Barba: Week #2 at Fleishman-Hillard

A. List down all the tasks that you performed during this period. Describe each in detail.
• HBC Corporate Social Responsibility concepts and strategies – We are assigned to draft a corporate social responsibility or an advocacy campaign based on HBC’s desired theme: “GIVING EVERYOVE THE RIGHT TO BE BEAUTIFUL”

• Feature Story for Bellagio Square: “Bellagio, an urban oasis with a rich display of life’s pleasure in the heart of Malate” – I was given an assignment to write an article (press release) regarding our client- Bellagio square of being an urban oasis in the heart of Malate. This job is quite hard considering the fact that I only have few references to this and I’ve never been here. Also, one of my references is just photos from our clients. Nevertheless, I was given a good remark for this and I was able to passed this in due time.

• Press Release for Bellagio Square: “Alfresco dining at Bellagio Square featuring a grand selection of local and international cuisines” – Same with my previous writing assignment, this is quite hard since I don’t have ample references and background regarding the topic given. Nonetheless, I also passed this in due time.

• Man-on-the-street interview for HBC project (field work) – This is a pretty tough job for me and my partner, JP. We walked through the streets of Makati even if it is raining to look for interviewees using a digital camera. This is for our audio visual project to be presented to our client: HBC. Also, even I was terribly wet and exhausted since I was wearing a corporate outfit when we went to the field, I really enjoyed this experience and I tend to know a lot of people.

• Man-on-the-street Audio Visual Presentation for HBC Project – After the survey and the interview, we did an AVP for our presentation. At first, I had no idea where to start since I’m not your “techy” girl. But on the other hand, we were given a brief for the software we will be using. Also, my partner JP did the technical job and I was just contributing for the concepts of the AVP. Then, after doing this, fortunately I we received excellent remarks from our bosses. Accordingly, we did a good job. I was so happy and proud, it was a worthwhile job.

• Acronym for HBC Advocacy – (Cheers!) My suggested concept was chosen to be presented to our client. What I gave for the acronym is ( Handog ay Beauty sa Community) I chose this since our demograph our from class to E. In line with this are the concepts and media planning we did. It will be presented to our client.

• Survey for HBC Awareness (field work) – This is in line with our HBC project, before doing the interviews, we first did the survey for public’s awareness about the company. This is also a tiring job but definitely, its worthwhile.

• Daily Monitoring for Etihad airways, Avaya, Genzyme, Bellagio Square, ES&S and Delta airways – This is our constant job every morning. We read all the nine broadsheets every morning and look for our client’s pick-up and for theur competitors as well.

• Monthly report for Etihad airways – I was assigned to update the monthly report for our international client- Etihad. I do the sorting of all the clippings and I’m completing the monthly report.

• ES&S/AMA Project (media planning and strategy) – This is about voter outreach program. Accordinlgy, this account is confidential so I cannot really talk more on this. But for my job, we were assigned to draft a strategy plan for ES&S. This is more on concept making using tri-media and the traditional medium. In addition, this project digs more on theme-making for the bidding of polls automation this coming election. This is a pretty challenging job since this is a big account.

• Summary report for HBC Survey polls (Statistics) – It includes math. I did the summary report of our surveys in HBc and I also made charts and graphs to be used in the presentation. It was quite exhausting since it involves math. 

• Media calls (updates for media invitation) – I always do the phone calls for updating our invitations for our media events and press conferences. This is fun since they tend to know me as a real employee of FH. Haha. 

• Events organizing for Bellagio Square media event – Since Bellagio Square, our local client will have a media event, we are assigned to invite the press and the media people for this. Also, we were tasked to layout an online card for the invitation. Fortunately, it went out fine. I applied my desktop publishing skills here.

• Research – I did a lot of research. Especially about our clients, pitchs, their competitors, market, background and related information. Also, the bulk of my research work are about our endorsers and celebrities. Almost everyday I receive a research assignment and fortunately our general manager is always giving me good remarks for my job.

• Sorting, Scanning and Printing – I am also entitled to do these office works.

• Research and AVP for Synvisc One – This is a product of our client genzyme and we are tasked to research about a bone disease and make an AVP, look for songs and include photos for the AVP.

• Writing – we are doing a lot of writing aside from the press releases like re-writing bio-datas and studies for our presentations.

• Cash deposit – My partner and I went to bank to deposit cash. At first I was terribly nervous since it is really a big amount but then we did it well so it is ok.

• Computing accounts for released advertisements and articles – they taught me to compute these accounts and it involved math but on the other hand, I learned it easily.

B. Describe new skills you learned, or skills you improved upon as a result of these tasks. Be specific.
• Communication skills specifically in writing and people skills. For writing, I am always tasked to draft articles, concepts, strategies and feature stories. That is why I feel that this communication skill I have improved a lot because it is being applied in real work and they are being accepted and use. It becomes an income generating work. For my people skills, since I did a lot of surveys and interviews and we are representing a distinguished agency, I learned how to act like a real professional by answering questions and talking to people, especially those whose in the same industry.

• My management skill is being utilized and it improved a lot. Since we are few in the agency, multitasking is like breathing to us. So I need to adopt it to survive, Proper time management, deadlines and organization of thoughts are key to survive the pressure in the office.

• I experienced the life of being real PR practitioner. Its definitely flexible and wide-ranging. You need to master all the skills to pitch a client. You need to be quick and precise. Time is your enemy so you can’t afford to waste any moment.

• I learned to follow instructions carefully.

• I learned how to deposit cash on the bank. It is panicky at first but on the other hand, it is good to know how these things works.

• I learned how to compute released advertisements and articles.


C. Other thoughts regarding the OJT experience.
No regrets! Definitely. I learned a lot and most especially, I experienced the real feel of the PR industry. I enjoyed a lot and everything I did was so exciting. We are treated as professionals, we did the works of the professionals and I feel like a real professional. I am still speechless but all in all, this is a once in a lifetime experience that I will used for the rest of my days.