The unthinkable happened last week

Hello dear people,

It's been a sad week. It's okay. I feel all of your pain and I know that all of you reading this were DEEPLY saddened by Mr Zayn Malik leaving One Direction. His exit has affected all of our lives...

Don't worry Liam, I'll try and sum it up for you. If you have been living under a small rock in your garden, probably hiding from essay's and exams, then you wouldn't have known that Zayn decided to leave One Direction. His departure sent shock waves through the world, leaving women of all ages, feeling rather sad. Such a huge story guaranteed some social media marketing from brands. The best, being this corker from Lidl.

Lidl are good. Really good. They used the best of a bad situation and decided to knock 1/5 of the price of their One Direction Easter eggs. Their tweet about the discount has been retweeted over 25 thousand times and is still counting.

They were quick to jump on the band wagon and managed to make the best out of a bad situation. So, this got me thinking. I started looking at how other brands reacted to big pop culture news. Here are some of my favourites...

• Remember #TheDress? Yeah, that social media outbreak that took over your life for about 24 hours, to never be heard of again? Well, many brands knew they had to cash in on this outbreak. IHOP is my favourite. Mainly because, you know, Pancakes. My other favourites are Xbox and Lego. They each made sure to promote their own products, while talking about the issue at hand.

• Ahhhh, the royal baby. When Kate went into labour, twitter went mad. Literally. People were constantly checking twitter to see if the little prince had been born. There was even a website called www.hastheroyalbabybeenbornyet.com where it would update you with a simple yes or no. Of course, brands wanted in. The two I chose for this post are probably the cheesiest ones, but, that's what we want, right? Starbucks went with a coffee family while Playdoh went with a playdoh family. Cute, but effective. 

• In early 2014, JCPenny had a bit of a mare on social media. They tweeted like they were drunk during the Superbowl and it turned out that they were the most talked about, non-sponsor of the game. In the end, their drunken tweeting was actually a promotion for mittens, but it didn't stop other brands jumping into the action and replying back. My favourite? Snickers... You'll see why. Although, Coors Light was close behind.

• Brands have a field day during the Grammy's. The following brands mnaged to find relevance within the Grammy's and related it back to them. Some where creative - Olay, while some just got straight to the point - Pepsi. However, they all used the News event for their own gain, and they did it well.

• While this next tweet isn't from a particular news story, it's still my favourite tweet from a brand. Ever. So I'm putting it in this list.

It's important for Brands to engage with the news worthy stories and their audiences. Most of these tweets have gone viral, introducing the brand to a wider audience and showing their presence in an overcrowded place. 

To round it up, goodbye Zayn. You will be missed...

Katy xo

P.s. Which part of Zayn's face will you miss the most?

The joys of Networking

Hello Guys! 

Last Wednesday, I got the opportunity to connect and network with PR agencies and professionals in, for better of another word, 'Speed networking'.

I created a CV poster for the event, forming mine as a Netflix page hoping it would show off my love for the media and entertainment industry. I got to the event bright and early, set up my poster and waited. The whole day was a blur, talking to numerous people about yourself for 3 hours can be tedious, and quite frankly annoying. By lunch I was fed up of talking about myself.

While I didn't get an interview, some of my closest pals got multiple, with really well respected people in the industry. I'm not going to lie. I was disappointed. I wanted to prove myself that day, I wanted to show professionals in the industry that I'm the best person they could ever employ. While that didn't quite go to plan, the knowledge I'm taking away from the event is substantial. 

I learnt what to and what not to put on my CV. I learnt how to talk to professionals and keep them engaged in what I'm saying. I learnt how to present myself as a confident person. Also, most importantly, I learnt what sector of PR I'm interested in. While speaking to 'Grapevine Media' I realised that yeah, I do want to do the entertainment PR. I also learnt that fashion PR is not what I want to enter into, and also learnt about the Health sector of PR.

This event helped me to see the wide range of PR available to little old, naive me. I'm so thankful to my University and peers doing PR in the years above for arranging such an insightful event for me and my fellow undergrads to participate in. I made some very useful contacts on the day, which will be oh so helpful in helping me find experience and a placement. 

Building contacts is such a vital part of the PR industry. As the saying goes, its not what you know, it's who you know..

Katy xo

Finding PR

Hey!

I know haven't updated this in a while, oops. I wish I could say I've been super busy but, alas, I've just been lazy. 

I was thinking the other day about how I chose to do PR at University. A customer at the place I work prompted me this question, and to be honest, I have no idea. I remember reading about the course in the University hand guide and thinking 'Yeah, sounds okay' but I wasn't enthused by it. 

I wanted to study Events Management to begin with. I was sure that this was the right path for me to take but something always felt wrong. I wasn't sure what it was but I had this nagging feeling in the back of brain telling me that I shouldn't be doing this. In all seriousness, my media teacher and form tutor brought the PR world to my attention.

I was always known for being obsessed with Z list celebrities, going as far as stalking those said celebrities just to get a blurry picture that sort of resembled them(I try to forget about those days)(lol). The world of media was something I was definitely interested in, I just didn't know what aspect of it. I remember my teacher always saying to me that I would be good at 'spinning' the media to my agenda, as I normally did in class (HA). I guess this is what set the ball rolling. 

I'm so glad I chose to study PR. I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I applied for the course but what I've learnt and experienced so far has been really intriguing. The psychology side of the course has by far been my favourite part. I've also developed skills I didn't think I had. Doing this course has really opened up my eyes to a new side of this 'world'. I know, thats soooooo cliché, but it's true.

I'm really enjoying my university life and I feel that is down to the course I am doing which has introduced me to amazing friends and incredible experiences. Public Relations is such a huge, diverse world and I'm only just entering it. If you are deciding what to do at University but not sure what pathway to take, be spontaneous. I had no idea what PR was before I came to university. People would ask me what PR is and I would laugh along with them when I say 'I don't even know'. I'm still not even sure now, 6 months into the course, but it's been one of the best decisions I have ever made. 

I'm very happy where I am.

Katy x

P.s. Although, If I have one more person tell me that PR is either 'party planning' or say 'oh, so your doing fancy advertising?', I may have to knock some sense into them.