IPP: A culmination of skills

 

As my Independent Professional Project (IPP) comes to a conclusion, I can't help but look back to the first day of IPP pitches when my first pitch of going to Haiti fell through because of health concerns.

When my second pitch of developing a promotional campaign for the Diversity and Immigrant Student Support Department's Cultural and Language Mentor Program got approved, I knew there was work to be done. Six months later, I can actually say "Hey, that wasn't so bad! I actually learned something."

Since I like outlining my key learning points, here are the ones that stuck out the most:

• I can work with a client - choosing RRC as my client was a good fit because I know who the client is and believe in what the department stands for - in this case, culture and diversity. I realize that my values need to fit with the company's objectives in order for me to be motivated. This isn't the case sometimes and I might be hired by a company that might not be in line with my own moral values. In addition, I can also work with a client who has specific needs for his/her audience. I have experienced a situation where my client didn't necessarily like my creative ideas and it was nice to be told that the idea wouldn't work. I learned that just because I was in CreComm my ideas were great and one of a kind. Ideas needed to be tailored and well-thought of.
  
• I can stay on task - following deadlines and a critical path is important in project management. One person explained to me before the importance of a critical path: If you were hit by a bus on the way to work, will someone be able to pick up and know exactly where and what is happening on the project? Organization is key and what I learned is that my client and I went over the same topics in our meetings at times because either we didn't write down what we decided on or neither of us brought our notes from the previous meeting. Organization is key.
  
• I can stay on budget - throwing an event on $1,000 may sound like a lot of money for a free hotdog lunch but a lot of things need to be considered and included into the budget. I didn't think I'd have to include the price of plastic squeeze bottles into my budget but I did. I learned that food and entertainment go hand in hand and would turn any free food event from a grab and go to a sit and stay event. Having entertainment helps!
  
• I can deliver a promise - I promised my client a promotional video and an awareness event and that's exactly what they were going to get. That made me feel good that I was able to provide what I put on the "contract". Even though there was some minor changes, the client still got bigger things what they bargained for in the end. P.S. I'm not getting anything for this :) purely experience for me and the pleasure of helping in a cause that I believe in.

I present my IPP on Thursday, March 10 and until then I cannot rest. I know until that day is over, my soul will be in unrest. School will be downhill from there and uphill for my career in public relations :)

Life After PR: How Might People Disappear and The Future of PR

For those wondering how human life will end, here's your video no. 3



Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about that theory... but I know degeneration is never a good thing. I guess everyone hopes they're no longer around to witness how humans would go extinct.

Life After PR Topic #3 - The Future of PR

On the other hand, PR as we know it is just about to evolve. I've looked up "future of pr" and an article from the trusty and always handy site Mashable.com popped up.

Author Erica Swallow interviewed 14 PR pros about the future of PR and collected their answers, theories, and ideas.

I found the one about press (news) releases interesting, how Vistaprint Public Relations Manager, Jeff Esposito says there will be three different types of press releases aimed to assist different audiences.

Cisco Systems director of public relations David McCulloch predicts press releases will be more personal to the audience by allowing the gatekeepers a.k.a. journalists to fully understand what companies are all about rather than telling them what to write.

To add to these predictions and theories, I'd like to say that PR, in the future, will be more friendly to its audiences allowing easy two-way communication and instant message delivery. PR will be more personal and will be tailored to the specific needs of the consumer and the way that consumer wants to interact with companies of his/her choice. The role of companies will be transparent communication with its consumers but for this to happen, companies would have to immensely expand its consumer database to accommodate individual needs.

Remember the scene when Tom Cruise entered the Gap in Minority Report?



PR in the future would be something like that, but less obvious of course. Looks like someone at Gap Inc. has a future plan for marketing.

Life After PR: Capitol Records and Two-Way Communication

As I continue this series, I get more interested in thinking about the changes in PR since it started. I guess if one were to put a date on when PR started, it would have to have been 1914 when the Father of PR, Ivy Lee, was retained by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to represent his family and Standard Oil after the coal mining rebellion in Colorado known as the "Ludlow Massacre". But that's besides the point. The point is looking back at the progression of PR over the last 97 years would be pretty interesting.

Here is your Life After People video:



Red River College Roblin Centre in The Exchange District Campus has multiple Edit Suites located in the basement of the William building. Do you think it would survive a Life After People scenario? I'm not betting on it.

Life After PR Topic #2 - Two-Way Communication

Remember that Grunig guy's four models of Public Relations? That was learned in first year PR and yet still fresh in my mind...

It says that the two-way symmetrical model "uses communication to negotiate with publics, resolve conflict, and promote mutual understanding and respect between the organization and its public(s)."

So a good example of this? Do you remember when suggestion boxes first showed up? How about when the word "survey" was first used?

These are some of the ways that organizations get feedback from their audience to improve the way they operate their business and/or manage their employees. Suggestion boxes offer anonymity to those who offer them while surveys allow for a more complex data research. Both are very useful tools for a PR professional and should be used in a communication strategy when appropriate. 

Life After PR: A three-part series (or longer)

Last night, I was sitting in front of the TV flipping channels on the clicker when I ran into a show called "Life After People" on the History channel. The commentary's voice drew me to stop flipping channels as he sounded so concerned as he described what would happen if the human race suddenly disappeared off the face of the planet. Interesting.

But life after people? To me the answer was easy: there won't be life! All things will cease to exist. As you watch more episodes, you'll realize that even if you survive the mysterious apocalypse the world wouldn't be a nice place to live in. It was not like how Will Smith lived in the movie I Am Legend.

The premise of the show was predicting what would happen to our surroundings and the structures that humans have so carefully built. The animation they have created to illustrate this phenomenon was really well done.

Here was one example: Leonardo DaVinci's The Last Supper. What would happen to the fresco if there were no people to maintain it?

OK, so for something less bleak, I've adapted the same concept and applied it to PR to answer the question: How has life changed after PR? I know there are some things in PR that can't be measured but for my own entertainment and pleasure, I've thought of some things that I think have changed since the idea of public relations started.

Life After PR Topic #1 - Customer Service

Do you remember shopping at a store and didn't particularly liked the way they conducted your business? Maybe because of a bad return or exchange policy? Maybe because no one greeted you at the door or offered to assist you?

Have you noticed the company's policy change over the last couple of years? I remembered when return policies weren't as lengthy as 30 days. Some still have 14 days or less for exchanges and no refunds!

Exercising PR, companies were finding more ways to appeal to consumers by offering them a choice to keep or return their purchase - something that didn't exist many years ago.