Vancouver PR Agency

Warning: Longer blog post – I’ve had a thought running around my brain all weekend and now it’s time for it to come out!

We have a lot of brainstorming meetings internally at our Vancouver PR agency and with our clients. Creative concepts for campaigns, developing story ideas for pitching journalists, bloggers and other social media communities, events, speeches, content for newsletters. The list goes on and on. As creative as we can be (and we can be quite creative), when we brainstorm there is always a focus on the business objective and on the relevance of the concept we develop.

We have a good reputation with journalists and bloggers for pitching them with newsworthy, relevant ideas. I learned a great deal about writing a solid pitch when I was at Maclean’s – we saw a lot of good, bad and really, really ugly pitches come in and I was fortunate not just to have my take on them, but to hear what my colleagues thought made a pitch relevant enough for them to want to find out more about the idea. We also have a smart crew here at AHA, who put their experience and expertise to the task and who review pitches and put forward additional ideas and concepts because our focus is always on creating something interesting and of value that catches the attention of the journalist or blogger we are pitching.

I had a discussion last week that really got me thinking about the importance of relevance when it comes to pitching. I know that there are sometimes challenges internally at organizations when it comes to defining what makes a good story. When you work for an organization you can lose perspective on the bigger picture. Sometimes, what is huge news for the people of a company or organization isn’t relevant to a journalist or blogger. It doesn’t take away the importance of the initiative, it’s just about who will find the information relevant and interesting.

PR people all have stories of clients who say to them X publication or Y broadcast news outlet should run this story – when, in fact, the story isn’t relevant to the readership or audience of that media outlet. It’s our job to make sure that when a pitch or news release goes out to media, it is of value to the media and bloggers that it goes to. Sometimes that means having a tough conversation with clients and explaining why something isn’t newsworthy outside of their internal newsletter.

I got to thinking about this on the weekend and I think that, with social media, individuals involved in organizations are becoming more and more involved in sharing information. In many ways, that’s a great thing. The challenge is that if people are being tasked with creating content – whether it is a tweet, a blog post, a Facebook update or a pitch, these people need to be given the tools of identifying what is relevant, being able to clearly showcase how this content supports the organization’s business objectives and how it fits in with the overall business strategy and the communications strategy.

I know how easy it can be to watch a morning news show or local talk show and think we should be on there. A good communicator goes through an in-depth process, looking at what the business objective is, to identify the media and/or bloggers that are relevant to the organization (what newspapers, magazines, radio or TV news does your target market consume?) what the story is, how that story can be put forward to specific media in a way to showcase its relevance and value to their audience/readers.

I think one of the challenges that organizations are starting to face is making sure that everyone involved with communication – whether they are in the communication department or not – understands how to effectively communicate. That it isn’t about what you want to tell people, it’s about what they are interested in hearing and how you build information into a compelling story. I do sessions with groups that talk about what needs to be done in order to generate media or blogger coverage or to create positive information sharing on social media networks and I can’t tell you how often someone in the session puts forward the arrogant assumption that because it’s important to them (or the organization), that it SHOULD be important to media or bloggers. That’s when we role-play the pitch to the journalist (me) and I start poking holes in their approach (respectfully, of course).

Collectively, the media experience at AHA is well over 100 years. We take this component of our work very seriously because each time we reach out to a journalist or blogger with a pitch, not only is it the reputation of our client being put forward – it’s ours too. If a journalist or blogger thinks you regularly send them information that isn’t relevant to their readers, listeners or viewers, you lose credibility. We don’t want that for our clients.

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AHA - Boardroom ImageAt AHA, we are communicators. Quite often that means that we work with our clients on projects that they want to share with stakeholders – either internal or external (and often both).

Sometimes, our role with them is to assist in developing communications vehicles – a website, an online newsroom, a Facebook or Twitter page or other social networking presence along with a strategy. Other times, we work with them on a business project and to help develop a communication strategy around it. Quite often, we are brought in at the start of the project and asked to contribute to the project as a whole – rather than being given the directive to “communicate this.” That’s always an exciting time because it shows that the client organization understands that communication deserves a seat at the leadership table. They see that a strategic communicator can provide value in a business strategy session, not just build a communications plan around a strategy.

Often we are asked to participate in product development brainstorming sessions, to contribute to refining a corporate structure, to work with them on plans for growing their business or improving their organization with a focus on becoming more relevant and valuable to stakeholders. As senior communicators, many of our clients find it of value to have us in at the start of the project to provide our input and feedback.

When I came across this article in Forbes online, it reinforced the value of communication throughout an organization and to external stakeholders as an organization focuses on innovation.  It’s worth a read.

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Recently, we at AHA have been working with several clients to develop communications strategies that include social media and issue and crisis components. The clients are in diverse industry sectors and have very different stakeholder groups. For each organization, we had to define what engagement meant for their specific “community” when it comes to traditional public relations outreach and for social media.

That’s an important definition to make – what engagement means to your stakeholders or community. For some, engagement is truly a verb and they are very active in participating – responding and creating opportunities for conversation, discussion and, yes, even discourse. In fact, for some stakeholder groups, discourse, disagreement and even conflict drive them. It doesn’t necessarily mean that their organization or brand is perceived negatively. It does mean that they live in an active world, where ongoing communication is key.  In this type of environment, it is crucial for an organization to be proactive in keeping stakeholders up-to-date. It is important to participate in online and real world conversations about their industry, field of expertise or what their organization is doing in areas of concern or importance.

There are many ways that people participate online. Some are more active – like content creators (there can be a real opportunity for your organization to effectively engage with this group), some comment or participate, and some just consume.

Not every organization has a stakeholder group that falls into a nice, neat demographic range. (In fact, with a few exceptions, I can say that for the most part, AHA clients have external communities that are incredibly diverse.) It’s important to have an overall communications strategy, and it’s equally important when you are working out the tactics and tools that you look at the groups and subgroups within your stakeholder group. Facebook contests may work to move some of your community to participate, but others may just be following along and not participating at all.

If a campaign that you recently ran didn’t hit the participation numbers you were expecting, it may be because some of your stakeholders are not participants.  Defining what segments of your stakeholder group are likely to participate fully, to comment or respond, or whether they may be following along – even sharing information and telling people about the campaign, contest or event – without “joining in” before you launch is important for measurement. Asking yourself what segment of your stakeholder group you want to connect with and can realistically expect to connect with – and how that will happen – is an important component of the planning process.

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AHA Creative Strategies is participating in #Blog4NZ, a three-day blogging extravaganza that spotlights New Zealand as a fabulous tourist destination. (To see other tweets and posts from travel bloggers around the world, visit Twitter here.)

As the Canadian PR agency for Tourism New Zealand, we connect with Canadian travel journalists on a regular basis. We work with Tourism New Zealand to create the opportunity for leading travel journalists to visit New Zealand and to share their experience with their readers and/or audience. Recently, we have been fortunate to have received coverage about New Zealand in The Toronto Star, Canada AM, The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail, Sympatico.ca, Canoe.ca and The Discovery Channel and many others.

Without fail, what we hear back from travel journalists that visit New Zealand is how incredible the country is, how beautiful the landscape is, how delicious the food is, how amazing the wine is and how many things there are to do in New Zealand. One of the fabulous things about New Zealand is that there is something for everyone.

Below is an article that we wrote and distributed free of charge to media across Canada. Hope you enjoy it!

Five Things You Might Not Know About New Zealand

 

You probably know New Zealand for its adventure, adrenalin, and the great outdoors, but there are also a lot of interesting things that most people might not realize. Here are five fun, funky, and unforgettable things about the land of the long white cloud.

The South Island city of Dunedin celebrates chocolate for a whole week during the Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Carnival  (July 11 – 17, 2010). One of the highlights has organizers letting two sets of 25,000 Jaffas loose. As the chocolate candies roll down Baldwin Street – the steepest street in the world – thousands of spectators eagerly await their arrival. (Just for the record, Dunedin is known as the “quirky capital of New Zealand” and this small city also boasts the country’s only annual naked rugby game.)

North Island’s Napier is known as the “Art Deco City” and maintains that title because of the local Art Deco Trust. The buildings in Napier underwent massive reconstruction after an earthquake in 1931, which almost leveled the city. Art Deco was in fashion at the time and it greatly influenced the rebuilding. Now Napier and South Beach in Miami, Florida are considered the two best preserved Art Deco towns in the world.

New Zealand is well-known for wine tours and tastings, but for those who like their drink with a little hop, there are also a wide range of microbreweries and brewery tours. For beer aficionados, there are many different types to choose from including North Island’s Galbraith’s Alehouse in Auckland, Waiheke Island Brewery on Waiheke Island, and Sunshine Brewery in Gisborne. The South Island brew opportunities include The Twisted Hop in Christchurch, Moa Brewery in Blenheim, and Bays Brewery in Nelson. Asking what local microbrew to try in any local bar or pub is sure to make you new friends.

New Zealand is predator-free, which means no cougars, bears, wolves or snakes. A walk in the forest is much less worrisome than a stroll in the woods in North America. There’s nothing waiting up around that bend except more flora and fauna, and perhaps a waterfall.

And last, but certainly not least, New Zealand makes exceptional espresso-based coffee drinks. According to locals, it has only been over the past five years or so that the country has embraced great coffee. (But when Kiwis decide to do something, they do it right!) Even in little out of the way coffee shops, you can get an exceptional Americano, latte, cappuccino or flat white (similar to a “wet” cappuccino). The best of the best are honoured at the annual New Zealand Coffee Awards.

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