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Blast from the Past - Client Close-Up: Axle Motorsports

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It is not every day that a boutique PR agency gets to go on the race track and experience the adrenaline that comes from roaring engines, while playing a proud sponsor for a motor-racing team. Axle Motorsports, established by Malaysia’s first F1 driver, Alex Yoong, aspires to be the region’s leading motorsports business. Orchan organised a press conference for Axle Motorsports prior to race day to introduce ‘Team Axel’ to motoring media, as well as to show off the ‘Girl Power’ driving team that will be competing at Sepang International Circuit 1000KM Endurance Race 2010. Before you think an endurance race is merely about driving around the circuit one round after another, and it isn’t that much of a challenge – let us assure you, that isn’t the case; especially not in the Malaysian heat! As local lass Phillipa ‘Pippa’ Yoong, and former Japanese model Hiroko Nakamura don the Axle uniforms and go head-to-head with other drivers, they are facing a test of stamina and perfor...

From the Net - From Interns to Seasoned PR Professionals

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Starting out as an intern, turn full-time executive, I’ve had a fair share of ups and downs in Orchan. Although the transition for me had been relatively smooth, I understand that many have found the change from an intern to full-time intimidating. Here in Orchan, we’ve had quite a number of executives who started off as an intern. We never really spoke about the challenges we faced, because we often had each other’s back. But when I read an article from LinkedIn by Jordan Overton (whose post originally appeared on Bohlsen Group’s blog), I thought it would serve as a good read for those who join a PR agency as an intern and are planning to move into full-time. The read exposes what you can expect from the transition, and how you can contribute as an employee and to advance yourself. Most importantly, it’s acknowledging that every day is a learning process (a philosophy I strongly believe as well), regardless of how much you think you’ve absorbed. Check out what he’s got to sa...

Thought Leadership: "Avengers, Assemble!"

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Dubbed as “the highest-grossing movie of the year”, ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ recently crossed the $1 billion mark internationally. It also occupies second place on the worldwide box-office charts for 2015 with $1.14 billion in ticket sales globally. But what has Avengers got to do with us? Over the weekend, we came across an article written by Beki Winchel, which we find rather amusing. Everyone dreams of becoming an Avenger, but what we don’t know is we are already an Avenger. After reading her article, we kinda have to agree with her on that. As the wise Hawkeye once said in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, “If you step out of that door you have to fight, you'll be an avenger.” No, we’re not telling you to go and fight people. We find his significant speech to Scarlet Witch right before he joined the fight very heroic and moving. So, which Avenger are you? 5 ‘Avengers’-style social media managers   By Beki Winchel | Posted: May 12, 2015 The list of tasks and deman...

Blast from the Past - Client Close-Up: Project Alpha 2

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Peeking Into the Lives of Your Favourite Bloggers As Malaysia’s first online show about real life bloggers, The Project Alpha series allows for viewers to sneak a peek into the lives of the bloggers they follow. Different bloggers are unique to their style of writing, topics they choose to write on and much more. But the show explores more than just the how’s and why’s, but also presents to viewers what makes these bloggers key opinion leaders in the various fields they write about. As with any project, there are bound to be challenges posed to us. It was especially tricky considering what we’re representing, at that time, is a new form of media; and trying to get traditional media, which is technically competition, to cover the story. However, great effort paired with passion reaps fruitful outcomes. As such, we were able to get not just magazines but also dailies to cover the stories on Project Alpha. To continue the momentum, Orchan also profiled some of these blogger...

Humans of Orchan: On All Things Internship

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So, Why Do We Offer An Internship Programme? We all have to start somewhere! OK, so that’s not the actual answer to the above question, but it is the truth – we do have to start somewhere, and an internship is a great opportunity to start “feeling” your way through relevant industries to get a sense of your own belonging in the real world. As one half of the ownership team at Orchan, I come from a society where internships were not popular, were definitely not tolerated by university students (at least in my day), yet in the trades, we absolutely valued apprenticeships. What an oxymoron! Malaysia, Asia, on the other hand, sees internships as an almost compulsory “rite of passage” for every near-graduand to endure, I mean, experience, in order to progress into commencing one’s career. So back to the title question, why do we offer an internship programme? Both Farrell and I recognize the immense value that an intern can bring. A focused intern wants to learn, comes with inn...