Hello,
My campaign placement at Hunter Tourism has come to an end and it is therefore time for reflection - what I have done, what I have learned, what I have liked and disliked and what I would change.
As I previously said, my work on the HRDRI was really good in the first few weeks, where I was able to get a real idea about the PR side of things through tasks such as: updating the media and stake holder data bases, assisting in setting up the launch of the campaign, writing and sending out thank you letters to those who participated in the launch, preparing pitches for media outlets and sourcing relevant 'tourist' type activities within the Hunter Region. However, after the first few weeks, things seemed to slow down a lot with the HRDRI and I found myself having less and less to do with it - for a week or two I was assisting with Corroboree and other tasks which came through the office. For my last few working days there, I was given the task of preparing a program plan for the HRDRI - which was good PR experience in itself.
I really liked being able to meet so many different people from such varying roles within the tourism industry. The best opportunity for this came during my first week when I attended the launch of the HRDRI and was able to meet people from Tourism NSW, Hunter Valley Gardens, politicians and owners of the surrounding wine estates. Furthermore, I really enjoyed working with the people in the HRTO office - there were a variety of characters there who each brought a lot of really good qualities to the job and the office. As I said earlier, I enjoyed feeling like part of the PR team and feeling like I was actually doing some PR work of substance which would come in handy later on.
I disliked some days of my work experience there - this was mostly when the team had other big events on and I wasn't getting any work on the HRDRI at all and was instead given menial sorts of tasks for other events or other unrelated work. This annoyed me a bit as I felt as though I wasn't really learning anything for a few days. During this time, I wondered why the position was put forward (as I voiced a few posts ago) and was wishing I had accepted another placement I was offered (putting together a patient information day from start to finish - which would have been a challenge but also an excellent experience). Although, in the long run, I am grateful for my time at Hunter Tourism.
It was only last week that I realised how much I learned during my campaign placement. I had applied for a casual job at a small, local PR firm and was surprised one day to get a phone call from the director of the firm. She was following up the application I had submitted (which contained details of my placement at HRTO) and we had a short phone interview. During the time, she asked me exactly what I had done at Hunter Tourism - this was where I surprised myself - and I was able to rattle off a whole bunch of impressive sounding things (no lies at all). After I had my little spiel about the placement she asked me to send across some work and then come in for an interview the following week. I included some of the work I had done at Hunter Tourism. The next week I came out of our face to face interview with the job! It was then that I had my little ephinany about how valuable my time at Hunter Tourism had been.
Overall, I'm not sure I would change anything - I certainly had my ups and downs with HRTO but definately now know how worth while it was. It is hard to say whether or not I would have had a better experience somewhere else - I guess that's something I will never know and should therefore just be content with what I have learned from working on the HRDRI campaign at Hunter Tourism!
Oh and you can view my friend Gemma's blog at:
http://www.gemmahulsingcmns3290.blogspot.com/
Gemma had a really interesting experience working on this years Cultural Awakenings Festival
That's all!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Results and Evaluation of HRDRI
Hi again!
For the duration of my placement I was under the impression that the evaluation stage of the HRDRI would take place in the final week of my placement (and conclude during that week or one or two after). However, I just got an email back from Kate at Hunter Tourism who has informed me that there won't be any results until March 2008 - which makes the situation a little awkward for me. In the mean time though (mostly for the purpose of the case study assignment) I'm going to conduct some of my own research into the successes/failures of the HRDRI. I have already found evidence from the APEC weekend which shows that tourism in the Hunter Region is up as a result of the HRDRI advertising! Below is an article from ABC News which demonstrates the increased tourist flow to the Hunter:
You can view the article properly here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/10/2028612.htm
The best I can do at the moment is keep researching and examining the advertising which was carried out - from there I might be able to make some reasonably accurate predictions about the outcome of the campaign.
That's all for now!
For the duration of my placement I was under the impression that the evaluation stage of the HRDRI would take place in the final week of my placement (and conclude during that week or one or two after). However, I just got an email back from Kate at Hunter Tourism who has informed me that there won't be any results until March 2008 - which makes the situation a little awkward for me. In the mean time though (mostly for the purpose of the case study assignment) I'm going to conduct some of my own research into the successes/failures of the HRDRI. I have already found evidence from the APEC weekend which shows that tourism in the Hunter Region is up as a result of the HRDRI advertising! Below is an article from ABC News which demonstrates the increased tourist flow to the Hunter:
Hunter cashed up after APEC escapees' invasion
Hunter Tourism says more than 20,000 people travelled to the Hunter Valley region for the APEC long weekend.
Sydneysiders trying to avoid the city's APEC lock-down spent more than $3 million over the three days, with cafes, restaurants and cellar doors experiencing one of their busiest weekends of the year.
Hunter Tourism chief executive officer Andrew Fletcher says tourism operators across the region experienced record bookings.
"It was a boom weekend and the pleasing thing is that it wasn't just the Hunter Valley ... but right across the Hunter from Lake Macquarie through to Barrington Tops and into the Upper Hunter," he said.
"It was very hard to find a bed on Friday and Saturday nights just gone."
You can view the article properly here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/10/2028612.htm
The best I can do at the moment is keep researching and examining the advertising which was carried out - from there I might be able to make some reasonably accurate predictions about the outcome of the campaign.
That's all for now!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Disaster Relief Initiative program plan
Hello,
Today I came into a very quite office and was told by Jade (another marketing girl) that everyone would pretty much be out of the office today - sick, having the day off, on holidays etc. I was a little bit annoyed at this because I hadn't been left any work to do (at my other placement I'm always being set lists of things to do and having work set aside for me). Jade isn't really involved with the HRDRI so it looked like I would be spending a very long day researching information and writing up a proper version of the program plan - not exactly the PR experience I was hoping for (so this post won't actually be very interesting).
So I spent half my day going through the program plan properly - making up title pages, formatting and actually writing it. I got through the executive summary, the situation analysis, the communication strategy and the implementation. I still have to wait until next week for the evaluation and budget information. Jade didn't really have any information for the 'research' part of the campaign so I tried to find some of my own by searching around the internet - on the HVRF website, ABS website etc. Sheridan came in around lunch time and gave me a few things to do in the follow up of Corroboree - which wasn't ideal as it isn't my project, but hey, better then nothing. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing up thankyou letters for some of the key supporters of Corroboree - which was good - afterall it's all improving my writing skills!
I'm not really sure why this position was put forward, I've had some really good experiences with it (the first and second weeks were good) but since then it's been largely downhill - the people here are always (and understandably) really busy and don't really seem to have much to do with the HRDRI - so I can't help but wonder (in retrospect) whether I would have had a better experience with another event/campaign placement. Well there's my whinge for the week - I just can't help but feel a little dissapointed with how unorganised things have been around here. I guess not every day/week is going to be interesting though - I suppose it's just part of the job.
Today I came into a very quite office and was told by Jade (another marketing girl) that everyone would pretty much be out of the office today - sick, having the day off, on holidays etc. I was a little bit annoyed at this because I hadn't been left any work to do (at my other placement I'm always being set lists of things to do and having work set aside for me). Jade isn't really involved with the HRDRI so it looked like I would be spending a very long day researching information and writing up a proper version of the program plan - not exactly the PR experience I was hoping for (so this post won't actually be very interesting).
So I spent half my day going through the program plan properly - making up title pages, formatting and actually writing it. I got through the executive summary, the situation analysis, the communication strategy and the implementation. I still have to wait until next week for the evaluation and budget information. Jade didn't really have any information for the 'research' part of the campaign so I tried to find some of my own by searching around the internet - on the HVRF website, ABS website etc. Sheridan came in around lunch time and gave me a few things to do in the follow up of Corroboree - which wasn't ideal as it isn't my project, but hey, better then nothing. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing up thankyou letters for some of the key supporters of Corroboree - which was good - afterall it's all improving my writing skills!
I'm not really sure why this position was put forward, I've had some really good experiences with it (the first and second weeks were good) but since then it's been largely downhill - the people here are always (and understandably) really busy and don't really seem to have much to do with the HRDRI - so I can't help but wonder (in retrospect) whether I would have had a better experience with another event/campaign placement. Well there's my whinge for the week - I just can't help but feel a little dissapointed with how unorganised things have been around here. I guess not every day/week is going to be interesting though - I suppose it's just part of the job.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
More HRDRI Work
Hi again,
This week I started preparing a program plan/report type thing for the HRDRI. I have already done a few of these for Uni so there weren't many hassles as far as knowing what to do, how to format etc. This would also be a good basis for the case study report which we have to do for this subject - two birds, one stone type thing. I spent a while looking around on the PRIA's website, trying to find the 2007 criteria - it doesn't seem to be there anymore - so I just checked the UTS database for the format of previous winners. I figured that would do for a starting point and hopefully the PRIA will republish the 2007 guidelines. For those who are looking for somewhere to start, I used http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/gta/show.php?id=581 as the basis for my report. I then had to start writing from the information I'd been given. It took me ages to pull the draft together - mainly because I had to sort through a lot of information which was written in some sort of industry lingo. I couldn't finish it because the campaign itself isn't over (making it impossible to do the evaluation part). Anyway, a bit of the draft is done now so I will just have to wait until next time to see what will be done with it. I get next week off (the office is closed because Corroboree is on and everyone involved will be up in the Hunter Valley). So until next time!
Vicky
This week I started preparing a program plan/report type thing for the HRDRI. I have already done a few of these for Uni so there weren't many hassles as far as knowing what to do, how to format etc. This would also be a good basis for the case study report which we have to do for this subject - two birds, one stone type thing. I spent a while looking around on the PRIA's website, trying to find the 2007 criteria - it doesn't seem to be there anymore - so I just checked the UTS database for the format of previous winners. I figured that would do for a starting point and hopefully the PRIA will republish the 2007 guidelines. For those who are looking for somewhere to start, I used http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/gta/show.php?id=581 as the basis for my report. I then had to start writing from the information I'd been given. It took me ages to pull the draft together - mainly because I had to sort through a lot of information which was written in some sort of industry lingo. I couldn't finish it because the campaign itself isn't over (making it impossible to do the evaluation part). Anyway, a bit of the draft is done now so I will just have to wait until next time to see what will be done with it. I get next week off (the office is closed because Corroboree is on and everyone involved will be up in the Hunter Valley). So until next time!
Vicky
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Example of some written work
I thought I would put up one of the writing tasks I've done just to show you all the sort of work I'm doing! (Just ignore the crazy formatting).
MEDIA RELEASE AUGUST 2007
Hunter Tourism to launch Hunter Region Disaster Relief Initiative
Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation, along with the Hon. Bob Baldwin and the Hon. Michael Costa, will launch its Hunter Region Disaster Relief Initiative this Friday (17th August) at the
The campaign will occur in the wake of the June long weekend storms, which devastated the Hunter and
Research has revealed that the Hunter tourism industry has suffered a loss of $60 million in revenue.
In partnership with industry, Hunter Tourism was successful in securing $600,000 for the Hunter from the NSW and Commonwealth Governments to restore tourist consumer confidence in our region.
The relief funding from the Government has been applied to an integrated marketing campaign which will commence on Sunday August 19.
The initiative, developed alongside the “Short Breaks from
The campaign will give significant exposure to five Hunter destinations, the
The campaign will provide much needed assistance for those affected by the storms and flooding.
The initiative will run for four weeks, finishing on September 17.
For further information, please contact
Campaign launch photos!
Better late then never...
People!
Bob Baldwin
David Mulham
Will Creedon (GM of HVG), Frank Terenzini, Bob Baldwin, Andrew Fletcher (CEO HTRO), David Mulham (Chairman HRTO)
People!
Bob Baldwin
David Mulham
Will Creedon (GM of HVG), Frank Terenzini, Bob Baldwin, Andrew Fletcher (CEO HTRO), David Mulham (Chairman HRTO)Saturday, September 1, 2007
Week 4 of placement
Hi again,
Nothing much to report this week - everyone at Hunter Tourism is pretty focused on Corroboree at the moment so I haven't really been getting as much work on the HRDRI (Hunter Region Disaster Relief Initiative) as I would like. I spent most of my time this week preparing a pitch on the five areas which Hunter Tourism promotes (Lake Macquarie, Newcastle, Upper Hunter Country, Hunter Valley and Barrington Tops). This basically involved working out an angle for a weekend away (e.g. adventure weekend) and then finding appropriate activities and accommodation to suit the weekend. Apparently these sorts of things are handy to have in case a media outlet calls looking for something to run. I also spent a bit of my time this week ringing up media and other organisations associated with Hunter Tourism to see if they were able to come to an information day for Corroboree. It was all good experience but I wish I was able to do more for the project I signed up for. Anyway, hopefully next week there will be more to do for HRDRI (though I'm not sure as Corroboree is the week after - so I'm quite sure all efforts will be put into that). I will try to put up some photos of the launch of the HRDRI soon so you can all see what was going on.
Until next time...
-Vicky
Nothing much to report this week - everyone at Hunter Tourism is pretty focused on Corroboree at the moment so I haven't really been getting as much work on the HRDRI (Hunter Region Disaster Relief Initiative) as I would like. I spent most of my time this week preparing a pitch on the five areas which Hunter Tourism promotes (Lake Macquarie, Newcastle, Upper Hunter Country, Hunter Valley and Barrington Tops). This basically involved working out an angle for a weekend away (e.g. adventure weekend) and then finding appropriate activities and accommodation to suit the weekend. Apparently these sorts of things are handy to have in case a media outlet calls looking for something to run. I also spent a bit of my time this week ringing up media and other organisations associated with Hunter Tourism to see if they were able to come to an information day for Corroboree. It was all good experience but I wish I was able to do more for the project I signed up for. Anyway, hopefully next week there will be more to do for HRDRI (though I'm not sure as Corroboree is the week after - so I'm quite sure all efforts will be put into that). I will try to put up some photos of the launch of the HRDRI soon so you can all see what was going on.
Until next time...
-Vicky
Thursday, August 23, 2007
HRDRI advertisements
Hi all,
I thought it might be a good idea to put up some of the advertisements which are part of the campaign. Each ad (both television and radio) directs people the website www.visithunter.com.au (which was essentially the main port of call for the entire campaign - where people can plan and book their holiday).
I thought it might be a good idea to put up some of the advertisements which are part of the campaign. Each ad (both television and radio) directs people the website www.visithunter.com.au (which was essentially the main port of call for the entire campaign - where people can plan and book their holiday).
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Another week down
Hi all!
Well I've just completed another week of my campaign placement (now one third of the way through!) and it just occurred to me that I never actually mentioned what the Hunter Region Disaster Relief Campaign is all about. So basically, Hunter Tourism (alongside Tourism NSW) obtained $600 000 from the state and federal Governments to restore 'tourist consumer confidence to the Hunter Region after the June long weekend storms' (I've lost count of the amount of times I've rattled that little spiel off to people). It's basically a marketing campaign that has been launched throughout NSW (and I'm pretty sure
Anyway, back to this week. On Monday I spent a large part of the day working out who came to the launch of the campaign and then drafting and finalising thank you letters for all fifty of them. I also spent time helping Kate sift through media releases and product information various companies had sent Hunter Tourism. We picked out ones which we thought were 'newsworthy' and then I was left with the task of summarising them into nice neat bundles of good, interesting information. These would come into use today. So today I worked my half day and spent most of my time making up a "pitch" for tourism NSW - detailing the upcoming developments/products, events, media, facts, personalities etc to do with the five main regions in the Hunter which HRTO deals with (in case you're wondering: Barrington Tops, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Upper Hunter Country and the Hunter Valley). I had to integrate a lot of the media release information that I did on Monday into this document. Having to plow through all the information on the Internet was pretty time consuming but I'm gradually learning to better my research skills.
I'm not sure what I'm doing for the campaign next week, so until then!
- Vicky
Friday, August 17, 2007
The launch
Hi again,
Today was the launch of the Hunter Region Disaster Relief Initiative! It was held at the
I was still helping to organise the launch on Wednesday, which pretty much consisted on finalising the media releases and ringing up media, government offices, and partners of Hunter Tourism etc to make sure they could attend the event.
Back to the event - I went up to the gardens early with Kate (a marketing/PR girl) and helped her with setting up the amphitheatre. I then got the job of handing out media releases and other information to people as they entered the theatre. The event itself was short and sweet, with Bob Baldwin and Frank Terenzini (in place of Michael Costa) giving speeches.
It was a good turnout, over fifty people (including local media) turned up, so Sheridan (the marketing manager) and Andrew (HRTO CEO) were pretty happy.
Overall it was a really good experience - I was able to see and experience how an event (however small) comes together. I met some really lovely people from
I think I would really like to do some work experience with
I feel like I’m already learning heaps about the world of PR – mostly through talking to heaps of people about the work they have done throughout their PR careers (and through the ‘hands on’ stuff obviously). Everyone has been really friendly and full of advice.
Anyway, I’ll be able to get into the campaign properly next week (advertising is officially starting on Sunday).
Until then!
- Vicky
Monday, August 13, 2007
Day one
Hi there,
I had my half first day at Hunter Tourism (working on the Hunter Regional Disaster Relief Campaign) yesterday and it all went pretty well!
Before I start, I should probably mention that the entire campaign has already been planned out in its entirety - Hunter Tourism, along with associated partners have already had a number of meetings outlining the exact communication and implementation tools which will be used. Anyway, back to my first day.
I got straight into it as soon as I arrived and began updating their local media database - this pretty much consisted of ringing up lots of local media outlets (think newspapers, radio stations, televisions stations) and making sure that we had the right information on the editors/media managers etc. This needed to be done pretty quickly so the invitations for the launch (on Friday) could be sent out.
I also spent some time helping Kate (another of the marketing/PR girls) chase up some of the media contacts. I'm already starting to learn some things from the experience - like the fact that journalists hardly ever answer their phones.
They had me prepare a media release later on in the day to promote the launch of the campaign. I'm pretty sure it will be sent out later in the week.
I go back there tomorrow and will once again be helping Kate confirm the guest/media list for the launch on Friday - this will mean ringing people up once again and confirming whether or not they got their invitations and if they will be coming.
I also get to go to the launch of the campaign on Friday (it's at the Hunter Valley Gardens). This should be a really good experience as I will be able to talk properly to the media I've been ringing all week. Bob Baldwin and Michael Costa will also be attending, so it's all quite exciting.
More from me later on the topic...
- Vicky
I had my half first day at Hunter Tourism (working on the Hunter Regional Disaster Relief Campaign) yesterday and it all went pretty well!
Before I start, I should probably mention that the entire campaign has already been planned out in its entirety - Hunter Tourism, along with associated partners have already had a number of meetings outlining the exact communication and implementation tools which will be used. Anyway, back to my first day.
I got straight into it as soon as I arrived and began updating their local media database - this pretty much consisted of ringing up lots of local media outlets (think newspapers, radio stations, televisions stations) and making sure that we had the right information on the editors/media managers etc. This needed to be done pretty quickly so the invitations for the launch (on Friday) could be sent out.
I also spent some time helping Kate (another of the marketing/PR girls) chase up some of the media contacts. I'm already starting to learn some things from the experience - like the fact that journalists hardly ever answer their phones.
They had me prepare a media release later on in the day to promote the launch of the campaign. I'm pretty sure it will be sent out later in the week.
I go back there tomorrow and will once again be helping Kate confirm the guest/media list for the launch on Friday - this will mean ringing people up once again and confirming whether or not they got their invitations and if they will be coming.
I also get to go to the launch of the campaign on Friday (it's at the Hunter Valley Gardens). This should be a really good experience as I will be able to talk properly to the media I've been ringing all week. Bob Baldwin and Michael Costa will also be attending, so it's all quite exciting.
More from me later on the topic...
- Vicky
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Week 2 - Welcome!
Hi all!
My name is Vicky Tayler and I'm a second year Communication student (majoring in PR and journalism). Welcome to my work experience blog!
I went for an interview yesterday with Sheridan from Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation and was fortunate enough to be offered the experience of working with them on one of their campaigns - Hunter Region Disaster Relief Campaign (HRDRI).
Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation (HRTO) basically markets the five main areas of the Hunter Region (Barrington Tops, Newcastle, Upper Hunter Country, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley) - hoping to make the region the premium rural tourist destination. The HRDRI was instigated in the wake of the June long weekend storms - which caused major financial loss to the tourism industry.
We have organised for it to be about 80 hours all up and I should be able to start the week after next. Everybody in the office (all five of them) seem very nice. It should be a good experience.
Anyway, I'll have more to say once I actually start...
- Vicky
My name is Vicky Tayler and I'm a second year Communication student (majoring in PR and journalism). Welcome to my work experience blog!
I went for an interview yesterday with Sheridan from Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation and was fortunate enough to be offered the experience of working with them on one of their campaigns - Hunter Region Disaster Relief Campaign (HRDRI).
Hunter Regional Tourism Organisation (HRTO) basically markets the five main areas of the Hunter Region (Barrington Tops, Newcastle, Upper Hunter Country, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley) - hoping to make the region the premium rural tourist destination. The HRDRI was instigated in the wake of the June long weekend storms - which caused major financial loss to the tourism industry.
We have organised for it to be about 80 hours all up and I should be able to start the week after next. Everybody in the office (all five of them) seem very nice. It should be a good experience.
Anyway, I'll have more to say once I actually start...
- Vicky
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