Join Us for YP's December Mixer!

Come join PRSA-YP as we close out a great year and thank all of our members for making this year unforgettable! Enjoy free appetizers at Busby's in Santa Monica, where we will be hosting our December mixer. Guests and non-members are all welcome, so invite your co-workers and friends!

December 12, 2007
6:30-8:30 - Mixer

Busby's - Santa Monica
3110 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Parking:Valet and street parking on Santa Monica

Cost (pay by cash or checks at the door):$10 YP Members; $15 for Non- members; $5 for PRSSA Members

RSVP:To RSVP, please email yp_prsala@yahoo.com.

If you have any questions, please contact Phyllis Hu at phu@iwgroupinc.com or Bonnie Berkes at berkesb@RuderFinn.com.

We Hope to See You There! Phyllis Hu (IW Group) & Bonnie Berkes (Ruder Finn)
Program Co-Chairs, PRSA-LA's Young Professionals

Tips for PR Pros: December

Lessons from the Field: Six Common Client PR Mistakes that Can Bring Down the Program - Review six common client behaviors that can spell doom to one's public relations program.

Recommended Reading

Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch - Keep up with the latest trends in TV, film, products and pop culture by subscribing to this blog via RSS.

In Case You Missed It: November Meeting Recap

On November 7, The Rogers Group hosted a creativity workshop, Tap Into Your Creative Side. The speakers, Brenda Lynch, SVP, The Rogers Group, and Rose Maciejewski, SVP and leader of the technology practice, Ruder Finn West, offered tips on how to bring out personal creativity and how to create out-of-the-box PR campaigns. Below are a few words of wisdom they shared with the group of over 20 young professionals.

Brenda Lynch discussed the root of being a creative PR professional – tapping into your personal creativity. She offered the following tips:

· Be a kid again - discover things and places in a new and interactive way. Be insatiably curious. It helps to actually play with kids regularly.
· Seek inspiration at all times - examples include looking at billboards and bumper stickers, reading, experiencing nature and interacting with others. It's important to be a pop culture junkie too. Have your finger on the pulse of today's trends.
· Recharge your batteries - research shows that exercise and being stress-free help your creativity
· Hold a brainstorm with colleagues - PR professionals rely on brainstorms when beginning or re-evaluating a campaign, or sometimes to get short-term ideas. A few types of brainstorms are:

Switch or Dueling Brainstorms - two separate brainstorms occurring at the same time in different places
Spider - a variation of Switch - Groups of 8 switch one member out every 8 minutes
"Taking" From Others - focus on what is going on in the news/culture, then hone it to the best ideas for the client
Field Trip - get into character by visiting a place where the target audience frequents
Informal or Stealth brainstorms - take colleagues to lunch to discusss your current challenge, send out an email for ideas or post papers in the office kitchen for colleagues to write down ideas when walking by

Rose Maciejewski discussed implementing creative ideas into PR campaigns by highlighting several of her agency's recent campaigns including:

· The Launch of Myride.com - to fit Myride's consumer-driven style, one of her team's creative pitches used for driving traffic to Myride was naming the best and worst car names and including an opportunity for visitors to vote on the worst car names.
· Support.com's YouTube Video - a funny video was created by Rose's team to promote Support.com's services using the classic attention grabber - sex. The video has had more than 4,000 views to-date.
· Hook up with TiVo - Ruder Finn's client, TiVo, partnered with The Bachelor host Chris Harrison to offer one lucky contest winner the chance to be the "perfect match" for a new TiVo HD DVR (in other words, to win the product).

Meet Phyllis Hu - The Incoming YP President

Name: Phyllis Hu

Company: IW Group

Hometown: Sugar Land, TX

College: The University of Texas - Austin (Hook 'em Horns!)

What is your role at IW Group? What are the main facets of your job?

As a senior account executive, my main responsibility includes serving as the day-to-day contact for a number of our agency's accounts and providing consultation for the Asian Pacific American market. However, I have had the opportunity to take on larger responsibilities, including managing our college interns as well as working on new business pitches.

What has been your favorite PR moment?
I have had a number of memorable experiences, but one of the most fun accounts is our work for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. For the past few years, we have been organizing familiarization tours for some of the top APA media outlets to experience some of the best restaurants, shows and entertainment in Las Vegas. Last year we were given private cooking lessons at Aureole and had the chance to meet and interview some of the cast members of Cirque du Soleil's KA.

What do you think your next career move will be?

I plan to continue growing and learning from my mentors at IW Group.

What are you most excited about for YP next year?
I'm extremely excited to work with the new board members and to brainstorm some new ideas that our members will enjoy and find helpful. The incoming board members have some great ideas and it will be exciting putting those into motion.