Vancouver PR Agency





When I read articles and blog posts that talk about the importance of targeting your media outreach, I often find myself wondering about PR people that don’t identify which news outlets, which journalists and which bloggers they hope to connect with. What’s the point in sending a news release out to a bunch of people that at best are just going to put it in the trash and at worst, are going to ignore your emails in the future?



When I was at Maclean’s, I saw a great deal of “junk” come in from PR people. In fact, I once had a tire (yes, a full sized, real tire) delivered to me from a company that wanted me to cover their new winter tire sale. First of all, I was an entertainment reporter and not only was this not newsworthy, it had nothing to do with what I covered. Additionally, Maclean’s would never cover this kind of story and finally, what good was this tire to anyone? In my opinion, it was a waste of time, effort and it was not environmentally friendly. I wonder how many tires they delivered that day…



Please visit our blog to read the rest of the post.

Share this article:
Read more





I just read a piece on Ragan.com that I just have to share. It talks about what not to do when pitching journalists. It always amazes me when I see such common sense criteria put forward. It feels like as communicators—especially as media relations professionals—not doing these things should be pretty much standard in our roles. You should read this and if you are doing any of these things—stop immediately (and call me!).



One of the challenges our industry faces is that we aren’t taken seriously or we aren’t trusted by reporters. I can’t tell you how much I dislike the word “spin” when it is used in context of what we do as communicators. It’s a nasty, dirty word as far as I am concerned. As many regular readers of this blog know, I spent a great deal of my career working at Maclean’s. I worked with some of the best journalists in the country and I had the opportunity to learn a great deal from them.



Please visit our blog to read the rest of the post.

Share this article:
Read more

We’re working on a campaign for a client right now that got off to a bit of a slow start. We were brought in after the approach had been chosen. In a perfect world, we prefer to be a part of the concept and initial campaign strategy planning because the PR perspective adds value to that component, but sometimes that isn’t what happens and we live with it.

This campaign has some challenges. It’s a crowded market place and there isn’t much news value in what the client wants to announce. Not that it is isn’t interesting to the people involved, but it didn’t meet any of our AHA external news value criteria. We took on the task of developing an interesting angle that we felt more confident about pitching to media and bloggers and sharing on social media networking sites.



We had a good brainstorming session with our AHA crew about what to pitch media, and like every story meeting we have – it was lively. We’re respectful in these meetings, but no one holds back. It can get loud; there is often a lot of laughter, loud voices and a lot of “AHA moments.” We question the ideas, concepts and angles and spend time poking holes in each of them and define what the heart of the story is, so the pitches are solid when we are ready to send them to media and bloggers.



Please visit our blog to read the rest of the post.

Share this article:
Read more



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 in case they are faced with an issue or crisis.



Please visit our blog to read the rest of the post.

Share this article:
Read more