Media Visits – what are they all about?

December 9th, 2011
Love your liver with BLT and EIS

During my time at Democracy, I’ve hit the phones to book in media visits for many different clients, from food to fashion. This week however, I got the chance to experience them for myself.

Along with the British Liver Trust, we took a trip to London to talk to health journalists about Eisberg alcohol free wine’s upcoming campaign with the charity.

Love Your Liver month is an initiative to encourage people to take two to three days off alcohol a week and to be more aware of their own liver health.

The campaign begins in January, so it was a fantastic opportunity to meet face to face with journalists, and to really engage them with the campaign. They loved our idea of a nationwide bus tour of pop up liver clinics, and even pledged, not without trepidation, to come and have their own livers tested when it hits London!

It was also good to hear the trust talk about the medical side of the initiative, reminding us how important liver health actually is, and how small lifestyle changes now can make the world of difference later on.

We had really great feedback and support for the campaign, and  before we’d even boarded the train back to Manchester, we had an email confirming coverage in the Daily Mail Femail, followed by confirmation with Women’s Own!

More importantly, we have developed relationships with key journalists, which we can work hard to maintain and convert to coverage!

So now I know; that’s what media visits are all about!

My first day at Democracy

November 29th, 2010
Picture 195

I pity anyone that asks me how my first day was. Poor person. Whether family members and friends were expecting a perfunctory, “yeah really good thanks” or an underwhelming ”ok, just getting to know people really” they were in for a shock and an excitable 10-minute monologue.

Perhaps a sign of things to come, I jumped straight into the car with my colleagues of two minutes as we raced to two back-to back client meetings. Meeting the decision makers, movers and shakers at big businesses is as thrilling as it is frightening 30 minutes in to your new job, but hearing them laud your new company is unparalleled.

Had I known at 2 pm that just 7 hours later into my first day I’d watch the team pick up an award for Best use of Digital PR at the CIPR North West awards for their great work for The Rock, Bury then I might have anticipated what was to come.  I arrived at my second client meeting with 3 hours of experience and spent 45 minutes basking in the team’s glory. In their (our) review meeting with The Rock, they (we) were praised for the best digital PR campaign the client had seen. I felt like an unused sub picking up a Champions’ League Winners medal; a fraud.

Amazingly enough I continued to benefit from the hard work of my colleagues of , by now, 6 hours at the CIPR awards later that night. I’ve already given away the result. Even better though, I watched as Charlie, Jennifer’s former PR apprentice, received praise from the CIPR Awards’ judges for being an Outstanding Young Communicator. Another sign that I’m at the right place and, with hard work, I might be able to bask in the fruits of my own labour one day!

Mine’s a Manchester Digital Burger!

July 29th, 2010
i_love_bbq_tshirt-p235818561627954541yey2_400

I had my first experience of a Manchester Digital Barbecue last night, and it certainly didn’t disappoint!

They certainly had me waiting with baited breath to see if I could get a ticket… I was the last in the office to receive a confirmation and was very happy not to be the only ‘billy no mates’ not attending.

Held at the very cool Atlas Bar on Deansgate and serving up great  barbecue food and mojitos, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend an evening, especially as it was free (big thanks to CTI Digital, Fudge, Creative Times and Melbourne Server who sponsored the event)

It was great to see so many people involved in the digital and creative arena in one place,  and to finally be able to put faces to the brilliant coders we’ve been working with recently.

A free dinner, cocktails, good chats and no rain….. Where do I sign up for the next one?