Welcome to PR Internship - YOUR opportunity to put everything you have learned over the past years at university into practice and to get a thorough insight into what public relations is like "in the real world". This Blog allows you to reflect on your experiences, share insights with other students across campuses and to possibly give advice and support to fellow students. Please also see http://http://printernship-reflections2.blogspot.com.au/ for more reflections.
Showing posts with label brand visibility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brand visibility. Show all posts
After forming
part in the organisation of an event, it was time for me to accept a new
challenge called Market Research.
First of all, I guess
most of you are familiar with the term 'market research' but here is a quick recap of what
it is all about. Market research is a methodical, impartial collection and
analysis of information about a “specific target market, competition or
environment” (Market Research, By DJS Research Ltd 2013). Researches are based on secondary or primary research. Its objective is to deliver a better
understanding of the subject matter. For more information, you can visit http://www.marketresearchworld.net/content/view/14/38/
which provides valuable material on the topic.
My task was to
conduct an online market research through the use of secondary materials which
were given to me. I had to analyse the visibility of more than 150 companies on the web. Initially,
I had to check each and every company and see if they have a website. If yes, I had
to provide my personal views of the website. It was an enriching process as I felt
my opinion was valued. Then, I had to verify the level of their online
visibility, that is, if they have a high, moderate, minimum or even zero
visibility.
The aim of the
research is to analyse the findings, and for those with zero to moderate
level of visibility, IMS will approach these companies and propose them
strategies to boost their visibility and hence raise the level of awareness of
their customers. It was a long process but full of meaning all throughout. In
past projects, many of us included market research in the research section of
our assignments but I could never imagine that it would be so interesting. I
believe this is an essential task as it is from the conclusions that PR plans are developed to reach the objectives of the client.
So PR mates that is all for this week, see you next time for a new adventure.
Watching the Papers (Happenings
of the First week)
8 MAY 2012 (Tuesday)
On my first day I have
been introduced to Ian and Marcella. I am very nervous, but it is expected. Working
time hours have a 30 minute flexibility and starts at 8am or 8.30am until 5 pm until
5.30pm. Lunch is at 12 pm or 12.30pm and it is for one hour.
My first duty is to
create a log in sheet for myself using excel. Second duty is to do newspaper
clippings of any articles and media releases of Curtin university. I would have
to sift through newspapers ranging from February until now for news regarding
Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia.
Still on my first day,
I have not gotten my login username or password for the staff PC, so... I have
to improvise using my laptop for the time being until Marcella sorts that out
with human resource.
It has not been ten
minutes when the job starts and I am the only one in the room when Marcella
went out. A lady comes in asking for a laser pointer. Oh my God... I'm just new
and still not knowing where is everything placed. But still... I adhere to
command structure and refer to Nicholas. On a side note, bring my own
stationery. Scissors, rulers, pens and pencils, papers, etc.
I have a huge stack
newspapers to clip. I look for Curtin's name in each paper so I skimmed them
and fast read. Lucky I have that skill or this would be tedious. I log how many
papers I have done.
Good news, I just
submitted my Y1 form for computer log in account to HR with Ian's help on the
same morning. Hopefully I would be able to use the staff PC soon. I put in my
form to a guy named Basil at HR at 9.45am and at 10.17am, I got my new staff
ID.
On my very first day, I have learned a lot in regards to media clippings. It is
just not about Curtin, rather it is monitoring the media for information that
would give an edge in this industry. Nicholas told me much in regards to the
media clippings I am doing today. I also learn of the value of information and
pricing set for the articles and advertising set out by Curtin and the expected
achievements they aspire for. In their case, it is to gain the highest value
possible. This media clipping I am doing today tells me of the requirement for
a public relations department to monitor its surroundings. It is true to this
old saying, 'knowledge is power, guard it well'. The better informed the
department is, it could perform better on the 'playing field'. The information
I am looking out for is content on the competitors, government initiatives in
the education industry and others related and the way the corporate
communications department place a value on the adverts is they take into
account the rates of advertising for a paper and compare it with what and how
it has been published.
Nikolas told me the second day, Marcella will tell me more in depth on media
clippings. After it is done, it will the time to key in what has been gathered
into the computer.
Ok... I log out of office at 6pm on my first day. I've gone through 35
newspapers, but a majority is from The News Straits Times. I have found 5
articles in regards to curtin university. One feature article called Curtin
Insight by a Dr Lew Tek Yew, one New Straits Times interview with a curtin drop
out (he was studying business and management) on his successful online toy
store called Robotica Toys and two press clippings merely mentioning Curtin University
and one Curtin advertisement on a job opening. I have another 50 more papers to
go through.
9 MAY 2012 (Wednesday)
On my second day, I've
started my day going through yesterday's papers and the monthly stacks. I still
have a large stack to go and I have only done one paper before today's
newspapers come to my desk. Good news though, Marcella says I have access to
the corporate communications files and folders.
All the information
gathered will now be keyed in. She also taught me how to place in the values to
calculate how much each article is worth so we may know the requisition spent
on such adverts. It is enlightening to learn and update what I know. I relish
this ... Exercise.
Information gathering
is extremely tedious. It requires focus and looking through all these
newspapers has sharpen attention. By 4.15 pm, I completed my quota of the day.
I have looked through 31 newspapers but only succeeding in gathering one event
advertisement and two media releases from Curtin university.
It is time well spent
as I feel more alert and my thoughts work faster as I read through all these
endless articles. Media clippings are a good way in exercising the mind to be
more focused and disciplined. Next is to archive them in the database and
ascertain their value than store them electronically.
I still have another 30
more newspapers from The New Straits Times to see through and next day's papers
will come bowling in adding to my stack of 30 to turn it to 40. When it is time
to go home, I decided to bring back 10 newspapers with me and after going through
them, I only found two more advertisements. Until now, I have look through 76
newspapers, gathering only 10 clippings.
I also decided to go
through in putting them in the database and work on in proof reading and fine
tuning the latest media release Marcella assign to me about the John Curtin
Leadership Association (JCLA) on a family event they are hosting.
10 MAY 2012 (Thursday)
Today we had an
environmental event. It is about planting trees and taking care of the
environment. I manage to get a few video shots and some pictures. My duty is to
get visuals. I was jittery but Ian tell me to focus and it will just flow away.
I manage to get eight gigs of information both in videos and pictures. Now it
is back to do the clippings and the media release and archiving said clippings.
Not only that, I have to load in the videos and the pictures from the Borneo
Jazz 2012 Tree Planting Ceremony to the database and proof read the media
release for JCLA.
After three days going
through the newspapers, I found out public universities has been mentioned in
nearly every issue. Mostly are the University Sains Malaysia, University
Technology Malaysia are one of the few. Next would be Taylor's, Monash, Harvard
or Oxford. Bear in mind, these are not paid adverts but just casual mentions
within the paper articles. Regarding paid advertisements, they nearly feature
more than five times a week. Curtin's competitors sure are tenacious.
I found one article
after my quota of 20 for the day. It is a mention in an article regarding
Borneo Jazz 2012. Until now, I have been searching papers through February to
May.
Reflecting on the past three days, all I have been doing are media clippings.
There is so much information and it is exciting to compare different newspapers
on how they write on Curtin and the way they position the university.
Furthermore, I do enjoy reading the indirect advertising each paper does for
Curtin every time they mention it.
After today's event, I
get to wash 15 shovels used in the Borneo Jazz 2012 Tree Planting Event as well
as getting videos and assisting in taking pictures.
I have gathered: (As of
10/05/1012)
3 Media Releases, 3 Indirect Advertising, 2 Brand Advertising, 1 Feature
Article, 1 Events Advertising, 1 Job Application, and 1 Perth Media Release.
Newspapers sifted
through: 96.
11 MAY 2012 (Friday)
Starting my fourth day,
I input all the data collected. It is a fast process. My newspaper quota today
is 15. After completion I did the media release for the JCLA. It seems trivial
but the hardest of all activities this week are the media clippings. Finally
after so much flipping through the papers, I have finished all duties allocated
to me this week. I have hour left to 5 pm. I have found 12 media clippings
today. I hit gold on the last few papers. On my final day of my first week,
there are no duties allocated to me, to which I am grateful off. It gives me
time to fine make sure all tasks are done professionally and double checked.
Throughout my first week, which is just four working days, I have done the
following...
Going through newspapers from February till the latest month for media
clippings. Archiving hard copies of media clippings into files and
electronically. Proof read and update JCLA media release for the Rainbow Family
Project. Become a camera person for taking videos and pictures during the
Borneo Jazz 2012 Tree Planting Ceremony. Assist in preparing objects needed for
the Borneo Jazz Tree Planting Ceremony.
It is an educated fun
experience and I am looking forward to my second week. However, I would have to
endure more newspaper clippings. After all, there is no work on Saturday and
Sunday. So... a stack of weekend newspapers will be waiting to welcome me at my
table. Doing the math and counting Saturday, Sunday and Monday's papers, I
would assume there will be up to 30 papers so sift through. I assume that much.
I have learn how much indirect advertising and direct advertising could assist the Corporate Communications department in spreading the brand and messages.
SAFETY NOTE to anyone that reads this post. PLEASE be aware of the newspaper inks. Use rubber gloves and wash hands after flipping stacks of newspapers. Other wise, if you go to an event, you are in danger of shaking hands with a VIP using black stained fingers. Not a good thing in giving an important person ink stained fingers as a going away present.
End Blog Report of Week 1
[On a side note] Just for laughs. You might need to know what is My Little Pony to get this joke. During all this time, to get me through the newspapers, I always play this in my head... ALWAYS.... EXTREME READING.
After going through stacks...STACKS... HAHAHAHA... I have acheived extreme reading!!!
Twilight Sparkle, protage of Princess Celestia says this... "This... are... my...books ... AND I'M GOING TO READ IT... Bwahahahahaha."
Eugene Ng, Curtin Intern for Corporate Comms says this "This... are... my... newspapers... AND I'M GOING TO READ IT... Bwahahahahaha."
Times are hectic when working. I would recommend some calming music to relax your mind during those vital lunch hours. I listen to this song as I work at times. It calms the mind.
I commenced my work placement at the Magenta Group on Tuesday 31st January. So far I have completed 6 days of my internship and thought now would be the perfect time to share my experiences and what I have learnt and achieved during my incredible journey so far.
For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Magenta Group was established 10 years ago by owner and PR queen Melissa Lekias. A boutique creative agency specialising in Public Relations, Marketing and Events, working with a range of clients across Australia in the Fashion, Art and Lifestyle industries.
Nervous and not knowing at all what to expect I walked through the large glass doors all set to commence what would be the first day of an experience that would either confirm or disprove my dream of working in the PR industry. Greeted by my supervisor I met the team of creative’s who would teach, mentor, and share their knowledge and secrets with me over the duration of my time here.
The day commenced with the weekly staff meetingwhich is held at 9am every Tuesday morning. The Client service team (where I am positioned ) and the Graphics team along with the Office co-ordinator all come together to run through the agenda and action plan for the week. A large spreadsheet outlined the clients being focused on, the tasks needed to be completed and each creative’s role in relation to effectively actioning all the tasks.
Once the meeting was completed and I had gained an overview of what was happening my supervisor (Ivona) thought it would be beneficial to familiarise myself with Magenta’s current clients. Ivona gave me some PR reports to read through which contained all the media coverage they had generated for those clients over a particular period of time outlining the date, publication, readership and dollar value of the piece. It was interesting to see that my understanding of what a PR report was gained through completing assignments in my PR units held a very different definition in ‘the real world’.
I was assigned the task of updating, formatting and editing the Master Media Database, the database consists of numerous Excel spreadsheets broken down into National and state tabs. Each tab is categorised into Press, Broadcast and online media listing every media contact Magenta has across Australia. The primary purpose of the database is to easily develop targeted media lists for new campaigns. My task was to check that each contact’s information was current and correct, this meant calling or going online (Contact links on official websites or White pages) to ensure we had the correct postal address, editors names and email addresses. ID tags also needed to be added so you could just type for example “food” into the database and all food related media would be filtered. Not being proficient in Microsoft Excel made this task a valuable learning experience for the future, excel is used regularly to produce spreadsheets, media databases and to store, organise and filter data. With thousand of contacts in the Master database this task is ongoing and will be completed over the duration of my internship.
With the rise of social media changing the public relations and communications landscape most of Magenta’s clients have a strong social media presence on Facebookin particular. I took it upon myself to ‘like’ all the clients Facebook pages so I could keep up to date with content but also look over the type of posts that were being made. One of the PR girls had asked me to email her with some ideas for innovative and creative posts, so I got to work thinking of ideas that would command people’s attention as they aimlessly scrolled through their newsfeeds. Ultimately wanting to pursue a career in Fashion PR I thought this quotefrom the online editor of Women’s Wear Daily really captured just how imperative it is for brands and designers to be embracing social media to stay current.
“Social media is an invaluable tool for fashion brands and retailers, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, blogs or branded editorial content, maintaining a dialogue with fans and consumers through authentic and engaging content is paramount in achieving success within the digital realm.”
- Rachel Strugatz.
I feel that during my degree there has not been a strong focus on social media and how effective use can not only directly impact online brand visibility but reach and engage media and consumers and give the organisation or brand their own personal voice. There was discussion of social media strategies and plans for particular clients in the staff meeting.
My first day at Magenta had me wanting more, I was positive that I could contribute positively to the team over the next coming weeks and take on more responsibility when given the chance.
Good luck to all the students currently in placements!
