I was given a desk to sit at and then was delegated my first task: to research into various community groups such as school and churches to gauge areas where we could offer support after our client was approved to demolish a retail park for houses. A lot of PR work is about maintaining a positive and beneficial perspective of the clients for everyone else. I compiled a list of these groups and also events where Remarkable could possibly do a talk or get involved to make sure that the client retains a good brand image.
Next, I sat in on the Monday morning talk, where all the members of the PR team come together to give each other updates on clients and what they're up to that week. There's a lot of great dynamics here which makes the work relaxed but efficient. During this meeting I also realised that Remarkable are quite high profile, working for clients such as Aldi and Go Ape, which actually shows you how much goes on behind the scenes. How many PR companies can you name? But for some reason, you know that Aldi are ethical and a quality but cheap supermarket...
I was then given a task to go into a special database for PR companies and create a 'media list' for a client. A media list consists of a list of magazine and newspaper editors/columnists/correspondents for a specific topic (related to the client) and their contact information so that in the future we can get in touch and try and get our client advertised or discussed in their magazine/paper. This was a fairly simple task because the software created the spreadsheet for you, I just had to select the relevant criteria/person and magazines for the client's business.
I had finished all my tasks by lunchtime, by which point Emma was out, so I asked the resident writer on the team if he had anything for me to do. He showed me a press-release from one of the clients and asked me to change it into a less corporate, more people-friendly piece of 200 words. This was definitely my most challenging task of the day because I just couldn't get the tone or the vocabulary right. The original press release was about our client 'Linden Homes' publishing a manifesto of what they intend to do to combat the housing shortage in London. It was difficult to avoid statistics and jargon which seemed to be abundant in the original piece. 'Putting a spin' on it felt false and patronising to me, using 'we' to include the audience and make it friendly. After two drafts, I was getting closer to the models Ben showed me on Linden homes' website, but it still needed more work. the introduction had to summarise the whole story in practically a sentence, which is the opposite of what i'm used to in Creative Writing fiction and essays.
I was given more tasks at this point and as that was only an exercise, i'll be working on it throughout the week as other things take priority.
Emma asked me to ring three magazine companies to get free copies of the issue featuring Cash Converters, another client. She advised that they would probably want payment rather than a free copy, but I encountered no obstacles and got free copies from each. However, the last one I rang was online only, a detail i was unaware of so I received a hostile replied when I called asking for a free copy, but remained professional and thanked them for their time.
I was given more tasks by Gemma, another member of the team. She asked me two press releases, one for a pharmaceutical company and one for Cash Converters. She also asked me to check a date in summer is available for an event for Sightcare (independent opticians support) and ring various supermarkets to inquire about hosting eye examinations in carparks to promote eye health. These tasks were not on a time-limit and were things for me to do later in the week.
It was certainly a busy first day, but I'm enjoying it so far. Although PR may be out of my confidence comfort zone, ringing around and persuading people to get involved in things and promoting your client whether you like them or not!
No comments:
Post a Comment