OLYMPIC MEDIA GURU
Elaine Stern
(1986)
Getting two busy PR professionals to meet to discuss something unrelated to any of their clients proved to be too hard a challenge even for ONLs so thank heavens for e-mail…
E
laine Stern (nee Davis, 1986) left NLCS to read history at university; she feels strongly that the PR world favours those with traditional degrees over media studies or PR-related graduates. Her love of news, her ability to communicate confidently with anyone (you can tell she’s an ONL) and her foresight into the future of the industry and the role of free content led her into a career in broadcasting. When working in PR, Elaine intuitively saw the opportunity to combine TV and PR and became one of the pioneers of the Video News Release. In 1993, she formed one of the first broadcast agencies in the UK and in 1998 co-founded TVC which she sold in 2008. She cites this as one of her career highlights alongside becoming Mikhail Gorbachev's press officer in 1993. In 2010, Elaine established The 10 Group and is now heavily involved with the media distribution of the Olympics meaning that 2012 will be a very sports-related year for her. Although not particularly sporty (her highpoint was making the 100m ladder in her first year at school), she is sportsmad and has been a Spurs season ticket holder for 34 years as well as enjoying most spectator sports, particularly cricket and rugby. At The 10 Group many of Elaine’s key clients are the 2012 Olympic sponsors, such as Procter & Gamble, Visa and Adidas. Her company’s involvement in 2012 is a natural extension of their existing work and
their role for the Olympics is to produce content and handle such clients’ broadcast PR across brands. It has been necessary to define strategies for each sponsor that cut through the competition and will reach and excite the 100,000 journalists who will be in London during the Olympics and Paralympics. No easy task! The 10 Group have also built a platform to distribute content throughout the Games direct to journalists' mobiles, iPads and newsrooms.
SPECIALIST INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES are available with Elaine’s company for ONLs eager to gain experience in the broadcast media content platform sector. ONLs can contact Poorvi Smith, Career Networking at psmith@nlcs.org.uk for information.
Personally, Elaine is particularly looking forward to the Athletics and men's diving finals and she was lucky enough to get tickets in the ballot for various final events! By Chloé Nelkin
ONLine magazine |
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