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!
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
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on August 02nd, 2011
At AHA, we have spent a great deal of time focusing on what makes a great pitch – to media, to bloggers and, depending on the objective of what we’re working on, to other external and internal stakeholder groups. A good pitch tells a story. It should be a short story, but it is a story – one that piques curiosity and provides relevant information through stats, facts, details and writing that paints a picture. More and more often these days, you can also use video or audio in a pitch. We often create video news releases or pitches for…
Read morePosted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on July 18th, 2011
I have spent more than half my life surrounded by journalists – either working as a reporter for Maclean’s or in public relations. I love TV news, magazines, newspapers and the online world of news and information. One of the challenges I have (and so does my family) is that when I go on vacation, I want to watch the local news shows to see how they do things, see what they find newsworthy and find out what they are all about. Sometimes that can make the people with me cranky. (“Come on, let’s go to the beach!”)
Working with…
Read morePosted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on July 13th, 2011
I grew up at Maclean’s, Canada’s national news magazine. It was my first real job out of university and I was a part of the Maclean’s “family” for decades. Until I started AHA in 2003 (with co-founder Paul Holman), I was listed on the masthead as a Contributing Editor. At Maclean’s I was surrounded by some of the best journalists in the country (and I would argue, in the world). They were smart, knowledgeable and dedicated. Quite a few of them took the time to help me, mentor me, show me the ways of journalism and taught me how to…
Read morePosted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on June 29th, 2011
We recently did a communications audit for a client. The results were surprising to them. When we undertake a communications audit, depending on the objective, we usually review everything being done that focuses on communication – e-newsletters, staff memos, meetings, town halls, intranet, external website, news releases, media pitches and, of course, social media interaction.
This particular client wanted to know what they were doing well and what they could do better. Social media was something that had just kind of happened at their company – with great intentions. Staff had taken it upon themselves and started a Facebook page…
Read morePosted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 13th, 2011
Content is important; we all know that. Relevant, engaging, informative and entertaining content is a must. Well-written content, to AHA, means more than it just being interesting. It means that it should be grammatically correct, it should be cogent and it should have a solid flow.
Blogs, like this one, have a little bit of leeway because it is written in a more conversational manner. (It would still bother me if there was a typo or other error in this blog.) Anything that is shared internally or externally should be reviewed. Here at our Vancouver PR agency, we have an…
Read morePosted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on April 08th, 2011
Make Sure It’s Newsworthy from AHA Creative on Vimeo.
In today’s video, Ruth talks about the importance of being newsworthy for media and social media relations.
Read morePosted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on April 06th, 2011
I had another blog post written in my mind for today, but when I came across a post by Susan Young where she outlines the 20 Things Every PR Pro Should Know How To Do, I had to share it. Take a look through it and see if you are able to deliver on all 20 things. These are valuable skill sets that you should have – so if you don’t have some of them, it’s time to think about how you can gain the information and skills.
The range of skill sets outlined here is varied and…
Read morePosted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 31st, 2011
Recently, we at AHA have been working with several clients to develop communications strategies that include social media and issue and crisis components. The clients are in diverse industry sectors and have very different stakeholder groups. For each organization, we had to define what engagement meant for their specific “community” when it comes to traditional public relations outreach and for social media.
That’s an important definition to make – what engagement means to your stakeholders or community. For some, engagement is truly a verb and they are very active in participating – responding and creating opportunities for conversation, discussion and,…
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