MEMBERS BLOG

Event Recap: ACE the ACE Awards

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CPRS Toronto held its first ‘ACE the ACE Awards’ event on February 6, at the Weber Shandwick Toronto office. Last year’s winners from Weber Shandwick and DDB Public Relations gave the more than 40 guests key insights on how to come out on top at this year’s ACE Awards.

 

ACE Awards judging Chair Lisa Covens spoke first, giving an overview on how to apply for awards, as well as the desired submission format for entries. She also explained the judging process, giving key tips to potential entrants. Lisa explained that entries are judged based on completion of the R.A.C.E formula, writing quality and overall visual presentation. She also highlighted three important dates for this year:

  • February 23 –early bird submission deadline
  • March 15 –final submission deadline
  • May 21 – the ACE Awards Gala

After Lisa, both Weber Shandwick and DDB PR presented their ACE Award case studies which landed them their awards.

Weber Shandwick was honoured as the winner of Best Creative PR Campaign of the Year for their creative flair and passion behind #BuickStyle: The Ultimate Driving Shoe.

 

 

Rachel Hlinko, Senior Manager, Integrated Media and Melissa Graham, Senior Vice President and Deputy Head of Client Experience, explained Buick’s desire to appeal to younger women – an audience not traditionally familiar with automotive media.

Weber Shandwick’s award winning campaign linked Buick’s innovative design background with a growing appetite for design among the target audience. Influencers were invited to an event at a shoe making academy to participate in design conversations while creating custom shoes. Guests were chauffeured to and from the event in Buick vehicles.

Weber Shandwick and Buick also built a micro-site where people across Canada were able to create their own pair of shoes. They encouraged influencers to send their audiences to this microsite, creating a call to action which put the Buick brand in areas it hadn’t been before. As a result, the campaign surpassed its objectives and  -drove engagement among the target audience.

In 2019, DDB Public Relations/DDB Canada took home the trophy for Best PR Campaign of the Year for their memorable work on Digital Poppy Launch.

 

 

Julia Stein, Group Account Director of DDB Public Relations,  presented the Royal Canadian Legion’s digital poppy campaign.  DDB  focused on creating a highly shareable campaign and leveraged Influencers to increase donations.

DDB built MyPoppy.ca, giving people the option to purchase a digital poppy online and share it on social media. This highly engaging campaign encouraged donors to share their stories and start conversations. The average rate per donation through the digital system was ten times higher than with traditional donations.

With three weeks left in poppy season, DDB encouraged a number of high-profile Canadian influencers and celebrities to explain their personal connection to the poppy. Overall, the campaign was quite successful, shattering engagement expectations and growing the Poppy Fund exponentially.

MRP’s Jenny Cruxton made closing remarks, encouraging entrants to use MRP to evaluate their submissions.  She believed it would be a small but crucial part of the submission process.

Think you’ve got what it takes to win an award this year? Apply now!

 

Written by: Vince Guglielmi, Volunteer, CPRS Toronto

Examining Employee Relations

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Maintaining high performance at an organization depends on the productivity, creativity, dedication and inventiveness of its employees. How employees perform can be directly influenced positively or negatively, by how they are communicated to, developed and engaged. Productivity, organizational strategies and costs can be increased or reduced depending on an employee’s commitment, ability and attitude, which in-turn is built and enhanced with strategic internal and organizational communication. Essentially, employee relations and communications are at the centre of influence over organizational health and success.

Internal Communicators need to maintain an ethical, transparent, equal and consistent methodology of employee relations, to create an environment of trust, security and integrity, where employees can flourish. The result is employees who have enhanced ability, skills, commitment and attitude that lead to the successful completion of organizational goals.

Erica Silver, MA, APR

April Co-President’s Message

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We wanted to start this note off with the news that spring has finally sprung. But, based on this past weekend, we clearly know that is not the case!

We may be getting unusually cold April showers, but here at CPRS Toronto we are focused on all that Spring has to bring for our society.

People put a spring in our step and smile on our faces. This email newsletter is timed for distribution for the beginning of Canadian Volunteer Week (April 15-21, 2018). We can’t thank our volunteers enough, our organization couldn’t function without your dedication to the profession. Do you enjoy volunteering for CPRS Toronto? Tell us why in a tweet!

Another reason to smile is that the Ace Awards Gala is just around the corner. We have a new location this year, the Carlu, and the team has been hard at work organizing a fresh, new, event.

Spring also heralds a time of renewal, and, in a few weeks’ time you will be receiving formal notification of CPRS Board of Director nominations.  We have some great returning Board members, but we are always looking folks to join the Board. If you ever have any questions, please contact any of your Board members for further details.

We have a few great events rounding out the PD calendar before our summer break. Check the website and our social media feeds for more details.

Unit then,

Danielle Kelly, APR and Erica Silver MA, APR

In Memoriam: Everett McCrimmon, a CPRS Toronto Life Member

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The Board of CPRS Toronto is saddened to mark the passing of a long-time member, Everett Ray McCrimmon (1927 to 2018). Ev was born in Edmonton and grew up on a farm in Bon Accord, Alberta. A graduate of the University of Alberta, he had a rich career in radio broadcasting with the CBC, public relations for Imperial Oil, Bank of Nova Scotia and CIBC, as well as teaching at Durham College’s Public Relations program. He was an active member of CPRS Toronto and a valued colleague to many.

According to Barbara Sheffield, APR, FCPRS, LM, a former CPRS (Toronto) president, Ev made a significant contribution to establishing the Communications + Public Relations Foundation to support public relations education. He received his APR in 1970 and become a Life Member in 2007. His CPRS colleagues included pioneers such as the late Ruth Hammond, the late Charles Tisdall and the late Mel James.

A celebration of life is planned for the summer. In lieu of flowers, donations to Reaching for Rainbows would be appreciated by the family.

Marketing Through Influencing: What You Need To Know To Make it Work

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I remember the first time I saw a paid partnership post in my Instagram feed. My first reaction was confusion: this is fair to the consumers, this is how it is supposed to be, but this will likely ruin everything for the brands and influencers. Who would want to buy this, now that they know it is paid for? Then I looked closer at the “product” – it was a new collection of a famous fashion brand – and I realized I liked the way the blogger styled the brand’s clothes. She wrote about the brand’s quality, their corporate social responsibility and even the creative way they attracted her into business partnership. I was still trying to stick to my initial cynical position while scrolling through the blogger’s feed.

I started following her a long time ago when she wasn’t paid for wearing a fashion piece… or maybe she was, and I just never got a chance to confirm it. So I asked myself one question: has her Instagram page changed, apart from that paid partnership label? The answer is “no”. I still liked her online persona. I clicked on the link in her bio and looked up the brand’s new collection.

Authenticity and honesty. That is what you are looking for in a modern influencer marketing approach. Even taking a legal aspect of disclosure policies aside, any influencer marketing professional should take into consideration an increased consumer skepticism and a shift to user generated content which gives more power to the consumer. A new digital era demands transparency. In a way it is a more honest, genuine version of advertising. However, it is such only if you follow the rule: treat your influencers as long-term partners, not one-time participants in a business transaction.

Making friends and building a network. You may be tired of hearing the word “network” again, but yes, networking is vital in any business, communications especially. This may come as a surprise, but influencers are also people and like to be treated as such. You should start by engaging with an influencer: like their posts, comment on them and share them. Spend some time on your research: find out what your influencer’s interests are, read up on his/her work and look up posts about them. Focus on finding a thing you share, and then pitch your influencer by mentioning your common interests. Just as any other pitch, it should be catching, intriguing − it should stand out. Remember, your ultimate goal is possibly converting your influencer into loyal brand ambassador. Only if you customize your approach and build meaningful relationships, will you get an authentic representation of your brand by an influencer. And their audience will instantly feel that.

Speaking about the audience. The single biggest mistake many brands make is considering only the influencers with big following, often ignoring the proven fact that a smaller but dedicated audience is more valuable for your brand’s goals. Fake followers issue aside, it is a matter of reaching out to your potential clients, not the general public.

To do that, identify influencers who are relevant specifically to your industry: think about your brand’s target audience and compare it to the audience of the influencers in your field.

One more tip would be considering the right channel to reach out to your target audience. Usually, influencers are present on the majority of digital media platforms to increase their online presence. However, there is always one platform which they prefer, which works best for them, and which gained them the popularity your brand needs. What you should do is evaluate which platform aligns more with your industry and best displays your content – then search for the right platform influencer. Typically, business influencers prefer Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, while consumer, lifestyle and fashion influencers stick to Instagram, YouTube or Pinterest.

Influencer marketing is not as easy as it may seem at first. It requires a lot of preparation, monitoring and tracking, evaluation and measuring. Is it worth the hustle? Well, if you do it right, you end up increasing your brand awareness, building trust with your customers, growing your social media following and ultimately, increasing revenue and making more profit. Yes, it is very much worth the hustle!

By Iryna Zheliasko

Twitter: https://twitter.com/IrynaZheliasko
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justcurious.blog/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iryna-zheliasko-279041134/

AGM Recap

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On Wednesday September 27 members of CPRS Toronto gathered at the Mill Street Brewery for the 2017 Annual General Meeting.  In addition to a presentation by political commentator Scott Reid, CPRS Toronto Co-Presidents Erica Silver, MA, APR and Danielle Kelly, APR presented a year-end report.

Highlights of the report include:

  • Incredible member achievements from new APR, PRK exam participants and award winners
  • An overview of our financial position and our strategy to meet our financial obligations going forward
  • A review of our membership demographics
  • A recap of our PD, Education and Research activities from 2016-17

You can read the AGM Presidents Report 2017.

We look forward to serving you again next year.  If you ever have any questions or comments, please reach out to us at president@cprstoronto.com

Remembering Krys Potapczyk

Danielle Kelly, APR

This post is written with great sadness. As many of you may now be aware, CPRS Toronto is mourning the loss of Krys Potapczky, APR, FCPRS. Krys was an active member of CPRS, having most recently been Chair of the Accreditation  in 2016.

Krys lost a hard-fought battle with cancer in late-June, 2017.  The CPRS Toronto Board of Directors has made a donation in Krys’s name for the Sunnybrook Hospital Foundation. I never want to speak for anyone in times like these, but I am sure many of you share the same sense of shock. Krys and cancer were two things I would never associated together.

Krys is most fondly remembered by many for her tenacious spirit and drive for excellence in the practice of public relations. Her  most recent group of students recall her as an impressive woman who was tremendously supportive with both her time and advice

To me, Krys will always be an inspiration. There are not many of us in the public service with an APR, so I always knew I could rely on Krys to be a cheerleader and mentor for me as I tried (and yes, continue to try) to execute ethical and high-quality communications counsel in the public service.

Krys and I shared a very special moment during the WPRF forum last year. She was at my side, and was my witness, when Tracy Moore stopped me and asked me where I got my dress for he Comm Prix  Communications Awards Gala. I still get a kick of out of that story to this day, and feel cool by association!

She was so proud. She took this photo of us together and emailed it to me with this simple phrase and subject line: “US….don’t we look beautiful”.

Yes, yes we do Krys. Your beauty, grace, poise, and drive during your cancer journey is something beautiful to be admired. In your honour I hope to maintain your passion, and commitment to life and the pursuit of excellence in communications and public relations.

Thank you, my beautiful friend.

 

June Co-Presidents’ Message

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Though it has begun as cloudy and rainy, Spring has brought with it some incredible accomplishments and successes from our CPRS Toronto members.

We want to raise our glasses to all the recipients of this year’s ACE Awards.  It was an evening filled with friends, networking and laughter, and a wonderful celebration of success and outstanding achievement in the field of public relations. We’d like to again thank our ACE chair, our judges, the Board and our army of volunteers, who made the night such a success.

With the CPRS National summit wrapping up last week, we are thinking of all the enlightening topics presented by the speakers and panelists.  “Illuminate” covered such important aspects of our jobs: building trust, strategic storytelling, meaningful engagement and transparent communication, with the opportunity to review how to successfully implement these facets in the field.  We were delighted to see such a strong representation from Toronto, and know we house some of the best in the business.

We also celebrated incredible achievements in professional growth with the celebration of this year’s PRKs, APRs, College of Fellows and Award of Attainment recipients.

Wholehearted congratulations to Brooke Kelly and Carolina Salcedo for completing their PRK and Caitlin Coull, APR; Kim Daynard, APR;Ruth Fernandes, PMP, APR; Nate Habermeyer, APR; Audrey Ready-Holt, APR; and, Bryant Sullivan, APR on their APR designation. As well, we congratulate Sheldon Rose, BPR, APR, FCPRS on his induction into the College of Fellows and our recipient of this year’s Lois Marsh Award, Carol Panasiuk, MBA, APR, FCPRS LM on her 2017 CPRS Award of Attainment.

Congratulations to all CPRS Toronto members for continuing to distinguish yourselves and highlight excellence in the practice of PR. You all make us #CPRSproud!

Danielle and Erica

 

No Such Thing as Generic Influence

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On February 28, 2017 Boyd Neil moderated a CPRS Toronto panel discussion entitled Navigating the Social Influencer Sphere. Check out his thoughts on the discussion on his personal blog 

Staying ahead of the curve

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With the public relations profession currently confronted with the need for profound change and adaptation, CPRS members are sure to find value in a speech by CPRS Toronto Board of Director and Chair of Education, Heath Applebaum.  Applebaum delivered a keynote address to students and faculty in the McMaster University, Master of Communications Management program that sparked rich discussion.
Applebaum shared his insights into the necessary evolution of public relations to help organizations to successfully navigate these risky waters.  Among his many ideas, he suggests why successful organizations will be those that are most willing to listen, anticipate and adapt to disruptive changes and cultivate authentic relationships. He adds that in these volatile economic times, and digitally influenced world, reputations are proving to be more valuable and vulnerable than ever, but must be built from the inside out.
Applebaum is a global-award-winning communicator and the President of Echo Communications, a leading reputation management consulting firm based in Toronto.  He is also a highly respected Public Relations Professor at the University of Guelph-Humber with 20 years of diverse corporate, agency, consulting and non-profit communications experience.
To view excerpts from this captivating speech that were  published in the Journal of Professional Communication, click here:  https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/jpc/article/view/3096/2675