Atmosphere Piece: Sports Luxe

When my group first decided they wanted to create an atmosphere piece on the genre of fashion and design I was a little hesitant. I am not generally a girl interested in the workings of the fashion industry however when a more narrow approach of sports luxe was suggested I was excited! I never before realised that sporting attire could be so fashionable.. I guess you learn something new everyday!

Blurring the line between fashion and fitness sports luxe is a new trend in 2012 turning the usual morning run into a fashion parade. Pilot Designer, Natalie Lane like many other trendy girls all around the world struggled with the frustration when it came to finding quality, stylish athletic wear.

"It seemed to me that most fitness gear was made for men - just scaled down to fit women," she says. "I wanted gym wear that didn't compromise my sense of style and could take me through my day. Something that looked good, complimented my busy lifestyle and remained sensible all the same."

So, in completing our atmosphere piece in fashion we saw sports luxe as being a great area to project to our target audience. Although fashion films only recently emerged as its own genre, the first fashion film in fact dates back to the 50s, when fashion photographer Erwin Blumenfeld presented a video experimentation –essentially an editorial in motion— to his client Helena Rubinstein, who dismissed for being too avant-garde. The exact definition of a fashion film is still blurry. According to ASVOFF’s regulations, it must last between 30 seconds and explore “themes of fashion, style and beauty through the medium of the moving image.”

“This began as a space for directors and designers to express themselves using tools that were familiar to them but through a medium that was completely new at the time” commented Diane Pernet.

It seems as short film-makers we are stepping into unmarked territory according to those who deal with the fashion film genre everyday. Below Diane Pernet talks about fashion and film.

Public Relations Professionals: The Stats

Three more years ahead of me completing a dual degree in Journalism and Communication (Public Relations)  it got me to thinking. What are the actual statistics for job success in public relations? I examined some statistical data outlined by the Australian Government's new initiative in job outlook and found some information on earnings, gender, hours worked and age of employees. Check it out below!

From this data it can be seen that public relations professionals in the field earn slightly more a week than that of other occupations meeting approximately $1265 a week before tax. Not too bad I'd say. This does not include PR professionals in higher status roles.

Picture: Australian Government

The difference in currently employed PR professionals between men and women is staggering. Females make up almost twice the amount of people working in public relations than men. This is not surprising however still staggering considering that most management roles are taken over by men. Is the tide changing in terms of management in PR?

Another notable statistic from this study showed that employers believed that the most important skill of any public relations officer at 82% was their ability to talk to others and convey information closely followed by giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made and asking questions at 80%.

Read further on the Australian Government site that is really easy to use and navigate to find out more statistics on public relations here. 

The Relationship Between PR and Marketing

Its the age old debate among many people and also myself before I embarked on study in the field of public relations. What actually is public relations and how does it differ to marketing?

Kotler and Mindak (1978) were the first researchers to begin to define the difference between the two and how they could be used in a business structure. The following are points on the relationship between marketing and public relations as outlined by Kotler and Mindak (1978) on how they could both function in an organisation:

• Separate but equal functions (marketing and public relations have different functions,perspectives and capabilities).
• Equal but overlapping functions (both are important and separate functions but they share some terrain, particularly product publicity and customer relations; in addition, public relations serves as a ‘watchdog’ on the social responsibility of marketing).
• Marketing as the dominant function (marketing manages the relationship with all publics in the same way as the relationship with customers – ‘megamarketing’).
• Public relations as the dominant function (if public relations builds relationships with all key publics of the organization, then programmes to build relationships with customers, i.e. marketing, would be a subset of public relations).
• Marketing and public relations as the same function (public relations and marketing converge in concepts and methodologies and a single department manages the external affairs of the company).

No matter which way a company chooses to go when structuring their organisation for efficient use of both marketing and public relations both roles are integral to the workings of any successful business. As defined by social media blogger Shanna Mallon, marketing encompasses the process of promoting, selling or distributing a product or service which differs from public relations professionals who encourage public understanding and goodwill towards a particular company and its products and services. 

It is without a doubt that society sees the overlaps in the job roles of both marketing and public relations and as we continue to find new ways of doing things and technology input increases there may not be a need for both roles. I however believe that one department would not be able to do their job without the other. Without public relations the goodwill of a business would not be known by potential clients and therefore the product bypassed due to it being unrecognisable. Without marketing there would be no product design, no push for the sell, no job for PR. The two must go hand in hand.

Check out Shanna Mallon's blog for more differences between PR and marketing: http://www.blogher.com/what-difference-between-marketing-and-pr

Media Conference #4 - Dr. Peter Milne

Dr. Peter Milne in his media conference today opened our minds to the idea of Visual Culture Jamming. Visual Culture Jamming uses the idea of icons which are images that are highly recognisable to a large number of the population. These could be forms of religious paintings or portraits like the Mona Lisa. Almost every member of society have feasted their eyes on this painting therefore it has become part of our shared visual memory and therefore making it iconic. The painting in turn has power.

Visual Culture Jamming starts off with artists playing with these iconic images in a humorous way usually to make a political statement. Due to the images being iconic we as viewers are able to recognise the differences in the picture and construe through our own knowledge the message that the artist is trying to portray. Still images that have been broadcast by the media also become iconic pictures. For example the pictures of Kim Fook running away from her town that had just been bombed in Vietnam. Also, the images taken by soldiers of the detainees at Abu Grahib have all become iconic images in society. These images have all risen through the zeitgeist to become iconic.

So what actually is a culture jam? Dr. Milne describes culture jamming as an engagement with existing media for the purpose of social critique very often using humour. It is inverting an existing form of media, turning it on its head to create something politically challenging. Many groups active in culture jamming manipulate existing visual media that belongs to corporations in order to make their political statement.

When culture jamming there are three questions to ask:

• What do you want the audience to feel?
• What do you want the audience to see?
• And what do you want the audience to know?

One of the most famous culture jammers is Banksy, a graffitti artist from England, some of his work is posted below. 

 Photo: theorginialwinger.com 

Photo: endeavours.typepad.com

Women in PR: Why they are so damn good!

I was reading this really interesting article by Craig Pearce, founder of Craig Pearce Strategic Communication on why women are better than men in PR. I thought this was very appropriate and it would be interested to deliver a few of the ideas to you. Many of the activities undertaken by PR professionals are best suited to our female friends when it comes to successful practice. Academic articles exploring the reasons behind this show that women have a  real headstart when it comes to being better at PR then men are and here are some reasons why! 

Empathy

Women are able to feel what the other person is organisation is feeling. This feeling gives them a valuable additional dimension to the more intellectual quality of understanding the other person's or organisation's situation. Well done ladies!

Empowerment

Women are bale to share power and in turn encourage and mentor employees whilst sharing and giving praise. This is what the research has uncovered anyway although I know most of us have had really horrible female bosses or fellow employees who do nothing of the sort.

Women are better writers than men

Not to be outright sexist (although I too believe it to be the truth) women are more likely to go for arts and men are more swayed toward the sciences. The arts definitely receive a lot more training in professional writing than that of those scientists!

Converstational

Women love to talk! Half the time they don't care who with, where, or what the topic is about they just love ranting and raving conversationally for as long as possible! This is why women are better at PR. They are able to be more relaxed with people and can definitely facilitate conversations better than most men. 

Multitasking superiority in PR

Women are better at multi-tasking then men, with PR being a very heavy multi-tasking environment. You can probably assume what the benefits might be here.

I could talk all day (as women do!) about why women are better than men in PR but I think I've taken up my quota of sexism allowance for the day!

If you want to find out more about Craig Pearce or the ideas in his articles check out this website: http://www.pria.com.au/priablog/women-in-pr-why-they-win 

Media Conference #1 - Robert Mukombozi

Robert Mukombozi is an investigative Rwandan journalist exile in Australia. He escaped Rwanda despite being sentenced to death for his reporting. Robert is currently studying a masters degree in Journalism and Mass Communication at Griffith University. He writes for The African Executive however is a former journalist for The Daily Monitor.

Robert received an award as one of the 100 most influential Africans in Australia and is also one of the 14 members of the first ever Ministerial Consultative Committee for African communities in Australia a committee set up by the Federal Government to liaise with African Australians.

Robert showed a number of videos in the media conference about his time as a journalist in Rwanda and Australia which were extremely fascinating.

Media Conference #2 - Frances Whiting

      Frances Whiting is an author, journalist and speaker working for the Courier/Sunday Mail. Frances first began out as a primary school teacher however went back to study business and journalism at Queensland University of Technology.

      Frances worked in East London teaching for a year at a bad school where the parents of the students liked her because she actually stayed there. Most of these parents were criminals, they even gave her stolen goods as gifts. 

      After this she came back to Australia and got a job at a small newspaper on the north coast called the Sunshine Coast Extra but then she was offered a job at the Brisbane Sunday Mail. Frances wrote a column on the Ekka which was meant to be a one off but has now written this weekly column for 16 years. 

      Frances prefers feature writing to news report writing because there is more time to produce the pieces and the writer can be more creative. 

      Frances had this piece of advice for the students: ‘Find your own voice. Find your own way of doing things. Find something you are passionate and enthusiastic about and you will succeed’.

      You can follow Frances on Twitter at @FrancesWhiting.

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Media Conference #3 - Luke Royes

Luke Royes is an ABC online journalist. He has also been a journalist at News Ltd, Gold Coast Bulletin and City News at Quest Newspapers. Luke was a student at UQ, graduating in 2005 with a Bachelor of Journalism. Luke currently writes entertainment pieces but his real passion lies in investigations and hard news. 

Luke came to speak to the public relations class today about the use of social media.

This is what he had to say about some of the social networking sites:

·     

·         Twitter

o   Keep up to date with what’s happening on news

o   Tweet press conferences, court cases

o   Check on twitter for #COMU1152 under Luke Royes tweets to find more information

·         Facebook

o   Photos, videos, discussion (this is the applications strength)

o   A lot of people use it

·         Four Square

o   Allows people to check in at places they like

o   Business use discounts if customers check in

·         Instagram

o   Creating brand recognition

o   Ekka had an instagram, keeps the event in the minds of people

·         Pinterest

o   Digital pinboard

o   People still catching on to this application

o   Businesses use to showcase services

o   Share things easily

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       Luke discussed that the ABC got involved with social media 5-7 years ago and used this platform to connect with the audience and promote the ABC. They initially started with Facebook and Twitter so that readers could engage in discussion about their stores. In 2008, Luke was told not to mention his work on social networking sites so not to bring the company into disrepute however a year later this was when the company invested money into social networking.

      Luke explained to the students that we needed to be active, comfortable and know the ground rules in social media so that we don't make mistakes and hurt our career prospects. He noted in the words of Mark Colvin, an ABC presenter, "Don't be a dickhead". Good advice I believe. 

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The Media Kit - Backgrounder

žThe backgrounder is used for both internal and external communication. It can be used to support an organisation's initiatives, campaigns, programs, to provide information to the media and can be posted to a website. The backgrounder is written in advance and kept on file for use in media kits and special events. It is provided to the media when information about the organisations leaders and managers is required.

The backgrounder is also useful in times of crises to provide information to the media about people, products, initiatives, and organisational history. Backgrounders can describe how an organisation, product or service evolved, or was created, or describe an individual in an organisation. They are used to provide support for feature stories and newsletters.  ž

There are three types of backgrounders:

- about people

- historical

- about an organisation and its products or services

Writing a Backgrounder

žWritten with a specific audience in mind: professionals, investors, lawmakers, regulators, visitors on a plant tour, media, customers.

žMake it interesting: turn abstract facts into concrete images with some creativity (eg: laid end to end they’d stretch from Brisbane to Cairns).

žžUse organisation’s house style, typefaces, logos, contain complete contact information (email, telephone, URL)

The Media Kit - Media Release

One of the most useful tools for the PR professional is the media kit. The media kit encompasses many written documents that can be sent to the press in order for them to turn into stories.

The following items should be written for print media kits:

• Media Release
• Backgrounder
• Profile
• Fact Sheets
• Photos
• Collateral – company report, fliers, brochure
• Merchandise

Media Release

Any media release must answer the following: 

•Who

•What

•When

•Where

•Why

•How

After producing the media release ensure it contains the following:

žLug line

Attribution

žSAID – is the verb of utterance

žPunctuation

žUse of numbers (one to nine spell in full, 10+ written numerically)

Readability: white space, font size, line spacing, ragged right edge (left

justified)

Transitions

žMake abstract detail concrete

žFor Immediate Use/Embargoed till

žContact details

The following link shows a great example of a media release about the Brisbane Ekka: http://www.ekka.com.au/media/468659/july%2016%20-%20media%20release%20-%20free%20ekka%20event%20in%20the%20brisbane%20cbd%20this%20weekend.pdf

The next post will discuss the backgrounder.

Public Relations Memes

The Inverted Pyramid

The following is the most important diagram to keep in mind when writing stories for the media. The inverted pyramid enables editors to cut off the story in order to fit in the required space of print, online or broadcast media without losing any of the important details of the story.

Tools of the Trade

Public relations professionals use a number of tools to complete their jobs everyday. Therefore students aspiring to work in the field of PR need to become equipped with these tools. The following posts will contain tips on the tools of trade. 

One of the most important set of tools is news values because without adhering to these values any information you want the media to pick up must encompass one or more of the following news values to become newsworthy.

žProminence - the people a news story is about. If the people are well-known, then the news story is deemed newsworthy because of prominence.

žProximity - the physical or emotional closeness of a news story to a media outlet’s audience and helps readers/viewers relate to a story on a more personal level.

žCurrency - the ‘flavour of the month’ news value. Currency comes into play when a particular story or theme is already being covered by the media and further developments or side stories are likely to be appreciated.

žTimeliness - refers to harder hitting stories and important developments in a story that would lose their newsworthiness if not reported as soon as possible.

žConflict - or dispute between two or more parties such as wars, politics, opinion, sporting teams, or even reality TV competitors.

žImpact - the shock or “wow” factor requires a story to affect a large group in a large way. Earthquakes or tsunamis are an example of impact as a news value. Footage of the destruction has a great impact.

žHuman interest - heart-wrenching stories — happy or sad — about challenges or achievements. Human interest stories are typically considered soft news or feature-style stories.

Odd or unusual – has novelty value and is about things that are out of the ordinary. 

Find out more about news values at this helpful page: http://suite101.com/article/the-eight-news-values-a255406