Communications
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on June 17th, 2013
We’re always interested in explaining what we do here at AHA in the realm of public relations and communications. I remember several years ago seeing this amusing definition of some of the areas, including PR, that fall under the marketing umbrella:
If a circus is coming to town and they use a sign saying “Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday” – that’s advertising.
If that sign gets put on the back of an elephant and the elephant is walked through town – that’s promotion….
If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed and it makes the front
Read more
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on June 10th, 2013
We just posted a new video on the front page of our website, and I have to say, we’re pretty excited about it. It is a graphic recording that we produced in collaboration with Tanya Gadsby of Drawing Out Ideas. Graphic recording is a creative way to communicate and it is a tool that can be incredibly useful in helping you to connect with your audience or community. The AHA video is only one example of how a graphic recording can be used; there are several other options, depending on your needs and objectives.
Tanya is exceptional at her …
Read more
Posted in: AHA,Brand Journalism,Communications,Interesting,Marketing Communications,Online Communications,Public Relations,Social Media
Tags: AHA, graphic recording, PR, Tanya Gadsby
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on May 21st, 2013
We’re all about finding things that make life easier. A recent blog post by digital marketer Todd Maffin gave six really good tips to do just that and we want to share them with you. Click here, read his post, and use the technology and apps he recommends. They will make things run more smoothly.…
Read more
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on May 03rd, 2013
This is the second post in my “top communications lessons learned in New Zealand” series, and it focuses on the most fabulous Hapuku Lodge in Kaikoura. Kaikoura is on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It is a beautiful, rugged, wind-swept seaside area that I completely fell in love with.
Hapuku Lodge is a pretty spectacular place. However, today’s post isn’t about the lodge itself (but the lodge is worth checking out, believe me). It is about the two incredible people who run the lodge – Fiona Read and Chris Sturgeon. As amazing as the lodge is, they …
Read more
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 29th, 2013
Each year, around this time, AHA heads to New Zealand to blog for TRENZblog. This initiative is part of our work with Tourism New Zealand. We spend a week travelling the country and then we attend TRENZ, New Zealand’s largest travel trade show – and we blog our way through the country and the trade show. If you are interested, you can check out the case study on TRENZblog here (click Tourism New Zealand) and read the blog here.
Each time I visit New Zealand, I learn both life and communications lessons. Most times, they are intertwined (after all, …
Read more
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 04th, 2013
Regular visitors to this blog know that I strongly believe that a great brand reputation is only as strong as its people. The organization’s brand might be reflected in its tag line, positioning statement, key messaging, advertising and PR campaigns, but it is brought to life by the actions of the people who are connected to it. The best ad campaign in the world won’t work if you don’t execute your brand promise every day.
I recently had two very different experiences with brands. One exceptional (hello, Las Vegas) and one so bad that I can hardly believe they use …
Read more
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 01st, 2013
My dad recently accompanied me on a trip to San Francisco. While I had to do some work while I was there, this city was a bucket list destination for him. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, he had taken a bad fall last year and shattered his femur. Coming on this trip to San Francisco offered some incentive for him during his physiotherapy.
In San Francisco, we got a wheelchair for him, even though he can walk reasonably well with a cane. Given that he is still healing, I didn’t want him over-extending himself as we discovered …
Read more
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 24th, 2013
Like many, I am fighting off a cold, the flu or some other illness that is threatening to sideline me from the piles of work I need to get done in the next few days. An annual report to review for a client, a communications plan to write, a video storyboard, a proposal and script to revise… The list just goes on. And writing the AHA blog post is one of the tasks that I needed to get done yesterday that I didn’t quite accomplish. Client work is always more important to get done and I focused on that, but …
Read more
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 21st, 2013
How people take in information has changed. I read The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains a while ago and it resonated with me. Communication has shifted and people want short, informative pieces that they can quickly read, hear or view.
Years ago, when I worked at Maclean’s magazine, the People page was consistently the most read page in the magazine. It wasn’t because the people who read Maclean’s weren’t interested in the other longer pieces – it was partially because that page had information on interesting people and partially because the pieces were short bites of …
Read more
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 17th, 2013
I know we don’t usually post blogs on Thursday, but I was up drinking coffee, watching the national news and reviewing blog posts, articles and online media coverage this morning (which is how I like to start my day) and the fabulous Chris Brogan delivered this directly to me.
Anyone who reads this blog on even a semi-regular basis knows that we love, love, love Chris Brogan. He is smart, insightful, an excellent communicator and he’s authentic. His blog post today is on content creation and audience/community engagement. It is most definitely worth a read. Take five minutes and read …
Read more
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
