I have to admit, when I heard about the accident over U.S. Thanksgiving weekend involving Tiger Woods, I thought “hmmmm.” There seemed to be something missing from the story when I first heard it – what was Tiger doing leaving his house at 2:30 am on Thanksgiving, distracted enough to hit a fire hydrant and a tree?
Put me in coach!
Chris Brogan has an excellent post on the point that social media needs to be a team sport. In it he focuses on social media and the need for a team approach, but I think that it is worth applying that approach to communications as a whole.
Connecting with your stakeholders, with your public – with your community works best when it is approached holistically. You can have a great PR strategy and not be able to execute on the plan if there isn’t a connection between what you want to share, how you want to start and maintain the conversation and where the content comes from.
Social media and Whole Foods backlash
Gerard Braud has an excellent article on the fallout of Whole Foods CEO (U.S.) John MacKay’s position on health care reform in the U.S.
There has been a huge backlash to MacKay’s letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal. There is now a movement to boycott Whole Foods – there is a Facebook page, a blog and you can follow the boycott on Twitter.
MacKay is entitled to his opinion. However, publishing that opinion in the Wall Street Journal might not have been the best use of his profile.
Getting to know you
We thought we would have some fun and introduce you to some of the AHA Crew over the next couple of weeks. We asked everyone on the crew (including Paul and myself) a few questions. First up, our Toronto-based Account Executive/Writer Lori Simeunovic’s responses.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m married with a 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter. I moved out east from Calgary in 2001 (going against the grain of most people, but we love it out here). I can also read tarot cards.
What do you see as your communications strength?
Adaptability – my clients have included high fashion, air shows, horse shows, luxury resorts and telecom (to name a few!) and I’ve not been an expert in any of those areas prior to working with them. I love learning about new industries.
What interested you in joining AHA?
The corporate culture, forward thinking mentality and the great client list.
What five words describe you professionally? Personally?
Same for both – outgoing, adaptable, professional, creative and thorough.
What kind of beverage do you drink first thing in the a.m.?
Water. The only coffee I’ve ever tried in my life was Turkish, when I had my grounds read by some psychic lady. In university, a can of diet coke could keep me up for days…
Who do you think you were in a past life?
An oracle.
What makes you laugh out loud?
The things my 6-year-old son says to me. (i.e. “If a mommy and a daddy make a baby together, does the daddy have to go to a skin store so the baby can be made?”)
When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?
Cher.
What five people living or dead would you invite to a dinner party?
I would keep this one to family, past and present, since everyone is scattered around the world…kind of boring, I know, but what the heck, I am going to say to Jesus or Einstein over salad???
What’s in your refrigerator right now?
A slab of salmon, a roast chicken, a head (bulb?) of fennel, lots of fruit/veggies and a bunch herbs/condiments. This early in the week, things are still looking good in there (by Saturday it’s a different story).
What five CDs would you take with you to a desert island?
The soundtrack for Love Actually, anything by Blue Rodeo, Puccini’s La Boheme, Soundtrack for Motorcycle Diaries and Sharon, Lois & Bram (for the kids, who I’d also take with me!).
What question do you wish someone would ask you?
What can I make you for dinner tonight?
What’s your answer?
Roast beef, please.
The waves of change
We’re excited about the launch of our new website today. It symbolizes several changes in our approach that we believe will benefit our clients and add value to the work we do.
AHA has always been a small agency with the ability to expand depending on the client or project. When we went through our brand refresh audit, we realized that we weren’t showcasing the talent that is AHA well enough. Some of the feedback we have received from potential clients is that while they loved our approach, respected our abilities and wanted to work with us, but they thought AHA might be too small. Well, we took those responses to heart and now we’re a solid team of seven, with a presence in Calgary and Toronto. In some ways, we’re a little bit like South West Airlines or West Jet. Our crew is professionally invested in AHA and committed to our mandate of delivering excellence. Everyone benefits when AHA does well and AHA does well when we exceed expectations. We’re inspired and thrilled to have such an amazing team of professionals onboard that are committed to providing great work for clients. And by the way, they’re not afraid of making a splash either.
AHA comes with a past; a past that we’re proud of. We’re coming up on our seventh anniversary, and we’ve come a long way. We’ve worked (and are working) with some great clients and have evolved our skill sets as the world of communication has changed. As many of our regular blog readers know, over the past few years we partnered with QUAY Strategies on a social media service called Bridging Two Worlds (B2W). After more than 14 years in the business, QUAY is closing their doors and the partners are going on to other episodes in their professional lives. Along with that, we are closing down the B2W brand. AHA still provides social media services and workshops as a part of our overall services, but the B2W brand was a partnership and it didn’t make sense for us to keep it going without QUAY. If you read through some of the older blog posts here, you may see reference to B2W.
We will be touching on a few of the changes at AHA over the next few blog posts and hope you will be as excited as we are about our new and improved agency.
We’re ready to make a splash…how about you?