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.

Is Media Monitoring really that Challenging?

Hi all,

I am almost coming to an end of my internship and I am feeling sad already. Along with drafting media releases for the first few times, another challenging issue that I encountered was media monitoring and I have also come to realise that Media Monitoring is not always fun. If you remember well, on my first post I said I liked doing media monitoring but now after this long I see how challenging of a work it is and it needs to be done with much care and attention. The thing the first few times I was only checking if there was anything about my organisation or its events and then digital press cutting for media clipping.

                     My table filled with the piles of newspapers (The Observer, Le Matinal, L`Express, Le Defi Quotidien, Star, News on Sunday, Weekend, Le Mauricien, Defi Plus, Mauritius Times, Express Dimanche, 5-Plus,Sunday Times, Capital, Samdi Plus, People, Business Magazine, Weekly Magazine)


But now as time flew and we are reaching to almost and end of the year, I have realised it is also important to know what your competitors are up to and record those as well. So now imagine every time I attend work the first thing that I have to do is read and srutinize over 15 newspapers/magazines to not only look for articles about your organisation but also for that of your competitors. This not only tracks the effectiveness of your organisation`s communication but also keeps you up to date about what your competitors are doing. So among all so far I found it really challenging as it needed attention to details while reading almost the whole newspapers so as not to miss anything. It even happened to me that I had to go trice thru the same newspaper to cross-check if i have not previously missed anything as I had to record whatever I have come across to into our 'research and analysis' folder to see the positioning of our organisation and that of our competitors. A matter of fact is that the angle of the story more often reflect the relationship between the journalist and the PR person. One of the reasons for why I found this to be challenging is because you have to read and understand the articles to be able to record it later. And many often it happened that after first few times of reading I still was not able to understand certain articles on our competitors because of the jargons used. So yeah, it was really a tough job and to start your day with piles of newspapers and after reading scrutising, start with the press-clipping; it is definitely not easy and takes a lot of your time.

However, I have realised that this is the real PR world and this reflects how our future will be. It is said a good PR does nothing but everything and Now having done all those I can proudly say it is true :D 

No matter how difficult it is, Media monitoring is very important in PR.  

Please find some sample newspaper and some articles about our clients below.  Thank you.

                                This is all the newspapers I had to go through for media monitoring

                                       Article on Bramer Bank who is one of our major clients

                                     While doing media monitoring, I stumbled upon one of our Press Releases

Thank you for reading :) I guess by now everyone is coming to and end of their internship so good luck with the report.

Karishma Rughoonundun
15636461
CTI Mauritius

First Day of my new journey...

Hi all,

Hope you all are having fun at their respective work place. Well first of all let me introduce myself. I am Karishma Rughoonundun, a full-time student at the Charles Telfair Institute (Mauritius). I am doing my internship on a part-time basis at the British American Investment (BAI).

So first of all, let me tell you how i secured my placement. You people need to know it and I hope no one ever repeat the mistakes I did. So I was waiting until I get my PR results because i was not sure if I had made it. This was mistake number 1! Because by the time I waited for my results, my classmates had already secured their internship.So I started to hunt after I got my results which turned out to be pretty good actually. Second mistakes was to send my application letter and CV only to Communication and PR agencies because I blindly thought that it  would be the best place for me since it was already within the PR  capacity and thus for me it would have been the best place. NEVER DO THAT! I have learnt to never limit yourself because as you, there are several people seeking for the internship that also from different universities. So following that I applied almost everywhere I could and I started getting positive responses from a few. The first company to have contacted me for the interview was BAI and just after the interview my boss told me I can come as from next week. Following my interview with BAI, several other companies contacted me but I had to declined the internship because there was something at BAI that really left me mesmerized and I knew for sure this is where i belonged. So from there started my new journey...

My first day went pretty much okay. I was bit stress because I had never worked for a big company like that before. But hours were enough to get me back to the track. The very first job I had to do was media monitoring. I was told every morning we need to read and monitor the news to know if there are articles about our clients and stuffs. We needed to read like around 7 newspapers or so. I felt bit nostalgic because it had been long since I last read newspapers like that. The only times i used to read almost all the newspapers were for the Current Affairs quiz tests for Journalism; so it brought back the memories of those time. Luckily for me, it happened to have 2 articles on one of our clients and I was showed how to proceed with the media clipping.

The second half of my day went into doing a media release. On my very first day, I saw how its all different from the things we do at university. The media release template and everything else is so different. To be honest, I had some trouble with that media release and I had to actually do that trice. I was really stressed out because I thought I was on the right track until I was told I was not. Following that, my supervisor carefully explained to me where I went wrong and gave me another media release to work on which happened to be slightly better than the first which I will talk about later on.

Well that`s all about my first day. I am eager to hear about your first day guys.
Let`s take it as a challenge and make it  a wonderful journey :)

Thank you and see you soon


karishma Rughoonundun
15636461

PR should be experienced, not just taught

Hi future PR practitioners,

This will be my last post and it will wrap up some of the things that weren't taught and experienced in previous PR units. I firmly believe that a PR degree is just a starting point and as Harrison (2011, 15) has said, “Graduation is not an end to study. It is the start of a lifelong process”. By now, I can tell that only a portion of what I have learnt at university will be useful in the workplace because not only I will always be learning new things as a PR practitioner but also some of these things have to be experienced. Likewise, PR is a fast-evolving profession, so every PR practitioner has to constantly adapt to the changes in this demanding profession.

Things I didn't learn and experience at university:

1. Drafting media releases and communication plans in French (Written communication is mostly done in French in Mauritius and most PR Practitioners need to have an excellent grasp of the French language)

2. Media monitoring – Writing and sending daily Media Alerts to clients on positive and negative articles about them.

3. Calculating Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) for media coverage of PR generated news stories by measuring the dimensions of these articles and multiplying to the newspapers’ advertising rates.

4. Assisting in Press Conferences – Greeting journalists, marking their presence, noting down their contact details and distributing goodies/media kits to them.

5. Contacting and following up with journalists – confirming if they have received invitations for event/media function/press conference/round table and calling them again to mark their presence.

6. Working without a proper brief – Sometimes, we are not given a written brief for a particular task while at university we always had those for every PR assignment that we had to submit.

7. Implementing a PR Plan – We've been writing a few PR plans for real life clients at university although we've never executed any of these and this is the most complex part.

Although this internship is just a foretaste of the real thing since it was relatively short and we didn't experience everything, it actually prepares us to join the workplace confidently. Moreover, I do believe that I've done quite a lot in one month and learnt many new things. If it wasn't for the PR 393 Professional Practice unit, my knowledge and understanding of PR would be limited to only general PR concepts and guidelines. So, kudos to Curtin for having introduced that unit a few years back because it certainly allowed us to put some of the teachings of the other PR units into practice.

Okay fellow PR 393 students, now that most of us have already completed our internships and we are nearing the end of this semester, it's time to move on to other things. It felt great to share my internship experience with you and to read about yours during the last few months. I would like to seize this opportunity to wish you all best of luck with the report writing and for your future endeavors.

P.S: Do you guys have any anything else to add to the list above? You’re most welcome to do so in your comments :)

Much love,

Houmaira Ramjaun

15102108

CTI, Mauritius

References: 

Harrison, Kim. 2011. Strategic Public Relations - A practical guide to success. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan

50 Shades Happier

2nd post
Recalling from my first post, basically about adapting to the new environment and doing some of the Public Relations work, I wasn't as surprised to find a punching bag and exercise ball in the office in the weeks that follow....

So, how did the arrangement of meeting the CEO came about?

Hello 2^nd post!

Being sick and tired when the assigned tasks were completed, I spoke to the Human Resource Manager to ask for more Public Relations task.

The HR manager decided that the CEO would be most appropriate person to guide me. She reached out to the CEO and in came the response, “I need to talk to you”.

I feared.

“Am I going to be made redundant?”

“Have I done anything wrong?” I wondered.

For that instance, I regretted voicing out. I had nobody to blame.

I was literally waiting upon the collection of my tombstone to the grave I’d dug.

In Public Relations, we learnt about cultural differences and organizational structure. Here in Singapore, we value strongly on the hierarchy system though this is a multi-national company.

Hence, for an intern, which is considered the lowest position in the office, to speak directly to the CEO, is a whole new level of exposure for me.

The whole meeting was rather quick. Surprisingly, all the negative thoughts did not happen.

I was safe.

I was tasked to collaborate with other departments as well as write a press release draft for Metro, Singapore’s locally owned department store.

Pro-Bono event: Lend An Eye

Collaborating with employees from Eureka Call Centre System, an award-winning contact service provider that employs persons with disabilities (PWDS) in the call Centre industry, Grey designed a smart-phone application to help people with disabilities to travel to and fro.

Being one of the volunteers, I assisted by guiding the employees with special needs from the bus-stop to their workplace.

This gave me the opportunity to see how this application was being developed and news being taken up by the global media.

Harry’s Bar

How does lunch break over at Harry’s bar sounds?

No, not there to drink, watch soccer or whatsoever.

Work!

Posed as a mystery patron, my colleagues and I gathered information to be placed into a presentation for the Client. Grey Public Relations team has to pitch for Harry’s Bar.

Other than all that, I was being tasked to do media monitoring for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

It was a busy period for me and perhaps I was too hyperactive, I dislocated my neck.  Thus, went on medical leave for a few days

By the time I was back, I have a new Public Relations manager!

I swear, this was the start of my happier moments here in the office!

First, we headed out to buy magazines to update the media contact list. It was really heavy and by the time we came back to the office, our hands were red like tomatoes as seen in the picture below! 

I called up MediaCorp and other publications just to double-check if the editors are still there.

Next, I helped out in arranging the magazines according to the different genre and also look for Sacoor Brother’s ambassadors’ contact details. 

In addition, I helped out in making the online survey to help understand the company’s staff better to plan for further PR strategies.

I also helped to inform and arrange for courier services to deliver Physiogel’s press kits to the editors.  

In conclusion, this was a week filled with a lot of fun and surprises. The manager and I engaged in several activities, including attending Muay Thai classes during our lunch break!

That’s all for my Season One episode two.

Till then,

Nicole Tay Swee Ying

15659879

Bachelor of commerce (Marketing and Public Relations), Curtin Singapore  

Unpredictably Grey

1st post
Grey Group – Famously Effective since 1917 

Fifty Shades of Grey?  

Nope, nope.  

No Christian Grey,  

No Anastasia Steele, 
Just Nicole Tay.

--- I guess interning at an advertising agency tells a lot 

Honestly, I couldn't get any more grateful when I knew I got through the interview. Everything was very much the first to me. 

1st time interning at an advertising agency 

1st time doing Public Relations work 

1st and only resume sent for the intern job  

1st time working in an industry with people from diverse culture  

1st exposure to abnormally normal doings 

There is nothing you can expect from a creative industry – not sure if it is good or bad! 

If you heard a loud commotion or the sudden blast of music, don’t worry child, things are still in good hands!  

With the constant drama, chaotic situation, and whatever you can name……….

Welcome to the advertising world!  

These are some of our clients 

My first season, episode one, starts off with familiarizing with past campaigns and sitting through internal meetings regarding the Sacoor Brothers’ Spring Summer Collection. 

Somehow, downloading of press releases and media monitoring for Sacoor Brothers and any print articles featuring Grey, seems never-ending.  

Other than that, I was trying my best to adapt to this new environment…  

Entering the office to find a rolling chair on the table with a soccer ball on it.  

Exactly what I meant by it’s really abnormally normal here! Oh, and by the way, colleagues do bring their “homes” to work too. I swear I was trying not to be surprised to find mountain bikes in office or worried about my safety when a Frisbee or a soccer ball flew across the office after 6pm.  

Contrary to the Curtin's professional public relations' corporate attire standards, I'm actually allowed to attend work in "beachwear", shorts and slippers unless I'm meeting the client. 
Generally, the people here do have their own unique fashion sense and are into trends, turning up in bright Neon colours clothing/hair and constantly dressing up the "wild" and "wow" way. 

Summing it up: Freedom, without much constraint, does encourage creativity. 

*** Emotional aspect ***

During that period of time, my Public Relations manager was pregnant and had plans to return to Australia in weeks’ time to settle down. The news came so sudden that I'd no time to respond.......

my world just toppled down.  

I was lost.    

But well, life goes on with or without disappointments. 

I was then made to temporary report to the accounts director and help one of the account servicing teams with QATAR Airways and UD Trucks (formerly known as Nissan Diesel) presentation slides.  

It was tedious but I get to perfect my creation of the presentation slides, get used to the corporate world and learn how to prepare for pitches. It also involves media monitoring for the client. 

Soon, I was made to report directly to the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) for guidance regarding PR work........

Thanks for all that patience.

That’s all for now. Shall explain about how that arrangement came about in the next post. 

Supporting the client's brand! Haha

P.S Into the "Wow-derness" I roam, I shall survive! 

Nicole Tay Swee Ying

15659879

Bachelor of commerce (Marketing and Public Relations), Curtin Singapore