PR AND MARKETING INTERNSHIP AT SANE COMMUNICATIONS

As part of my Fashion marketing and branding course at Nottingham Trent we were given the option to take 10 weeks out of studying and fulfill an internship at our chosen company. Then the task of finding an internship began, my CV was primped up and I began my search for an exciting brand that would take me on in their marketing department. After hours and days of sending endless emails, to which the cover letter painfully differed with each company, I arranged my internship at Sane Communications. Sane is a PR and marketing agency in Hoxton, London that provides creative strategies and brand development for a variety of men and womens brands such as Ben Sherman, Penfield, Element, Richard Anderson, Alan Taylor, Kate Sheridan, Maison Scotch and Notch. I began my internship March 17th and promptly began getting accustomed to the press spreadsheet, the pull and returns process and the standards of the clothes. It didn't take long to familiarise myself with the procedure of ensuring all of the correct garments were safely returned, updated on the spreadsheet and dockets and restore the items to their branded rails or stockroom depending on the aesthtics. Following returns, sending out 'pulls' by stylists, designers or account managers at Sane were another daily task that I was resposible for. Clothes were selected from our showroom at Sane or the lookbook to suit a publication such as Vogue or FHM, projects such as a Rimmel advert or individuals such as Maverick Sabre, and these had to be recorded on a docket and put onto the spreadsheet to keep track. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Sane have many connections within in the industry and provide clothes for a range of respected names such as Cosmopolitan, Men's Health and Clean Bandit. Even Oliver Proudlock decided to pop in! Between my daily tasks I was given other projects such as finding suitable up-and-coming people that Sane can contact and send free gifts courtesy of our brands that the individual will then post on social media sites in order to gain brand awareness. When conducting this task, it's vital to know the individuals reach on social media, their status, what they stand for and what they like - the gift must suit the person enough for them to enjoy it and post a 'thank you' online! Leading on from this, I was also challenged to explore how Sane can improve their social media presence. This involved researching other PR companies, mainly those on a similar level in terms of brands that they look after, popularity and location, and seeing what they're posting, tweeting, talking about, who's coming into their showroom and what publications and projects their brands are being used in etc. One trend that I found from my research was that all companies create a brand 'image' and 'personality' holistically through their social media pages, yet Sane was lacking that excitement, and the casual, fun-but-chilled vibe that the showroom has. I was very lucky to work for Sane, not only because it is a well established and hard working PR company, but because of the friendly employees and the upbeat atmosphere - which I don't feel is projected through their socail media. I concluded with a list of exactly what five main competiting PR companies are currently doing on their social media, what no one is doing at the moment and the social media opportunities available to Sane. Prior to press day, we were kept busy updating the inventory with the new Spring/Summer collections of each brand and either putting the Autumn/Winter collections into storage or sending it back - which luckily for us meant that some brands didn't need the old collections back and so we could choose a few pieces for ourselves! I interned at Sane for one month, during which all of the work and changes to the showroom were aimed at the two day press days which took place during my last week. The press days were a big event for Sane, where they invite numerous publications, stylists, journalists, bloggers and freelancers to take a look at the new Spring/Summer collections of the brands that Sane offer. A lot of work went into making the showroom presentable and fresh, with new white rails and hangers, blocks for accessories, flowers and plaques made for each brand name. There was a great atmosphere throughout both press days with lots of interesting people in the industry seeing the brands, trying on the clothes and Sane employees establishing new relationships and strengthening old ones. Of course there were goodie bags, smoothies and pastries available by morning and beer and champagne by evening, along with a few extra perks such as barista coffee (which definitely kept everyone going!) and bowls of your favourite childhood sweeties. Overall the experience was amazing and I gained a fantastic experience working in PR and living in London for a month - I would definitely recommend it to anyone!

Ali Baba Juice in Peckham

The Showroom