Having no previous PR experience, and only a few misconceptions to guide me, I didn’t know what to expect from my internship at LEWIS London.
It was a huge learning experience and despite thinking that I was out of my depth at the beginning, the consumer services team was there to guide me. I quickly learned how to perform many tasks from completing a news scan, to media analysis.
But the most important thing I learned was that every day in PR is different.
Days in the office were much more fast-paced than I thought, with new client work and campaigns from one day to the next.
At LEWIS, I dealt with several clients in a multitude of ways. One of my first tasks was to do media analysis for one of our top gaming brands after sitting in a call with the client and the offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Germany. This gave me an insight into how much planning is needed for product launches and events, and also the research required for proposals to go ahead with the client being happy as well.
Another job I was given was the news scan for Turkish Airlines, where I had to find recent articles that mentioned both aviation and Turkey. I learned just how important this was, because coverage allows us to see where Turkish Airlines are mentioned and if there is any press about them. Furthermore, it lets us see if there’s any relevant news that we should update our client on. I also completed the weekly report which let me see how crucial current affairs were to PR and the connotations or knock-on effects it could have on our client.
I was lucky enough to attend an event launch for the Sushi Shop and Mr Men Little collaboration which let me see a whole new dimension of PR. I met with the client and assisted in setting up the launch. My role was to greet the attendees and ensure they were enjoying themselves as well taking photos. Prior to the event I created the briefing document with the list of attendees along with basic information such as their blog online circulation and recent features and articles that they had written.
Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in PR. It’s totally different to what I first thought it would be, with a lot of planning and research that goes on ‘behind the scenes’ that people outside of the sector don’t know about.
They say that internships can be life-changing and change the course of people’s careers. I don’t know if that’s true in all cases, but it is in mine. Even though I only spent two weeks at LEWIS, it helped me realise that PR is the career I want to go into when I finish university.
