Life as a grad at Skywrite: varied, busy and (sometimes) glamorous!

It’s hard to write about a typical day in consumer PR here at Skywrite, so I thought I’d document one specific day to give a snapshot of what a day in the life of a grad at Skywrite is like…

My first job of the day is to pull together something called ‘industry buzz’ for one of our clients, this involves tracking the most talked about app developers and getting a handle on the main tech stories of the week. It’s a great way to keep up to date with the news and trends within the industry.

Excitement levels in the office are pretty high today – leading consumer tech site T3 approached us earlier this week to play starring roles in the latest “Junk or Genius” video feature, and filming takes place today. It’s not often PR’s get a chance be in front of the camera, so we all willingly stepped up to take part…You can see our expert opinions on a ‘high tech’ desk over here!

After the film crew leave, we all begin to calm down and I crack on with my to-do list. A key focus for today is to secure briefings at the tech trade show CES in Las Vegas.  The event is the biggest tech show in the world and is taking place in January, so we’ve only got a couple of weeks to get everything sorted. It’s important to get the key journalists visiting the event to meet with my clients. We sent out an email invite earlier on in the week, but today I pick up the phone and speak to our contacts to secure interviews and arrange times. It’s also a great way to speak to new contacts and strengthen relationships with those I already know. Logistically CES can be a nightmare, so it’s essential that we organise every last detail.

After lunch I work on securing review opportunities for some of my clients, this involves trawling the internet and magazines for potential review features and finding the best contacts to target. I then call them up to pitch my clients.  If they agree to review the product, I then package up and send out the kit and add the opportunity to our tracking document.

Last thing I do before switching off for the day is to send around a call agenda to a client. We have our weekly catch up call first thing tomorrow, so it needs to go over this afternoon, ready for the call. This involves pulling together all of our key actions, activities and achievements of the past week and our actions for the week ahead. I share it with our internal account team first, to make sure they haven’t got anything to add, and then send over to the client. It’s then time to head home and rest before the next day hits!

Skywrite searching for 2012 graduates

Our fabulous 2011 graduates may only just have settled in, but it’s already time to start the search for the next generation of PR talent. The Hotwire Group Graduate Programme 2012 has launched today.

See the details here and get those applications in!

Skywrite slims down

Towards the end of 2010 our very own Ruth Walters embarked on a massive personal challenge when she vowed to run a marathon. Over the following weeks Skywrite was enthralled by the amazing diet and training regimes that she underwent! It almost felt like we were going through it as a team – although we clearly were not.

Ruth is now on a bride-to-be body blitz. After completing the marathon in April, she’s hung up the running trainers and switched her focus to lifting weights and eating a LOT of protein. So impressed with Ruth’s success, the rest of the Skywrite ladies have jumped on the health and fitness bandwagon!

Here are some of the diets and exercise regimes that ARE whetting the appetite in Skywrite: 

1. Fish and Greens – enjoying the health benefits that oily fish has to offer
2. Zumba – proves that exercise really can be fun
3. Cod Liver Oil – the fishy theme continues
4. Running for the train – getting little bursts of exercise where we can
5. Frothy Slime – a nutrient supplement drink that contains Spirulina

We’re hiring!

Alright everyone, it’s time to dust off those CVs.

Skywrite is looking for both account managers and senior account executives to assist across our portfolio of corporate and consumer accounts.

Work would include everything from technology and telecoms accounts to pure play consumer. This is a great opportunity to work across a broad spectrum of different clients – including some of the biggest brands out there!

Email emma.hazan@skywritepr.com for more information!

18-24 year olds send on average 110 texts a day

What? Doth mine eyes deceive me? Surely this story can’t be right?

Firstly – how do they have that many friends that they need to contact every day, and secondly, what do they have to chat about at such length?

I fall into this category, being 24, and I can safely say, hand on heart, I send nowhere NEAR that amount of texts. Nor have I ever. I appreciate that this is on average, but worryingly, that means there are some in this age group who send way more than the average.

These findings lend themselves nicely to the amount of chatter we hear about people being addicted to their mobile phones – with research from Ofcom finding that ‘60% [of teens] admitting to being ‘highly’ addicted to their phones.’ This survey takes it one step further, by revealing that ‘the study also shows that smartphones have begun to intrude on our most private moments, with 47% of teenagers admitting to using their device in the toilet. Only 22% of adults confessed to the same habit.’ Eww.

It’s true that smartphones are totally ubiquitous these days – they do everything for you: let you stay in touch with friends/family, read news on the move, watch TV, listen to the radio, and basically stay on top of your social life by acting as a calendar. They even have games to keep you entertained on a long journey – who needs Travel Connect4 now?

Going back to the texting element though, I do wonder if we’ll soon be seeing more and more injuries caused as a result of too much texting. Research that dates back as far as 2006 shows that ‘millions suffer from RSI’ – so surely it’s not too much of a leap to expect that figure to now be in the billions? The NHS has a page set up dedicated to causes/symptoms of RSI that’s due for update in February 2012. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to imagine that one of the causes to be added on to that list will be ‘texting’.

Top-tips: Netbooks

The hype surrounding the iPad would lead you to believe it had single-handedly killed off the humble netbook, but it seems the plucky little underdog has fought back. There’s still plenty of demand for netbooks and for good reason: they don’t lock you into a walled-garden operating system, are far easier to type on and have bucket-loads more apps available (you know, software).

Granted, they’re not as sexy as the iPad but that’s beginning to change thanks to some slick models from Samsung, Asus and other manufacturers. The introduction of Intel’s dual core Atom processor also gives them greater processing power than their reputation suggests. But above all else they’re far more customisable, allowing you tweak performance, preferences and programmes any way you like. With that in mind, here are Skywrite’s top tips for those sitting on the netbook side of the divide:

1) Increase your RAM

This is without question the most important tip to improve your netbook’s performance. Microsoft insists that manufacturers cannot qualify for the cut-price Windows 7 Starter operating system when shipping products with more than 1GB of RAM. This helps to keep the price down but isn’t ideal for performance.

Fortunately, 2GB of RAM is cheap as chips these days and very easy to install yourself. However, a word of warning before you pick up the screwdriver: You risk voiding your warranty unless you get a certified technician to do it for you. Several PC retailers offer this service for about £30 but may also require you purchase the RAM from them, which is typically more expensive. The swines.

2) Cut-out the iTunes fat

iTunes is a massive hog on computing resources. Whether you’re using a netbook, laptop or desktop, it can have a noticeable impact on how smoothly it runs. Fortunately, Ed Bott over at ZD Net has written a comprehensive unofficial guide to cutting out the bloated and unnecessary software Apple bundles into iTunes.

3) Get cloud-based antivirus software

Uninstall whichever trial antivirus programme your netbook comes pre-installed with and move to a cloud-based alternative. By shifting much of the antivirus programme’s grunt work into the cloud, scanning files on a remote server instead of using your machine’s processing power, it will free-up resources substantially whilst automatically updating its database of threats. There are several options out there from the usual antivirus powerhouses but perhaps the best freeware version comes from Panda Cloud.

4) Sort out your start-ups

One of the impressive features of the iPad is that it takes mere seconds to switch on and get going, a process that can become frustrating to the most placid of PC users. You might not be able to achieve iPad-like boot times, but editing which programmes start-up automatically when your netbook powers-up can keep it reasonably sharp. To do this, just click ‘Start’ on your Windows menu, then ‘Run’, now enter ‘Msconfig’ into the dialog box and hit the Enter key. Select the ‘Startup’ tab and uncheck the programmes you don’t want to run automatically. Some have ambiguous names and descriptions, so if you want to ensure you don’t accidentally turn off your antivirus software then check out this database for clarification.

5) Get your game on

Being unable to play games on your netbook is a myth. You can comfortably play a range of less graphic-intensive games and practically any classic or retro game. Fear not, as the latest incarnation of the Football Manager series will run just fine, though you may want to switch off the 3D match generator. “But there’s no optical drive on a netbook” I hear you cry? Not a problem with digital distribution services such as Steam for modern games or GOG.com for the classics.

Being unable to play 3D games on a netbook is also a myth. The integrated graphics card won’t stand a chance with Modern Warfare 2 but that doesn’t matter with cloud-based gaming service OnLive, which can run the most advanced games on its own servers and relay your commands back to you in real-time. Browser games have also come on leaps and bounds in recent years and offer 3D games for free – check out Battlestar Galactica Online from our client Bigpoint for example.

6) Personalise Windows 7 Starter

Windows 7 Starter Edition keeps your netbook cheap (yay) but it also has some limited features (boo). One of which is the bizarre decision to not allow netbook users to change their wallpaper or other standard settings. However, because Windows isn’t a completely closed platform you can quickly fix this by installing Starter Background Changer.

The Low Down: Internships

Holly started interning here at Skywrite PR six months ago and as of this month will become a fully fledged employee. Therefore, she thought now was as good a time as any to look back at her internship and highlight her top tips for others about to embark on an all important internship:

Read all about it

Working in PR, you can never read enough. It really pays to have a strong understanding of all current affairs, and by that I mean worldwide news headlines, celebrity (and industry) gossip, social media trends and the latest industry news. A really thorough knowledge of current topical issues will help you in all areas of your internship, including pitching to journalists, brainstorming and drafting copy.

Short term pain = long term gain

Keep looking ahead. You may not be given the exciting or important jobs that you had hoped for straight away, but the important thing to consider is how these (sometimes menial) tasks will help you to achieve that highflying career you’ve always dreamed of.

Just remember, the agency’s MD will have at one point made the tea/coffee, stuffed 500 press packs and clipped endless pieces of coverage at the start of their career too.

We all have to start somewhere!

Eager Beaver

One way to help ensure you are given increasing amounts of responsibility during your internship is to show you’re eager to learn and get stuck in. From my experience, eagerly undertaking the menial tasks and executing them with great attention to detail will build trust between you and your team. In turn, this will make your mentors more likely to task you with the more exciting PR jobs and mean you will gain a larger variety of experience.

Time don’t wait for no one

Whether your internship is for 2 weeks or 5 months, it will fly by. So make sure you grasp the opportunity from day one and try not to rest on your laurels at any point – it could mean the difference between being offered at full time job or going back to unemploymentville!

Any other questions?

Be inquisitive, feel free to ask the team about their background, tips and career highlights – you’ll learn a lot about what a career in PR actually entails. You’ll find most seasoned PR professionals are very willing to help out the next PR generation in any way they can.

Lastly, enjoy – not only will you learn loads of invaluable tools and information, you’ll meet some awesome people and have a blast!

Fun times at the Financial Times

It’s not every day you’re offered the chance to experience life at one of the most recognisable and widely respected newspapers in the world, so I jumped at the chance of taking part in a short term job-swap with one of the FT’s communications team. So with no expectations and a sack full of questions I headed down to Southwark Bridge and into the bustling FT HQ.

Editorial conferences form the backbone of the Press Office’s proactive media outreach, listening out for all-important scoops, followed by the frenzied scribbling of notes and subsequent pitching to broadcast outlets. While these conferences are part of the daily routine for the many journalists, editors and wider comms team present, they were a rare and fascinating window into a world that many PRs never get to experience.

Even to the most seasoned PR professionals, editorial conferences can be mysterious and frustratingly elusive factories of censorship, where our carefully crafted stories are processed, dissected and manufactured into something new. Sometimes they are consigned to the waste heap and (thankfully) other times they are mass produced. It was a privilege and a thoroughly edifying experience to be a part of them during my short time at the FT.

Of course, getting an insight into the inner workings of the paper and a taste of the tactics used to promote the FT brand was hugely interesting, but it also served as the perfect chance to get a flavour of in-house public relations. Working with a single ‘client’, for example, is an intriguing concept to the uninitiated agency-based PR.

At Skywrite we each work with multiple organisations – in industries as diverse as B2B telecoms, gaming and lifestyle – who each have several products, services or solutions launching at varying times of the year. I quickly learnt that in-house life, at the FT at least, is no less varied. One day I was staffing briefings on the FT’s digital strategy, the next I was pitching a scoop on RBS cutting 2,000 jobs, and the day after I was promoting FT Weekend content on the wines of France to lifestyle bloggers.

The major difference was the role of proactive and reactive outreach on a daily basis. The FT and its Press Office have done an amazing job at building very close relationships with broadcast outlets, positioning their expert journalists as go-to authorities on a range on topics. This requires a lot of proactive work in the background, but when a big scoop breaks the phone does not stop ringing. It’s easy to see how quickly a typical day can be flipped on its head as the team efficiently organises the resulting myriad of enquiries and interview requests.

In contrast, almost 100% of our daily work at Skywrite is based entirely on proactivity. Either brainstorming ideas, developing campaigns or plans designed to generate media interest, creating content that fits into the news agenda, or simply pitching news and product reviews. We’re on the phone just as much as our in-house counterparts – the only difference is who does the dialling.

To find out how the other half of the job-swap went, read the FT’s Esther Kissiedu on her time at Skywrite, available here.

Gorkana interviews Skywrite’s Laura Macdonald

Our very own Laura Macdonald (or Big Mac as we like to call her) has just been interviewed by Gorkana!

Read her thoughts on Skywrite’s interesting past and glorious future right here.

Afternoon Skywrite supercharge

A little while ago, not surprisingly around the 3:20pm mark, the following article got the Skywrite team talking and drawing straws on who would do the afternoon chocolate run…

We’ve all been there. That mid afternoon dip in energy is murder. But the very nature of the ‘always on’ PR world requires for red alert throughout the working day – and there’s still a good few hours left beyond 3:20pm. Here’s how we dodge the biscuit barrel and keep ourselves going at Skywrite via other means during a potential afternoon dip:

• Kick off a comedy email trail – it gets everyone talking, it’s a bit of light relief and few things are more stimulating than a lot of laughter in the office. We’re rather partial to a Lolcat or two. Our big cheese Laura Macdonald may even be mildly obsessed by them…
• There’s no denying coffee is an instant pick me up. As a special treat we’ll often hit the good stuff. Resident barista Sam Brookes highly recommends any strong Italian blend
• We’re blessed with a bit of a swish media centre at Skywrite in our newly refurbed home. We all face three screens, two of which carry 24 hour news, the other plays out the soundtrack to the Skywrite day. But everybody’s tastes are different. Be sure to mix things up a bit – you’ll often find Nick and Amy toggling between Absolute and Heart depending on the mood of the day
• Get up and have a walk around. Skywrite is part of the Hotwire Group and we’re really lucky to be able to talk to our Hotwire colleagues in person, with ease. It’s amazing how something as simple as getting out of your seat to have a chat with someone else can spark off lots more ideas and allow you to attack the afternoon with much more vigour

But, if all else fails, chocaholic Holly Sainsbury will tell you, few things compare to a (Cadbury’s) Boost in the afternoon.