Public Relations
Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 22nd, 2012
I read an article recently about a computer company in Germany that undertook what they thought was a smart promotion. They began gluing hard drives to alarm clocks and sending them to companies with a note reading, “Your time is running out.” Well, many of the people who received them were terrified and called the police, thinking the package held a bomb. You can read more about it here.
It reminded me of an old episode of WKRP in Cincinnati in the late 70s/early 80s, where they did a Thanksgiving promotion by dropping turkeys out of a helicopter……
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 19th, 2012
There is an unflattering news clip making the rounds right now of B.C. Premier Christy Clarke’s new communications director. I am sure it is going to be included in every media training session for the next decade – it is a perfect example of what not to do. If you haven’t seen it, you can view it here.
I have an entire rant about how valuable journalists are to a free and just society and how I believe communicators and journalists actually work in partnership (we don’t always have to agree or even like each other, but we…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 13th, 2012
They say: “timing is everything.” It’s true. And perspective is right there beside it.
We have a fun, interesting looking clock in the AHA kitchen. I am sure it was inspired by the works of Salvador Dali. It is kind of melting and surreal, and when a person first sees it, they are unsure how to tell what time it is. It’s been hanging in the kitchen for about a year now. It seems perfectly normal to those of us who spend any time in the room.
We had an AHA crew member come by a few days ago and…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 27th, 2012
We have clients throughout North America and often I need to be in the AHA office for an early conference call. I tend to get here early anyway, so that I can review blog posts, articles, read newspapers, and briefly watch several news and morning shows. (Yes, I have a TV in my office!)
I love my time in the morning. With coffee in hand, I have the opportunity to learn something new everyday. The information and knowledge shared online allows me to put information into context, to see different perspectives, and to better understand how, when and why different…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 21st, 2012
Sometimes you read something and you think, “I couldn’t have said it better myself.” This piece is one of those. It’s about what happens behind closed doors in the world of PR.
It’s worth a read.
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 16th, 2012
I had the opportunity to speak to communications students at Capilano University earlier this week. They are smart, engaged and are going to bring some great, new energy to the PR world. Connecting with students always inspires me, it makes me realize how fortunate I am to work in PR and it reminds me how valuable PR is to an organization.
There are many, many functions of PR. At the foundation, we help our clients to build positive relationships with their “publics.” (You can replace the word publics with the noun that works for you: stakeholders, audience, target market, employees,…
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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…
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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…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 24th, 2012
Once you understand what the story currently being told about your organization focuses on (see last week’s post on “The art and science of telling a great corporate story”), the next step is to identify the storyline that you want to tell. There are many story structures that you can use to tell the story in a way that engages your audience. While, at first glance, some of these approaches may seem a little “Hollywood” – keep in mind that show business is a very successful industry that is based on telling stories.
There are some standard approaches…
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Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on January 19th, 2012
Telling your organization’s story isn’t as easy as some would think, but it certainly isn’t hard. It does take some time and effort, but the results provide excellent return on investment.
The fact is, stories are being told about your organization all the time. Whether the stories are good or bad, they are being told by clients or customers, by service providers, employees and contractors (and their families and friends), by competitors, your board members, government officials and by the media.
When we start working with a client, we often do a little bit of research and find some of…
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