Reputation

How to work with your agency

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on November 10th, 2011

At AHA, we feel fortunate that we get to work with our clients. We have great clients and many of the people that we work with have been with AHA for a long time. Several have changed organizations and brought AHA to work with them in their new role.

At AHA, we are consistently focused on finding the best ways to work with our clients. What makes a client stand out is that they focus on finding the best way to work with us. Working in partnership means that we build a mutually beneficial, respectful relationship. We have a commitment…

When production matters

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on November 04th, 2011

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday video, Ruth talks about when to use a Flip style camera and when to upgrade to using professionals for your video needs.

Are you a storyteller?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on October 18th, 2011

At a recent client brainstorming meeting about brand journalism and how we could better tell the story of the organization, there was a senior staff member that was clearly not engaged in the process. For the purpose of this blog post, we’ll call her VP Skeptical. She sat back with her arms folded, checked her BlackBerry every minute or so, and in pure Survivor Tribal Council fashion – rolled her eyes when someone else said something that she didn’t agree with. Yet VP Skeptical didn’t speak up. So I asked her what she felt was the best story they could…

Crisis communications and social media

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on September 06th, 2011

There is a great article on Ragan.com that focuses on the results of a study that says most companies are not prepared for a social media crisis. It’s worth a read.

How and when an organization responds and reaches out using traditional communications vehicles and through social media is crucial. One of the challenges is that social media has turned the world into a 24/7 news cycle. Many organizations aren’t prepared for that. How do you strategically and authentically respond if you aren’t prepared?

There are many steps an organization can take to put processes in place…

How to sell social media to the C-suite

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

It might seem archaic to those of us living in a social media world, but not everyone sees the benefit or value. We often hear from communications professionals that they want to incorporate social media into their overall communications strategy, but they can’t get buy in from their senior executive team. It’s not as unusual an occurrence as you might think. And if it’s happening to you – you aren’t alone.

When we work with clients that have this challenge, we focus on what the senior team needs to hear. While every team has its own idiosyncrasies, there are some…

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…

Discovering the Value of Public Relations and Brand Journalism

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on August 10th, 2011

The online world has opened up great possibilities for organizations. While it is true that newsrooms are declining and it is more and more challenging to grab the attention of traditional media (more challenging, not impossible), it is also true that the opportunity for clients to tell their stories, to spotlight successes, to showcase the benefit and value they offer to customers, clients or stakeholders is greater than ever before.

We have always had a strong focus on creating compelling and engaging stories for clients – great stories are at the heart of public relations. Advertising and marketing campaigns provide…

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

Shhhh…Our New Service Package is a Secret

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on July 29th, 2011

AHA Fast Take Friday for July 29, 2011 from AHA Creative on Vimeo.

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth talks about the importance of brand reputation.