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Today I commented on Phoebe's blog.

Week 11

WEEK 11

This weeks readings were all about research and evaluation. I think that research is the single most important thing to do in a PR campaign. If a practitioner does not research well, chances are the aims and objectives of the campaign will not be in line with the company's aims and objectives and therefore will not achieve the desired outcome.

I think it's also important to remember to evaluate at all stages of the PR campaign, to both make sure this campaign is successful and to know for the future which tactics worked well.

There are many considerations when undertaking research, mainly being time, money and human resources. care must be taken to carry out the correct amount of research, not enough and the campaign may fail, too much and money and time is wasted for little gain.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/practice in that I had not really considered which aspects of a company need to be researched (input, output and outcome research), and how many different ways there are to evaluate a campaign.

I found the methodology section in the readings really interesting, and was particularly interested in the table, research methods and techniques. It gave me a few ideas for my assignment!

I was having trouble coming up with research techniques before reading this chapter, which is an overload of surveys, interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies, case studies, analysis of existing data, organisational culture study, feedback analysis, media monitoring, content analysis, benchmark research, statistical analysis, environmental monitoring, communication audits, corporate communication archives, testimonials, expert review, internet monitoring, measurement of online presence, AVEs and secondary info sources. I now have research methods coming out my ears...

The case study was also really helpful... Well done Mel! It showed me the types of research and evaluation that can be used in a campaign such as the Census.

Cheers guys... last blog ever and my birthday... today is the most exciting day ever!!

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Today I have commented on Fabian's blog :)

Week 10

Week 10!

Although I had already read Chapter 7 of this week's readings, I found that this time around I thought more about PR strategy in relation to our next assignment, the PR plan. I think it's important to know the value of strategic PR and always remember that planning is key to a successful campaign!

I think they key points to remember from this week's readings are that included in the PR plan is:
1 Executive summary
2 The communication process
3 Background
4 Situation analysis (SWOT)
5 Main message statement
6 Stakeholders
7 Messages for key stakeholders
8 Implementation
9 Budget
10 Monitoring and evaluation

Although this is the outline in the textbook I think there are other areas such as identifying target publics that are also really important in the PR plan. I think the budgeting section really helped me to understand more that everything costs something, to the printing of posters to the staging of a major event.

I thought the checklists and Gnatt chart was really interesting and taught me a lot about how PR plans are implemented out in the big wide world.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/ practice in that although there are many different kinds of tactics, not all tactics are effective for all campaigns. I think this shows how important it is to research.

There are two main types of PR tactics, controlled and uncontrolled. Although I understand the difference, I think that even controlled tactics are uncontrolled to a certain extent. Even if a PR practitioner spends a month perfecting a brochure on a company, targeting who they will give it out to etc, they cannot possibly control what that person will do with that brochure, be it throw it straight in the bin, glance at it then drop it on the ground or read it front to back. Therefore, I think it's important in PR to create maximum impact and information from one glance.

I also found the case study about gaining public support for the ENERGEX community rescue helicopter service was a good example of a PR plan similar in style (though not content) to the Maitland Rep. plan I will complete soon.

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Today I commented on Rhanna's blog.

Week 9

Week 9!

This week we were asked to read Chapter 13 of the textbook which was about Sponsorship and Event Management.

This week's readings made me think of all the times on the news or in the newspaper that I've seen a CEO of a major company handing over one of those huge cheques to a charitable organisation or donating money to a hospital or something. I've never before considered (before starting this course) how much PR planning goes into such a situation.

Event Management is an area of PR that I am particularly interested in. Events need to be carefully planned and executed, and are planned using the steps of feasibility, planning, execution and evaluation. This also made me think of my PR tutorial a few weeks ago in which we were looking up Golden Target Awards. Many of these involved sponsoring an organization or managing an event. They all did it well, and I reflected on these case studies while reading the textbook this week.

Sponsorship involves a high level of research, planning, scheduling and creativity to ensure that both organisations involved gain benefit from the relationship. Different types of sponsorship include philanthropic and corporate.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/ practice in that when managing an event, a PR practitioner must ensure that the event "not only fulfills the aims and strategies of the organization or sponsor but also attract the attention of the media". In other words, if the CEO of your company hands a big cheque to a charity and no media is there to see it or write about it, the relationship is not mutually beneficial, although I'm sure the charity would still be very happy :)

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Today I commented on Zac's blog