Come Away With Me ... Next Destination? (5)

Every great journey must come to an end, but you must then welcome opportunity!

Reflecting back on my experience as an intern at Go Communications in Malaysia, I can confidently say that every experience i've had, has allowed me to grow both personally and professionally. Before commencing the internship i was a naive PR Students with confused expectations, but coming out of it, i feel that my perspective has greatly shifted and I understand the field of PR better.

I had the incredible opportunity of experiencing the following aspects of PR in a real-life environment:

• Workplace Culture
• Media Relations 
• Time Management, and 
• Ethics

Of course, there's so much more to learn, and I'm looking forward to what the future holds for me in the field of PR.

(Photo from newgrids.fr)

I can't say exactly where I'll end up in life, but I can tell you that this experience has sparked my interest in working for a PR consultancy. This is the career route I'll most likely pursue after graduating, but I'll also ensure to keep my options open.

Now, I'd like to sign off with a great quote I recently came across;

“You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are” (Joss Whedon).

Therefore, my PR Placement journey was another significant step in my personal and professional self discovery.

Thank you for reading my blogs, and the best of luck to you all.

Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.

Come Away With Me … PR And Ethics (4)

This is going to be a short blog on an ethical issue that I encountered during my PR placement at Go Communications, in Malaysia.

"Ethics" is a term imbedded into the very practice of Public Relations. Ethics are the "moral principles that govern a person's (or organization's) behaviour or the conducting of an activity"(Thank you Google for this fine definition)!

My work colleagues were very humble, respectful, and friendly people. I also rarely came across ethical misconduct issues in the work place, it was always smooth sailing. however, i can recall one occasion where i felt a little on edge, or perhaps i was just overreacting, I'll let you decide.

I was working on a project for one client (who i choose not to name). This client had strict guidelines about the types of people they wanted to sponsor/involve in their project, and they purposely chose not to include other, but similar, types of people/organizations. My role was to research potential sponsees in the assigned field, and present my recommendations to the client.

Even though I stuck to the guidelines and though my recommendations were excellent, my first attempt didn't go so well. I was kindly told to steer away from some organizations, I gathered that it was because there weren't  perceived as 'important enough' or 'beneficial enough' to the client.

In the end, I understand that the client has the ultimately choice of who they want to associate with. However, this makes me wonder about the nature of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and whether it's actually the defining criteria for businesses when they chose to "give back"!

(Photo from divvela.com)

I could've been entirely overreacting like i previously stated, however, I'd like to pose this question to my readers:

Do you believe that businesses give back simply out of goodwill, or is the decision still  strictly BUSINESS with a CSR overlay?

Thank you for your time and contribution.


Also, watch out for my final blog on my PR journey to Malaysian.

Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.

Come Away With Me ... The Art of Time Management (3)

Allow me to start with a little honesty here, "time management" is a concept that is outside my vocabulary. Perhaps I've exaggerated a little, but seriously, this is one of my weaknesses both professionally and personally.

(Photo from kaibizzen.com)

This third blog is going to discuss how I struggled with time management during the course of my Internship at Go Communications, in Malaysia, and how I eventually overcame this.

Even though the working hours were longer (9-6 pm) in Malaysia, I often struggled with getting everything done by the end of the day. My workload was a lot, as to be expected as an intern, however, the root of the problem was that I fell victim to the following two mistakes;

1) Spending too much time on one task, and forgetting to attend to other tasks.

2) Jumping from one task to another, and forgetting to complete the initial task.

I know what you are thinking! These are two completely opposite problems, and how could I possibly struggle with both at the same time! well, let me enlighten you.

Firstly, I found myself spending too much time on research projects (i.e. finding contact details of firms and schools that would be interested in Ricoh Malaysia's 3D competition). This was an ongoing project that I should've done little by little, but I put too much time and focus on it at the beginning, and this led to me neglecting my other tasks.

The second issue started to occur when I realised that I was spending too much time on certain tasks. I therefore tried to juggle all at once, but this wasn't any better! In fact, I was more stressed and confused!

The solution came in the form of a WIP (Work In Progress) Timetable! My supervisor encouraged me to set up a weekly timetable, and record everything that I needed to complete by the end of the week. I also went the extra mile and constructed a daily 'to do list' in my notepad, with a time limit on everything.

(Photo from ineedmotivation.com)

My time management skills began to improve after this, and I now feel like I can add "time management" into my vocabulary, even though it's still a working progress.

Stay tuned for my next blog for an update on my Malaysian PR experience.

Thank you for your time.

Naomi James

Curtin University, Bentley.

Come Away With Me.... Media Relations In Malaysia (2)

Greetings my fellow PR students and Interns, and welcome to my second blog. In this blog I will be discussing my experiences with Media Relations whilst interning at GO Communications in Malaysia.

Media Relations was a great part of my role as an intern, this ranged from everyday things such as media monitoring and media clippings, to more exciting things like running events for clients and having the media there. I will discuss much to do with media monitoring and clipping, as I have already outlined this in my first blog (Click Here). However, I want to focus on the relationship between PR Companies (specifically Go Communications) and the media in Malaysia.

The media landscape in Malaysia is bigger than I previously thought, they have a range of popular newspapers such as the News Straits Times, Harian Metro (Malay), and Nanyang Siang Pau (Chinese), as well as many Radio and TV stations. The Malaysian media is very involved with PR companies, and I realised this at a client's, event.

Kenny Rogers Roasters (A restaurant chain in Malaysia) annually host a 'Roasters Eating Day' (RED) event, where customers come in dressed in anything red and receive special deals on their meals. I was lucky to be part of the 2014 RED event, which was held at one of their restaurants.


Along with the special meal deals on offer, the team at Go Communications were also able to get the Malaysian junior squash team involved in the event, which created an even bigger media buzz.

Malaysian Junior Squash Team at the RED Event (The Star Newspaper)

This event was very successful, with a lot of media presence and coverage. It felt great seeing all that coverage the next day, because I was apart of organizing the event.

I found the media in Malaysia to be very approachable too. Another one of my tasks included compiling a media contact list for the newly published "Women's Health" magazine, and I found it very easy to get in contact with the editor, who was very friendly and happy to help.

(Photo from Mongoose Asia)

Liaising with the media is often daunting to many (myself included), but my experience in Malaysia has definitely helped me with this. The media isn't so intimidating anymore!

Keep up with my Malaysian PR experience on my next blog.
Thank you for your time.

Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.

Come Away With Me... On A PR Adventure to Malaysia.

Malaysia was good to me, and I had a fantastic time working as an Intern for a PR consultancy named GO Communications.

(Photo from Go Communications LinkedIn)

The staff at the office were very welcoming and quickly helped us settle into our new roles! I remember that first day, nervously walking into the office, only to be met by the kindest smiles and greetings all around the room. They even took us out for drinks after work on our first day  (Mind you, it was a public holiday the next day).

I had the honour of enjoying this amazing opportunity with two fellow Curtin PR Students, whom I was able to build great friendships with (another bonus)!

Coming into the internship, I wasn't really sure what the next 4 weeks at Go Communications would entail. I've always felt unsure of what the day-to-day tasks of a PR Professional included. Yes, the past three years at University taught me things like writing media releases, event plans and PR plans, but honestly, I was still confused on how to apply these skills in the workplace! Would I walk in everyday and get handed a media release to write? Was the structure the same as what I was taught? and how long did I have to write one?... The answers to these questions, and many more, became clearer throughout my journey at Go Communications.

In my first week, I observed the workplace culture at Go Communications and how different this was to Australia. Firstly, the working hours were 9 am to 6 pm, as opposed to 9 -5  in Australia. We also worked in groups ('Elite' was the name of my group), and each group was assigned different clients to manage (some of my group's clients included Ricoh Malaysia, Tourism Victoria and Nippon Paint). Another important distinction was that Go Communications operated around 3 different languages; English, Malay and Chinese. Media monitoring therefore revolved around coverage done in all 3 languages (this meant more work, but Challenge accepted)!

By the end of my first week at Go Communication, I'd already begun to feel like a true PR Professional, despite the fact that I hadn't written one media release yet! I learned that there was more to PR than just writing media releases everyday.

To find out more about my PR Internship adventure in Malaysia, stay tuned for my next blog.

Thank you for your time.

Naomi James
Curtin University, Bentley.

Behind the scenes at one of Malaysia’s top PR agencies – Lah!

I arrived in Malaysia with no idea of what to expect. Beyond our pre-departure information session (which informed us of general country information such as the population, weather and how to dress), our insight into the Malaysian Public Relations industry and the country itself was embarrassingly limited.

I decided to take an internship overseas for two reasons; 1) Staying in one place is a difficult task for me (AirAsia and I have formed a pretty tight friendship over the last couple of years), and 2) It’s been suggested Gen Ys will have five different career changes over their lives (Metcalf 2014)  – so who knows where each of these professions will take place? A little international exposure seemed to be an appropriate platform for getting a taste of professional settings, whilst satisfying my urge to travel.

I was lucky enough to be selected to work with GO Communications, a leading communications firm in Malaysia and South-East Asia. A gentleman named Michael de Kretser - a name renowned amongst PR circles for left-field creativity and doing the undoable, leads the company with his son Peter. About 25 people form the entire team.

My first week at GO was enlightening and full on; Hannah (another Curtin PR student) and I were split into two teams covering different clients. Straight away we were shown how to do media monitoring and clippings (something I thought we’d never do – sorry Karen Kerlin! (PR Media lecturer)) There was an immediate emphasis placed on teaching us the ropes and getting us settled in, which I was really thrilled about after having visions of being a bona fide barista by the end of my first professional placement.

It’s interesting to note at this point that GO calculates the Advertising Value Equivalent (AVEs) of generated press. When doing media clippings, the size, colour and publication are all used as inputs to calculate the amount of exposure a client received from the work. I found this to be an unusual standard for a leading firm, particularly after being taught in first year uni that AVEs are often the subject of considerable criticism. PRIA even regards it as a total ‘no no’ in the world of PR (Macnamara 2014). I discussed this distinction with a colleague; she proposed the disparity may exist, as most Malaysian clients want to see how much bang they’re getting for their buck in real, measurable figures. Australian firms, however, may be more concerned with seeing an effect created from their investment, which in turn would create a monetary return.

So far Malaysia has been a blast, and I really like the down-to-earth and chilled-out environment at GO. I’ve been told to expect events, client pitches and creative strategizing in the coming weeks, so I will report back with updates soon. I hope my blog can provide a chuckle, an insight into the Malaysian PR industry and a taste of home for all the Curtin Malaysian students abroad. 

Good luck, everyone!

Macnamara, Jim. 2014. Advertising Values to Measure PR: Why They Are Invalid. PRIA. Accessed 2 March, http://www.pria.com.au/sitebuilder/resources/knowledge/files/1868/advaluestomeasureprpaper.pdf

Metcalf, Fran. 2014. Working with, not for, the boss. Career One. Accessed 2 March, http://career-advice.careerone.com.au/career-development/professional-development/working-with-not-for-boss/article.aspx

on-the-GO! but now GOne.

The final moments of my two-month internship with GO Communications came to a rather "exciting" halt. February 5th marked my last day with the agency and it was also a day of celebration!

One of our clients, SUNWAY LAGOON held a massive Awards Celebration Night in hopes of "parading" their extensive line of awards and recognitions garnered over the years. The entire theme park was adorned with colorful helium-filled balloons and millions of bubbles generated from a bubble machine. Later in that evening, the streets of Sunway Lagoon were flooded with the flamboyant flow of a marching Brass band and other parade characters such as clowns, ghosts, cowboys, surfers and horses - each representing the five elements of the Multi-Theme Park that is Water Park, Amusement Park, Extreme Park, Wildlife Park and Scream Park.

Oh, but guess what? This so-called "parade" concept was actually the brainchild of our GO team! Ideas for ways to celebrate Sunway Lagoon's many achievements were discussed over lunch one afternoon and I happen to suggest: "A PARADE!". Other team members broaden the simple idea and thankfully, the Sunway Lagoon management briskly agreed upon the cool proposal.

As the PR representatives, my team were focused on media delegations and coverage for this fun event. Invitations were sent out a week before the Celebration Night and for a few days, my routine at the office was to pick up the phone, call various media people and ask if they have received such invite and whether they would be assigning someone to cover the event.

My boss also entrusted me to mock up a post release that highlighted the many wonders of the parade - before it even happened! This was definitely a challenge but I managed to cook up a pretty good news piece that would be inserted into the event's media kit for the perusal of the media.

On the day of the event itself AND my last day of internship, I helped set up the media registration booth at the main entrance and ushered in the media towards the ceremonial hall a.k.a. "The Cave" after the parade. I had to make several rounds of ushering as different media representatives arrived at different times. Some were VERY early while others were TWO HOURS LATE! Nonetheless, the show must go on and I went on - ever-so-gleefully :)

It was definitely exhausting but the entire event was well-worth it! I got to experience lots of smiles, colors and merriment. Also, our GO team had the chance to play dress-up and we ladies dolled ourselves in some gypsy-inspired attire! The CEO of Sunway Lagoon, Mr Aaron, even went all-out and showed up in a warrior ala Sparta suit! How cute:

It was truly a wonderful ending, and leaving the company is definitely bitter sweet: sweet that I no longer have to commute for two hours to reach the office; bitter that I have to leave behind a wonderful team of people that truly encapsulate the essence of Public Relations. I started off with no expectations but came out from this internship knowing exactly what to expect when practicing PR in the real world.

I know for sure that the whole idea of PR is to bring about long-term recognition of a brand - integrating culture, philosophy or trend to associate with the brand. For example, the whole "parade" idea for Sunway Lagoon seems fit as the company strives to be recognized as fun-filled and adventurous and hip. Then again, it is easy to identify these PR values but to understand it.. Well, it took me a two-month internship with GO Comm to fully embrace how PR truly works its magic.

With a small click and few waves; a contact is made and few relationships are fostered. I want to say a big THANK YOU to GO Communications for the wonderful opportunities! And to the rest of you who are still on your internship, I hope you make the best out of it! Adios.

Cheers,
Mei Anne.

on-the-GO! and giving out cleaning tips?

A few days ago, I tagged along as my boss of GO Comm paid a visit to one of our lesser known clients - PCS Care Services (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd. The main purpose of this short visit was to take identifiable photos to go along with a press release written for the sake of boosting PCS (Property Care Service)'s repute as the experts in property sanitary management. The press release was angled as a feature, which provides cleaning tips to the public - from bathroom hygiene to spot removal techniques. My boss took various shots of the commercial-looking cleaning equipments used by PCS.

Honestly, it is hard to come up with exciting stories for a company that prides itself for cleaning carpets and removing stains from couches. However, my team and I managed to crack our heads in hopes to develope the currently non-existing brand awareness of PCS throughout 2010 during a brainstorm session last week. This company is definitely different from our other clients that fall under more interesting categories such as food, travel and lifestyle/entertainment.

Soon, we hope to craft more quirky articles featuring PCS about cleaning tasks, put together a "Cleaning Marathon" amongst the company's extensive line of clients (which include Starhill Shopping Centre, KL Performance Art Centre and Subang Jaya Medical Center), hold a casual business interview with the company's CEO and... Well, unfortunately, our ideas ran low after that.

To date, I've attended many team brainstorm sessions for various clients and have had a fair share of my ideas put up on the board too. Nontheless, working in a PR agency has thought me that handling different clients require a brain that should constantly pump out creative juices. Topping the list of requirements though - is PASSION of course. With such combination of a mindset, even stories about sanitary could be made into a PR Masterpiece!

Cheers & Keep the Creativity Cap On,
Mei Anne.

on-the-GO! with a CSR event.

Happy New Year to all members of PR393 Reflective Blog! :D
Here's an overdue experience I'd like to share:

It was only my second week as the intern at GO Communications and already, I was exposed to the nit and grits of conducting a FULL-OUT CSR event for Kenny Roger ROASTERS!

The Wishing Tree Project is Kenny Roger's (our client) bit to help the less fortunate and my team was put in charge of helping them to manage and put together a small celebration for about 30 kids from a Care Centre whilst also drawing media attention. Prior to this day, media invites were sent out, confirmation of guests and celebrities were garnered and extra materials were prepared.

I was given the task of doing follow-up - calling each media person whom which has been sent with an invite to attend this little charitable event. As each editor or media person gave excuses on why they would NOT be able to make it, I began to worry that none might even show up! Then, one of my teammates suggested that I emphasized on the celebrities that have confirmed on their participation in this event. And so, I artfully inserted names like 'Daphne Iking', 'Atilia' (Malay jazz singer) and 'Vanessa Chong' (Amazing Race Asia contestant) into my conversations with the following media person and viola! I was fed with affirmative responses! Still, most declined politely, with reasons being "lack of reporters".

The show must still go on! I had utmost respect for my teammates as they scurried around a tiny Setapak restaurant outlet to set things up a few hours before the event - rearranging chairs, sticking labels, preparing game materials and hiding the newly-purchased presents under the table from child's view.

Sad to say, things were not as easy as we would want it to be. The CD-R containing the "Chicken Dance" song refused to play and one of the celebrities (Vanessa Chong) got the date of the event mixed up and was at Singapore at the time! Thankfully, my team leader managed to pick a random, catchy song from her vast music CD collection and so the 'Chicken Dance' was replaced with the 'Statue Dance' game. We got another lucky break when singer, Atilia brought along another local celebrity friend, Yasmin Hani!

The kids finally arrived. So did the celebrities and who would have guessed, a flock of reporters and photograhers from various media houses! I was placed at the 'Media Registration' table where I handed out media kits as well as small 'tokens of appreciation'. Its simply a small way to extend our gratefulness towards the media for taking their time to come, "despite their busy schedule and nagging datelines".

The whole event went on rather smoothly, with minor bumps here and there. Games like "Statue Dance" and "Pin the Chicken" were amongst the highlights and although things may look a little messy, most of the kids seemed to have had fun. After specific presents were distributed accordingly to each child, the modest event came to a close.

There you have it! My first ever CSR event hosting. Although I was only involved in the minor, itsy bitsy stuff, I still learned a whole lot! Would love to really immerse myself in more events but also be reminded of Murphy's Law where "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". But hey, as Dory from Finding Nemo says, "Just keep swimming"!

Cheers!
Mei Anne.

: on-the-GO! for more media contacts.

Hi everyone!

Like most of you, I have been immersed into the bona fide realm of Public Relations, where datelines are never exact and work is ever-pending. It's been a whole month since I've started my internship at a PR agency swiftly called:

GO Communications.

Each morning, I walk into this tiny office space where rapid strokes of the keyboard is heard and visible stacks of today's newspapers are seen on Rachel (our media monitor person)'s table. The smell of freshly-stirred coffee tickles my nose, reminding me its time to be fully awake and concentrate on my easy-going yet daunting work.

Amongst the three teams in GO, I have been placed under a team of three ladies and as their new intern, I was given the task of arranging, labeling and updating their own virtual media contact list. It took me about a week to sort out the contacts on the existing Excel folder. I categorized each contact under specific tabs such as 'English Dailies', 'Chinese Mags' or 'TV'. Now, I have a mission to gain more contacts, constantly update useful insights into different media houses and cater to each of my team member's information needs so that their press releases would be targeted towards the right media sections.

At first, I found my mundane task to be petty and sidelined but slowly come to realize that without proper media profile and specific contacts, PR value would be lost amongst a sea of useless publicity. A feature article about parenting should be sent out to the editor of appropriate channels like ParenThots and not mistakenly sent to the editor of a youth-focused media, like The Star's R.AGE. Therefore, I make sure each contact detail is legitimate and each media outlet is easy-to-distinguish.

Besides updating the media list, I have also called up and emailed several media dailies and magazines to have them send over their Rate Cards which usually include the circulation and advertisement rates. Most importantly though is data regarding reader demographics. This is key in targeting the right sort of channel for the right publicity alongside our clients' areas of interest.

My team has an extensive and diverse line of clients, which include:Although my main priority of work is all-things-media, I have also had the privilege of writing some press releases and meeting some clients during various events. I will soon blog about such events so watch this space people!

Cheers & Happy New Year,
♥ Mei Anne