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Last month we were lucky enough to form an integral part of the Melbourne celebrations of the canonisation of Mary MacKillop, by publicising the event. Celebrating Australia’s First Saint – Mary MacKillop, was a joyful event encompassing a street procession, all day festival, prayer service and live screening of the canonisation at the Royal Exhibition Buildings, on October 17 2010.

littleBig Marketing & PR worked tirelessly to achieve $6.6million worth of publicity for the Melbourne event, putting Melbourne on the map as Saint Mary’s birthplace, educating Victorians about this amazing historical figure and driving an estimated 10,000 attendees to the event. We used our wide connections and know-how across a broad cross-section of media to achieve these results and are chuffed to have received great feedback from many producers and journalists (Channel 9, 7 and 10, AAP, The Herald Sun and more) about our media facilitation.

Tamara Jenkins of Esencia Communications was an integral part of the team and I thank her enormously. Logistics Events Australia did an amazing job of pulling the event together, as did the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne and most importantly the Sisters of Saint Joseph, who, since they were co-founded by Mary MacKillop in 1866, have done so much to champion and care for the poor and disadvantaged in this country and indeed throughout the world.

It was an absolute privilege to be part of this significant moment in history and work with so many great people… all thanks to Saint Mary!

A couple of examples of PRs getting it wrong (according to the media representatives involved) and being publicly wrapped over the knuckles for it were highlighted by Mumbrella  and one of its readers today.  Read http://mumbrella.com.au/mark-learns-the-sorry-bloggers-pr-dance-5529 and http://www.smh.com.au/national/black-day-for-ivy-league-20090514-b4tr.html (Cat got their tongue).  

Tough break for the PRs in question as mistakes are easily made as we all know and being slammed in the media in a way that could likely jeopardise your career and the reputation of your company is harsh to say the least.

But then again, we all need to be kept on our toes and if nothing else the above two examples should certainly ensure we do that.

Thanks to Mumbrella, Ben Glazier and Sean Nicholls/Erik Jensen for reminding us that any media approach involves risk and exposure for both our clients and ourselves, and that there’s no room for laziness and lack-of-thought in the PR game.

Although any publicity’s good publicity isn’t it?  For MarkComms I think it was today.

Sally