Malton Meeting

What i have been up to:
On the 27th of January my boss, one colleague and i went to a Malton meeting in Kuala Lumpur. Malton is a developer in Malaysia, to find out more check out their website.

http://www.malton.com.my/home.html

We drove to their office and met up with one of their representatives to discuss the plans for the year 2011. A timeline was given to each of us showing their plans, their projects, their holidays. Through this timeline it was established and discussed on which dates it would be appropriate to have events marking their completed projects and when to publish their press releases in order for us practitioners to have an outlook into the deadlines.
I was told that it is important to sit together with ones clients in order to discuss their projects, for Malton for instance they have two major projects that they are currently constructing. One project is in Sungai Buloh and the other is in Sri Kembangan. Throughout this year they will have little events marking their completion for example. It is important to understand these dates in order to prepare press releases and send them or give them out on the day of the event. Also it is imperative to discuss certain projects in order to invite or to make the media aware of what Malton or more in general what certain business's are up to.
Communication is important, if there isn't a flow of communicating with each other no success will be established. Do you agree?

Hello everybody!
Let me update you all on what i have been doing these past two months at work here. The first day i was introduced to my main tasks. I was given a list of their clients both for MAE PR and Key Message PR. MAE PR focuses more on big business's like Malton, Wembley and even Giant. As for Key Message PR they're clients are more beauty oriented from P&G. Their main products are SK-II, Olay and Anna Sui.
In the office there are four cubicles in total. Only three staff, four including me. One of the staff left and only three of us were left. There are also two separate offices for the respective bosses of the two PR agencies. In the office there is also an inventory where they keep all their products mainly only for Key Message PR.
Everyday a pile of newspapers is delivered to the office and it is my job to look through them and select articles about their clients or their products. I cut out the respective article, scan it in and write a report where the following things have to be saved and included in the news clipping report:

• Client

• Media

• Date

• Page

• Headline

Once this has been written down the scanned picture are inserted into the word document and printed out for filing. The articles that i have to look for for MAR PR's clients are articles that are related to her clients. For instance Malton is a Property Developer therefore when i find an article in the Star newspapers for example that talks about another property developer not necessarily Malton i've got to make sure that the developer is based in Kuala Lumpur then include it in the media reports. It is important to know what a client's competitor is up to.
I have to do similar things for the client's for Key Message PR, not only look through the beauty section of the newspapers but also look through all magazines every month. Such magazine's include

• Maire Claire

• Harper's Bazaar

• Cleo

• Female

• Seventeen

• Cosmopolitan (Malay)

• Citta Bella (Chinese)

There are a lot more. Newspapers include the following

• The Star

• NST

• Kosmo (Malay)

• Berita Harian (Malay)

• The Sun

• Malay Mail

• Utusan (Malay)

• Metro

My main task is Media Monitoring. It can be said that media monitoring is an easy job to do. It might be, however it requires a lot of attention and patients. It is not something you'll finish very quickly especially at the begging of a month where all the magazines are being piled up for you to look through them. It is a lot of work but i enjoy it.
Keep tuned in, i'll let you all know soon, more about my working environment. Until then take care!

Welcome to the PR World 2

Hey everyone!
Well let me tell you a little bit more about the two companies that work together here in Sri Hartamas. I am working under MAE PR however also do work for Key Message Public Relations. It is a great experience as the people here at the office are extremely friendly and helpful. There are only a handful of people in the office here, you might think that there are too little staff members however it is very possible to cope with only a handful of them. I am in charge of doing all sorts of things one is mainly media monitoring and of course helping out whenever help is needed.
Clients range from all sorts of products and services, from housing to beauty products. There is an inventory here at the office where they keep all sorts of products, mainly from P&G for those who don't know it stands for Procter and Gamble it's an American company who are in charge of certain beauty products, which range from make-up to perfumes. And of course there are other clients which offer housing, banking, shopping services. It is very interesting to work together with both PR companies, i'll be accessing two different fields.
Even though i started my internship on the 8th of December i have only gone to one event, which was for Giant in Shah Alam. We were in charge of registering the media (giving me a chance to meet journalists, even though they are very self centered) and handing out the press releases that i myself wrote. Through the PR field i was able to see the "easy" life a journalist has here in Malaysia. For the Giant event they were given a big bag full of Giant products and handed over a Press Release either in English, Malay or Chinese (whichever they preferred), which was basically giving them a finished article to publish the next following days in their newspapers if they wanted to. The event was to offer the winners of the Giant competition their prices and gifts. The competition was about which family could take the best happy, laughing, sporting, loving, etc. pictures of their whole family together. It was a great competition as the prices ranged from money to trips to Australia and even Turkey. It was also very funny to see how happy some of the winners where when collecting their prices. At the end of the event journalists took over and started to interview the winners asking them question of how they are feeling and how happy they were. It was a great day and a nice experience to watch.

Below are a few photos of the event that i attended in Giant Shah Alam:

I have come to a conclusion that working in PR is more challenging and therefore exciting. Whereas when your a journalist finished work is basically just handed to you including free gifts whichever service or product event they are attending.
I wrote this post in order for you all to understand better what i am actually doing and where and also to let you know what i think is the difference of being a journalist or a PR consultant.
Please feel free to comment on my argument above, whether it is to disagree or agree. It doesn't matter which, i'll be happy to know what your comments are. Thank you.
I'll keep y'all posted! :)

Welcome to the PR world (Ivone Bizarro, LUCT)

Hi there
Today i've finally gotten my blog invite. It's been a crazy time in the PR world. I've been working with two private PR companies in Malaysia and find it an amazing experience. Even though there are up's and down's like anywhere around the world. Working in the PR world is quite an experience. If being hardworking isn't one of your fortes then this isn't a career to follow in the future.
I've had a chance to meet clients from P&G and Giant and journalists from The Star to Berita Harian. They are both very different people, however very interesting to meet and mingle with. One of my daily jobs is media monitoring, this means reading all kinds of newspapers and magazines (mainly English and Malay), watching out for their clients in order to compile everything in the end. And of course not forgetting the Chinese magazines too. So i'm sure you can imagine all the work i have at the beginning of the month with all the monthly magazines.
This is the start of my blog, i'll post soon again. Please stay tuned.