The last two weeks of placement have gone extremely quickly, I think this is due to the Easter Break occurring right in the middle which allowed me to have a couple of days to relax with the family and over-indulge on Easter treats. Despite the fact that time is flying back, over the last two weeks I have really grasped the role and I am now managing my own work-load which is helping me learn the role swiftly. As the brand portfolio we look after at Commotion is heavily beauty based, Sharon though it would be a great idea to attend the annual Natural and Organic Product Show at London Olympia- this was a really exciting opportunity for me and I feel I have benefited in terms of my research for my dissertation. The event consisted of four different elements; The Natural Food Show, Natural Beauty & Spa, Natural Living and Natural Health, there was always the Natural Beauty Awards which Aubrey Organics (one of our brands) won an award! Additionally it was great way for Sharon to pitch to new clients and really get a feel of the general market size for organic products. The event was huge and there was so many innovative/ unique brands offering new angles on beauty and natural foods. Whilst Sharon did her magic talking to potential new brands to work with, I really took in the array of things on offer. I also had the chance to meet two of our existing clients- Aubrey and Archeia, again this is enormously helpful for me as I now can match names to faces whilst speaking via email. All round it was an insightful and very busy day searching for new business, which I realised is a large proportion of the work Sharon does- managing and maintaining existing clients is obviously crucial however it is just as important to pro actively search for new clients to help move the business forward.
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| Event at London Olympia |
Now
I feel more comfortable with my role Sharon often has meetings in London and I
hold the fort at the Cambridge office with the Media Managers guys. This has
given me the opportunity to start using may days to fundamentally promote the
brands we have using my knowledge from university and what I have been taught at
Commotion. My typical day usually consists of:
- Responding to Response Sources, which is a data base that allows Journalists to request out to PRs for content for their articles- these come through in the form of emails and usually about 4-5 per hour. Some are completely non-relevant and therefore get dismissed instantly, but several provide strong opportunity to get the brand noticed by very busy journalists. I usually spend my morning responding to these, sending samples out to journalists who are interested and press cutting via our press cutting system Precise and then forwarding to the clients
- The afternoon I try to focus on writing press releases relevant to what’s going on in the world.. In PR I have learnt you always need to be one step ahead and know what's going to be occurring in the next few months. Magazines (monthlies/glossies) usually work up to 3 to 4 months in advance so it’s knowing what content/angles they’ll be looking for to ensure you have a wider margin for the product to be featured. Weeklies/nationals and regionals differ and things can usually be sent in real-time. At the moment I am looking for new angles on summer prep for your body and also festival trends which I can work into a compelling press release to plug Aubrey Organics sun care ranges. This is all still very daunting for me as it takes a lot to become comfortable with your own writing style, especially when it’s going to be sent out to hundreds of journalists (which will probably delete it straight from their inboxes!) Sandra and Sharon both explained that it takes time to master the skill of writing press releases and at Commotion they use each other for feedback and to help point out improvements which could be made.
- I tend to delegate time to small tasks which Sharon or Sandra ask me to complete relevant for that day, I speak to Sharon usually twice a day via email or phone to catch up- she also provides me gives me feedback on what I've done & where I can improve. I love having such a great support network around me – it has helped me enjoy and learn my job much quicker.
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