Thursday 31 January 2013

HMV Twitter account hijacked!

Referring to my last post about HMV closing down (latest high street closure) the HMV Twitter account was today hijacked by some very upset employees. The following tweets, now removed from the Twitter account once control was gained back express some very specific views on the brands management.


This takes some guts on the employees behalf but I guess if they knew they were being let go it didn't matter to them any more. However, the account has now been regained and a few messages have been sent out to apologise for the outbursts on the social networking account. 


I can imagine a bit of crisis management came into play here at some point on how to turn this situation into a positive or make it something better than what it sounded, so have they done a good job? Could they have handled it better? Could it even have been staged to draw attention to HMV as other tweets are about the sale the stores are having and people on Twitter searching for these outrageous tweets are likely to come across these also? The reason I ask this is because it mentions about stores still being open and the whole #savehmv in  recovering tweet, but was it fair to use others losing their jobs today as part of a publicity stunt? I guess it's something that we will never find the truth about. 

With the result being that HMV now have over 72,000 followers and the brand has made national headlines, whether it was real or not, some good has come out of this, that they have reached a very wide audience now in their aim to save the brand. But can it really be saved given the current economic climate?

Would it be a wise move for HMV to sell off stock in stores in sales and set up as a competitor with Amazon and Ebay, for example? I noticed the other day that their site was down and it isn't clear whether they intend to open it up again? Some jobs can be salvaged through warehouses and internet orders and less costs will be involved due to not having to run stores. One thing is for certain though, being able to obtain media such as music, films, games, etc has never been so hard to do on the high street. Which sector of retailers will be next to go down and become largely internet based after the closure of media shops?

Wednesday 30 January 2013

A look into the future

Yesterday I was looking on various sites for Buckinghamshire agencies for a part time PR internship either for summer 2013 or to run alongside my course currently. As I started looking obviously a lot of the jobs that came up were also graduate jobs, so just out of curiosity I looked through the descriptions and was amazed to see how many internships wanted someone who had a place on a Master's degree or further qualification course place confirmed... I remember a speaker that came to see us, Roger Hayes, who mentioned to us that looking into Master's degree or something similar would benefit us greatly. However, a lot of other speakers have said it doesn't make much difference if you have a Master's degree. So which is it?

Now I've heard a lot of different things about Master's degrees. That it's free if you get a first in your undergraduate course, you don't get student finance funding for it otherwise and it can cost you ridiculous amounts of money and that your fees have to be paid in full before the course... surely this can't be right? So, I went to investigate...

I do know for a fact that some companies will send their executives on Master's degrees as a day release set up, but this tends to be only the bigger companies or those that can afford it. According to the Direct Gov website you can get funding for a Masters degree but it's not widely available to anyone. I couldn't find much information about whether if you get a first in your undergraduate degree you get to do a Master's for free, but I did find out that funding is generally only available if you're doing a subject such as Law or Medicine though there are some exceptions but nothing about Marketing or Business. I think this information should be more readily available to students- life choices don't stop when you get to university. There is so much information about which university and which course to apply for or other options after school but it generally stops there. I think a lot of people are misinformed about post graduate study, myself for one and even looking online didn't help too much, in fact I think it confused me even more!

I've always considered post graduate study but I'm not too sure due to circumstances such as funding. It would be great if I got into a job that was willing to send me on a post graduate course but sadly due to the current economy that option also isn't too widely available. Nonetheless, I'm at university now and the wise thing to do would be to make the most of what I have!

If anyone has info on post-grad study, please comment! I'd love to have my facts straight on this topic!

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Review of Barclay's latest campaign

I was looking for some news to write about on PR and Marketing Week and this story caught my eye, particularly as the ad in question caught my attention earlier in the month.


The BBH created ad is based around the theme of 'You Vs Unconditional Love' where the ad goes through one man's lifetime bringing up his daughter who has increasing demands for an ice cream, bike, horse, car and a house. The ad ends with his daughter then having to go through the same thing with her own child, whilst the original male character effectively 'kicks back and relaxes.'

Initially when I first watched the advert I understood the exaggerated generalised costs and role of being a parent and enjoyed it for that. However, in lecture recently (and in media studies in year's 12 and 13 at sixth form) we're always told to deconstruct an ad and work out why it is the way it is and who it is being targeted to, etc. Well for starters one thing I didn't understand is the very 'American' looking house and surrounding of the ad. Another thing also is that generally the child in this is also very American in terms of her demands, such as a horse, pink car and pink house. NOTE: When I say American, I mean what you typically see in American films that seems to stereotype American cultures.

I see the playful, albeit very generalised, symbolism of the advert. However, I thought to myself would it still have the same effect or an even better effect if it were to have a typical British Dad who obviously works long hard shifts in an office or doing manual work, whose daughter is much more British in her behaviours and cultures. Such as having driving lessons rather than being given a car, having a birthday party once they hit secondary school age or the mass amounts that need to be bought for the start of secondary school such as uniforms, PE kits, equipment, etc, or even Christmas and birthdays having received an iPod or another expensive gadget. The target audience here is parents who maybe want to help out their children with buying a house, I'm not quite sure how a parent of say 40 or 50 years old, for example, will necessarily connect with the ad. I personally would shave thought this would catch the attention of the children in question and then let their parents know about it.

However, the point of this advert is for the mortgages Barclays are adding and I was going off track, so, instead of an ice cream it would be all the things that are needed as a child such as school uniforms, instead of a bike it would be an expensive gadget, instead of a car it would be driving lessons and tests and instead of a house it could be the child going off to university and then eventually moving in with a partner and then going through the same thing with their own children, etc. I just feel this would be more typically British but let's just say we take the Barclays ad for what it is a symbol of parenting and the costs it involves and how Barclays can help....

The ad has been accused of "encouraging 'parasitic' behaviour" and has received eight complaints that children at home may attempt to copy the child who is demanding materialistic things of her dad. As much as I see this point that the demands are somewhat ridiculous I can see it is meant to be an exaggeration of the truth. I believe that children will try to copy the behaviour, because that's what they do, but then this can't be the only advert/ program/ film that displays this kind of behaviour for children to see. The ASA is currently reviewing the advert but a spokesperson for Barclay has issued a statement saying that generally the ad has had positive feedback for it's creativity.

Friday 25 January 2013

PR Story #2

Okay folks, it's that time of week again to blog about the most interesting story from PR week (in my opinion). To see the first story in this series follow this link: PR Story #1

This week's story is Alton Towers and its agency Cake's latest campaign ready for summer 2013. Alton Towers' is launching a new ride called The Smiler and in order to promote it a viral campaign was created. The Smiler symbol, as seen below, has been projected onto tourist attractions in and around London, such as Big Ben and train and tube stations. There has been a lot of speculation about what the symbol means or what it is associated with.

A few examples of where the symbol has been spotted.


More recenly the campaign has taken on somewhat a more organic nature with flocks of sheep having had the symbol sprayed onto their wool. Passersby picked up on the symbol and started tweeting again causing a buzz and more speculation. Newspaper such as The Sun and the Mail Online picked up the trend and ran their own stories on the campaign, helping it to go completely viral.

 
 
 
The campaign was later revealed on Twitter and an exclusive was given to Metro. I personally think this campaign is genius!! I always love reading about campaign such as this one because it allows me to broaden my own ideas when asked for them. Although these campaigns are fun they're also educational. At university you're taught all the theory and logistics and technicalities but when reading up on things like this it allows your creative side to get thinking. I personally am intruied to see what is next for this campaign as it will be launched May 2013, there has to be more!!

Unfortunately though it seems that this story was very much non viral until the papers picked up on it. Jamie Robinson of We Are Social, says that this campaign did not in fact reach many people, at least not through social media. Thus the campaign has been classed as a 'miss'. However, In one way I agree-  didn't even know about this campaign until I read about it in PR week, thus it didn't reach me and no one I knew was talking about it. However, the creative idea itself was incredible- it was inventive and obviously got enough attention for the papers to cover it, right?

What could be improved though if it is such a 'miss'? Well in my opinion possibly the campaign could have started a little later... Due to the weather and what not, this has dominated the news entirely for a while now, allowing less coverage for other stories in national news. I would maybe have starrted the campaign mid February when people start to look to the summer and their plans.

Also, it was a nice idea to target London and the areas around the Alton Tower's park but it doesn't target a specific audience type and what about the demographic areas outside of those targeted? In order to overcome this the target market for the resort needs to be reassessed. On their website, Alton Tower's claims to have a core market of families and thrill seekers. So, thrill seekers, who have a bit of disposable income, who like to do crazy, nutty things and enjoy road trips with their mates... uni students maybe? Or even the universities themselves, some run limited place events such as Thorpe Park or Alton Towers day trips. A 'Smiler' tour bus could come to univerisity campuses and do an SU night or something similar. A competition could be run at universities and the winner gets their whole course a free day to Alton Towers for example.

To target families really sales promotions is a good idea although not related directly to PR as every family is looking for a great deal whilst treating their family. Other ideas could include major shopping centre appearances with a tour bus and other places that are stereotypically 'family' orientated.

Anyway just a few suggestions! Always love to deconstruct a campaign and go through all the alternative possibilities!

Guest Speakers and an Agency Visit

Well, it's been a busy one this week! Wednesday in particular with a 9am lecture, 11am guest speakers from Bucks based PR agency, Ranieri, and a 2.30pm agency visit to Cirkle PR in Beaconsfield.

To kick things off we had a two hour lecture on event management. At the moment lecturers have my 200% attention as events is a sector I'm seriously considering going into. I kind of feel this is a natural choice for me, I'm always the organiser within groups and I actually quite enjoy it.

Then at 11am came the guest speakers from Ranieri, a local PR agency in Aylesbury- Ranieri Communications.The two speakers that came to see us gave us a general overview of the company and what their day to day routine is like. Then they gave us a brief to work on for half an hour; just brainstorming ideas really. It was great fun and it's also encouraging that your ideas are approved of, as being a student, you're never too sure whether your train of thought is always along the right lines. Our brief was to think of a UK launch idea for a headphone company that has already established their market in the US and Europe. Ideas that were thought of were silent discos/ headphone parties, product demos at universities and gyms, etc. It was great to bounce ideas from one another and to develop a campaign idea also. I also learnt about press tours. Something I hadn't even thought about or even considered as a possibility. It just goes to show that as much as getting a degree is important, university can't teach you everything.

The afternoon visit to Cirkle PR was amazing to say the very least! The founder of Cirkle PR, Caroline Kinsey, has been a guest speaker as part of our PR lectures in 2012. Even though that experience was great, as we got to interview her and see how a PR person should handle an interview, you don't get a feel for where the person works until you actually step through the doors of the agency. Immediately when we all arrived you could tell what culture was being adopted at Cirkle. Everyone was friendly, obviously it was a mostly female dominated agency, but everyone was so welcoming and lovely.

We were split into three groups and each group spent 20 minutes with a member of the team then rotated and so on. My group saw Cirkle's apprentice first and she showed us what she does on a day to day basis and how she balances her work load with her work at the agency as she is currently doing a foundation degree equivalent qualification. When Caroline first visited us and told us about how she really believes in the PR apprentice scheme it made me think, if only I was a few years younger... An apprenticeship has always appealed to me but at the time of making a decision, PR apprenticeships weren't so widely available or heard of, but I'm glad that times are changing.

The second team member we saw was an Account Executive. She took us through her day and what it is like to work at Cirkle, as she as been there for nearly two years. We also helped her brainstorm some ideas for an upcoming event for one of her client's. Both of these team members work in B2B and that too is something I hadn't really considered until visiting Cirkle. At university the consumer side of PR is more dominant and by visiting Cirkle our class were able to be presented with a more balanced view on B2B PR. Cirkle's account executive also homed in on making sure we get as much experience as possible during our tie at university.

The third team member was an Account Manager and she works on the B2C side of PR. We helped her go through a brand's media coverage book and pick out what coverage we thought would make great highlights/ features to present back to the client. It was amazing to see how much coverage the agency had got for just one client in a year. Cirkle's apprentice also showed us another brand's media coverage book and that too was impressive that so much had been achieved. It clearly shows that the agency is very productive and efficient.

To finish off the visit, Caroline gave us a quick presentation and talk on how to become better PR people and become more attractive to potential employers. Being one herself she knows what she wants in an employee. From this came some extremely useful tips such as making a Twitter account and using it for professional reasons rather than social. I didn't even have a Twitter account until yesterday, but I took on board the advice given to me and started following my course mates and lots of other accounts such as: news, PR professional bodies, etc that could come in handy and give me regularly updated 'need to know' information. My account name is on the 'About Me' page of this blog. She also focused on having employees who are able to completely utilise their initiative and being able to think for themselves and on their feet.

Caroline also explained to us about the culture of her agency. She has put so many strategies in place to make work better for her employees, it's incredible and unlike any other workplace I've ever come across. Some initiatives include hot-desking in the office meaning no one has their own desk, it allows everyone to be around different people and integrate more wholly with all the team members. Another is that anyone that is account manager level or above can work from home on Fridays and they also don't have a holiday limit or have to fill out a holiday form as they're mature enough and responsible enough to take holiday where appropriate. It all sounds amazing and to top it all off, Caroline even got them all an iPad mini for Christmas each!! She sounds like an amazing person to work for and the culture that Cirkle has is definitely somewhere I would love to work once I graduate. All the team members work extremely hard but their hard work pays off and the rewards make it all worth it!!

Cirkle has definitely given me a lot to think about and I would like to thank Caroline and her Cirkle team for giving us the opportunity to visit the agency and spend some time getting to grips with what working in an actual PR agency is like!

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Landing a Dream Job

I found this article on LinkedIn that naturally caught my eye on getting the perfect job.

3 Essentials to Landing Your Dream Job using Social Media

Just thought I would share this with you all, it's a great article with plenty of useful tips.

Friday 18 January 2013

PR story #1

So, I thought as well as picking up news stories as they emerge on this blog, I would also pick up on the most interesting story (in my own opinion) from the PR Week magazine I get every Friday in the post and write about the topic in question. This week is the first week I've decided to do this.

The story I have picked up on this week is "UK airlines back Dreamliner." The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has faced problems with safety issues found in Japan and the US. Issues involve fuel leaks, brake problems, a crack in a window in the cockpit and a fire in an aircraft when stationary. Despite these problems and an investigation by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), Japan's travel authority and Boring itself, TUI Thomson airways are confident they are still going ahead with the PR plan for the launch of these planes in association with Hill+Knowlton. TUI Thomson are the first UK airline to be granted exclusive access to these planes, that will become available for use in the UK in May 2013, shortly followed a few months later by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic next year.

This story grabbed my attention, as a regular customer for TUI Thomson every year (as I use sister company First Choice) it was a concern for me that these planes will be available despite still having some quite serious teething problems. I can't imagine how a normally nervous passenger would feel taking off in on of those in the near future.

Hill+Knowlton and TUI Thomson have developed a campaign to help keep up excitement about Thomson being the only brand to have these planes, although this unique selling point at the moment appears to have it's downsides. The campaign so far has involved a press campaign and television advertisement. They have also set up a twitter campaign allowing the British public to name the first aircraft using a hash tag competition; #nameourplane.

I'm excited to see what strategy Hill+Knowlton use in order to reassure the public especially during the couple of months before the plane launches in the UK. From what I've learnt so far Thomson backing the PR plans still is a good sign that they are confident and may know things that we don't about what may be actually happening and implies that the story is very much hyped up as they appear not to be panicking at this potential crisis issue. However, I do think that TUI Thomson need to address the issue in a way that shows the potential customer that issues have been solved and they were just teething problems, not serious issues.

~ ~ ~
UPDATE: I have recently discovered that the winning name for the first aircraft through the twitter campaign will be called... 'Living the Dream.'

I have also decided that TUI Travel who owns Thomson, First Choice and many other global travel brands will be the brand I decide to work upon for a brand book as one of my next assignments!

Thursday 17 January 2013

A Guest Speaker and a World of Opportunities

This week we had another guest speaker, Roger Hayes, who is a senior counsellor for APCO, a global communications and business strategy firm that specialises in emerging markets, and this was the basis of the talk to us. During his career, Dr Hayes has lived in New York, South Africa, India, to name but a few places, mostly because that is where his work has taken him.

Dr Hayes shared with us what he values in a junior executive that he may hire and also told us that working on a global account or for a global company isn't as scary as we may think. Roger stated that in interns and potential employees he values higher education and encouraged us to take our degrees further to masters and PHDs in the future because he admits there are some skills you just can learn on the job. Now this something I have considered but have always felt that especially now it is too expensive to d a masters straight after university as I believe there is no or little funding provided to you as it is postgraduate study unlike under-grad. For me finding a job that would be willing to put me through a masters or some kind of higher education equivalent is near essential and this is something I would really like to do in my lifetime. As much as I would like to get through university and find a job and start earning some money, I have a feeling that I'm the sort of person education will never leave my life. Aside from being stressed out from it, it also gives me a sense of satisfaction that I have managed to complete something to the end and get something great out of it!

Dr Hayes also shared with us a tip that I think many of us hadn't really considered before- being able to speak another language aside from English. I really envy people who had the opportunity at school to pick a language to learn. My secondary school only ever gave the option of French as compulsory for every year 7-9 student. Fortunately I was in the top set that were able to sit a foundation GCSE in year 9 and so I do have a French GCSE (C grade). However, I'm not keen on French and although I know enough to get me by if I ever went there, it' never my first choice of holiday or destination so I never get to use it. On the other hand I would love to speak Spanish! I always go to Spain or Spanish island for holiday every summer and I know a few basic phrases from being out there regularly. I talked this over with my boyfriend and we've both decided that we would love to learn Spanish if not for anything more than a hobby, though I certainly wouldn't mind working out there.

But then, I got thinking... if that is what I really want to do I need to consider a lot more than just learning a language right? When I chose my modules next year taking the Global Marketing module may be in my interest and this could open up doors for possible dissertation topics, couldn't it? I would also need to do some background research to see if there is even a public relations and marketing market in Spain and what is it like, will it differ greatly from the UK?

So I did some background research... I joined a couple of LinkedIn groups to keep updated about the market there and I also looked up some Spanish PR and Marketing agencies and reviewed the case studies of their work and their types of clients. It was comforting that the majority of these websites' content were in English but still to live out there speaking Spanish is essential.

Everything I looked at was encouraging and really feel like I have even more options open to me now than I thought I had before.

Latest High Street Closure

The high street giant HMV, founded in 1921, has been under threat for some time, previously closing stores to save the business money. Today it has been announced that the brand has finally gone into administration!

The Guardian- HMV in administration- History of HMV
The Guardian- HMV Closures

Along with Game, Peacocks, La Senza, to name a few, HMV has fallen latest victim of internet sales taking away in store sales. So, by the end of 2013 it makes me wonder what other brands will also go into administration and close. Will there even be local high streets and shopping centres left to go to in the near future or will people have to travel further to larger shopping areas in order to get a decent experience and how long will it be until the larger shopping centres are also effected?

Personally I would hate to see the closure of any more high street shops, although it is inevitable, as yes you could say I'm biased and stereotype me liking shopping because I'm female but you really don't get the same experience when shopping online. Sometimes, even when you have no money, a shopping centre is a nice place to just go and have a look around and kill a few hours. Buying something online you can't pick it up, feel the texture of clothing and fabrics, try it on to see if it fits and just ask a shop assistant to get you another size if it doesn't, you can't browse online like you can in a shop. I can sort of understand the closure of HMV, the threat of Game going under and potential other shops having declining sales such as Water stones or other book and media shops because with regards to those things, they're standard. It doesn't matter how it looks because it all holds the same media, a book or song won't change if it has different cover art.

HMV will be missed greatly on the high street I think and although it's a sad time as there is now nothing quite like it on the high street anymore I'm fairly confident it will still be available online, which as mentioned isn't the same but I guess the consolation is that it is still there.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Good News!

Well it's more good news! Got a 1st as a preliminary mark for a piece of coursework I wasn't too sure about to be honest. But given the good mark it's kind of boosted me that all the worry and stress wasn't for nothing and the next online magazine we have to do for coursework two on traffic building has given us constructive feedback to hopefully get the same grade or better.

To view my online magazine refer to my Portfolio page, where you can also view other pieces of work I have done in the past.

Sunday 13 January 2013

About Time!

I read this story in my local newspaper over the weekend...

Bucks Free Press- 11+ reform in Bucks schools

All I can say is... about time! Now, it could be perceived that I'm biased as I went to a non-selective school after taking the 11+ in year 6, but that's okay because I've made of it what I wanted and now I'm in a great situation. I passed all of my GCSEs and A levels and I'm on a great university course- it probably couldn't have worked out better had I gone to a grammar school.

I just feel that if you have that natural flair for being at a grammar school and making that type of education, then great, you clearly deserve a place. But, please explain to me what is the point of sending your child for 11+ training anything up to 18 months before they actually take the test? If your child needs that much coaching for one test, how are they going to cope at a grammar school if they don't have any of that natural ability to pass the test? Because that's the idea of it- to offer those select students 'private' style education for free. The test is meant to evaluate who has the natural ability to cope with grammar school education, because let's face it, it's not always for everyone. The thought of people actually moving to the Bucks area just so their children can take the test and attend a grammar school is beyond me!

Put it this way, from what I've seen during my time at secondary school, 6th form and university, every child has something that they are good at and it isn't always something that is theory or textbook based. A lot of children are very practical in their approach to things and excel at these instead. Whatever secondary school your child goes to, grammar or non-selective, as long as they are encouraged by their parents and teachers to do well and always try their hardest at everything, they will get out of it exactly what they want to. If your child truly wants to do well and proves this through their work and attitude- they will.

This whole 11+ business has gone too far! My brother is 4 years younger than myself and I distinctly remember when it came to his turn taking the 11+ a lot of his peers were having coaching for the test and he wanted to know why he couldn't. So already the coaching is setting students apart from their peers and giving them a sense of more or less importance than everyone else in their class. To add fuel to the fire, parents who were sending their children to coaching actually made a list (call it bets if you will) of children they thought would pass or fail the 11+. Who has the time to do this, honestly, it's just cruel! These are 10 year old children! Isn't it bad enough when they find out they haven't passed and are made to feel like they are stupid because they didn't get into a grammar school (this was the first thing my brother asked me)?!

So this begs the question are the parents really sending their children to coaching for their children's benefit or to make themselves look better in front of their fellow parents at the school gates? Whatever the answer is I believe the 11+ reforms, detailed in the article above, are at least a step in the right direction. It makes for a fairer test and hopefully a lot of this parent and child competitiveness will be lost along the way.

One day I would like to see the whole system abandoned and make it so that all secondary schools are available to all children within the catchment area; with each secondary school having a specialism e.g.: sports, drama, technology, and let the children choose what they are interested in and would like to have a good chance at having an education that can effectively accommodate them? What needs to be considered is that you can be coached for a test as often as you like but in the real world of work throwing money at something in order to make sure you succeed won't get you very far. From what I've seen from my lecturers and all the people around me in different careers, in order to enjoy your higher education/ career you need to have an interest and have partly natural ability in order to be able to be good at what you do.

Friday 11 January 2013

Brilliant!

I just thought I'd share this with you quickly as it's just caught my eye on the evening news... Film director Quentin Tarantino loses his temper during an interview with Channel 4 on his new film Django Unchained.

MSN News story: Quentin Tarantino loses temper
Youtube clip: Quentin Tarantino loses temper


...PR nightmare?!



Wednesday 9 January 2013

A Funny Analogy

So here's a funny thing I learnt in my PR lecture today. Being the one who makes the tea at a workplace is actually constructive! I've been in plenty of situations where you're the new one and it's down to you to make the tea, however this is a good practice for project management!

Imagine you've got four people's drinks to make, all are different. Imagine each cup is a client or project and you need to make sure that they are all done and served whilst they're still hot- there we already have one skill that is multi-tasking. You will also have to remember what each drink requires and remember which one is which when serving up.

Now taking a step back you need to figure out what ingredients you have to work with before asking what each person wants, for example if you don't have skimmed milk you can't promise to put it in someone's drink when they ask for it. Lesson number two: you need to do your research before trying to fulfil a client's needs and don't promise something you're not 100% sure you can't deliver.

Now to the making of the drinks; if you're new somewhere you need to figure out your surroundings, if they have a complicated coffee machine chances are you won't know how to use it... So, figure it out- acquire a new skill you didn't have before in order to fulfil your task!

Now to delivering the drinks, four drinks plus your own means more than you can carry so you need to think about the logistics of everything and acquiring the right resources that you may need, in this instance you would need a tray of some sort.

Upon delivery people may check with you that you definitely put sugar in it or if you're sure you used decaf coffee. Think of this as an evaluation and people may come back to you and either say 'it was lovely' or they'll give you feedback such as 'next time could you make it stronger.' Use this as constructive feedback and reflect upon your actions on what you think you could have done better. This is all experience so the next time you make the drinks you'll know what to do without even asking and your performance will only get better.

I thought this was a pretty good analogy that I wanted to share with you- oh and the fact that I also work in a café also meant it caught my attention... I'll never look at a cup of coffee the same way again!

Tuesday 8 January 2013

2013 at University!

It's the second day back and we've been given time to work on our personal website (not forgetting this forms part of our assignment); this is good news as my last post was a while ago. More good news also is that my group got 72% (1st) for the Ad Venture assignment I mentioned in a previous post! So far that's a 1st, 2:1 and 2:2 for the coursework I've handed in, just awaiting the last grade now.

We've also been set new assignments now for each module and this hits home that we're already half way through this course and will be going into work very soon! Scary but worth it...