The first Daunting Deadline!

The first week is down and it’s been the most challenging, exhausting, rewarding and fun week. It has also been a learning curve, one that I'm happy to ride along.

On my first day I was extremely nervous to start. Living an hour from my internship, it was daunting working out pubic transport times and stops to make sure I was early. Arriving at the building and catching the elevator to the second level my heart started to race. However as the doors dinged open my nerves disappeared when I seen the receptionist.

The receptionist turned out to be my friend from university who was recently hired and will be making her way up in the organisation to a consultant. Having that familiar face made all the nerves, racing heart and worries disappear.

Throughout the week I was introduced to so many great workers who range in roles from senior account executives, account managers, senior accountants, junior accounts and PR assistants. The atmosphere in the building is great everyone is happy and willing to have a chat, as well as dedicated hard workers.

Having a helpful, friendly team has been a bonus with correcting my writing. I was given the task to change a release for the ASX into a more easy to read article for a newspaper with a deadline of 2 hours. Being my second day I was definitely feeling the nerves. This article wasn’t going to a tutor to mark it was going to a real life paper to be published and that was daunting. However every one was extremely helpful with improvements and encouraging with what I had produced.

Although the article was still edited and cut down by my colleague, he said it was a great first go. Following this my colleague sent me an article a day to do for three days and with each one improving, by the last one i wrote there barely any editing or changes were made. Practice makes perfect!

I am looking forward to the next week and improving my skills. I can’t wait to see what is in store for next week after this very busy and super fun week. 

Chelsea :)

Oh Hello First Week Jitters

5^th of January 2016, I was officially was ringing in the New Year with an internship at Oh Hello Beaufort Magazine. Thankfully, I organised this internship before exams in 2015 and put my best foot forward in welcoming new experiences before I leave the last of my tertiary education, even if this was a requirement for university.

You’d have to agree with me that the first of any thing is always quite daunting. You don’t know what to expect, what your jobs will be like and what you will have to do. My position for this duration of the internship is mainly based around social media content and social media management for the Magazine.

Being the first week, I had to really get to know the brand and the brand identity. Establishing the voice and persona was also vital. I realised to be one with the brand, you really have to look at your audience, what you are trying to promote and what makes you different to everyone else. There is so much more to just typing words to caption a photo, or replying to comments. Like my mum always used to say, it’s not what you say; it’s how you say it. 

This definitely puts all that theory in the seminars to practice. I mean, how many times do we talk about a company’s social media presence and their ability to write content and reply accordingly. You wouldn’t expect a legal firm to reply on their social media in the same way a local café would. I was getting the hang of this when I started drafting out captions for posts to strategically align with the identity of Oh Hello Beaufort Magazine.

In my first week, I was also introduced or made aware of key stakeholders that were important to the Magazine. Except the term ‘stakeholders’ was not exactly mentioned directly, but enlightened by the amount of attention and support they should receive online. Isn’t it funny when you’re writing reports, ‘stakeholders’ draw one of the first headings and are listed with great thought. When you are entering someone else’s work place, you see the parallels of the theory without the getting the direct explanation. Like the technical term for oxygen in science is O2 and the laymen’s term is air. You’re just supposed to know it.

Then it clicks of course. That’s what experience is for! You take the theory and apply it. I think I was just fascinated to see how much I understood and could link in my head the theory and reality without needing an explanation. It reinforced how much I actually had gained from those reports and theories learnt in classes.

Going into my first week, I was excited to see what we had been taught was really happening in the work place. Other than that, I was also nervous to do well and not mess anything up!!

Anyone else had the same first week jitters?

Competing in Perth's Sporting Market

Hi all

Over half way through my internship with the Perth Heat, and really enjoying the wide array of opportunities it has presented me with. Things are starting to heat up (pun intended) in the office as well, with the official season launch a mere 4 weeks away.

My primary task during my internship has been to draft, and implement a full scale communication policy for the Perth Heat, as they did not have a current policy. For this blog post I want to talk about what I consider to be the main obstacles and opportunities for developing sporting brands in Western Australia. To do this, I have categorised the Perth Heats main competition into 3 categories (team based sports only).

1. Dominant Perth Sporting Brands
- West Coast Eagles (AFL)
- Fremantle Dockers (AFL)
- Perth Scorchers/Western Warriors (Cricket)

2. Emerging Perth Sporting Brands
- Perth Wildcats (Basketball)
- Perth Glory (Soccer)
- Western Force (Rugby Union)
- West Coast Fever (Netball)

3. Niche Perth Sporting Brands
- Perth Heat (Baseball)
- Perth Thunder (Ice Hockey)
- WA Reds (Rugby League)

Obviously the long term goal would be to become a dominant brand, but realistically that would take at least 10-20 years of solid following. The goal therefore is to become an emerging sporting brand, and build on that. Possible obstacles towards this goal include.

Obstacles

1. Lack of Funding - Perth Heat have a limited budget, and do not allocate a lot of this towards media and communication. This means that traditional advertising (print, radio, tv) is not really an option. With the rise of social media this is not as much of an obstacle as it was 10 years ago, but it still places a limitation on the degree of brand success you can achieve

2. Concentration of Media Availability - If you ever watch the nightly mainstream media news, you will notice a pattern in its reporting of sports based stories. AFL gets first billing, followed by Cricket and then summaries of all the Golf, Tennis, Motorsport and Soccer news are jammed into the remaining 2 minutes of the segment. The last piece of Baseball news that was reported on mainstream news, was the Perth Heats 2013 Premiership Win..........which was in March.


It is not all doom and gloom however, especially given Perth's recent history of adopting and re-invigorating a number of key sports (I recommend people look at the history of the Perth Glory and Perth Wildcats during the mid 2000's). A number of opportunities do exist for the Perth Heat to develop a strong local brand.

Oppurtunities
1. Get Involved in the Perth Community - Any brand wanting to gain acceptance in the Perth market, should be actively involved in Perths Event community. This week the Perth Heat have been set up at the Perth Royal Show, and have seen a steady increase in ticket sales and membership as a result

(This Photo was taken during one of the quieter parts of the day...)

 

2. Utilise Online Communication - This has been at the forefront of Perth Heat's communication efforts, in order to boost the awareness of the brand. In 2012, one of our rival teams the Melbourne Aces created a viral video (through the help of an advertising agency) that sparked a huge increase in Baseball in Melbourne, and resulted in International News Coverage.

(I will let you guys decide whether or not you think this video is real or not)

 

Without giving too much away, there are similar plans in motion to create a video for the Perth Heat in order to create viral interest in Baseball in Perth.

The Perth Heat have their first preseason game in around 4 weeks at the Barbagallo Ballpark. It is a great time to be in the office, given the players will regularly come into the office to talk with everyone, and there is a general sense of excitement. Having never attended a Baseball game in my life, there is also a personal sense of excitement about the launch of the 2014/2015 season.

Till next time

Simon Kerrigan

Take me out to the...........ball game?

I figure I should probably start my first blog off by introducing myself. My name is Simon Kerrigan, I study Marketing and Public Relations at Curtin University, and like most here I am in my final semester of what has felt like much more than your standard 3 year degree. I think every PR student has their own field or industry in which they are passionate about, and for me that industry is sport. It is therefore no great surprise that I jumped at the opportunity offered to intern for Perth Heat Baseball Club.


Yes that's right Perth has a Baseball club, and a very successful one at that. There is a noticeable lack of awareness about Baseball in Australia, which explains why the Perth Heat were hiring communication interns, ideally to correct this fault. A lot of younger people (myself included) may not be aware that there was a period in time where Baseball was very popular in Australia, and during the 1990's, the Perth Heat would regularly sell out its 5,000 seat venue at the no longer existent Parry Fields. Perth Heat are currently in their 25th Year of operation, and a lot of the PR efforts are related to emphasizing this history.

Nowadays the Perth Heat compete in the Australian Baseball League (ABL) which runs during the Australian summer from November-February. The games are played out at Thornlies Barbagallo Ballpark, where the Perth Heat have won 3 of the past 4 championships. On top of this, the Perth Heat play host to a number of internationally renowned players who use the league as pre-season training for the American Major League Baseball Season (MLB) which starts up at the conclusion of the Australian Season in March.

(Not a bad place to eat your lunch on a nice day)

I strongly believe there is great potential for a re-ignited interest in Baseball in Perth, and Australia. The largest reason I have for this belief is the Perth population, and how this sports crazy city is willing to adopt any team or cause it believes represents Perth well. The recent resurgence of Basketball and the Perth Wildcats I believe provides a solid framework for new sporting brands to develop.

The business side of the club is run on-site at Barbagallo Ballpark, in an often crowded back-office behind the pitch. At times the Office can feel like a revolving door, with staff constantly going to and from meetings with various sponsors, players and coaches. The Perth Heat are also in control of "Baseball WA" which organises and manages the wide array of local competitions and little league Baseball in Perth. A majority of the staff working at the club are from American Colleges, so it has been interesting working with them, and figuring more out about their culture.

The first task that I was given in my role was to draft a Communications Plan for the Perth Heat, seeing as they did not currently have one. I will go into more specifics about the role of communication and PR at the Perth Heat in later posts. This post was more or less an introduction into who the Perth Heat are as an organisation, and what it is like working in the office initially. (Please note there is a slight delay between when this post was written, and when I have posted it).

Feel free to leave a comment asking me about my experience thus far, and I will endeavor to get back as soon as possible.

Till next time
Simon

“Make us famous: P.S. there’s no budget”

How to become a nationally recognised organisation: with absolutely no budget

The first question I asked my supervisor was where they want to be in five years time?

Answer: We want to be recognised by the industry, government, members and community as the leader in this industry in Western Australia and we want our training business to be recognised nationally as the leader in hospitality training. 

My second question asked what our marketing and public relations budget is, in order for us to reach these goals. 

Answer: There is no budget. 

.........................................................................................

I began my internship with Clubs WA in September 2013, after I was mid-application for a vacation program with a Western AUstralian mining company. During filling out my application I realised that I had no real-world experience working in the public relations industry and apart from the marks that I had earned from writing essays and participating in speeches, the recruiters would have no idea whether I would actually be any good at the role I was applying for. 

The next day I scrolled through the internet looking for internships and found a small advertisement on Gumtree looking for 'Marketing and Event interns' at a small not-for-profit based in Cockburn Central. 

Here begins my entry-level position within the public relations and marketing sector. 

Clubs WA is one of the largest membership based not-for-profit organisations in Western Australia and is the governing body of licensed sporting and community clubs in WA. It represent the interests of licensed clubs to relevant WA ministers and governing bodies and its goal is to be the 'voice of the club community'. 

Each state has a sister organisation in each state and its parent body is Clubs Australia. Western Australian clubs have extremely restrictive legislation placed on them compared to other states and the purpose of Clubs WA is to give member clubs advice and information on how to work with these restrictions to ensure their clubs remain successful and viable. 

www.clubswa.com.au

From September 2013 - June 2014 I worked at Clubs WA writing copy for the monthly magazine and website, sent out media release about events, and helped the Marketing and Events Coordinator with two big upcoming events, the Annual Awards of Excellence and the Annual General Meeting and Trade Expo. 

Both events were hectic to work on and all I had to do was the simple tasks that my supervisor asked me to do, including putting together PowerPoint presentations, hundreds of invitations and the promotion of the event through our various communication tools. 

At the end of May 2014, my supervisor left for a six-month African adventure and asked me to step in for her for whilst she is gone. I am now the Marketing and Events Officer and love every single minute of it. While my title is marketing, the role is much more PR-orientated. 

So I have given myself a six month timeframe to do all I can to achieve the goal my supervisor gave me, on my very first day - to make Clubs WA famous (in a great way). 

However, like most not-for-profits we don't have a lot of money to play around with. 90 per cent of my budget goes towards our events and what is left over goes towards marketing and PR efforts. Everyday is a challenge and it's great. 

The majority of our funding comes from the hospitality training courses that we provide through our training portal, Hospitality Alliance Training (HAT). HAT is a nationally recognised leader in training courses throughout Australia and has successfully trained more than 50,000 individuals. 

The rest of our funding comes from membership fees, sponsors and some government grants. 

www.hospitalityalliancetraining.edu.au

So I am two-and-a-bit months into my new role and while it's insanely challenging, especially whilst still enrolled in a full course-load, I love every minute of it. 

I look forward to sharing more of my adventure with you over the next few weeks, and good luck to each of you in your own internships! 

Holly Hazel