University student Alice Norman spent a month with us at hopwood public relations. Here’s what she thought of her time as an intern…

Before I started at Hopwood, I can honestly say I was a little lost when it came to choosing a career. Like most people doing History at uni, you reach a point when you realise that your degree really doesn’t help you chose your career path. Public Relations had been recommended to me by quite a few different people, so naturally, I started asking around. But the thing about public relations is that no one really knows what it is (no matter how many people you ask, I can guarantee you won’t get a straight answer from anyone – that’s part of the charm). So I decided to do some work experience while back home in Leicester to help me judge the true meaning of Public Relations for myself. After just four weeks, Hopwood has helped me map out my future.

Like all new interns, I had no idea what to expect. All I hoped was that my job wouldn’t entail simply fetching tea and coffee, or sitting doing research all day long – the sort of things most people do on an internship. I had no idea that I’d be writing my own press releases within the week and conducting phone interviews and organising photo shoots within two. It’s been amazing to get stuck in to all the work and actually be trusted with writing and organising. I feel like I’ve really gained an insight into the world of PR while actually managing to make a difference along the way. After a week, I was totally hooked (and was even getting used to the early mornings!) More

hopwood have been hired by the National Youth Agency (NYA) to promote projects aimed at improving the lives of young people.

We were selected from a shortlist of consultancies and will work with the NYA on national projects in areas such as financial education and citizenship. Here at hopwood, we will deal with the media, produce publications, set up social media campaigns and recruit young people to projects. More

We’re all familiar with that vid of Rebekah Wade peering over the shoulder of Andy Coulson at what I imagine is a lurid tale being cooked up for the News Of The World.

But there is another – perhaps even more telling – VT running behind the phone hacking chronicles.

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 We took full advantage of the silly season and generated dozens of pieces of coverage for clients across finance, B2B and not for profit sectors around August.

Incorporatewear, the premier corporate clothing company co-founded by celeb designer Jeff Banks and others, featured in national print media 11 times.

We successfully managed media around an affordable housing plan for East Midlands Housing Group, for whom we’ve also just finished penning annual reports and autumn magazines.

Other clients have achieved coverage in regional media in the East Midlands and in high-powered national insurance and property publications.

Our digital media activity continues to grow with clients extending their reach into social media and online news outlets.

We generated 50 pieces of print and online media for clients during May and June, including 18 national hits.

 
Highlights included:
Arranging for celebrity designer Jeff Banks, a co-founder of Incorporatewear, to feature in The Sunday Telegraph’s Fame and Fortune column. News about the corporate clothing company hit 19 other national and regional media.

Expanding Leicester insurance broker Brett and Randall made seven appearances in key regional media, including a main article in Business Issues.

There’s a debate (unhealthy, I think) in the PR industry about whether or not it’s appropriate to measure the amount of media coverage we generate in terms of what it would cost to buy the same amount of space or air time as advertising.

It’s a hot topic on twitter under the hashtag #measurepr. Here’s what we think about measuring PR.

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hopwood pr clients featured prominently in more than 90 print and online publications in the first two months of the year. A dozen pieces of national coverage, plus articles in regional newspapers and business magazines, gave our clients more than five million opportunities to be seen. More

Joining Science City regulars at the spectacular No. 1 Nottingham Science Park, it was exciting to see futurologist Richard Watson stray off the subject of climate change and make some eye-catching predictions about how the media will look in decades to come. More

Last month I was invited by my old Journalism tutor to attend the launch of “the Leicester Centre for Journalism” at De Montfort University. Intrigued to see what had become of my classmates, as well as what had changed during the year since my graduation, I decided to go along. More