Day 1: Wednesday 23 January

Catching the 09.27 train from Truro to London...sleepy.

Celeb spot 1: (one of) Mel & Sue

The team quickly sussed out one of Mel & Sue on the train from Truro to London. Not sure which one though...

Arrival in London

Stumbling off the train after five hours, we make our way to International Students House where half our number have booked rooms (or beds in dorms) for the duration of the visit.

Immediately upon entering, those who've opted to stay with relatives on the outskirts of the city instantly regret their decision.

The hostel is warm and welcoming, buzzy and packed with students from all over the world. The price, the promise of a karaoke night on Thursdays, a £2 per pint bar, and its location—bang in the middle of town, less than 100 metres from both Regent's Park and Great Portland Street tube stations—make it perfect for our purposes.

Better still, Luke's single room turns out to be a four-bed dorm all to himself. Philip immediately moves out of his bunk in an 11-bed dorm (£11 per night) to move in with Luke. After dropping off our luggage, we're straight out into the fray.

p.s. this is what happens if you bring MASSIVE suitcases with you

Warehouse Press Office

First stop, Warehouse. Part of the Rubicon group, the fashion retail brand's head office is located mid-way down Rathbone Place, a mere stone's throw from the bars and restaurants of beautiful Fitzrovia, and the highest of the UK's high streets: Regent and Oxford.

Stylists toting sample bags step round us in the bijou lobby before Press Officer Jessica Harris whizzes out to greet us and take us deep into the bowels of the building where the Press Office is located.

Perched among clothes rails that bow under the weight of next season's collection, Jessica and her assistant Sophie (also Harris, but no relation, she assures me) give us a whistle-stop run-through of the pros and cons of fashion PR.

Fortunately, the pros seem to massively outweigh the cons. Anyone else fancy being paid to read all the fashion supplements and celebrity magazines, travel to Ibiza to plug Warehouse to the beautiful people and spot Pearl Lowe sporting your garb?

On the downside, the horror of seeing the glossy fashion mags or women's weeklies appearing on newsstands without your wares on show is a daily threat to your sanity, but on balance, the Warehouse team seem pretty content with their lot.

Largely incorporated within the brand's marketing function, the Warehouse press team is also responsible for trend-spotting and feeding their findings into the product designers to ensure cutting-edge looks are maintained at all times.

Warehouse feedback- Kate Stott

I really enjoyed this presentation, it gave me more of a clear picture of what it's like to work in fashion PR and indeed working in an in-house PR department rather then an agency.

This was the first stop on the visit….my first instinct was that it was going to be a glamorous and highly exciting place to work and it didn’t disappoint. I have a common interest with Warehouse, I love clothes and like to think that maybe in the not too distant future I could be working in fashion PR is an exciting prospect.

The presentation took place in the Press Office, we were surrounded in clothes and bags and it all seemed like a great place to work (for the girls anyway)

Press Officer Jessica Harris and her assistant took us though what it’s like to work in the business. The best advice I got from her is that to work in PR internally you really have to be passionate and really love the product and the company you’re working for. The type of things that they did also really inspired me, for example going to Ibiza and plugging Warehouse seemed like a good perk of the job and organising events like fashion shows could be immense.

It was obvious to me, that a distinct feature of the press office at Warehouse is that it has a marketing function and has to find particular ways to get the brand out there and in the media. I also found the whole idea of celeb spotting quite cool, as celebs wearing the brand is important.

However there must be a down side? I got the impression that working internally for an organisation could be draining and a little taxing as you have to live and breathe the brand, which could take its toll, but I guess if you’re passionate about something, then it would be the best job. It got me thinking though that it would be very interesting to experience both in-house PR and working at an agency in order to see how they both differ, and to establish were I would be most suited in this thriving sector of PR. Working in fashion to me sounds like a fantastic opportunity.

The Red Consultancy

From Warehouse, it's a short stroll (or jog, if, like us, you've slightly underestimated the time it takes to negotiate Soho during rush hour) to the Red Consultancy.

My last full-time employer prior to joining University College Falmouth, Red hovers above Sugar Reef bar, right opposite the notorious Windmill Theatre in Piccadilly's Great Windmill Street.

We're greeted by the effervescent Kim Swead, one of Red's Divisional Directors and one of my first room-mates at the company way back in 2002. Since then, Kim has combined marriage, motherhood and managing PR for a wide portfolio of consumer brands. Nowadays, working a three-day week, she focuses solely on one of Red's largest and longest-standing clients, the DIY giant B&Q.



Seated in one of Red's many swanky meeting rooms, right next to the office Bar (free booze for all staff on Thursday and Friday nights), we're taken through the award-winning agency's credentials by Kim and two of Red's current crop of new graduate trainees.

The work is imaginative and varied with a constant attempt to 'place things where they shouldn't be', in order to attract media attention.

Whether that's a rude word blocked out on an advertising hoard that's revealed every night post-watershed or a crash test dummy designed to check which biscuits are the crumbliest, Red's work is truly inspiring and amusing in equal measure.


The new grads seem incredibly smiley and happy, but I guess they're entitled to be - they've been picked from hundreds of applicants to join Red's trainee scheme and look set for great careers in the industry, starting with one of the biggest and best players in the business.

After Red, it's obvious that the early start and London's bustle have taken their toll. Everyone heads off for home or hostel for a good night's sleep (or in Kate's case, a detailed lecture on the finer points of English football from two of the game's most experienced connoisseurs, Luke and Philip).

The Red Consultancy. – Philip Strömbäck

We’re all very impressed of The Red Consultancy, first of all a smart designed office that gave the impression of a trendy and professional agency. We’re greeted by Kim Swead, one of Red's Divisional Directors and two of Red’s newly employed from the their graduate program. Seated in one of their conference rooms they guided us through some of their award-winning campaigns. We’re all very impressed by their work, and I think it really hard not to be. They know exactly how to satisfy the customers and it not hard to understand why The Red Consultancy is one of the best in the business.

After the presentation the two graduates told us about how they went from the University to a full-time job at the Red Consultancy, which we all find very interesting because this is a path we all need to take and all information can be helpful in the future.

Finally they guided us through their entire office before we left The Red Consultancy with some knowledge about their consumers, their way to work and useful information how to get a job in a big P.R. agency.

Celeb spot 2: Maquita Oliver

Spotted—where else—but in the heart of Soho. My photo was less good (Maquita second from right with her back to us..)

Day 2: Thursday 24 January

Looks like there was time for some shopping after all...

The Mirror

Next morning, it's a (relatively) early start as we gather at 10am at Canary Wharf, home to the country's tallest building which in turn houses the offices of our first stop for the day - the Mirror newspaper.

Before we enter, Luke and Leila fall under the spell of a real live PR event taking place on behalf of the Canadian Tourist Board. A miniature Eden Project dome positioned just outside Canary Wharf station draws them in, where they each receive a free hand massage (and several chocolate truffles).



Suitably refreshed, they join the rest of us (shivering outside in the cold) and we make our way up to the 21st floor of No. 1 Canada Square.

In the formidable surrounds of one of the UK's best loved media institutions, we're greeted by Conor Nolan (one of the course's visiting lecturers) and Mirror Managing Editor, Eugene Duffy.

In Eugene's office, we're treated to a brief but detailed presentation on the paper's history, and its prospects for the future in a world dominated by electronic media.

Eugene explains how he reached his current position (the traditional route through regional papers, via a less-traditional Middle Eastern title) and gives us some valuable insights into the Mirror's readership, past and present.

Of greatest concern to all newspapers—particularly the tabloids—is the current downward trend in reader numbers, with the Mirror one of the worst-affected titles due to a combination of historical editorial decisions and current pressures to deliver profits along with the editorial scoops that define the paper's brand of ground-breaking journalism.

Unlike the Guardian (run by a charitable trust) and the Sun (something of a loss-leader for Rupert Murdoch's US TV-led media empire), the Mirror is constantly being challenged to meet the demands of its shareholders just as much as the demands of its readers - a tough proposition indeed for Duffy.

As the newsroom empties for the daily 11am news conference, we're shown round the paper's key 'desks'. Fashion is a messy pile of freebies, making the politics and business desks seem suspiciously tidy. The production staff are yet to start work for the day, so it's fairly quiet, and their absence makes all the more visible some of the creaking technology in use(when did you last see a beige Apple Mac?).

It's a fascinating place but we (and more to the point, the Mirror staff) have plenty more to do, so we depart into the maze of tunnels beneath the monolith that leads us into the Underground network.

The Mirror - Claire Breakey

We arrived at Canary Wharf at 10am sharp. The weather was glum, but after a visit to Starbucks we were set to go. We worked our way up to the 21st floor of 1 Canada Square, home to The Mirror Newspaper, one of the country's favourite dailies.

Upon arrival we were greeted by our guest lecturer, Conor Nolan and Eugene Duffy, the Managing Editor of the newspaper. Our first stop was Eugene's office where he explained his his role within the paper: it seemed a pretty tough job. As well as managing much of the paper's finance and worrying about circulation, he reads the Mirror (and some of its competitors) from cover to cover every day, even on holiday. His journalists obviously have to read the Mirror daily to keep in touch with their work and one of Eugene’s pet hates is his staff not doing so.

Eugene gave us an insight into what the future holds for the newspaper with a very successful online paper, having thousands of hits per day despite being run by a minimal staff team. Despite many new ways of catching daily news, the fall in readers may be close to 'bottoming out'. The Mirror, like other tabloids, has certainly felt the pinch, but Eugene seems confident that it can survive. One of the ways it attracts readers is with the sort of partnerships arranged by Conor, such as the recent Led Zeppelin album giveaway where Mirror readers were offered exclusive access to tracks from Led Zeppelin's new album prior to its general release.

Eugene went onto explain a little bit about himself and how he got to where he is now. Working his way up the ladder from small regional newspapers to bigger national newspapers, to where he is today.

By 11am the office empties and Eugene explains this is when they have a daily meeting to choose stories for the following day's paper: the news conference. This gave us an opportunity to have a tour of the office and the different desks. My favourite was the fashion and entertainment section. The fashion desk was noticeably messy, with the freebies and clothes for features.

We move round to the production area, where we get an insight into the different jobs such as sorting out the layout of every page to make the paper perfect and easy on the eye.

Overall I gained an interest into the paper and learnt about the difficulties of producing a daily title. However, it looked like a fun environment to work in with great production.

Celeb spot 3: Gary Lineker

Quite literally, The Face of Football, Mr Gary Lineker. Spotted emerging from Eat in the King's Road. Classy guy. Shorter than you might think, but even more tanned.

Halpern PR

We emerge, after about half an hour, in what appears to be a completely different world: the elegant and refined environs of Sloane Square.

An hour's shopping is the order of the day (I discover), but as we split up to roam up and down the busy King's Road, I'm the only one to spot a celebrity of note: permatanned football pundit Gary Lineker, emerging confidently from Eat with his take away lunch.

We've entered the rarified atmosphere of London's poshest postcode to take a peek inside one of London's best-known and best-loved PR agencies, Halpern.

Owned and managed by PR guru Jennie Halpern, the 45-strong agency focuses almost entirely on lifestyle brands, counting Molton Brown, Miss Sixty, Energie and Saab among an impressive client list.

The prodigiously talented Divisional Director Fiona Hughes talks to us about the agency and shows us around the packed sample room - an Aladdin's Cave of clothing, sunglasses and other lifestyle accessories. She's later joined by one of Halpern's most recent hires, all the way from the North East who joined Halpern after realising that she wanted nothing to do with solicitors' offices and everything to do with the glitz, glamour and hard work embodied by a lifestyle PR agency.


We're also treated to a leaving gift: make-up for the girls and more manly bath products for the boys. Amazingly, Fiona invites all the students to approach her if they are interested in undertaking unpaid work placements during the holidays. Everyone is extremely interested although Luke appears a little concerned about being the only bloke among so many young ladies.

Halpern PR. - Lauren Rees

As soon as we walked into Halpern we were all very impressed, and filled with anticipation for the presentation. The corridor to the reception desk was filled with frames of campaigns, and press pieces, including everything from pieces in Tatler to GQ. We went through to their stylish conference room where we met Fiona and were given a client list. She filled us in on Halpern, what PR they do, and how they do it.

She talked to us about the different parts of PR that Halpern cover such as Interiors and Design, Health and Beauty, Fashion and Style, Travel and Leisure, and Celebrity and Social. Halpern covers a wide range of clients including; Hotel Chocolat, M&S, Molton Brown, Dior and Center Parcs. They have celebrities such as Kim Cattrall, and David Beckham through their doors, to look at their showroom. We were lucky enough to have a look round their showroom, and got to see some of their clients' products. The girls were very excited to see rails of Miss Sixty, Radley bags, and shelves of sunglasses.

We also got to meet someone who started as an intern at Halper. She gave us some vital advice and told us that work experience and building relationships was key to getting into PR. We left Halpern with not only a great Molton Brown goody bag, but filled with enthusiasm, and were raring to get into work straight away!

As we left the building everyone in the group seemed to have a new lease of life after the long day, and chattered animatedly about Halpern and working in PR. We were all very impressed and exhilarated, and the girls especially decided that Halpern would be their dream job.

I really enjoyed the visit to Halpern PR, and thought it would be an amazing place to work.

Frank PR

Moving swiftly on, it's a quick march back up to the tube station where we board a train for Camden: ying to Sloane Square's yang.

Dirty, scruffy, noisy and crowded, Camden is the spiritual home of London's music scene and the real home of one of the Capital's edgiest PR agencies, Frank.

Founded in 2000 by two former Lynne Franks employees, Frank (not, apparently named after Lynne, but to embody the founders' attitude towards PR communications) is now a thriving agency of around 60 staff.

A to-die-for client list includes major brands like Budweiser, Swatch, Costa Coffee and HP Sauce, not to mention businessman Sir Alan Sugar of The Apprentice fame.

We're lucky enough to receive a lengthy audience with one of the co-founders, Andrew Bloch, who leads us into Frank's boardroom, a slick, all-white environment with huge divan beds taking the place of traditional seating.



Andrew talks with great enthusiasm about the company and shows no signs of resting on his laurels having last year secured the sale of Frank to an Australian media conglomerate for around £17 million. He is also very open to requests for work experience at the company - email: experiencepr@frankpr.it

One of Frank's proudest PR moments involved persuading snooker legend Jimmy White to change his surname by deed poll to Brown for the duration of the 2006 masters tournament. Why? To promote HP's Brown sauce of course. One of the most memorable PR campaigns of recent years, this quirky, creative 'Eureka' moment exemplifies the Frank approach and yielded acres of press coverage for the sauce brand.

Unfortunately, Andrew's presentation is so fascinating and the boardroom so comfortable (and windowless to promote greater creativity and less gazing out of the window) that when we leave, we're late for our next appointment. Very late.

Frank PR - Leila Heppell

When we walked into Frank PR we all warmed to it straight away. It had a quirky feel, which we all loved. The walls were filled with ideas, and the shelves were stacked with numerous awards. Around 50 people sat at computer desks all working away coming up with great ideas. Straight away, it was easy to tell Frank was going to be different to the other agencies we had visited so far.

Jon had told us we would be meeting the co-founder of Frank. I presumed it would be a man, possibly in his fifties and maybe not that exciting. As usual, my predictions were wrong. Andrew Bloch, one of the co-founders, must have been in his twenties and as I learnt throughout our visit their, his work certainly is exciting.

Andrew greeted us all in a friendly way, and showed us through to the board room. The fun style of the room amazed us all. The room, sofa beds, table and carpet are all white. There are no windows in the room and Andrew explained to us that this ensures there are no distractions.

We were told about Frank in detail. Founded originally in 2000, Frank moved quickly up the scale gaining great accounts right from the start. Andrew explained to us that Frank is all about “talkability”. Word of mouth is one of the most important ways in which PR campaigns work, and without talkability, you cannot have that.

The idea behind the layout of Frank is that there are no offices resulting in everyone working together. This, I thought, was a great idea as it meant that everyone could bounce ideas off of each other, something which I have learnt is important in this industry. Although there is obviously a system of hierarchy in the company, it felt as though everyone would help and everyone was appreciated.

We were shown a selection of Frank’s finest work and were all enthused. When we left, we were all itching to get out into the real world and experience some real life PR for ourselves.

Ketchum PR

So late, in fact, that when I call Alexander Watson at Ketchum, our next port of call, I'm amazed that he doesn't just tell us to forget it. After all, PR people have lives too.

It's 6.30 by the time we've made our way right to the other side of town, to Liverpool Street. After a short walk through Spitalfields market, we're greeted by Alex and his team in the street outside Ketchum's offices and politely frogmarched into one of the company's glass walled boardrooms. Taking an opposite approach to Frank, Ketchum's meeting spaces are positioned squarely in the centre of the office, and are completely transparent. They're also insulated well against noise, but it's interesting to note that Ketchum seems to actively promote distraction during meetings. Both approaches seem to have their merits, and it certainly works for Ketchum, one of the greatest PR success stories of all time.

Global in reach, but with local offices all over the world, Ketchum offers both international and country-based PR counsel. We're here specifically to learn about the UK company's healthcare PR work for some of the world's biggest (but least recognised brands), the pharmaceutical companies.

In the UK, it's illegal to advertise prescription medicines like Viagra, Tamoxifen and Seroxat direct to consumers. The only way the UK public gets to hear them mentioned tends to be via news coverage of company activities or campaigns designed to raise the profile of specific medicines, helping consumers make choices about treatment for health problems.

Healthcare PR is huge business and one of Ketchum UK's most significant growth areas. Alex tells us how, over the years the healthcare department has gone from strength to strength each year and now has a great fun team of 50 plus people and is one of Ketchum UK's biggest specialist area.

We learn about the basics of healthcare PR, and specifically about two of the company's most successful campaigns. One global (an amazing campaign called Breast Friends involving a photo album o pictures taken by snapper-to-the-stars, Rankin) and one UK-based. We also hear from one of Ketchum's latest hires, a recent graduate called Chris who is already making a reputation for himself among Alex's team as an excellent strategic thinker and general PR all-rounder. He also appears to be something of a performer, given his presence in the company's Christmas party photos.

Read more about the Breast Friends campaign here: http://www.ketchumcomms.co.uk/node/1074

Ketchum PR - Luke Durkin

After a busy day of hustle and bustle in London, the class visited Ketchum PR. A leading Healthcare PR company, dealing with medical clients from around the world.

The class were welcomed with a warm hospitality by staff at Ketchum, along with a selection of snacks and beer to accompany the talk. From the start, I felt both comfortable and intrigued as to how a real-life Healthcare consultancy would operate.

The Healthcare industry is something that I have a particular fondness and passion for as my mother was a GP in Hertfordshire and London, so growing up around medical terminology was not uncommon.

However, after a few coronas and some tasty doritos, the talk was under way. We were first of all, provided with some information about the company itself and how this particular area of PR differs from the more 'glamourous', consumer areas of communications, which I know, the majority of the class are very fond of.

I was amazed at how geographically widespread Ketchum is in terms of its consultancies and clients based abroad as well as in the UK. Providing the public with specialist knowledge on new medicines, and raising the profiles of some of the worlds leading pharmaceutical brands, is on a short note what Ketchum sets out to achieve.

Ketchums 'Breast Friends' campaign in support of cancer patients, sets out to emphasise how there is more than one type of breast cancer, each with various ways of managing them respectively. Through inspirational imagery by leading photgrapher, 'Rankin', Breast Freinds has definitely made a tremendous difference to its cause.

This is an example of how rewarding Healthcare PR is to me, and I left the visit to London with an open mind as to where I may want to specialise in the near future.

Thanks to everybody at Ketchum, for your time and effort. It was definitely worth it and I hope that you continue to make a difference to the Healthcare sector with your work.

Day 3: Friday 25 January

BUPA

This was it - the big presentation that everyone had been waiting for (or dreading in some cases).

After something of a staggered arrival, brought about by the previous day's exertions, we all trooped into BUPA's imposing Bloomsbury HQ. After a warm welcome from Alison Burry, PA to Director of Corporate Communication Peter Jones, we found ourselves in a slick and sophisticated boardroom overlooking huge swathes of Central London. If I'd wanted to choose an intimidating spot for the team's first 'proper' presentation, I couldn't have done much better.

Several coffees and biscuits later, we were set to go, just in time for the arrival of Peter Jones himself. Having already met Peter when he came to address the class at Woodlane, most of us knew what to expect but still, here was a very senior man taking time out of his day to inspect our wares. We knew we had to be right on the money.

Our brief? To consider and analyse a set of public favourability data provided to us by Peter, in order to assess the opportunities and threats presented to BUPA's communications departmnent - no small feat, considering the wealth of variables that could affect perceptions.

Without going into too much detail, we were reasonably confident that we'd met the requirements of the brief, but no-one was prepared for the positivity of Peter's response. He congratulated us on our strategy and tactical approaches, leaving a warm glow as we departed for our next port of call, young consumer agency Cow PR, all the way back over in Old Street.

Fancy a job here?

Mining Journal. Strange, but looking at the building, no-one particularly wanted to work here. Of course, appearances can be deceptive.

Cow PR

Ushered into the beautifully designed lobby of Cow PR, we knew we were in for a smorgasbord of creativity as sweet and tasty as the old-school selection of candies laid out for us. White mice, cola bottles, jelly babies, you name it, they was there.

One of my former students, Reuven Proenca, welcomed us and introduced us to Senior Account Executive Nicki Oldham who would be giving us a presentation on the agency's work. Home to several ex-Red Consultancy folk, I recognised a few familiar faces, but Cow had a different energy to Red's - perhaps reflective of their huge influence in the (very) young people's market and complete focus on consumer brands (Red also handles corporate, IT and healthcare, for example).

As well as Cow PR, the Cow brand encompasses a whole host (or should I say herd) of bovine brand offshoots, from social marketing agency Herd, to production company Cowshed.

The company's work is bold, creative and vibrant and the whole agency has a very young feel - no-one working there looked older than 30. The buzz was palpable.

Gee-ed up by several inspirational examples of Cow's work (and possibly from the sugar rush brought on by all the sweets), we left for our final appointment of the trip: Pathfinders Recruitment, for some tips on producing the perfect PR CV.

Pathfinders Recruitment

From Old Street, we made our way back to the centre of the West End - Golden Square, no less (also home to Virgin Radio) to meet with Gemma Heaps of Pathfinders Recruitment.

A PR recruitment agency specialising in placing graduates, Pathfinders could well be the first stop for many graduates hoping to step into their first PR role.

Gemma gave the group some incightful tips on creating a successful CV, with instructions on who to approach and when, in the company's top-floor boardroom.

As proceedings drew to a close, the temptations of Soho's many pubs became almost overwhelming, so we proceeded to the curiously-named Sun and 13 Cantons for some well-deserved refrehment.

The Sun & 13 Cantons

Final destination....and well deserved.