Category: Entry-Level PR Job

The Beauty of Raleigh PR: Day 25 – Creativity

Jasmin SessomsBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, The Clairemont Team, ,

Its 4 p.m. in the office, you have been working for seven hours and the dreaded afternoon slump hits. When you are lacking a little inspiration at work, what do you do? Whether we are planning an event, pitching media or writing a client strategy, we have all experienced creative blocks.

At Clairemont, we have a few tricks we would love to share with you to stimulate your creativity.

5 Sources of Clairemont-spiration

  1. News: Reading the paper, watching a few minutes of TV news, flipping through a magazine and checking out updates on social media are wonderful ways to get ideas. Sometimes you get the best ideas from the most unexpected places.
  2. Fresh Air: Need a change of scenery? Clairemont is located in the heart of downtown Raleigh. We love pausing our tasks to take a quick, refreshing walk. In general, changing your environment — whether it is sitting at a different desk or walking across town — it helps to change up your thinking.
  3. Billy: Dogs in the work place help to reduce stress and tension. Billy, our CMO (Chief Motivational Officer), is a regular fixture around the office, always on the lookout for a neck scratch, a walk or a little playtime. The point is, sometimes, your brain just needs a break.
  4. Treats: Let’s face it; for those who partake, caffeine simply puts a little pep in our steps. The morning brew helps me start my day (and afternoon and evening). Sometimes we have a sweet tooth and other times we crave salty snacks. For team brainstorm sessions, we find having our favorite treats make it feel more like a party than work. And THAT makes the creativity flow!
  5. The Craziest (or Worst) Idea Ever: Sometimes you just have to go to extremes. When you can’t seem to nail the best idea ever, see what you can come up with as the craziest idea ever…or give yourself permission to think up the worst idea ever. In the process, you just might find a notion that will lead you to be wildly successful.

When these things don’t work, we dance it out until inspiration hits! What do you do to get your brain functioning after being stuck in a rut?

Editor’s Note: Clairemont enthusiastically welcomes Jasmin Sessoms to our team! Follow this former beauty queen’s journey as she documents her first 30 days in a Raleigh PR agency.

Read More

The Beauty of Raleigh PR: Day 24 – Smart TV

Jasmin SessomsBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Public Relations, , ,

Meet the Coopers. An average American family. Meet dad, a widower and a father. The Coopers win a “house of the future” with a cyber housemaid named PAT (“Personal Applied Technology”). But the house goes haywire, and it’s up to the family to defeat the system. In 1999, Smart House was released by Disney. In 2015, our world is getting closer and closer to this technologically advanced experience that Walt Disney portrayed some 16 years ago. Computers are taking a leading role in our lives.

From the Jetsons‘ flying cars and moving walkways, today’s technology has evolved to reflect some of these early animations. These developments, however, have fostered an overarching concern in the minds of many Americans: Big Brother is watching you. First, be careful what you say on your land line. Then, don’t write anything incriminating via email or text. All of these things could possibly be taken be a third party and used against you. Next thing you know, you’re a “person of interest” on a governmental watch list–or so the story goes.

While watching the news this morning, I got a slightly more frightening Big Brother update. Samsung TVs, just like the one I was watching in the privacy of my bedroom, could possibly be collecting my conversations and sending them to a third party. Samsung is warning its customers about discussing personal information in front of the television set. The policy states that the TV will be listening to your every word, waiting for a command.

With media pitching as one of our areas of expertise at Clairemont, I wonder if we will soon live in a world where people begin to abandon the TV in fear. Will technology bring more bad than good in our society, causing us to adopt older methods of communication? Or will I soon be flying into work? Those are just a few tidbits to think about before sitting down in front of the television and airing your dirty laundry.

Editor’s Note: Clairemont enthusiastically welcomes Jasmin Sessoms to our team! Follow this former beauty queen’s journey as she documents her first 30 days in a Raleigh PR agency.

Read More

The Beauty of Raleigh PR: Day 23 – DQ Cakes

Jasmin SessomsBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Raleigh PR Agency, Wonderfully Random, ,

Sprinkles and icing and cakes! Oh my! Yesterday, the Clairemont team hosted a Frozen-themed Valentine’s Day event for one of our beloved clients,  Triangle Dairy Queen. After much planning and preparing, the day had finally approached us. Dairy Queen is famed for its ice cream cakes, and we wanted to give them an official introduction to our friends at Clairemont.

This event turned into a bona fide cake-decorating, finger-licking, Queen-Elsa-spotting party. Kids of all ages flocked from near and far to decorate a sweet treat for their moms and dads. With a little inspiration from the Dairy Queen team, cake beautifying began.

I think that the most gratifying moment of this event was to see the children’s faces brighten when they spotted their favorite Disney character, Queen Elsa, walk up to aid with their designs. What makes DQ cakes so special? All of the cakes at the Triangle Dairy Queen locations are made fresh in-house and are fully customizable for every occasion.

For more than 70 years, DQ has been crafting delicious treats for the entire family. The key to Dairy Queen’s success is simple: a combination of hard-working staff and great-tasting food. With three Triangle locations under our client’s belt, he and his staff are strongly embedded in the local culture and enjoy giving back to the community.

Although much has changed in the world since Dairy Queen’s inception, one constant has remained: DQ restaurants are still the place to find friends celebrating a birthday, stopping by after a date or simply enjoying a sweet treat. If you can’t think of a gift for Valentine’s Day, pop into Dairy Queen and request a custom-made ice cream cake for your sweetie. Dairy Queen’s scrumptious flavors combined with the staff’s boundless design expertise will provide the perfect treat to “heat up” your holiday.

Read More

The Beauty of Raleigh PR: Day 22 – PDQ Shake

Jasmin SessomsBlog, Clairemont Client News, Entry-Level PR Job, Raleigh PR Agency, , ,

During a team lunch yesterday, we enjoyed a scrumptious treat. PDQ, one of our clients, has recently unveiled its newest seasonal shake, Toffee Coffee. Ready for the official review? The taste is mind-blowing. Decadent toffee pieces mix with the layers of rich coffee flavor for an indulgent melt-in-your-mouth experience. I have to warn you: this shake may lead to instantaneous happiness as well as an uncontrollable need to sing, dance and “shake” it out! We certainly couldn’t resist!

Craving it already? PDQ, a fresh, fast-casual restaurant, offers multiple locations throughout the Triangle, plenty of opportunities to get your “toffee fix”! And please join us in congratulating PDQ as it opens its newest location this Sunday, February 8, in Winston-Salem. (Lucky Winston-Salem!)

Be sure to pop by PDQ and “Shake It Off” with a little Toffee Coffee this weekend.

Editor’s Note: Clairemont enthusiastically welcomes Jasmin Sessoms to our team! Follow this former beauty queen’s journey as she documents her first 30 days in a Raleigh PR agency.

Read More

The Beauty of Raleigh PR: Day 21 – Super Bowl

Jasmin SessomsBlog, Entry-Level PR Job, Marketing, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , ,

Although the Super Bowl to most may seem like a thing of the past, fans and foes are still discussing the recent choices made by artist Katy Perry.

Katy Perry’s “flame” dress in which she opened the Super Bowl halftime show was made of detailed orange patent leather worth $15,000 to $20,000, according to ABC News. It is also stated that she worked with the designer over two months to perfect the design. It is reported that her finale dress also cost a whopping $15,000 and had to be slipped on by Perry in just 45 seconds. With four total costume changes, Katy Perry is the only halftime show artist to have changed this many times in Super Bowl history.

From a PR standpoint, I think Katy Perry did the show justice. Not only did she embrace her own identity, but she also left something for her fans to talk about. So I think this falls under branding as well as the importance of social media to PR. The order of public relations and branding is a key difference between the two. Developing a brand must come before engaging in public relations, advertising, marketing or any other communications-related company activity.

At Clairemont, we take a tactics-agnostic approach to devising PR and marketing strategies using both traditional tools such as media relations and event planning and newer tools such as content marketing and social media. We acknowledge the importance of social media followings to help a brand, and Perry has an amazing following on her accounts. With 64.6 million twitter followers and 14.2 million followers on Instagram, Katy Perry is no stranger to social media.

Why? We live in a world of media hype and skepticism where advertising has lost some of its power to influence. Marketers are leaning more to word-of-mouth programs to create the sought after buzz for a brand. Katy Perry does just that, with her larger than life set to include a Lion to ride in on and dancing Sharks her name was trending all over social media channels and even received many spots on the news.

According to reports, this is the most watched Super Bowl half time show in history. Good job Katy Perry — we heard you “Roar” loud and clear.

Editor’s Note: Clairemont enthusiastically welcomes Jasmin Sessoms to our team! Follow this former beauty queen’s journey as she documents her first 30 days in a Raleigh PR agency.

Read More