Internship # 4: cylk

After completing my studies I didn't wish to sit idol while job hunting. Approaching Christmas I knew there wouldn't be much opportunity for work so I looked to take on another internship. Given all my PR experience had been with agency work I wanted some experience working in-house. I found an ad for a PR and Sales internship with Melbourne independent fashion label cylk and saw it as a perfect opportunity to fill this gap.

I was in the cylk office two days a week for four weeks. During this time I worked very closely with the National Sales Manager who took on working on the wholesale account, the PR and marketing of the label as well as working in the flagship store on Chapel St three days a week.

I assisted in a number of marketing and PR activities for the flagship store including drafting marketing and promotional material, researching the target audience for this material, making initial contact with target businesses and individuals and then following up on this contact. I worked on campaigns such as "New Year, New You" a collaborative campaign between a local heath center and hair salon to give customers exclusive access to promotions within these businesses. I also worked on contacting personal stylists and shoppers to gain their support with the store.

Another PR task I worked that I felt particularly rewarding was based around cylk's charity work. cylk supports three different charities, changing them every few months. $3 from each sale is donated to one of these charities as chosen by the customer. I was involved in researching potential charities and pitching them to cylk's creative director. Once the charity had been chosen I contacted them to ask if they wished to be apart of the collaboration. They happily agreed to be on board and I was able to set up the contact between Animal Aid and cylk. I was also responsible for writing blurbs on all three charities to be published on cards and given to the customers.

When working with the sales department I spent time researching potential wholesale clients and making the first contact with these potential buyers. I was required to analyse the company profile and branding in order to be able to target the selling appropriately.

Working with cylk was a fantastic experience and I am very glad I took the role on in order to broaden my experience and begin to understand how in house publicity works. I liked being surrounded by all members of the team as you can listen and learn how all aspects of the business processes work giving you a greater understanding when discussing the brand with new clients.

First Shoot with 2wo 7even 8ight

2wo 7even 8ight (278) is an online video magazine showcasing the independent art and creative scene of Melbourne. I responded to a call out on Pedestrian.tv for a new stills photographer and was very chuffed to be chosen!

Having recently acquired a Canon 7D I was more than thrilled to be able to put him (I named him Wallace, Wally for short) to some good use!

The first shoot featured Rohan Browne, a stage performer and the Creative Director of His Handsome Self a Melbourne based business handcrafting bow ties and kerchiefs.

As Rohan is currently performing in 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum we were fortunate enough to have the shoot in the costume room of Her Majesty's Theater. This was a thrilling experience for me as over the years I have been to a few shows there. 

This was my first time photographing anything in a professional capacity. As filming the interview and the video is the key element for 278 my role was secondary. I was required to get some key profile shots of Rohan but also some shots of the interview being organised and filmed for Facebook and cover shots on the webpage. I was so nervous! The 278 team and Rohan were really friendly though and I felt myself get used to everything as the time went by. It really surprised me how quickly I became comfortable working within this capacity.

The photos will be published in early 2013.

Internship Three: Social Media Knowledge

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From July 2012-August 2012 I took on an eight-week internship with Social Media Knowledge (SMK). SMK is a business responsible for running training seminars (with in-house training also available) guiding businesses on how to best approach social media to better their brand. I took on this experience for a number of reasons. One of the main ones was that I saw a large gap in my resume I wished to fill. I had no professional writing experience and I felt combined with my media degree and my PR internships writing experience was needed to round out my CV and experience.

At SMK I completed a number of research based tasks including researching for others and myself in order to produce and publish articles on the SMK blog, something which supplements the business and is very specifically aimed at Australian consumers.

While researching for others I sourced a lot of information on Australian case studies of social media campaigns. My own research also involved looking through a broad array of social media news on the Internet and picking out topics to write my own articles on. This was interesting as a lot of the topics were new to Australia and I had to write the tone of the article with the thought in mind “what can a brand take away from this, what can a brand do with this idea?” I was lucky enough to have a number of articles published on the blog. (Links can be found in my portfolio). This work also drew on my skills developed during the 12 months I studied a Bachelor of Social Science (Policy and Research) at RMIT.

During my time the blog editor and my supervisor had two weeks leave where my role was to edit the articles that had been submitted by contributing authors and sit down with another staff member and decide the order in which these articles would be published during the week.  From here I would publish the articles then push them out via the social media pages including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. With this work I learnt a lot about using social media professionally. I also learnt about using Bit.ly to shorten URL’s and Hootsuite to manage the profiles.

SMK was a great experience to take on something different. I was really pleased to be able to get some articles published and add some more depth to my professional skills and knowledge.

Interning Life Part Two: Greta Donaldson Publicity

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From March 2012- July 2012 I took on a paid internship with GretaDonaldson Publicity (GDP). Working at GDP was a very different experience from my first internship at Diamond Dozen. I spoke to Edwina from Diamond Dozen when I first got offered this internship and she said that she felt it would be a good experience for me as GDP is run in a more corporate manner.

Being a paid internship I had to apply for an ABN number and learn how to invoice an employer correctly. This was an excellent professional skill to acquire particularly as I work on my professional writing skills and think about the possibility of professional blogging in the future.  

The clients at GDP seemed to be more of strategic business plan rather than a theme so to speak (EG Diamond Dozen works with predominantly fashion labels). GDP also runs Prospect 360, an organistation that runs seminars for students interested in entering the communications and media fields. I was fortunate enough to work at two of these seminars and work on a number of them including the first seminar Prospect 360 ran in Sydney.

When working on Prospect 360 I fulfilled a number of different tasks. Tasks included liaising with the panelists to get various documents off them, putting together documents and collating them into resource packs for the seminars. It was great to liaise with some of the panelists as this included a number of prominent people working in the media and television including Julian Cress the executive producer of The Block. 

One of GDP’s main clients is Strike Bowling and during my time interning they were gearing up for the launch of their new Melbourne Central location. I was fortunate enough to be on site when the launched a stunt (in collaboration with their advertising agency Loud and Clear) in Melbourne Central to promote the launch. This was a fun experience that saw me ringing media on site to follow up on a media release sent out and eventually we got a live weather cross with Channel Ten which I watched take place and learnt the logistics behind such a feature.  Strike also had their official launch party, which I was involved in. we spent time in the office preparing various tasks and were present on the night. I was given the job of being on the door with the full time publicist employed at GDP. 

Interning with GDP taught me more about the way in which a publicity agency works and manages multiple clients and the way in which a corporate agency runs and what is expected of staff.

Interning Life: 1st Internship at Diamond Dozen Marketing and PR

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From July 2011-December 2011 I undertook an internship at DiamondDozen Marketing and PR. Having ascertained that I was very interested in investigating public relations as a career path (and also wishing to gather some communications industry experience at a broader level than my media specific studies). During this semester I was also undertaking Introduction to PR as an elective so between the two I felt it was a good place to start.

As my first internship experience I couldn’t have hoped for a better environment. There were two staff member’s including Edwina who owned and ran the business. Both Jade (the other staff member) and Ed were very kind and helpful, willing to answer any questions I had and guide me through the various tasks they assigned me. 

I took on a number of small tasks but one of the main jobs I did was laying up editorial content for client reports. This meant learning how to use InDesign and following the specific template the business had set out so all such layups were uniform for client reporting. In order to find the content I had to develop and utilise skills in media scanning. I gained a great understanding of how editorial shoots work, but also celebrity seeding.

As time progressed I was trusted with a few more tasks including interpreting call outs for editorials, selecting items to send, writing up the invoices (again using an InDesign template) and sending them off to various publications. This was a great experience as I had been working with a lot of editorials in the early weeks of my internship so it was great to begin to see both sides of the story.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Diamond Dozen. The team and the environment were welcoming and a pleasure to work in.

From time to time I did get to do varied roles such as publishing blog posts on the businesses blog, photographing new products that arrived from brands to be used on file and working on seeding lists for products to be endorsed by celebrities.  During my time their Edwina started an online shop, Bodega Deluxe, and I saw this get up and running and occasionally was involved in some small processes with this, which was interesting.

Diamond Dozen works with brands such as Vans, Red Bull, New Balance, Kathryn Wilson and Miss Wilson. It’s certainly the type of working environment and brands I could see myself working in in the future.  I tend to like any chance to get up from a desk and run errands, that sort of thing, and being around people so I would prefer to work in a slightly bigger working environment however I chatted to Edwina a few months after I finished my internship and she said they had been doing a lot of events stuff which is a pity I missed out on.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Diamond Dozen. The team and the environment were welcoming and a pleasure to work with.

The Chat Room: Social Media Workshop

Despite having completed my studies I had access to to attend a social media seminar for free through RMIT.

Run by The Chat Room, an organisation set up by a couple of entrepreneurial communications professionals not much older than myself, this free ticket was a great chance to further my knowledge.

There were seven speakers covering the following areas:

• Marketing Meets Social Media and Business
• Making the Transition (to social media)
• Create Your Social Empire with Various Platforms
• Case Study - The Australian Hot 50 Restaurant Award
• Talking with Consumers, Not at Them, Online and offline
• Evoking Emotion and Creating a Movement
• What is Social Media and Why it Matters

Each speaker has worked extensively and achieved fantstic things within their fields. For some it was about moving with the times and embracing social media in order to keep in front of the game, for others it was starting their own business entirely online as that is the only true way to make it work in today's internet based climate.

At times the seminar covered areas I was already familiar with however as someone beginning to pave their career it can never hurt to hear similar information portrayed in a different way.