City University of Hong Kong
Department of English
EN3511 Professional Communication Internship
Mazarine Asia Pacific is an integrated communication agency business dedicated to luxury and premium brands in Asia Pacific. Headquartered in Hong Kong, the joint venture currently has 60 employees across 4 offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Macau with plans to open office Taipei and Singapore.
Week 1 was a period of time for understanding the structure and working culture of Mazarine. The office is designed with the spirits of our company - vibrant, open and international.
05.01.2014-09.01.2014
During the first week, profiles of our clients were given to me for familiarizing the projects that our team was handling. There are a wide variety of numerous clients. The majority of them are long-term clients who have already worked with us for more than years. They are mainly divided into two aspects: corporate and luxury. And I belong to the corporate PR team.
Under the corporate team, there are projects including Kai Tak Cruise Terminal (KTCT), Business of Design Week (BODW) and Centum Charitus. After scanning through their profiles, I came to a summary that most of them are our permanent clients, but we only need to work with them when they have special events. For example,whenever Hong Kong Design Centre has exhibition or events, we should organize those projects. And Business of Design Week was the greatest event which had lasted for 1 week. When I entered Mazarine, the event was over already. But media relations work was still required for summarizing the amount of market value our company had generated for BODW. Doing online research and data analysis about the media market values of the promotion that our company had done for BODW were the first task in my first week.
(Since the media analysis involves the market values which relate to our company's financial issues, it is inappropriate to show the statement.)During the process, I was required to get in touch with different media who have come to the event and invited them to send me back the interviews and news clippings of the speakers from the BODW event. I needed to have a profound understanding about the speakers beforehand in order to use an appropriate approach to the editors and journalists while interacting with them in emails.
12.01.2014-16.01.2014
Since my profession is English Studies, I was assigned to be a copywriter in my team. Kai Tak Cruise Terminal was the major project that I needed to follow. KTCT is our long-term client and we are responsible to monitor its reputation. After the clipping house passed the news to us, I should translate all the local news into English to the Managing Director of Worldwide Cruise Terminals, Mr. Jeff Bent. The summaries that I have done can help to keep him updated to the views about KTCT from the society. The following is part of my work.
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Hong Kong Daily News P. A2
Headline: KTCT was a failure with 5 weaknesses
Synopsis:
- It was predicted it would take around 23 years (year of 2037 or 2038) to start gaining profits from KTCT by the government.
- KTCT was accused by the tourist industry and marketing scholars with 5 weaknesses: Wrong orientation, poor matching facilities, lack of long-term tourism policy planning, lack of regional competitiveness, and narrow target market with mainly mainland visitors
- The total revenue of WCT in 2014 was around 30 million. The HK government could only receive 2.19 million (7.3% as floating rental rate) and 13 million as fixed rent.
- Regarding the above accuses, WCT replied "the management team is not free to respond."
- The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau said they were proactively developing the "Asia Cruise Fund" and believed the number of berth would keep increasing. Hainan and Philippines had claimed to join the campaign while Xiamen, Southern Japan and Vietnam were still considering. Tai Wan would collaborate to develop more Asian cruise lines.
- According to Tourism Commission, there were 6 times of berths during Jun to end of 2013; 28 times in 2014; estimated 56 times in 2015. Mr. Joseph Tung Yiu-chun, the executive director of the Travel Industry Council of HK commented KTCT had a great potential for future development and the Pearl River Delta would be a potential market.
- Sin Yat-ming, the professor from the marketing department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong commented the attractiveness of Hong Kong as a tourist spot decreased because of the increased number of mainland tourists.
He commented the planning of the entire KTCT was a failure. There were not enough matching facilities for entertainment, shopping and transportation, which caused inconvenience to the visitors. - Mr Ricky Tse Kam-ting, the chairman of the Hong Kong Inbound Tour Operators Association said the visitors mainly came from the Southeast Asia last year but there were no tourism facilities at KTCT. He criticised the HK government was lack of future planning of the tourism policy and predicted KTCT could only be the shopping spot for mainland tourists.
He complained the current development of KTCT was poor but the tourism industry had no one to turn to.
He criticised the government should collaborate with the industry after the occupation so as to improve the tourism and attract more visitors not only from China. - Mr. Yiu Si-wing, the member of Legislative Council of Hong Kong criticised KTCT by pointing out the number of berths at the Singapore Cruise Terminal was already 100 within 3 years while HK only had an estimate 60 in 2015.
He said the HK government should consider how to enhance the volume of use such as increasing the scale of home ports so as to make good use of the expensive land of KTCT. He pointed out the difficulty and low possibility of greatly increasing the number of customers in the coming few years.
He said Singapore's target market was Europe, Indonesia and Malaysia. Hong Kong should target at the coastal area of China and Southeast Asia in order to increase its competitiveness.
19.01.2015-23.01.2014
As my supervisor approved the translation work of KTCT, she let me to do the translation of our future project. It is the Sing Tao Leader of the Year 2014 Ceremony, which will be held on 7th March. There will be videos about the awardees and English subtitles are needed for them. I had translated 6 passages in total. The followings are 2 of them.
1. Sport, Culture and Performing Arts
Hong Kong has won 6 gold medals, 12 silver medals and 24 bronze medals with a total number of 42 awards in the Asian Games Incheon 2014. It has been the most rewarding and successful year!
Hong Kong had sent a delegation of over 600 athletes. The most pleasant surprise would be the unprecedented results achieved by the Hong Kong team, which is a remarkable breakthrough!
Sarah Lee Wai-sze, won the first gold for Hong Kong in the women's keirin final at Incheon International Velodrome. She then clinched the second gold medal in the sprint event, and rode into the history books by becoming the first Hong Kong athlete to win two gold medals at one Asian Games!
After being dedicatedly trained by the coach, Sergiy Agafontsev, Shek Wai-hung defeated the South Korean Olympic champion in the men’s vault final and pulled off the first gymnastics gold in the Asian Games for Hong Kong!
The rowing team had a prosperous result this year. It has achieved 1 gold and 4 silver medals among 8 events, which has been the best result over the past Asian Games. Lok Kwan-hoi even clinched the historic first-ever Asian Games rowing gold for Hong Kong!
The windsurfing representatives Cheng Kwok-fai and Hayley Chan Hei-man, had already acquired 2 gold medals in the beginning of the Games. The team eventually marked the best Asian Games record with 2 gold and 2 silver medals!
Other medalist players also had an extraordinary performance. Chan Kong-wah, the table tennis coach led the local athletes and finally obtained a silver medal in mixed doubles and a bronze medal in women’s doubles. It is particularly encouraging that the home-grown talents broke the dominance of the Chinese players. The athletic team won a bronze medal in the men’s 4x100 metre relay race. After an interval of 60 years, it had attained eminence in the athletic field at the Asian Games once again!
Thanks to the persistent efforts and hard work paid by every single athlete and the team, Hong Kong has acquired an excellent result, of which Hong Kong people would be proud. The athletes are the role models for the youngsters!
2. Community and Environment
Hong Kong has always been one of the safest and most stable societies in the world. The Hong Kong Police Force has contributed the most to keep the crime rate at a low level and maintain law and order in an effective manner. During the occupy movement which lasted for more than two months last year, Hong Kong society was at the historic difficult time. The Hong Kong Police Force, especially those members in the front line, remained steadfast and devoted to serve the community.
The occupy movement which began at the end of September in 2014, had brought the unprecedented challenge to the Hong Kong Police Force. The Force had to maintain law and order of the society and prevent the destructive behaviors so as to safeguard the community. Meanwhile, the Force had to handle the disruption due to the blockage of roads. Their workload had increased greatly. Most of the police members in the frontline stayed at the occupied area for at least 12 hours every day. They had been constantly on the run.
Since the Police in the frontline had to report to their duty night and day, they had faced the greatest pressure both physically and mentally ever. Some of them fainted because of exhaustion. Their relationship with their families was also affected because of long working hours.
Facing the tough challenges, the Hong Kong Police Force was still able to handle the occupy movement with professionalism. After days, they cleared the blocked roads successfully. The public order was restored. The Force has gained support from the wide public. They worked as a team with dedication and integrity for maintaining the public order and safety.
The Hong Kong Police Force is awarded in the Community/ Public Affairs category this year for their dedication, for which the Hong Kong community should respect.
This has been one of the toughest tasks so far as the translated wordings need to be precise and careful due to the social issues. For instance, the footage about the Hong Kong Police Force had to be amended for several times as I could not use the same complimentary wordings as those I had used about the Hong Kong athletes. Being a copywriter needs to consider the noise of the content in the society, which is very challenging but helps me to be aware of details and see the whole picture of the issue.
26.01.2014-30.01.2014
Currently I am handling the Kung Fu Panda Chinese New Year Exhibition by Olympian City. I am in charge of inviting professors, artists and media to cooperate with Olympian City. The artist is from the U.S. named Schim Schimmel and our company wants him to be interviewed by English media, for example, The Standard, RTHK etc. Hence, I am helping out with the press release. (But as the event is still organizing, the press release might only be allowed to show to media yet. But I can include it in my final report later.)
To conclude, the internship is going well so far. The greatest challenge would be understanding the background of my writing for my company. As I am an intern, I am not fully acknowledged about everything of each project. Hence, when I am assigned to do the copywriting, I am lack of sufficient information and background of the project which greatly affects the quality and accuracy of my work. However, now I learn to seek help from my colleagues and do more preview on my own. I will read through most of the files and proposals from the server of my company before I write. I am looking forward to seeing the result of the coming project of Kung Fu Panda exhibition.
