Fashion Kicks 2011

One for JCPR... 

So I can’t quite claim to be a football enthusiast, but this was a project I could certainly get excited about – Fashion Meets Football. Lily Cole on the catwalk, Alexandra Burke performing, first team Man City players strutting their stuff, and all in aid of charity – what an event we had in store! If only you would have let me go Jimmy Kay…nope I’m not bitter one bit.

For football lovers who will know who I’m talking about, Shay Given (he’s actually rather famous don’t you know) and his wife Jane, co-hosted Fashion Kicks with sponsorship from Selfridges last Sunday evening. With an awesome turnout, press peeps were jumping at the chance to be a part of the show and boy did we get some great coverage from it.

With Man City winning the FA Cup the day before, spirits were at an all time high. Champagne reception, culinary treats and a VIP guest list – remind me again Jimmy why I couldn’t go? Well at least I had the pictures to look at…

New Look Frappuccino…However-You-Want-It

One from JCPR... 

Fresh from completion of the Edelman graduate scheme I was looking forward to settling back into the exciting and bustling life of JCPR. They say time flies when you’re having fun! Cue all systems go for the new launch of the Starbucks Frappuccino However-You-Want-It range.

Remember the Frappuccino you used to have when you were 15yrs old, having a giggle with your friends, thinking you were the bee’s knees because you were drinking something from Starbucks. Well it’s back and better than before! I’m now 22 and you’ll still be able to find me drinking my Frappuccino, sitting in a Starbucks thinking I’m just so damn cool. However my choice of Frappuccino has changed now (need to think about the calories, obviously!) and luckily for me Starbucks has thought about my opinion! It has brought out The However-You-Want-It range so I can now tailor my Frappuccino to what I want and yes, that means fewer calories and what’s more, over 35,000 different combinations to choose from. What more could you want?

The launch last night completely fitted what Starbucks Frappuccino is all about. A real fun, buzzing atmosphere filled with people from all ages, all just having a natter whilst enjoying their favourite Frappuccino, which had been created by Starbucks Blend Master Kate Lister. Kate is incredible – she’ll gauge exactly what you like in a drink and then concoct the most delicious result. The highlights of the event had to be performances by Dionne Bromfield (did not realise 15yr olds can have voices like that) and dance legends Flawless. I came away wishing I could sing and dance, but alas, at least I had my Frappuccino…

FATE

It seems weird to write this knowing I have now finished the graduate scheme…it feels like only yesterday that I started, dressed to impress in my finest shirt and skirt! Trying to look confident and assertive, when in fact covering up the nerves which were racing round inside me.  I chose the graduate scheme because I wanted to explore all the different avenues PR has to offer, whether it be corporate & financial, healthcare, digital, technology, public affairs or consumer. There were many tricks to learn and accounts to be a part of. It’s an invaluable experience, one I would recommend to anyone who is even remotely interested in this sector. The graduate scheme completely overreached expectations allowing you to find your strengths and loves, but to also grant you the ability to use those skills picked up from previous rotations and further improve them, proving that the brilliant basics of PR are 100% transferable and essential.

When it came to crunch time a couple of weeks ago, I was swinging in roundabouts. One day thinking ‘yes definitely x department’, the next day ‘no that department’, the following day ‘but what about this department’ – you can imagine how this continued. I’m normally a pretty decisive person, but this was ridiculous! The factors I considered were a) client accounts b) future progression and c) the people. The thing with Edelman is that each department has exciting, big name clients. The other thing with Edelman is that each department considers your future and will help you in career decisions. The third thing with Edelman is that each department has amazing people…you can see my problem here! The people I must say are talented, dedicated, intelligent and truly welcoming. As a grad you are lucky enough to learn from some of the crème de la crème in the industry.

So what were the highlights of my eight months?

·        Working with some Digital pioneers in Spook. The world of communication is changing with the advancements in technology, and what better place to learn about the importance of social media than in our very own award winning Digital team. Try exciting campaigns such as Levi’s® Shape What’s To Come and Puma’s After Hours Athlete

·        Meeting Boris Johnson at an event I helped organise on behalf of Douglas&Gordon whilst working in Corp&Fin. Actually hilarious! A point to note about Corp&Fin is the variety in work – a dream for any graduate. From issues and crisis management, to CSR platforms, award ceremonies  and of course the all important media liaison

·       My first ever red carpet event at the Xbox Halo: Reach launch, working with some consumer PR gurus to organise a celeb-tastic event and then watching the fantastic pieces of coverage appear

·       Pitching for new business whilst in the Public Affairs team. Understanding the insights which are essential in forming strategy, context and desired outcomes

·       Working in a global hub at Tech was priceless. I was lucky enough to be involved in brainstorming and then implementing campaign ideas both on a central and local level

·        Improving a weakness in Healthcare. I’ve never been a perfectionist and sometimes attention to detail can suffer. To work well in Healthcare you have to study the small print and this was the ideal opportunity to put my weakness to the test and sort it

    

      Any conclusions? Yes….the graduate scheme is truly invaluable. The tools it equips you with, the friends you make and the interests you pick up can only but increase your employment prospects and that’s the whole point, right? 

Final Destination: The Land of Technology

One from the Edelman Graduate Scheme Blog…

After seven months on the graduate scheme, the engines finally begin to slow and nerves rise to the surface as crunch time is fast approaching. I just wanted to fast forward the next six weeks, jumping straight into what would be known as fate. However Tech was probably just what the Doctor ordered. Knowing a couple of people beforehand, Monday wasn’t so daunting being welcomed by some familiar faces. In fact there was no need to be intimidated at all with the team being incredibly friendly and especially patient with a non-Tech savvy grad! I say I’m a fast learner, but for the first week to be asked if I knew about coding, cloud computing and tiered memory, my face was not exactly a pretty picture! Instead a rather confused and are you being serious (?) facial expression! My poor pod had to endure “sorry to ask another stupid question, but can anyone…” But alas, I got there in the end….

Working on clients in sectors as diverse as mobile, entertainment, gaming and enterprise technology, the variety and amount of work was perfect to say the least. Although it is a rather niche area, the experiences encountered were invaluable. Gaining that insight into how a global hub works through watching the team organise the individual markets and even better, being a part of it, was priceless. I was lucky enough to be involved in brainstorming and then implementing campaign ideas both on a central and local level for HP.

Media audits, media pitches, involvement in new business, product launches and speaker platforms were all a given. I was able to utilise skills picked up from previous rotations and further improve them, proving that the brilliant basics of PR are 100% transferable and essential.

Another project I was fortunate to work on was BlogLevel. This was a particularly special opportunity as BlogLevel will constitute as part of Edelman’s IP.  So we already have created TweetLevel, following suit is BlogLevel. The Tech team really understands the importance of social media and how quickly the world of PR is evolving. This seriously cool tool will be able to measure the influence of any blog around the world, beneficial to the millions! What’s more Tech even has their own entertaining blog, filled with interesting articles. Check it out: The Naked Pheasant

So thank you Tech team for the perfect end to an incredibly beneficial graduate scheme. For more info, check out their website and my blog.  

The Suits and Boots of Corporate and Financial (Edelman)

And so in comes rotation number five out of six and boy was this the fastest one yet! They always say time flies when you’re having fun. The team, the variety of work and the level of work all made the five weeks feel like one – qualities a graduate can only wish for in the hope of gaining an informative and true insight into the world of Corporate and Financial.

It seems people always talk about Corporate and Financial as ‘the serious one’ with employees marching about in their suits and boots. ‘Boring’ even, when compared to ‘sexy’ consumer PR. Oh how wrong they are! Professional, yes. Intelligent, yes. Creative, yes. Varied, yes. Boring, er no. Try meeting the Mayor Boris Johnson, award ceremonies, b2b and b2c liaison, issues and crisis management and corporate social responsibility platforms, to name all but a few jobs I was involved in. You can already get a feel for the diversity in tasks.

So what about the people? I must point out you are among some truly talented folk brimming with experience and innovation. Specialists even include former journalists in the Strategic Media Unit, from a former anchor woman to a FT regular. Corporate and Financial further boasts of excellent cross practice relationships with Public Affairs, Digital and Consumer – something which was interesting for me to relate to having already rotated around each of the named departments. I was able to work on Levi’s®, Starbucks, Diageo, Shell and Manchester City FC accounts, all of which I had previous experience in.

The thing which really stood out for me during this rotation was the responsibility I was given. Thanks to the lovely Property team I was able to interview clients for features in the Daily Telegraph and Country Life magazine; create a press pack for the opening of the Winter Garden at Battersea Park by directly liaising with my client Douglas & Gordan and the Mayor’s press office; attend the launch of the Garden whereby meeting good old Boris Johnson; and then watch the coverage I generated appear. A great project to be a part of and see through.

From gardens to oil! Shell is evidently a global giant, forever expanding. My first week saw a jump in at researching speaker platforms for reputable climate change conferences. An opportunity to grasp the importance of such events, and working to a tight deadline with the project being reviewed by a Deputy MD, a challenge to rise to. This learning curve was also experienced when looking into Corporate Social Responsibly platforms for Diageo. CSR being the buzz word, this task gave me the chance to actually understand its significance to a company’s reputation and therefore progression.

Oil to Visit London! With an exciting campaign in the horizon (check out the Evening Standard 1^st April 2011), Visit London roles involved outreaching to the stars of London to help promote our fabulous city internationally. Liaising with agents and sometimes the talent themselves, I was able to really understand how an ambassador can raise the profile of your campaign.

I could go on praising both the work and team, but for fear of babbling I’ll leave it here. There’s only one thing left to say which is thank you. I shall miss the power ballads, the banter and of course the work. Thank you Corp&Fin for giving me a true and inspiring insight into your world. 

For more information check out their website and my blog. 

How important is trust to you?

Trust. A quality imperative to any good relationship, be it business or personal. A quality which can take years to build, but can be lost in a matter of seconds. Once lost, the process of regaining it can sometimes be impossible. Oh the importance of trust.

In terms of business trust, one could talk of brand loyalty. You buy something because you trust the quality and experience of it. But where does this trust come from? A friend or colleague? A magazine? Facebook? A newspaper? This is where PR can come in and help start and then build this trust to gain a market share of voice. But what happens when trust begins to fall?

Bankers. Do we trust bankers? What do we think of BP? The government? Nestle? Primark? The BBC? Well thanks to the recent launch of Edelman’s 2011 Trust Barometer; banks, financial Services and media are all stuck at the bottom of UK Industry Rankings. Are we surprised? Um probably not after the financial crisis and the ever-growing bonuses earned by the tax-payer’s money…cue RBS. Cuts here and cuts there and still graduate unemployment at its all time lowest – god society sounds so miserable! No wonder with the media headlining all things negative. According to the Barometer, in response to “How much do you trust media to do what is right?” The US is down to 27% and the UK 22%. How low can you go? But in contrast, and perhaps surprisingly so, trust in the CEO has significantly increased since last year’s survey.

All things aren’t as doom and gloom as society can sometimes make out. Trust is evidently an important issue because it can be detrimental to a business’s reputation, to a person’s reputation. Therefore transparency and honesty are becoming more widely practiced – that’s a good thing right?

Find out more at http://www.edelman.com/trust/2011/

Making a difference in Healthcare

And so another one bites the dust! Four rotations down, two more to go. The finishing line is in sight. Yet again, it’s been a learning curve five weeks, working in an environment completely separate in terms of specialty and overall culture. For one thing, it is incredibly female dominated. No wonder the Healthcare team is the favourite amongst other departments! Some seemed rather jealous of me working here – I wonder why…

Well it could be due to the all-round personality of the team. They are the most supportive I’ve come across so far – you even have two line managers, and workload has never been a problem. They are an incredibly friendly, intelligent bunch and are always present at the bar on Thursday – now that’s my kind of team! Happy to help with any questions, but what is most striking is that they are always on call to help each other. Teamwork to a Tee.

Maybe it could be due to their clients. Healthcare is the ‘big bucks’! With leading pharmaceutical companies as clients, the revenue this department brings in is phenomenal, especially being run on a global scale. I guess this makes one more diligent and cautious in any task, however routine or new. It heightens the importance of your work. I certainly felt it!

Or it could be down to what this work actually encompasses. How many people can say they make a difference to peoples’ lives through the work they do? Not many. Seeing and understanding the effects of medical treatments created by the Edelman pharma clients makes your work all the more worthwhile. From helping to raise awareness of pneumococcal disease, to the ever-growing concerns of mental health diseases, these are just two examples of the many treatments which Edelman has seen grow successfully.

Or finally it could be due to their Gleedelman performance! For some, maybe this is the case, but personally, work which is challenging, stimulating and potentially life changing – who wouldn’t want to be a part of that!

Find out more at http://www.edelman.co.uk/what-we-do/health-and-medical-education and http://maryfizzy.blogspot.com/