Media Relations

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 the…

Great media pitches

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on December 29th, 2011

We take media pitching seriously. We do our homework and our research. We review the work of the journalist or blogger in context to what we want to pitch. We spend the time to get it right and that shows in our results. At AHA, we have generated some exceptional media and blog coverage for clients.

It was refreshing to read this article on pitching on Ragan.com. New York Times Tech Journalist David Pogue talks about the pitches that grabbed his attention. (Just for the record, we are big fans of Pogue!) It’s worth a read. And if…

Who are you pitching to?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on November 16th, 2011

Our AHA blog is listed in Cision, a media database. It’s pretty clear, even if you only read a couple of our posts, that we write about communications: brand journalism, public relations, media relations, social media, positioning and messaging. It’s all related to strategic communication.

It seems pretty straightforward to me what to pitch to us. Which makes us shake our heads in wonder when we get pitches from random PR agencies and independent PR practitioners that have nothing to do with what we write about here. It looks to me like some people just grab any email they can…

AHA loves media relations

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on October 11th, 2011

At AHA, we love media relations. That’s not necessarily a common thing among communicators. I know many PR people who don’t like the media relations aspect of their job at all. In fact, I have had several senior communicators laughingly say they are so glad that they don’t have to do that anymore (since they got the manager, director, or VP title).

That comment always surprises me. Pitching journalists, producers, bloggers – everyone that has a role in sharing a good story – is one of the most challenging, rewarding and FUN things we do here at AHA. We have…

Target your media outreach!

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on September 21st, 2011

When I read articles and blog posts that talk about the importance of targeting your media outreach, I often find myself wondering about PR people that don’t identify which news outlets, which journalists and which bloggers they hope to connect with. What’s the point in sending a news release out to a bunch of people that at best are just going to put it in the trash and at worst, are going to ignore your emails in the future?

When I was at Maclean’s, I saw a great deal of “junk” come in from PR people. In fact, I once…

The nasty, dirty word “spin”

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on September 19th, 2011

I just read a piece on Ragan.com that I just have to share. It talks about what not to do when pitching journalists. It always amazes me when I see such common sense criteria put forward. It feels like as communicators—especially as media relations professionals—not doing these things should be pretty much standard in our roles. You should read this and if you are doing any of these things—stop immediately (and call me!).

One of the challenges our industry faces is that we aren’t taken seriously or we aren’t trusted by reporters. I can’t tell you how much I dislike…

What is good public relations?

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

AHA Creative Strategies is a public relations agency. We’re communicators. We’re social media participants. We’re brand journalists. We use video, video news releases, b-roll, podcasts, photography, articles, news releases, media and blogger pitches, news conferences, media tours, speaking tours, speeches, special events, trade shows, community meetings, annual reports, newsletters and so much more to assist our clients in communicating with their stakeholder groups. (Notice I said “with” – not “to” – that’s very important.) We are in the business of informing, educating and creating conversation. As importantly, we’re in the business of listening and responding.

I mentioned in Monday’s blog…

How to Identify and Tell a Great Story

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on August 17th, 2011

Whether it’s a speech, a news release, a white paper, an article for your website or to send to media, a video news release, a video series or any other communications vehicle – it is all about the story. It is one of the opportunities and one of the challenges of public relations. An organization needs to really dig deep and build a credible story to interest stakeholders.

To help determine your story’s news value, ask yourself the questions below.

Is the story timely and relevant? It’s surprising how many things are put forward as great ideas and when we…

AHA Fast Take Friday…Sort Of

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on August 05th, 2011

In place of our regular AHA Fast Take Friday, we bring you: AHA Launches Brand Journalism Services… An edge of your seat thriller if there ever was one!

AHA Announces Launch of Brand Journalism Services

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on August 04th, 2011

There is a great deal of energy at AHA today – right across the country – from our offices in Gibsons and Vancouver to our long-term contractors in Calgary, Toronto and Halifax. Today, we officially launch our Brand Journalism services. You can check out some information on these new services here.

The fact is – Brand Journalism has been around for several years; McDonald’s CMO Larry Light coined the phrase in the early 2000s. There are many definitions out there. Some we agree with; some have a different approach than we do. Our definition can be found Read more