from advertising. Public relations is mainly about communicating with stakeholders, gaining exposure, creating awareness and enhancing corporate reputation.

In order to attain all these objectives, the relationship between the media and PR industry is mutual. The media is the central channel for PR Company to disseminate their client’s message out to target audience. Practitioners will want to place their story angle and news in these publications; they will have to rely on media to gain coverage on newspapers and magazines.

However, in my opinion, I think the relationship is complex due to the introduction of social media and Internet. More and more companies are ‘ditching’ the traditional PR method of publishing their news in publications & newspaper. They turn to social media and Internet for the greater exposure online. In turn, the media will have to be dependent on the companies for news on their respective publications. Other than establishing a healthy relationship with the clients, it is also crucial to establish a healthy and long-term relationship with the media so that it will be easier when it comes to invitation for future media events.

SONG XINYING

15646570

CURTIN SINGAPORE