Final Month and So Much To Do..

Dear readers,

I’m entering in my third and final month at Apave and to speak true, I have not noticed time-passing by.

Those two last months have been so overloaded with work that time seemed to speed up and to speak true it was an amazing experience.

I’m not saying it was boring and that I was overloaded, au contraire, having so much work really gets into you and as an intern, you’re so proud when something goes right that you want this feeling to continue and get involved totally in your work.

1^st experience:

My major tasks as communication intern were mainly to contact the Press and keep in touch with them. What is interesting with this is that you really get the grasp of how it is to work with journalists when you actually work with them.

There is always that need to keep contact, to recall and specially to have regular phone calls with them. Whilst doing this, I realised that:

WOW

I was already beginning my first media contact lists and I understood that those relationships would or at least should last for the entire time that I’ll be in the public relations field.

It was quite interesting as an experience, keeping in touch with them is rather time-consuming but when you get the chance to have that sweet girl at the end of the phone who is really willing to help, you do not even think of it as time-consuming but as a well done task.

2^nd Experience:

When I began my studies, I thought that working in the public relations field would be mainly focused on the media relations but I came to realise during my internship that every single petite aspect that touched a company’s image and reputation was to be taken into account. From the designing of the invitation card to the articles and adverts posted in the Press.

Every tiny detail was to be considered crucial and budgeting really was a necessary pain to be considered at some point.

It all started when time had come to focus on all the conference day material. The Graphic Designer and I had to start working on all the official documents that were to be distributed to all participants, prior to the event and during the conference’s day.

Invitations were to be finalised and official documents of the conference day had to be confirmed before the end of September.

I thought that a month of work on this would be enough, but I soon realised that time went by too fast and that procedures took long.

We had to ask for quotations regarding the prices and the products proposed, we had to concentrate on a quality-pricing focus and we had a lot of amendments to do regarding the final documents.

Dozens of quotations later, I realised that to fulfil a task and especially when it was to be done budget-wise, you needed to make compromises and to choose the best out of a global quotation. One could order invitation cards with a company and the envelopes printing with another one. This was normal usage in a corporate world and companies had to deal with that.

Well I hoped that you enjoyed all of my posts and that it really helped you to get an insight of what my life was as an intern.

 

 

recap of week 10 at Leo Burnett

week ten, very close to the end, but im soaking up whatever knowledge i can like a sponge

mainly during the week, ive been working closely with our strategy planner on the LBS Bina Group Strategy Proposal that is to be presented to them as the final this week. It was highly involving, in many aspects. Verbally sparring with my planner what to write into the power point presentation, where each line has to have a significant purpose and meaning to the overall strategy and brand purpose that we have come up with for them. It was making sure that the key message is clear, has a purpose in line with the brand attributes and strategic vision.

For example, in the slides we would explain what their brand vision is what the LBS Conviction should be, what their weaknesses is currently and how they can move up and strengthen their public image. Even the background pictures had to convey the message, to hold a consistency of professionalism as well as highlight the message said in each slide, it required a sense of art direction. so the planner and i would be around my desk, discussing on what is the best way to say the lines? what words to use? how do the words tie in with the purpose of the message? does the message stay in line with strategy and is it clear for the client? These questions are but a few that we tackled with as we finalized the slides. It required a great deal strategic thinking, will it satisfy the client's direction and also to ensure Leo Burnett's HumanKind philosophy is expressed throughout.

That was the highlight, although i also got to work on doing job requisition briefs for LBS and AIA, where it was to write what the client's request and objective of the campaigns we are doing for them. It had to short, but packed with the required information, and strategic overview of what our team should do according to client's request, and the agency's suggestions of what we think is best. Short and sweet, so that everyone from the brand director, to the creative team can understand the direction required.

that was week 10, till week 11.

Faridzul Fauzi (LUCT)

this is week 9 of my time at Leo Burnett, plenty to do and plenty to say.

I will start of with Monday. A new client was approached, this one an Australian brand; Boost Juice. They came in the morning, both the Managing Director, Dr. Soraya and Director Nick Tiernan of Boost Juice Bars Malaysia, wanted to expand and enhance their public presence in Malaysia and we were here to help them. So there i was in the conference room with our Strategy Planner, Senior Account Executive, Creative Director and Brand Director, and on the other side was Boost Juice. We started of with a powerpoint presentation to highlight what we know of Boost Juice currently and what is it they want to do for their expansion and publicity in Malaysia. The session involved a lot of discussion, where i also contributed, giving out ideas and explaining about Malaysian consumer mindset, social interactions and beverage affinities. It was a sparring session of where we presented the HumanKind philosophy, and how we can incorporate it into their campaign. This workshop lasted from 10am to 2am and it ended with solid vision direction for Boost Juice.

The whole week was similar to this workshop for Boost Juice, except with different clients, like AIA Insurance, CIMA, but the discussions were internally with the creative team. My contribution was verbal, sparring ideas with my superiors and learning the ideation and brand direction aspects.

On Thursday 7th April, i sat in with a press release interview for Yomeishu, the Japanese company. The newspaper agency in Malaysia, The Star came in with their reporter and photographer, to the Leo Burnett office, where we had the CEO of the sole distributor of Yomeishu Banfoong Sydney, Ms Lynne Chiang. At this session, i got to see how the process of getting a story of a press release was done, even as the CEO talked, the PR person on our side can step in. The type of questions as well, and how the formation of what the reporter can ask was done, like a media kit.

Thats the highlight of my week, see you for the next

Faridzul LUCT