Busy Busy Week - Week of the 28th April

So this is my blog entry for the week- with a glass of Rosé in hand (and boy does it taste good), unwinding after what seems the busiest week yet. To start my week of madness off the family decided to buy a new family pet in the form of a Golden Labrador Pup, his name is Buddy and he is beautiful. However he has been keeping me up all week with his pooch cries during the night.

Meet Buddy

My gorgeous new pup!

Monday:
So I started Monday with very tired eyes as I made my usual commute to Cambridge at 8am. As last week was bank holiday it was the first Monday that everyone was in the office, which was lovely to see everybody. The morning I spent catching up with Sharon and she briefed me further on Hanbury Manor and the Wedding PR which will be starting this Month. As it is the end of the month it calls for the production of the client reports which are generated for the clients. The reports detail all the activity over the month, press releases which have been sent, on-going journalist liaison, meetings, sample send on, featured products and the brief plans for the following month. I completed for two of the clients which took me several hours due to it being my first time of producing the documents (hopefully next time it won't take as long!) Whilst writing the report for Solaray I noted that no E-Blasts had been sent through our press data base Gorkana to appropriate Journalists and Publications- I decided to draft a copy which focused on exercising outside now that it's Spring. I feel that I am getting quicker and gaining confidence when writing my press releases but I always send onto Sharon to ensure she proof-reads before distributing onwards. Sharon gave me great feedback and we agreed to send it tomorrow- watch this space if any press pick it up and feature the two Solaray supplements.

Late on in the afternoon I focused on replying to our Response Source Feed which had filtered throughout the day into my inbox which was screaming for some attention. We had a several which requests festival/summer beauty products and I decided to plug the organic with Aubrey- I had two instant responses from Glamour Mag and Woman to which I sent samples. I was smugly pleased with my response from Glammour, journalists are so busy and have hundreds of PRs contacting them daily so it gave me a buzz to know she liked the concept enough to ask for a sample- hopefully she will love the products and Aubrey will benefit from some great relevant coverage! This ended my busy day and after the hour commute home I was greeted by a very excited pooch!

Wednesday:
Another early start but a long day- all in the name of PR! The morning was the usual daily tasks in the office in the morning but the evening was the first birthday press event for our lovely boutique hotel brand- The House Collection (check out the website). Sharon launched their first hotel Poets House in Ely and they have seen nothing but success since, which led into the second hotel launch of Paddocks in Newmarket last December. It was the first time I visited Poets House and the hotel is truly beautiful, it is everything a luxury boutique hotel should be but en capsules the small 'homely' feeling. I met David and Ian and had a quick catch up with the brand and their plans for expansion. Soon enough an array of red flooded through the cocktail bar- it was the arrival of the choir boys from Ely Cathedral ready to cut the birthday cake. We had arranged for the Ely Weekly News to join us for the news exclusive and take some pictures whilst the boys enjoyed some of the beautiful cake. (see pics below) The evening was a great social experience and allowed me to introduce myself to the driving force behind the brand.

Friday:
Well today has been another busy one. I started the morning with a meeting at our Digital Offices in Bedford, after getting lost because my Sat Nav directed me completely in the wrong direction I finally made in time for the start of the meeting at 10am. I had been asked by the Managing Director of Media Managers to help out with one of their new accounts that they recently pitched for and successfully won. The account is The Netherlands Tourist Board and the task is to raise awareness for Culinary mini breaks to The Netherlands through traditional media and digital- (that's where I come in). Alistair wants to create a team which works on the account managing different aspects and the meeting was really to discuss everyone's social media capabilities, from monitoring to editorial. We also met Abi who will be controlling most of the back systems ensuring that the content is measured and we are delivering against KPIs. I'm chuffed to have been asked to work on the account for several reasons, the first being it will enable me to improve my digital marketing skills including social media monitoring, secondly I feel that it proves I have worked hard over the last month and shown that I am eager to learn and contribute to all elements of the business (not just PR). The discussion illustrated how - as a team- you approach and tackle a brief set by the client, it is key to find out what they want to achieve from the campaign, time limits and KPIs. I realised that it's so important to feed from knowledge and strengths of your team to make sure the task is completed to the highest possible level. From the meeting we have arranged a conference call with the client next week and a potential meeting with the team the following week to begin brainstorming and delegating areas of the campaign- I am delighted to be involved with this side project and I know it will help me heaps and bounds in terms on first hand experience running a social media campaign- (hopefully a successful one!)

After a quick lunch and experiencing my first Costa drive through I made it back to the office for the afternoon. I knew I would have an full inbox which meant I spent a couple of hours replying and cutting press clippings. The last hour or so I concentrated on my continued research on the supplement market for my Placement Report, which is a Marketing Communication plan for the all-natural brand Solaray UK. As I promised my week has been exciting and informative, my brain is buzzing with lots of potential possibilities over the next few months. One thing is for sure, I am so grateful that I have this experience behind me- it really is invaluable and I am acquiring new skills everyday, whether it be how to handle my first formal business meeting or networking at The House Collections' first birthday. That's all for this week- time for me to relax and enjoy the bank holiday.