BUSINESS Diary of a ...
PRs are like estate agents Public Relations can be glitzy, but it’s also hard work!
L
ong boozy lunches, smoozing with journalists at cocktail parties and gassing all day on the phone – that’s the life of a Public Relations (PR) expert, right? Well, whilst I can’t deny that the odd glass of Moet has passed my lips at an event or two, sadly, the typical day for a PR is less Absolutely Fabulous, more absolutely frantic!
Being a PR in the property world is, in my opinion, similar to being an estate agent (bear with me on this!). Just as an agent bridges the gap between the buyer and seller, a good PR bridges the gap between property companies and the media, in eff ect ‘selling’ client’s stories and getting the media to buy into them. Now that sounds easy enough, but when you have no budget (unlike advertising) and have to continuously identify what is truly diff erent and appealing about a property and/or company, build and retain genuine relationships with the thousands of property journalists around the world and know what they want to write about, it can be very hard work! A typical day in the ABPM offi ce
in central London is very busy indeed. The team undertakes a variety of PR activities from writing press releases to collating and sending out property details and
imagery, pitching story ideas to the national press or speaking with client case studies.
Public relations is often thought of as hard to measure, but we strive to make our PR services quantifi able, documenting every piece of information sent out to the media, details of every client property and case study, not to mention each and every press release. The last working day of the month is always the busiest with the team preparing the Monthly Reports which document all the activity undertaken, performance of the press releases, print and online coverage secured and plans for the
Less Absolutely Fabulous, more absolutely frantic
forthcoming month.
In addition to our standard day- to-day tasks described above, we also like to think ‘outside the box’. Whilst most of our communication with the media is now done online, there are often requests to hold seminars and face-to-face meetings with journalists.
CHARLOTTE ASHTON: AB Property Marketing Ltd Tel: 00 44 845 054 7524
As a Public Relations consultant you quite often fi nd yourself wearing other hats, be it an event organizer or travel agent arranging a press trip as we have done this month for our client, Lalzit Bay, in Albania, but that does all add to the variety and dynamism of the job. Whilst it is never an expectation, we are sometimes lucky enough to attend these events and press trips and this has to be one of the perks. I’ve been to some wonderful places from Cyprus to Spain, Crete and Turkey but one trip in particular will always stand out – Botswana. This was a once in a lifetime fi ve- day press visit to a private game reserve in eastern Botswana with fi ve property journalists. The fascinating things we learnt about the fauna and fl ora and the giggles we had around the campfi re made the 12-hour night fl ight and subsequent six-hour off -road drive most defi nitely worth it. By the end of the day... what am
Glass of bubbly, darling? Well, maybe after the next 26 meetings... 78
I saying? There is never an end to the day for a PR! Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not all work and no play, there are indeed some real pros of being a PR but, after a decade, what I have learnt is that in order to get results, to secure those column inches, you have to knuckle down and do the graft. No amount of air kisses and calling people “darling” will get those press releases written!
www.opp-connect.com
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