Round Up- First two weeks at Commotion

So the next part of my placement journey continues into the world of Media Managers as a PR executive, but I quickly learnt my role would consist more of account managing. The company I am going to be working with to complete my placement is Commotion Communications which is the PR segment of Media Managers- a fully integrated marketing communications agency. The team I'm working with is relatively small; which is different to what I am used to but definitely creates a sense of intimacy and contributes to me feeling like a valued team member. My manager, Sharon has seventeen years of PR experience and worked as PR and marketing manager at Champneys Spa Resorts, she then decided to set up her own consultancy using her wealth of knowledge to secure new brands remaining under the beauty,spa and luxury travel umbrella.

My first week was spent mirroring the shifts my new team member who I would be job-sharing, this was an integral part of my integration because it helped me learn the ways which Sandra worked and pick up the role quickly and efficiently. During the first couple of days I came to grips with the main business practices, brands and the role. The main responsibilities of the role include; account management of the brands, liaising with journalists, promoting brands through various channels, writing/drafting press releases, providing and proof reading content, generating innovate angles for brand promotion and general administrative tasks.

Commotion Communications currently work with eight brands and Sharon actively looks for new opportunities, with the most recent pitch being Lumie Clear, a light therapy acne treatment owned by Lumie lights. Most of the brands we work with have links with beauty/organic beauty market and luxury travel, I quickly learnt for me to be successful in the role I would need to familiarise myself with the brands ethics and publications/ journalists. I spent a few evenings fundamentally learning the basics- journalists and magazines which would be appropriate for our brand portfolio. The days soon flew by and my first week was drawing to an end- it has involved lots of learning and understanding (for me) a new area of marketing communications which until now not understood the importance. I'm really keen to see what the next few weeks has in-store and ways which I can possibly work on one of the brands for my report- I've already got a few ideas!! Watch this space.

Commotion Logo

THE DAIRY: second week as intern

PLACEMENT DIARY: SECOND WEEK 24/03/2014

After the mad rush of the first week getting everything sorted for the DNCC (chamber of commerce) e-business conference event, I thought the week would start of a little slow, however I was wrong- there was still some work to do on the design work and ensuring the proofs were signed off ready for print. The beginning of the week was mostly spent liaising between the clients, Shaun and the printers. Although on an extremely strict time plan, I had to negotiate with the printers to delay a day whilst the last bits off copy was sent in and proofs were finalized. This was quite a frustrating process- there was a lot of emails sent asking for changes to the artwork, this meant that myself and Shaun ( the designer ) spent hours amending to ensure the client was 100% happy with the product. As Nigel the MD was scheduled in for business meetings on the Monday and Tuesday it was really my responsibility to ensure everything was complete and with the printers. As 5 o'clock hit on Tuesday everything had been sent to the printers and completed ready for the event on Friday which I was to attend (huge sigh of relief). I received positive feedback from all the team members on the Dairy and felt that I was integral to the success of the project- definitely a feeling of achievement to overview and contribute to the project from start to finish.

The second half of the week was spent concentrating on Camloc which is a manufacturer of gas springs- which have been working with The Dairy for just over three years. Nigel gave me the opportunity the meet Andy Hubbard, the marketing manager to help work on his marketing communication plan for 2015. This was hugely insightful for me to overview the time plans which are used to guide the marketing communication objectives within the company- taking into consideration workload and budget. I was asked to spend some time working on amending the plans to reflect the changes made in the meeting, so that the account manager and client could clearly see their progress and remanding marketing budget for the year.

During the week Notts TV- a new local TV channel came into the Dairy for a meeting to discuss their exciting new advertising prospects for local businesses. Notts TV has been awarded a 12 year licence to broadcast a TV channel on Freeview Channel 8 – launching in May 2014 with the vision to produce high quality content relevant to local audiences. As the Dairy is a creative marketing agency it is important to remain up-to-date with the vast number of advertising channels available for it's clients and as Notts TV is a brand new opportunity for advertising it is more relevant as ever.

On Friday (my last day) I attended the DNCC's Ebiz Conference which was what I spent most of my time working on throughout my placement. The event was held at the Nottingham Belfry and was packed full of members of the commerce exhibiting their services for attendees- it was a fantastic event with some great speakers from the industry covering social media to SEO. It was the perfect way to round-up my first industry experience - networking with other businesses and individuals in the industry.

Nigel at the EBizConf

Seeing first hand how a busy creative agency works on a day to day basis has helped to develop many of my marketing skill-set further, whilst meeting/networking with some great people. It's been a fantastic start to my journey into industry and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next few months has to offer.

THE DAIRY: first week as an intern..

PLACEMENT DIARY: WEEK ONE 17/03/2014

As part of the second year structure on my course Fashion Marketing and Branding, I am able to source my own placement for the last term. Luckily enough I managed to secure two places for the ten week term- the first being; The Dairy- a marketing communications agency based in Nottingham. Having not worked in the marketing/ advertising industry before it was difficult to know what to expect, however after completing my first week I can safely say I have acquired many skills which will help my with my own future career development and also met some lovely team members.

On my first day I met Nige the Managing Director, he ran through 'standard first day info' and quickly moved on to brief me on the project which I would be overseeing for the first week- this was a fantastic opportunity for me to work closely on a live project with real clients and to very strict deadlines. The client I was working with was the DNCC (chamber of commerce)- they were organizing an business networking event for the 28th March and needed a range of brochures, banners, badges and posters designing and creating. Nige quickly advised me that this was an extremely big task for such short notice, but assured me we could turn it around. Shortly after Shaun (the agencies free-lance designer) came into the office, over the week he would be working in the studio creating the brochures on inDesign and I would be working very closely with him to ensure all content and copy was delivered on time. After a morning of 'welcomes' and 'briefs' we were straight into the work. I was assigned my own workstation and was asked to effectively source and manage the content from the client for the brochure- this required me quickly adapting to the task and thinking on my feet.

Over the course of the week and as the deadline loomed-(we had to get everything in the printers by Monday morning) I  found myself carrying out varied tasks and really taking ownership of the project. My main skills and tasks included:

• Monitoring incoming emails and requests from clients and handling incoming telephone call
• Building spreadsheets for costs of printing- helping me to understand the basics behind the finances of a business
• Chasing up clients (the DNCC took their time delivering parts of the content) 
• Liaised directly with the designer, gaining an insight to working with deadlines and the speed of which they work. It was interesting to see how the designer was briefed with the marketing/creative problem
•  Sorted out content and copy in a logical way for the designer to drop into the brochures. 
• /Generated orders in preparation for the event
• Sourced images for designer from creative database
• Learnt the benefits of having cloud based computing with Google docs, Zoho, jobbags and the server system. (All unique to the Dairy)
• Checked brand guidelines for some of the logos for the content of the artwork we produced.
• Attended morning meetings with Nige and Shaun to monitor progress of project (working to a tight schedule)
• Proof read content 
• Blogged for the Dairy website- which you can view here: http://www.thedairy.biz/current-intern-zoe-stroud/

The list of skills I have learnt in the last week are extensive and it really has provided me with a deeper insight of the industry. Deadlines are much stricter and the clients own a lot of power in terms of the final product. During the first few days I also met Fiona Geeson- one of the account managers and 'PR lady' as we like to call her- most of the account managers take sole responsibility on the projects they work on and it was good to see strong relationships building between clients and the agency, with some clients around for over ten years! The week has been very motivating for my future career and it has allowed me to think about roles such as: account managers which previously I may not have considered. After my busy, information-filled week, I am looking forward to a large glass of wine and relaxing over the weekend!

Mrs Carter Review for Newspaper

Nottingham Trent Newspaper Visuals

I have been recently working with the student newspaper at my University- Nottingham Trent (you can view it here) and I have been asked to create some visuals for the fashion pages. I decided to concentrate my designs on the recent London Fashion Week, specifically focusing on the winter pastel trend. I would have ideally liked to have photographed street style in and around Nottingham however deadlines are creeping up on me and I haven't had the chance. Below are my visuals which will be printed in next months edition.

LFW Round-up

As always, London Fashion Week never fails to amaze and inspire us. Not only did it show the upcoming trends, but displayed new innovations and ideas, new designers and collaborations, and challenge the possibilities of technology, giving a new meaning to catwalk shows. With Fashion week changing, this is going to have an impressive influence and impact on the fashion industry.

Designers in this year's London Fashion Week for A/W 13 were highly dependent on the use of technology in communicating to their consumers and broadcasting their show on a global scale. Social Media was highly involved, with schedules and live streams of individual shows being published on London Fashion Week's and the designer's websites, Twitter and Facebook spaces. This gave an interactive aspect to the event, where the public could give their opinions and views on the shows and collections.

Other sites such as Pinterest and Instagram gave a deeper insight into the fashion industry, with a backstage, VIP view of the shows. With the advancing of technology, the methods of Fashion Week are changing.

Topshop Unique teamed up with Google+ to live stream the show, as well as allowing the viewer to instantly buy any of the garments, accessories, cosmetics or music featured on the catwalk from online. Viewers could also 'Be the Buyer' and create mood boards of their favourite items, as well as ask the experts in HQ questions prior to the event. HD micro camera were also installed to models Cara Delevingne and Jourdan Dunn so viewers could see the show from a different perspective, as well as the backstage atmosphere. But it wasn't just on the catwalk; three days before the show a 'Be the Model' photo booth was installed in Topshop's Oxford St. store where customers could try on outfits and take pictures that were then uploaded to the brand's socal media sites.

Burberry were another brand that stood out with their use of technology. As well as live streaming their show, they had a 'Made to Order' concept with 'Smart Personalisation', whereby their ready-to-wear consumers experienced haut couture with their name sewn into the garment on an exclusive gold plate. In the flagship store, mirrors turned into screens to show the content. This interactive, personalised experience is becoming more and more popular, it gives the feel of exclusivity to the consumer as well as embracing their wants and needs.

Moodboard AW13 Pretty Pastels

With London Fashion Week just over it's got us all thinking about the key trends which were showcased on the catwalks. Pastels have been reworked and used by designers year after year, however this Autumn's shows injected a flirty yet chic identity into the collections, demonstrating the creativity and innovation from our home grown designers.

Summer's obsession with feminine pastels and milkshake-like shades were spotted on the catwalk throughout the duration of London Fashion Week and transformed into a fresh range of winter pastels. The Gelato tones were seen at:Antipodium, Ming, Pin Tien, Simone Rocha, Topshop Unique and Fashion East. Simone Rocha's show 'Respect Your Elders' (a favourite of mine), a tribute to her two grannies, who both had great taste for looking fantastically co-ordinated. Her grandparent's elegant style was transpired into her own collection of nude shifts, prim skirt-suits and neat coats in Pepto Bismal Pink. What was evident in Rocha's show was her capability to inject an autobiographical element into each garment, doing so by the handpicked materials and exclusive colour shades. Her work never fails to tell a story.