Vancouver PR Agency

As many of you may know, we are big fans of the use of Flip Video camera at our Vancouver PR agency. Each Friday, we produce an AHA Flip Cam Friday video that is a quick snippet of information, news and PR tips and hints.

I wanted to show you another example of a great use of a Flip Cam. Ben Daughtery of Heartland Health has a video series entitled How’s It Ben Going? (Get it – Ben…Been). It is a rough and tumble video, no production value to speak of, but it’s working for this healthcare communicator.

I do have to warn you that it does take a bit to remove yourself from our expectation of highly produced corporate video, but the fact is, this is the way the world is moving. Have a look and when you have finished watching the video – ask yourself if this is something you might be able to do in your organization. I know for several of our clients, the Flip Cam video has become an incredible asset for sharing information and for asking for feedback.

Share this article:
Read more

AHA - VideoAlison Provost has a great piece on imediaconnection.com about video. Video has become an important tool to a communicator. At AHA, we have long been fans of video. Good video. Video with solid editorial content. Video that provides compelling content to the viewer.

AHA Take

While Alison’s entire article is interesting, you could just skip to page three and read about branded editorial content. In my opinion, that is where the value lies.

I have to admit that when I hear someone say they are going to create a viral video – I am skeptical. You can’t create a viral video. You can create a good video and pray that it goes viral, but you don’t control “viral.” And from what I have seen, creating a video with the objective of making it viral fails more than it succeeds. Producing an engaging, entertaining and interesting video that will appeal to your community has a much better chance of being shared.

At our Vancouver PR agency, we have our regular AHA Flip Cam Friday. That has been very well received. We are also working more and more with clients on creating a range of videos, from those made in-house using Flip cameras to working with videographers to create more news-like videos that showcase a story. For both internal and external communications, a Flip camera video is a powerful, yet simple tool. It can show a snapshot of your organization from the perception of your senior executive or from the reception. It can be a series of short clips or one longer video (not too long though). People like to watch videos, but they need to be engaging and entertaining. They can’t just be an infomercial about your organization. They need to be visually stimulating and to be interesting to the person watching.

We see a huge opportunity with video now and in the future. What about you? Are you using video or are you planning to?

Share this article:
Read more

AHA Blog Post - Creating And Maintaining A Good Corporate Blog

When I worked for Maclean’s magazine, we used to have story meetings to decide what got into the magazine and what didn’t. I can remember thinking that it was a shame that so many stories didn’t make it. It was just a space issue. These days, we’re still up against space issues and it is more competitive than ever in getting good stories told.

It is one of the reasons we started our Vancouver PR firm – to help our clients tell their stories in an authentic, engaging manner. Bloggers are a huge part of PR and I think that understanding how to work with bloggers is an important PR skill. Bloggers are different than journalists, but equally important. Just as we wouldn’t approach every journalist the same way, you shouldn’t generically approach bloggers either…

Share this article:
Read more

Life has been busy at our Vancouver PR agency.  When Paul and I founded AHA over 7.5 years ago, we had a vision for what our agency would become. We knew that we wanted to deliver world-class service to our clients, but we didn’t want to grow to become a huge agency. It’s just not how we saw things. We have grown and evolved since those first days and today, we are thrilled to announce the addition of two new crew members to AHA Creative Strategies.

Barb Wickens, who is based in Toronto, joins us as a Senior Account Executive and Senior Writer/Editor. I worked with Barb for years at Maclean’s and am so excited to be back working with her again. Barb brings a range of skill sets to AHA, including incredible writing and editing talent and the ability to untangle complex information and present it in a clear, concise and engaging manner.  The fact that she also has a crazy mutt of a dog that’s a member of her family just gives us more to talk to about!

Valerie Lapp, who is also in Ontario (in Peterborough, just north east of the Greater Toronto Region) joins us as Marketing/Promotions Strategist and Writer. I also worked with Val for many years while at Maclean’s. Val held the role of national publicist for CBS Records and our worlds were connected as she often (and successfully) put forward many story ideas for artists under the CBS label to be covered in Maclean’s.  Val’s experience and expertise bring a great deal to AHA; her ability to balance marketing and promotions within the context of communications is exceptional. She is also a talented writer and brings a different perspective to the communications process. That she is flat out one of the funniest people I have ever met just makes our conference call meetings so much livelier!

Having Barb and Val join AHA gives us the opportunity to provide an even greater level of service. We’re looking forward to working with them and to introducing them to our clients.

Share this article:
Read more