Edelman Apprentice Scheme

A halfway house.

charlottelander — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:11:37 +0000

As I begin to write this, it has been a whole 4 months, one week and two days since we started the Edelman Grad Scheme in which time, I’ve blogged three times. Uh-oh, I have some catching up to do!

Since my last blog (way back in October) I’ve worked with three fantastic teams who have all taught me various things about the world of PR and media relations that I had never considered in my pre-Edelman days. Since working with Digital, Healthcare and Consumer, I can honestly say that a Twitter feed is not just a Twitter feed, a drug announcement is not just a drug announcement and magazine coverage is not just magazine coverage.

In my time with Digital, I learnt how to write web copy for different clients with dramatically varying audiences (a Puma After Hours Athlete travel guide one day to a girlie music fan the next), gathered and presented social media insights for leading law firm Allen and Overy, online listened (yep, that’s a thing) for Shell and Covent Garden, helped out with community management tasks for the Dove Global Facebook pages and compiled a weekly newsletter for a global blue chip communications company. I also learnt the (very basics) of data and engagement insights and what they mean for a social media platform. Similarly, using Sysomos, Buddy Media and CoTweet on a daily basis opened my eyes to just how much work goes into maintaining a brand identity (and therefore a consistent brand voice) whilst increasing online engagement. My time with the lovely Digital team saw a visit from the guys at Facebook, many Knowledge Shares, a pub golf session, a karaoke-off, Krispy Kremes in abundance and a great event with a former Digital/Consumer client Best Buy where we, er, met Chipmunk. (Amazing!)

Moving onto my time with Healthcare, I spent a great deal of time composing coverage reports for many different and dramatically varying Healthcare accounts such as Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, HIV drug Edurant, anti-depressant Seroquel, smoking cessation drug Champix, cystic fibrosis drug Vertex and coronary drug Brilinta. I also spent my time compiling case study research, completed a daily reports on Research and Development pharmaceutical news, learnt the importance of grammatical accuracy with daily CHAMPIX (the ever necessary capitals) reports alongside establishing a solid grounding of what consitutes ’client relevant’ news for the Global Vertex cystic fibrosis report. As the other grads have said, the not so healthy (but very, very lovely) Healthcare provided lots and lots of cake, a ‘classy pod’ Christmas decorating competition and lots of patient and friendly faces who made my Healthcare PR experience a thoroughly enjoyable one.

As for now, I’m currently in JCPR, Edelman’s consumer team who look after a range of accounts such as Puma, Xbox, Unilever and Shell amongst many, many others. To date, I’ve had lots of great varied tasks including sending out press samples, calling magazines to pull together research for speculative reader events, new business research for things as varied as researching historians one day to fruit baskets and Turkish food the next. I’ve also completed PureVia Media Relations, Xbox mounting, travel research, Unilever daily newsletters alongside many, many other things. From the music (last week we had a lot of Etta James, today drum and bass…) to the tasks, no two days in JC are ever, ever the same, something that most definitely works to their advantage.

However, the fun as an Edelman grad doesn’t just fall between the (non-existent) departmental walls, in the last three months we had an AMAZING Christmas party at Circus, numerous Gorkana breakfasts, an eye-opening training session in Crisis Management, a great one on one writing session with a former tabloid editor, a fantastic creative brainstorming session where we learnt to really get to the heart of a brand and a really great (I’m running out of superlatives…) training session with a Healthcare AD regarding best practice and managing client relations. I even brushed up my skills with an IT Power Hour (you should see my inbox now, I’m all over those rules!) and had a ton of online training to work through from My Edelman University (as of yesterday, I’m a black belt in social media….oh yes!)

I’ve also helped out at the Edelman Crystal Ball and Trust events and even got to meet some fellow Edel’s from Denmark and Germany who flew over to complete our worldwide TalentEd project (in which our campaign came second, yay!).

So, that’s the last three months. If you’re still reading and aren’t bound to me by birth, I’d take a pretty solid guess that you’re reading because you’re thinking of applying for the Edelman Scheme this year. Like I know Rosie said before, so much of what we experience as Edelman Grads really does make you feel incredibly lucky. You work alongside the best brains, on the best clients and get to see your awareness of PR and communications grow on a day by day basis. If you’re as lucky as us, you’ll also get a pretty great network in terms of your fellow grads who remain your constant lunch buddies in the whirlwind of being a perpetual newbie.

I’ve absolutely loved my time at Edelman so far and would encourage anyone to apply this year.

A Political Christmas

barneyevison — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:42:33 +0000

From JCPR, I was thrust into the world of Public Affairs. It seems that 5 weeks (the length of a single grad rotation) is exactly the amount of time needed to get to know people and settle in to a department, so every new rotation feels like a bit of wrench from what has become somewhat familiar! But change can only ever be good…

The PA group is the smallest of the main departments in terms of staff, although its client list seems to be one of the longest. I was exposed to a huge range of accounts, from Anglian Water to the British Virgin Islands, to Sainsbury’s and the Open University. For these accounts I carried out a range of tasks including monitoring governmental committee meetings and the media, compiling stakeholder lists, contacting stakeholders, carrying out desk research and preparing biographies of relevant MPs. I helped out at a couple of events, one of which took place in the Lord Mayor’s Parlour in Westminster City Hall.

Public affairs or lobbying, as it may more commonly be known, involves a huge amount of political intelligence. It seemed to me that the foundation for all the work the PA team does is up-to-date information about what is going on in Westminster – as well as in the parliaments of Berlin, Paris and Brussels. The team are a fount of political knowledge of who is doing what where. What’s interesting is how engaged each member of the team is personally – all are members of a political party and are usually active within them – and are thus stakeholders themselves (partisan politics are however confined to inter-pod repartee and all-group emails!)

I learnt more about politics in 5 weeks than in the last 5 years, and I enjoyed making sure I kept abreast of current affairs. The amount of IP coming ceaselessly from the PA team is remarkable – they produced several items while I was there, such as a report on the Autumn Statement , analysis of the London Mayoral Election and the EU treaty veto, the Edelman Capital Staffers Index and multiple breakdowns of parliamentary meetings, bills and reports (such as the Portas Review). The speed at which these documents are put together is impressive; there is so much going on that much of the skill lies in stripping back the irrelevant information from the essential.

In keeping with tradition, every member of the House of Lords celebrated the festive season by dressing up as Father Christmas

The penultimate week before Christmas was particularly fun-filled for me, as it covered both the all-group Christmas party and the PA trip to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. The Edelman Christmas Party 2011 kicked off at the office with an internal awards ceremony (The “Edelman Honours”) – which included such prestigious accolades as the messiest desk and the worst use of PR jargon (the extent of the latter’s incomprehensibility means I will never be able to repeat it) – then continued onto a night club in Covent Garden where we were treated to food, drinks and circus dancers. This was a great chance for us grads to be able to chat to all the people we’ve met throughout the office and it was lovely to see everyone relaxing in social context. We were greeted with bacon and sausage sandwiches for breakfast the next day, which made the run-up to Christmas all the sweeter. I was off for the PA team afternoon and dinner on the Friday and managed to time my leave nicely taking the final week off.

A Masterclass in Media Relations

barneyevison — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:14:16 +0000

After Healthcare I rotated into JCPR, Edelman London’s consumer PR department. The move from Health PR to consumer felt like going from one end of the PR spectrum to the other; while some of the processes are essentially the same, the audience and content for each is very different and I had to place everything I had just learnt about the pharmaceutical industry to the back of my mind.

JCPR is the largest department here, with about 60 members. I always find it interesting in the open-plan Edelman office how different the atmosphere in each group can be. The dress code in JCPR is more relaxed than in some of the other departments, with jeans and T-shirts often making an appearance, and there is usually music playing from someone’s speakers. This makes for a lively working environment, with people discussing client projects on bright red sofas, chatting about the latest event they have worked on or gathering around to watch the fruits of their labour on one of the televisions which dot the office.

Cup of tea and a newspaper - the only way to start the day

My days in this department always began with a cup of tea, two pieces of toast from the Edelman café and a read-through of the day’s papers with other members of the team. This daily process means that the department is kept abreast of all relevant coverage and ensures that JCPR is tuned into what the media is talking about on any given day. To make sure I didn’t miss any important news items I hurried to get up to speed with JCPR’s long list of clients, which includes big names such as Starbucks, Xbox, Motorola, Bose and Johnnie Walker.

I worked mainly on two accounts in JCPR, namely PUMA and Xbox. These were both very exciting clients to work for and there were many exciting things happening around these massive brands. Highlights included PUMA Vision’s African Kit Launch at the Design Museum in London, where I was able to engage with journalists and chat to clients as well as meet some famous footballers to boot (excuse the pun), and Xbox’s launch of Disneyland Adventures for Kinect at the Disney Store on Oxford Street attended by a range of celebrities. I was also lucky enough to be able to help with media outreach for the launch of the line-up for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad – the programme of cultural events that will take place this year as part of the London 2012 Festival.

The teams I worked with encouraged me to engage with media myself and I got plenty of practice selling in, which made me realise just how hard it can be! The teams here are adept at getting their clients’ stories into all the biggest outlets, and I was able to get an in-depth overview of how they do it. I found it tremendously exciting to witness the blanket mainstream coverage that followed PUMA’s African Kit Launch with the knowledge of the weeks of meticulous planning and in-depth groundwork that had preceded the event. JCPR is in the thick of it – it is the backstage area for what we read about brands in the media.

Let’s get digital.

rosiemorris — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:26:24 +0000

The start of the New Year has seen all the grads move departments to embark on rotation number four. For me, it’s time to hit the digital department, and I’m very much looking forward to the next five weeks.

When we started at Edelman, much of our training focussed on the importance of social media. In this day and age, traditional media coverage is no longer the only way to reach out to consumers and communicate a brand or idea. Whilst it is still important, and this is unlikely to ever change, social media has opened a new gateway for companies and brands. They can monitor, join in on and even instigate conversations with consumers, as well as being able to instantly announce breaking news about their products to a huge audience. Companies can see what disgruntled consumers are saying, and can openly respond to criticism in order to help keep their customers happy and protect their reputation.

One of my first tasks since joining digital yesterday has been to work on a monthly report for Dove. Although this may not sound like much to write about, it’s actually been a great way to begin my digital journey. The report consists of a lot of numbers (all of which I’m hoping that I will understand in the not too distant future!) which demonstrate Dove’s interaction with the online community. These numbers summarise the activity on the Dove Facebook page, showing where the brand is doing well, and where it perhaps needs to work a little harder. The report is collated using monitoring tools including Buddy Media and Facebook Insights. Both of these tools monitor conversations taking place on the Facebook page, showing how the brand’s different posts, comments and interaction ideas have fared against each other. The report also shows in which country Dove fans are the most active, and which posts and discussions people have responded to the best, thus helping to show how Dove can achieve the highest level of interaction with its Facebook fans.

Seeing the actual figures of how many people interact with Dove online gives proper solid proof of the power of social media: the Dove page has over 4 million “likes” globally. Where else would a brand be able to reach out to so many fans? Given that social media accounts for one in every six minutes spent online, it’s pretty clear that online communication is where it’s at.

Out with the old in with the new…

aprilhogan — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:18:54 +0000

Today is our first day back after the Edelman Christmas break and I cannot believe how quickly the time is flying. Not only is it January 2012, but I have also just started my fourth rotation!

I spent my last rotation in Spook (Digital) and today I am starting on the Healthcare team.

In Spook, I got to work on global clients, take part in training sessions, brainstorms, research for new campaigns, copywriting and media monitoring. I also learned how to use some really useful tools such as Buddy Media, Facebook Analytics and YouTube Analytics. I never knew any of these existed before my time at Spook and it was briliant to be able to walk away from my rotation with a knowledge of these tools.

Spook also taught me A LOT about the art of evaluation and reporting! I am now an expert in click through rates, penetration rates, engagement rates and what a facebook ‘like’ really means for a brand. A lot of numbers, excel sheets and maths, but super interesting and challenging.

During my time at Spook, I was also able to sample the brilliant social life that working at Edelman offers you. The Edelman office was full of the Christmas spirit with Christmas songs blaring from almost every pod, and we even got mince pies and mulled wine one evening. We also got to attend the Edelman Christmas Party – which was amazing. Salon in the office, Edelman Honours, a top secret location and an alpine themed Photobooth! What more could you ask for?

Here’s to a great 2012!

Merry Edelmas

pollyswain — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:44:43 +0000

So it’s the end of another rotation and the whole of 2011. I can hardly believe that us grads are half way through the program, it is absolutely flying by, but I guess that means we must be having fun along the way.

I finish my stint in JCPR today and it’s been a hectic but really enjoyable 5 weeks. As with every department in Edelman the people are wonderful , the atmosphere is always buzzing and the clients are incredible. As the year winds down the End of Year reports have been winding up and although this has meant that my time in JC was much more excels and power points than events and press liaisons I have still had a great time and learnt a lot.

There is no denying that Christmas is well and truly in the air at the Edelman offices, music is playing, decorations are hanging and festive jumpers are being worn with pride. I simply can’t sign off for this year without saying a huge thank you to both JCPR and Edelman for hosting such amazing Christmas parties and in particular to the catering team for providing bacon sandwiches the morning after. Evidence of the aforementioned parties can be found below.

Cheers to JCPR!

The Infamous Grads!

My final thought is this. One of the very first things I did in 2011 was hand in my application to Edelman’s Graduate Scheme (on the day of the deadling actually!) and with hindsight and a lot of other experiences behind me over the past 12 months, I have to say it was the best decision I ever made. The first 3-and-a-bit months have been a steep learning curve but a great adventure and I can’t wait to see what next year and my next departments have to offer.

All there is left to say is Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Roll on 2012 and Public Affairs!

p.s – For more on JCPR check out their blog and for more Christmas party joy have a look at my blog.

‘Twas the night before (we finish for) Christmas…

rosiemorris — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:55:06 +0000

Once again it’s that time – the time to reflect on the past five weeks. My first reflection is “WHERE DID THEY GO???” Seriously, I know I say this every time but my tech rotation has absolutely flown by. In my time here, I’ve worked on clients such as HP, LinkedIn, Orange, last.fm and a couple of software clients.

I have to say, five weeks ago I felt a little bit out of my depth. Yes, I own a smartphone, but that’s about where my technological knowledge came to an end. So sending a press release and doing a media sell-in for a large software company seemed like an extremely nerve-wracking prospect. But in all honesty it’s that kind of experience that really adds the value to this grad scheme. And really, it’s not so bad. I feel a lot more confident since picking up the phone to software and computer specialist journalists, and actually managing to get the story into the media! It just goes to show that even if you think you can’t do something, with a little bit of confidence, careful research and a “can do” attitude, you definitely can.

What has really surprised me about tech is the variety of clients. This department isn’t all about niche and specialist enterprise, but technology which all of us use (and most of us couldn’t live without). Whether we’re talking software, mobile phones, gaming, social networking, printers or ink, the tech team deals with it all, on some level. And from a grad’s point of view, perhaps the best thing about this variety of clients is getting to experience a mixture of corporate and consumer PR simultaneously – it is the best of both worlds.

So now everything’s winding down, Christmas tunes are on a constant loop and there are more mince pies/chocolates in here than can be found in Sainsbury’s. And with that comes the end of yet another great rotation, and the time to say a big “thank you” to another team. It’s been a great five weeks and I will definitely be leaving tech with a whole wealth of knowledge I didn’t have before. And I’ve had fun in the process.

Silly Season at Edelman

chaanahcrichton — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:09:12 +0000

EDELMAN CHRISTMAS

Being mid-way through our Graduate Scheme, what better way to celebrate our survival than immersing ourselves full-pelter into all of the office Christmas Cheer!

As I sit and write this post, there is ‘White Christmas’ being played throughout the office, fake snow hanging from the ceiling in Healthcare and Christmas post whizzing through the departments with a frenzy similar to that of the Harry Potter Owl Post!

EDELMAN LONDON CHRISTMAS PARTY:

After a busy and exciting year, Edelman always has a fabulous Christmas party to celebrate our hard work and successes (We won PRWeek Large Consultancy of The Year award).

The party this year was themed with the catch-phrase ‘Escape into a decadent world of spectacle and intrigue!’ and kicked off with the Edelman Beauty Parlour at the office in the afternoon. We then had the Edelman Awards (with champagne, of course!) before heading to the club Circus in the West End.

Edelman Grads being silly

In the Alpine photo booth

CORPORATE & FINANCIAL CHRISTMAS PARTY

To keep the festivities going, the Corp&Fin. Department had their Christmas party in a pub in Chelsea the next day. There was mulled wine, more awards and even Secret Santa!

CHARITY ACTIVITIES

Whilst there were lots of celebrations taking place throughout the office, we still ensured that we spent some time contributing to charitable causes.

Therefore, the Corp.&Fin. department organised a Christmas bake-off that saw a bake sale competition take place between the departments. All of the money raised was donated to the charity Crisis.

Charity cake sale

Charity Cake sale

After all of the festivities and frivolities of the silly season, we will need to start a company exercise team after the holidays to compensate!

We’ve had a fantastic time celebrating and I hope all of you do as well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Pinch me…this cannot be real!

rosiemorris — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:02:07 +0000

Well it has most certainly been a year to remember. I feel like I’ve come a million miles since this time last year. It’s almost exactly a year ago that I applied to the Edelman Grad Scheme. The weeks seemed to pass in a flash between application form, interview, assessment centre and job offer…all alongside researching and writing my dissertation, which now feels like a very distant faded ~~nightmare~~ memory. And now here we are…half way through the programme already. How did that happen?!

From donning my best suit at 6am for a client event at Parliament to sipping on wine and nibbling canapés at our very own office, I feel like I’ve done it all since starting at Edelman. I’ve had a number of “pinch me” moments, but in between the glitz, the glam and the crazy running around, there has been a lot of hard work, a lot of lessons learned, huge amounts of fun and even a few fears conquered.

Working in PR, particularly on a grad scheme, is so exciting. You never quite know what the day is going to throw at you, and no two days are ever the same. With a diverse range of clients across the different teams, it’s hard to pin-point every single thing that I’ve learned or done since I started here. I can nonetheless assure you that it is a very long list that will continue to grow. It just remains for me to say thank you to the PA, Corporate & Financial and Tech teams for throwing me right into the deep end and making my first three months’ work so fulfilling.

Next stop…Digital!

The Healthcare Treatment

pollyswain — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:38:09 +0000

Well it may be too little to late (considering I left 4 weeks ago) but I’ve been meaning to add my thoughts about my time in Healthcare to the blog for too long. It was the Edelman Christmas Party last night (more on that later) so I’m feeling a little fragile sohave decided to write this post in a simple and easy to process list of all the reasons I loved my Healthcare Rotation.

The genius people. I went into healthcare thinking it would all go way over my head but thanks to the fact that everyone who works there are so friendly, patient and helpful (not to mention so much fun) I felt like I learnt an unbelievable amount and could really get stuck in.
Media monitoring and report collation manages to be interesting. When you are doing 3 different daily and weekly monitoring reports you would think it would become an almighty bore. Quite the opposite, searching Google News and Factiva for all the latest news on the clients, their competitors, recent drug approvals and rejections, good and bad press and breaking news around relevant diseases is so interesting and really feels valuable.
I got to max out my organizational skills. I love logistics, planning, printing, scheduling etc.etc. and helping teams get themselves organized for medical congresses, conferences, message training and so on is common place in the Healthcare Department and it was really great to lend a hand to this and produce materials that are truly useful.
The clients. Healthcare works very differently to other forms of PR and although the clients aren’t well known brands, they are massive, in size, revenue, influence and importance. Getting to work on such a variation of clients and doing such a broad range of tasks from monitoring, to new business brainstorms, to media analysis, to reporting, to sell-ins to pharmaceutical trade media (not as daunting as it sounds) was a real pleasure.
It was great to be just a tiny part of a team that is helping make a difference to the health and well-being people worldwide.

For all the amazing things I loved about Healthcare there is one big negative. Treats, treats, treats! EVERY single occasion imaginable warrants a barrage of snacks and I think I managed to triple in size! That aside, I really and truly enjoyed every day I spent getting the Healthcare treatment!