exposurelondontony

[exposurelondontony]

December 07 2015

Before my internship started in New York with Exposure PR, I had previously worked for the same company in London. My first day with them began on the 7th of Dec 2015 and ended on Jan 10th 2016. I then again worked for them from the 29th of March to the 15th of April. I worked for the London office for about 2 months. During my time there (alongside one other Intern and a great friend of mine now), I worked specifically on LC:M ticket requests for the Christopher Raeburn and Agi & Sam shows. This was our main priority, alongside other tasks. We also had the task of creating send outs and returns.

Send outs: By which an intern receives a request via email for product from one of the PR company’s represented brands. These products will be available in the showroom (or showroom’s - plural for those at Exposure in London) The requests are generally from stylists looking to get new season product for a photo-shoot. Once the intern has chosen the product which will be sent, they then must manually check out the product from the company’s online inventory with the relevant send out information, i.e. address, recipient, shoot location, theme & mood of shoot etc.

Return: This is the act by which an intern receives the product back from a shoot. The product is normally found in the returns closet, filled to the brim with all sorts of other returns. Normally 2 or 3 interns grab bags of these returns each morning and manually check them back into the inventory system. This will carry on throughout the day depending on an interns schedule.

[exposurelondontony]

Exposure London had 3 showrooms at the time. The company also existed in 3 of the buildings on the street, meaning that workers had to manoeuvre between the buildings throughout the day. I was located in the main building on 22 Little Portland Street. One of the showroom’s was located in the basement and our office was located just next to this. The brands we represented there included Agi & Sam, Christopher Raeburn, Nike, Dr Martens and Converse. However, during my return in April, the showroom in the main building was being relocated to  the building 2 doors down and so there were about 4 days of lifting and moving. We were also running up to Press day and so the move had to be done to a deadline.

[exposurelondontony]

December 11 2015

For the run up to Press day, my role consisted of a combination of steaming, running errands and organising the showroom and designated press spaces. This was a lot of grunt work considering we were being pretty much prepping last minute. The day of, before opening, I helped merchandise the space, styled and selected outfits. More specifically, I decided the outfit display for two students we represented from the Central Saint Martins runway show. As doors opened, I checked guests in, helped prep cocktails and food. There was a rotation between interns and so throughout the day I moved between the press day and back to the office where I had to focus on send outs and press coverage.

[exposurelondontony]

As said previously, my role was primarily to go through the company’s LC:M specific emails and sift through ticket requests. Once these lists had been created and completed, we then created the individual invitations and had about 5 or 6 interns (including myself) hand deliver them. Some note worthy deliveries I personally made, included an invitation to Dermot O’Leary. Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet him, but I was able to meet some of his representatives. However I did get to meet one other notable name on my travels. As I was on my way to hand out yet another LC:M invitation and started approaching a beautiful Peach town house with a huge Barbie pink door. Just as I was opening the front gate, a taxi pulled up to the house, and out came Mary Portas. I then proceeded to hand her the invites and started up a conversation about her work. It was a short encounter but exciting for me.

[exposurelondontony]

January 08 2016

The runway shows themselves were a great experience. My first show was with Agi & Sam, where I showed guests to their seats. Some notable names on the list included Dermot O’leary, whom I finally got to meet and Tiny Tempah who I was told is very much into his fashion. The second show was for Christopher Raeburn. The experiences were very similar and consisted of assisting with the runway check, organising front and back stage and giving a general hand before and after the show.

[exposurelondontony]

April 15 2016

I had gained so many great experiences with this internship.

-My first office Christmas Party was mainly lots of drinking and attempting to network with otherwise drunk coworkers. I had thought that this would potentially be a difficult task for me due to my general shyness, however it was surprisingly easy. The environment allowed for warmer, friendlier conversation.

-Friday free bar nights were really a great way to meet everyone in the office and to network of course. Every Friday at 6:00, employees would all migrate to the main office building where the bar was located to enjoy a drink or two. The company clearly had a lot of positive relationships and friendships built within its walls and I think, a lot of that has to do with allowing opportunities to occur for employees to relax and to communicate and ultimately create a better work environment.

-Last but not least, I was able to create amazing, beautiful and long lasting friendships. I made a great friend at Exposure London and I am very appreciative to Exposure for giving me work opportunities but to also build personal relationships. This is not to underplay my professional experiences which included learning curves, but beyond that, I took away a lot of growth both personal and professional.

[exposurelondontony]

Running up to my sandwich year, I had to solidify an internship in order to receive approval and so I decided to use the contacts that I already had created at Exposure London. I also knew that Exposure had another office located in New York and with my dual citizenship, I would logistically and potentially be able to apply and secure an internship within the NYC office. With this information in mind, I simply asked around during my time at the London office and gained a couple of contact names that could potentially help me achieve this goal. I had of course applied to other internships as well, just in case it didn’t work out. The most notable of which included Factory PR and Nadine Johnson & Associates. However, an employee at Exposure helped me push the application process to the next level and put me in contact with one of the CEO of the company who then forwarded me to an account holder in the New York office. At the time, I didn’t initially realise that there was a summer Internship programme involved at the office and I was essentially signing up for that and not just a standardised internship. This wasn’t necessarily an issue for me, but it is important to mention that I hadn’t acknowledged this fact until later on in the application process.

[exposurelondontony]

March 10 2016

Once I had solidified my point of contact, I was forwarded to a Mr Tom Handley, a PR professor and lecturer at Parsons in New York, who would be handling the intern hiring process. My first Skype interview with him was Thursday, the 10th of March 2016. From what I remember, it all went smoothly and obviously at that point, it became clear that a formalized internship summer programme was also involved and that I was signing up for this as well as a general placement, Tom advised  that there were 50 applications and only 5 places. It was a fairly important placement and I knew that I wanted it. In many ways it made the internship all the more attractive to me, as it was a structured process with targets and outcomes. And on top of that we were guaranteed lectures once a week with Tom, which I saw as an amazing opportunity. My point of contact at Exposure in New York emailed me that same day (after the interview) telling me I had passed the first interview. She then sent me a written assignment, which was due the following Wednesday. She also stated that the internship would start May 31, a few weeks before my Uni end date. This was quite problematic, but I was determined to make this happen and to work around it and of course I did. I managed to finish and hand in the relevant Uni project a couple of weeks early.

[exposurelondontony]

The written challenge stated:

Congratulations! You’ve been selected to continue on to the next phase for the Public Relations Certificate Program for Summer 2016 at Exposure PR. Please prepare the following: -2 Page (no more, no less) -Written and image content (colour) -Include your name on the first page -Attach a PDF file (to be named FirstName_LastNameWC_1) Identify THREE current Spring 2016 fashion trends. Select 1 trend to elaborate on. Write why a feature story on this trend is perfect for YOUR favourite magazine. What are the key points of the story?

My strength is in conceptual ideas and visual branding and so for this ‘Written task’ I would rise above the other candidates with my presentation. At the end of the day, it wasn’t about which trends I chose. I could have picked any trend and created a successful piece of work because this assignment was about the ‘why’. Why is it perfect for my favourite magazine? Well my favourite magazine is of course POP. I’ve done two previous projects on this magazine specifically and although I could have chosen another to show some diversity, the person reviewing my work wouldn’t know, and furthermore I know this magazine, it’s aesthetic, it’s purpose and it’s reader because that reader is me.

[exposurelondontony]

March 13 2016

I sent over my completed written assignment 3 days later (March 13) eager to have the placement fully confirmed. I received a response from the New York office March 24 confirming that my written challenge was great and to arrange for another Skype interview for Monday the 28th. This second interview was particularly nerve racking as I was determined that I would receive this placement.  I remember the skype interview starting off fine, it seemed casual at first, but then Tom suddenly and unexpectedly asked me to prepare for a little pop quiz. He would hang up the Skype call and allow me 5 minutes to prepare my answers and so it happened. The question was simply, ‘if I were to have a fashion brand that was inherently the essence of ME, name 5 attributes it would have’. Once I had my 5 minutes of prep, I just remember being in complete panic mode, scribbling down anything I could possibly say and quite honestly, I don’t really remember my answer entirely. It definitely included something along the lines of, minimal, feminine and forward thinking as well as backward looking. I think I used some examples of work I often look back to, including my favourite designer Charles James; but that’s all I remember. Either way, it mustn’t have gone as badly as I initially feared as I happily received the confirmation of my acceptance, the following week on Friday April the 8th.

[exposurelondontony]

May 24 2016

My last week at Uni, I made sure to say my proper goodbyes as I didn’t quite know for how long I would be gone. I had two going away parties. One in Falmouth and one at home in London. There were family and friends and toasts. It was really quite sweet and looking back on it makes me miss home a lot. During that summer, I made sure to keep a camera handy and log my transition between home and New York so I have a nice handful of pictures to look back on. (For some context as to when and where this blog is being written; I am currently still in New York City, writing this from my apartment in Brooklyn and so from this perspective, I am very much looking back on my year, which is something to note whilst reading.)

[exposurelondontony]

May 31 2016

My first day at Exposure, I arrived extremely early. I wasn’t quite sure where I was going but I managed to make my way to the cliche Manhattan building. The huge fire escape wrapped around every window and it made me excited to be in New York. I was buzzed in and made my way to the top floor and I was greeted by Tom Phillips, the managing and creative director of Exposure New York. Of course I didnt know that at the time, but in a way that made it easier for me to talk to him naturally. He was also English, from Exeter, which normally wouldn’t mean much, but in this situation it put me at ease. For this first week working at Exposure, I kept a work log. I can’t quite remember for what reason and although these logs don’t reveal much, I think they do at least reveal how my role within the company has changed so much over time.

Mon May 30,

Preparing to start first day of work tomorrow at Exposure PR in New York City, 393 Broadway, Downtown Manhattan. Have been given some information on other 4 interns starting with me. Names include Mary, Isaac, Paola and Cleo. All from around the States, excluding Paola who is from Puerto Rico. Hopefully work will be similar to that in the London office - working in the showroom, using fashion GPS, doing send outs, returns, callbacks and recording coverage as well as events. (LC:M & Press Day)

Tue 31 May,

Work starts at 9:30. Introduced myself to the whole team at Exposure New York. Was not given any major tasks for this day. Did some pulls for send outs. Organised the showroom - rearranged some things. Divided old season and new season (FW16) Doc Martens from each other - probably preparation for send back to client. Tried to buy monthly metro card with office Credit Card. Also met with Tom Handley - discussed task to be done for Saturday - a review of what we expect to achieve from the experience at Exposure. Also researched Eleanor Lambert - PR Celebrity. No other real progression as laptops are needed to create send outs, returns etc. which were not available.

Wed June 1,

Was able to do some send outs using Fashion GPS from my laptop as well as ordering an online messenger. Also sent back old Doc Marten stock. Learnt how to capture online and social clippings - formatting them on keynote, exporting as jpeg and finally sending over relevant information depending on form of coverage e.g.. MUV Also, at end of day, received a more formal schedule, making sure that each intern has a varied experience - rotational job roles between different departments e.g. Creative, Showroom, Consumer and PR.

Tue June 2,

Started by helping organise papers on 5th floor then updating a beauty blog spreadsheet for brand Arrojo. Attended Fashion GPS meeting about organising the contact list which had become out of date and have become unorganised. Returned to showroom in afternoon and continued with sendouts as well as organising product. Things to do: -Create a standard list of things to do for when I work in other departments commencing Monday so am always busy. - Create two elaborate learning objectives for Tom Handley. - Also continue to do research on Eleanor Lambert. - Post Tweets and Instagram to show research.

Fri June 3,

First half of day was not too busy. Just doing send outs etc. After lunch, began helping upstairs team lace converse for upcoming converse event - shoes were for gifting and so had to be laced in a specific way. Then helped Marciano (Showroom manager) do some research on guests who already attended G Shock White Out event. Then collated all information from Excel into a report categorising guests into -Media - Freelance - Attendees and Stylists.

Mon June 6,

15 minutes late. Started by cleaning up showroom. Receiving packages and properly documenting this on an excel spreadsheet. Sat in a meeting concerning the accounts and events coming up. After lunch, ran out to get a Saturday issue of a newspaper (Can’t remember the name) close to Little Italy. Then began working on some clippings for KITH. In the middle of this, had to go down Broadway and purchase espresso and frozen yoghurt for an office birthday. After this, I had to finish the clippings as well as the info e.g MUV & EAU. This ran over to 6.15. Very busy day compared to others, which is good.

[exposurelondontony]

At the beginning, my daily tasks were fairly menial and like previously thought, it was similar to the London office in that way. I had traveled such a long way only to do the same job I was doing in London. It was pretty uninspiring. However, there were two differences that elevated my experience. One being the weekly meets with Tom Handley. With him, I was able to really learn more about PR in a more comprehensive way, which I hadn’t yet understood at University. It was new to me and gave me something to research and explore. The second thing was the events. Exposure New York had so many more events that we could participate in. In London, there were mostly one large anticipated projects  like LC:M for example, but in New York there were events every week. They weren’t all hugely important, but we, as interns, were allowed to go to them as guests! We were able to see the logistics and visions realized and because Exposure represents Liquor brands, there were also many happy hours, (another plus, not to be abused of course.)

[exposurelondontony]

July 13 2016

One of the first events I remember going to was in July with one of the other interns, Isaac. It was a Mr Porter event and our clients 1800 Tequila and Boodles Gin were the featured brands for the cocktails being served there. It was a block party theme and took over the shop fronts of 4 stores called Jean Shop, Miansai, Fellow Barber and Saturdays NYC in Soho. The party extended from the street, through each brands store and into their backyards. There was a taco stand, ice cream truck and activities ranging from an interactive Photo Booth to a temporary tattoo stand. Isaac and I managed to get some Mr Porter bracelets fitted to our wrists but for the majority of our stay, we just sipped our margaritas and questioned whether we could muster up the courage to actually network with the people around us. That ended up being a no. Despite this, just as I was leaving, somebody caught my eye and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. He looked so familiar to me but I just couldn’t put a name to a face. I then realised it was Graham Norton! This was my first celebrity sighting, which was exciting for me. The next day at work, i remember speaking to another coworker who had also attended and had gotten a free haircut at the event, which amazed me. I guess they were doing that in the ‘Fellow Barber’ space. I had never gone to such a clever and elaborate get-together before and it really opened my eyes to the creative possibilities within this format. This is something that I had not explored before but is now an area of PR that is of great interest to me. But believe me, this was not the only event that made me feel this way. There were dozens more that I attended and worked on and there are still more I intend to go to as I write this. My love for events and event planning has been on a steady and upward maturation.

[exposurelondontony]

July 27 2016

Throughout the duration of the summer, Tom Handley set us an overall project entitled ‘Anatomy of a Magazine’. Week by week we were set different tasks, which would eventually build up to our fully bound and completed piece of work. Each intern was set a different magazine. I was given Elle, one of the most successful women’s magazines in the world. We started off with our given publications mission statement, target audience, advertising rates and social media. This would be the base of the project and from there, we had to explore and dissect each section of the magazine. For Elle I started with a general overview and then broke it down into Fashion, Beauty, Culture, Life & Love and finally Horoscopes with an in depth description of what each section is about and should entail. We then explored the world of pitches, which was apparently the most important part of the project. There was a specific format to be used. For example, the first sentence must be a hook, it must include three images and it must never be more than one page (I didn’t quite follow all of these rules myself). Additionally, these pitches HAD to be newsworthy and of course there was a criteria for what made it so. 1. A fashion trend 2. Improvement/expansion to a product line 3. Response to a current lifestyle e.g yoga 4. Major business moves 5. An exclusive OR first 6. A promotion of an executive 7. Timelessness 8. An impact on the reader/ journalist - an emotional affect 9. Uniqueness 10. Conflict e.g war/ protest 11. Proximity - where a story happens 12. Celebrity. With this in mind, we had to move forward with 4 pitches for 4 different kinds of brands, which Exposure held as clients. This must include, Accessories, Clothing, Liquor and Beauty. I of course chose for my first pitch to write about Dr Martens, one of my favourite clients at Exposure. I wrote about the launch of ‘The next Revolution’, a new light weight shoe. I also wrote about Kangol, another favourite, and about its timelessness and ‘backward looking ethos as a forward pushing driver’. My third pitch was about the launch of the 1800 tequila limited edition series celebrating late iconic artist Jean-Michael Basquiat. Although this launch was taken from 2014, I wrote it as a new piece, simply because of my love for the artist himself. My final pitch was written about the beauty brand Arrojo and its newly released 39-piece haircare set. After the pitches, we had to choose a celebrity for the cover of the next issue of our chosen publication and why. I chose Erykah Badu and entitled it ‘The singer-song writer, record producer, activist and actress.’ I made sure it was a noteworthy piece and wrote ‘The release [of the magazine] will be paralleled to the time of her newest film release ‘The Land’ where she takes the starring role in the Nas-produced movie, with Kanye West on soundtrack duties…Her look is youthful yet modest, not to mention edgy and fashion forward, perfect for ELLE. She has a smart irreverent take on fashion and as a female activist, will not only inspire readers to explore their own personal style, but also the success that comes with personal power. This is what ELLE is all about.’

[exposurelondontony]

August 29 2016

As the summer internship came to a close, I felt I should stay on a while longer until I could organise another placement for myself and so I enquired and sure enough, Exposure kept me on. They said that it would be much better to have an intern who knows what they’re doing in the showroom. However, I had decided that I wanted to move from PR to Creative. I wasn’t particularly interested in the showroom or any of the things that came along with that. I have always leaned towards creative thinking opposed to academic or even business thinking and I have always excelled within my business focused work because of my creative outlook and output. During my last week of the official summer internship, I was already working on the creative floor and so brought up to Tom Phillips my interest in moving departments and of course knowing his status made approaching him feel like a big deal. I have always suffered from anxiety and stage fright. Although this was only a conversation about my position, it felt like a huge pitch. Either way, I made sure to bring some evidence of my work. My two best examples being my ‘Collaborative Branding project’ and the first issue of ‘Mouth Magazine’, a publication that I created and launched. These were both good examples of my business oriented thinking, coinciding with creative branding and presentation skills. Of course when I brought it up to him, I stuttered and mumbled but managed to get the words out and we proceeded to go through my work. By this point I was finally relaxed as I began to talk about something I was comfortable with and knew. I talked him through each project and my reasoning, going into as much detail as I could. On reflection, it went really well despite my nerves and he agreed to keep me on the creative team. He also sent my work around the office to let the team know the extent of my skills and how that could be beneficial to future projects. This whole day was really rewarding as I remember a lot of my coworkers praising my work. This also was a weight off my shoulders as I had been really dissatisfied with the work that I was doing before, even on the creative floor. It mainly consisted of creating seeding lists for Converse and Adidas and editing these down a lot. We would have weekly conference calls with them just about the lists and how to edit them. It was extremely systematic and repetitive. My role also consisted of tracking converse coverage on Instagram, which also meant going through our lists of influencers to confirm, which I would then make into monthly reports. Though these are vital and important tasks, after doing these jobs day after day, being able to take on more creative tasks around the office was critical for the sake of my personal growth, ability to contribute as well as my sanity and for these reasons I felt I had to move departments despite the great loss the PR team would have to endure.

[exposurelondontony]

September 08 2016

The internship during the summer months were rather slow in terms of PR Events  and only once the summer internship ended (end of July) were there more frequent and elaborate events. The other interns that participated in the Internship program had now left. Since I was now working with the creative team, I was more closely involved with the event productions and final execution. The next event that I was able to work on was the ‘The Gap is Open’, which was a widely collaborative event we threw for Gap. The idea was to look back and reflect on Gap’s journey in the fashion world and we did this through selectively curating sourced vintage pieces of theirs. For this we hired Haley Wollens, a successful stylist in New York, who I worked closely with on assessing the Gap inventory. Within the space we also wanted to create the feeling of a workshop with different stations and activities. This included a silk screening section with a huge selection of prints to choose from that could then be printed on to a Gap Tee or Tote bag. There was also a embroidery station, a tarot reading booth, a pin corner, a zine wall, the Dj’s and finally the bar. We also managed to build a couple of fitting rooms into the space. This venue used for this was a space below our offices called the “supermarket’. This is a space that Exposure owns in order to create and throw exactly these kinds of events and the location is really perfect. We are right in the middle of Manhattan, on Broadway placed amidst a plethora of amazing agencies and fashion houses. It really works in the company’s favour and enables us to initiate great projects with a huge sense of ease. Towards the end of the night, the finale was a marching drum band that came through the space and into the street along with performing dancers. It was a huge spectacle and the experience did nothing but add to my interest in events as a career. I myself have thrown events in the past and I know the rewarding feeling it provides when you see it all come together. Additionally the process of event planning itself, including the logistics and creative narrative building is something that is so appealing to me. There is a balance between analytic and creative thinking, which both speaks to my skill set and enjoyment. During the event itself, I acted as a vendor and sold Gap merchandise. There were a lot of influencers at this event and so I recognised a lot of faces but one in particular caught my eye. It turned out to be Erin McGee, the creator and designer for MadeMe, a company I had based a project on only a few months prior. She ended up buying a jacket from me and I was able to meet her, which I was more an elated about.