Public Relations

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.



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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 tools and tactics could be used. I also see best and worst practices. There is a wealth of information available online and it’s current, innovative and of value.



We are big fans of Brian Solis. I came across this piece by him today and thought I would share it. It’s a worth a read.

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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, government, media, community—the list goes on and on.)



One of the questions that came up when I was speaking to the students was around engagement and the best way to approach it. That depends on the community and the organization’s objectives, but it brought home the fact that PR is about engagement and that you don’t engage by just putting up a Facebook page or opening a Twitter account.



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[caption id="attachment_63" align="alignright" width="295" caption="Wallace and Ruth"][/caption]



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 series. (This was back before social media was as widely accepted as it is today… Seems like a million years ago, but in reality we’re only talking about seven years.) We also wanted ongoing coverage as well. We were fortunate that the filmmakers (Mary Bissell and Chris Bruyere) were out-of-the-box thinkers and “got” what we wanted to do, because we used a creative approach that took a bit of a leap of faith on their part. (Which is why we loved working with them!)



One of the segments focused on Wallace, a llama that would visit homes for the elderly. It turns out that Wallace loved people and that seeing a llama in their lobby created a positive reaction in some of the elderly, especially those suffering with dementia. Quite often, the surprise of seeing Wallace would pull the person into a period of reality. They were able to interact, converse and connect in a way that they normally struggled with due to their condition. Wallace loved the attention and the people he visited loved him.



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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 beverage at an outdoor patio on a hot summer day—and along with her strategic, steel trap of a mind… There is something else, something special and rare and well, simple, that is the foundation of her style of genius (and her success). She is a relationship builder.



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