Interesting

5 Communications Lessons I Learned from the Vancouver Sun Run

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 16th, 2012

For many of us in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland, yesterday was an important day. It was the annual Sun Run, a 10K run through the beautiful streets of Vancouver. It was my first Sun Run and it was a very good personal experience. Interestingly enough, as I sat down with a cup of tea (and two extra-strength Advil) last night and reflected on it, I realized that there were some solid communications lessons in it as well.

Preparation is key
I was fortunate enough to join a Sun Run Training Group in my hometown of Gibsons, B.C. We started in January…

Too Busy to Blog?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 11th, 2012

It’s been a busy few weeks here at AHA. It has been challenging to keep up with the blog posts and Fast Take Fridays. While that’s a little frustrating, I also believe that it keeps things “real” in our office and with our clients.

If you have committed to a channel of communication, it is important not to let it slide too far out of the schedule. There’s no point in writing a quick blog post just to have something to upload. No matter how busy you are, the information you share needs to provide your readers/viewers with something they…

Writers and Editors Go Together Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 09th, 2012

Every once in a while, I come across an article or blog post that is so helpful it is almost unbelievable. The online world and social media have given us access to so much great information (and some not so great, so you have to be discerning).

Every great writer I have worked with has realized the value of a great editor. Creating interesting, informative, relevant and engaging content takes both a writer and an editor. It’s a little bit like peanut butter cups… On their own, chocolate and peanut butter are really good; together – it’s a whole different…

Communications lessons from Wallace the Llama

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 07th, 2012

We’re doing some (early) spring cleaning at the AHA office. As we go through files, media coverage binders and jump drives, we have the opportunity to reflect a little on campaigns and projects from the past. This week, we came across the files for one of our favourite creative campaigns. In the early days of AHA, we were fortunate enough to be asked to work on a documentary series called Healing with Animals, produced by Mystique Films. This was a fabulous series that focused on how animals help humans heal.

We wanted traditional media coverage for the launch of…

It’s about relationships, people!!!

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on February 01st, 2012

My friend, mentor and former boss, Della Smith of Q Workshops, is a smart cookie. She may, in fact, be the smartest person I have ever met. (And I have met a lot of really, really smart people!)

Now, I am not sure I would put Della up against Jeopardy genius Ken Jennings—that’s just a different kind of smart (and one that I believe has more to do with memory than anything else). But I have seen Della in a wide range of scenarios—from dealing with an organization facing a huge crisis to sipping a cold…

What Jimmy Buffett taught me about corporate storytelling

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 26th, 2012

Years ago, as a journalist for a national magazine, I had the opportunity to interview music legend Jimmy Buffett. Now, I happen to be a Jimmy Buffett fan (we are affectionately known as Parrot Heads), so this was a pretty special interview for me!

Jimmy Buffett has an incredible business mind and a true entrepreneurial spirit. (There are unsubstantiated rumours that he is related to Warren Buffett, so the business part of his brain kind of makes sense.) He was one of the first in the music business to embrace digital technology; he recognized the coming shift in the music…

In the news: Shaw Media

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on January 12th, 2012

The Vancouver Sun is reporting today that Shaw Media will launch an all-news channel for British Columbia in the summer of 2012. Global BC will be responsible for the content. Fingers are crossed at AHA that this also means that Global will have more television cameras available to record the news going on in the Lower Mainland.

Click here for a link to the story.

AHA Special Fast Take

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on January 03rd, 2012

I am not going to spoil the fun of today’s AHA Special Fast Take. All I will say is watch Ruth take the “plunge” into 2012. (And my apologies for the sound – it was very windy!)

Offence vs. defence

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on November 24th, 2011

Today is American Thanksgiving and in honour of our U.S. family, friends and clients, I thought I would use football to make my points today. We have TV sets in our AHA office and usually they are tuned in to news channels; today they will be on football.

What we do as communicators can be compared to football. In the sport, there is an offence and defence; we have proactive and reactive. Each person on the football team plays a key role in their success. Some show their abilities on the field (the players), others in the background (the coaches,…

Know and understand your audience

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on October 31st, 2011

I recently received an email from an organization in the communications field asking for my input. The email offered me the chance to win an iPod Shuffle. I found it surprising that an organization in this field would reach out to communicators and offer that as the prize. The communicators I know either have iPhones or smart phones that hold music or they already have a music player. And a Shuffle is pretty far down the food chain. An iPad would have been a better prize; only about half of the communicators I know have a tablet of some type.…