The City of Trail had a long outdated image of being a dirty smelter town that couldn’t be further from the truth. Although Teck Resources lead and zinc smelter has operated in Trail for over a century, the company had spent a billion dollars making enormous improvements to air and water emissions. Trail is a beautiful southern B.C. city right on the Columbia River but it needed a new image.
Client objective
The City of Trail brought Peak on board to act as an extension of its communications function. The goal was to highlight the benefits of Trail for people looking to travel, move to the region permanently or do business in the city.
Campaign
Peak worked with the City of Trail for over a decade. Our scope of work ranged from issues management and public consultation to media relations and communications counsel.
At the heart of the PR program was the e-newsletter we created quarterly, which contained a number of local stories that had potential for national appeal. This e-newsletter was pitched to journalists, who then selected their favourite stories for publication. A selection of journalists came to know and expect this newsletter as a source of real-life stories.
Key results
Over a three year period, we secured 200+ articles online and traditional media hits for the City, promoting a variety of community and cultural stories. These stories highlighted the benefits of Trail as somewhere to live and work, and a city worth visiting as a tourist.
One story highlighting the inexpensive homes for sale overlooking the Columbia River resulted in a housing boom in Trail, new families moving into the City and business being started.
Mission Public Schools, the school district in Mission managing K – 12, engaged Peak in 2009 to help manage its public reputation. Peak acted as the communications department for the school district to help develop the district’s reputation as a stable, well-run school district, during a time of challenging budget cutbacks, school closures, staff layoffs and the implementation of a controversial middle school program.
Campaign
Due to budget cuts, the school district had laid off unionized staff. In addition, the school district had sent 30 staff to a conference that would prepare it for the organization’s next step – embedding middle schools into high schools. The decision to send staff to the conference was criticized in light of the layoffs.
Peak trained spokespeople for Mission Public Schools, managed the issues around the conference and layoffs and celebrated the school district’s successes by garnering positive media coverage focusing on a number of positive education initiatives.
Key Results
Thanks to the media preparation Peak provided, the school district was able to act on short notice to answer media questions about the conference and layoffs clearly and strongly, resulting in balanced news coverage on one day that was not followed up on by media
Peak generated 17 pieces of media coverage that told positive stories about Mission Public Schools
Are you struggling to write copy for your website or marketing materials? Do you have ideas for a blog but can’t figure out how to convey them effectively to your audience?
Copywriting is an essential component of how your brand is conveyed. Compelling writing requires critical thinking and analysis, reliable research, attention to detail, expert grammar as well as style and flair. Your words should provoke your audience to action, whether it’s for a news release, website, blog or marketing collateral.
Our job is to tell your story and we act as brand journalists daily, always looking for the most effective and strategic way to convey your key messages.
We have a team of former copy editors, journalists, web editors and publishers that have produced content for corporate blogs and media outlets (including The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail and PROFIT), along with videos, infographics and much more
Writing of all kinds—speech writing, magazine writing, web writing, script writing, report writing; communications planning; teaching writing techniques
Sector experience
The Arts, Education, Health, and Accounting
Career background
Reporter with The Vancouver Sun, 35 years working in communications, for organizations as varied as The University of BC, the Knowledge Network, the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada, The Arthritis Society, the Vancouver Writers Fest and, of course, Peak Communicators
Education
Master of Arts in English Literature, UBC; journalism training, Carleton University; adult education training, VCC
Volunteer experience
Nine years serving on the Board of the Vancouver chapter of The Canadian Public Relations Society, including two years as President; giving personal writing workshops
Furthest flung city you’ve lived in?
Does living for a week in Barcelona count? What about living for six weeks in a little Mexican village where the fishers sell their catch on the beach every morning? I’m a Vancouver girl—born and raised—a rarity, I know.
Favourite B.C. pastime?
Hiking and snowshoeing
Languages
English, of course, French and I’m learning Spanish
Secret talent
I make the world’s best hummus, so I’ve been told by two different, very reliable sources.
10 years of agency experience in the UK and Canada
EDUCATION
MA in Postcolonial Literature from Leeds University
VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Currently the Communications Director at the Canadian Public Relations Society in Vancouver
IF YOU WERE GOING TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED?
Ticking off the ‘To Do’ List
FURTHEST FLUNG CITY YOU’VE LIVED IN?
London, UK
FAVOURITE PART OF PEAK LIFE
Ringing the bell to celebrate a new client joining our ranks
CAREER HIGHLIGHT
Managing a client’s communications during the UK’s infamous phone hijacking scandal that resulted in the country’s most long standing newspaper closing down
FAVOURITE BC PASTIME
Hiking, skiing and surfing – the outdoor life in BC is an adventurer’s playground
RANDOM FACT
Charlotte was recognized as one of Canada’s 30 Under 30 PRs by PR in Canada in 2014
MR MIKES SteakhouseCasual launched a brand awareness campaign called ‘Mikes Unite’ to gather a record number of Mikes and Michaels in Regina. The campaign raised $30,550 in support of KidSport. Donations went back to kids in all 26 MR MIKES communities in Western Canada.
Please visit the MR MIKES case study page for more information on the previous work we’ve done for this client.
F-Pacific Optical Communications Co. Ltd. announced the establishment of their North American headquarters in Vancouver and plans to open a new manufacturing plant in Surrey that would create 200 jobs. The campaign resulted in over 50 pieces of coverage, equating to over 47 million impressions.
Please visit the F-Pacific case study page for more information on the previous work we’ve done for this client.
Hundreds of buyers lined-up at the WestStone Properties Evolve sales centre for an opportunity to buy a home in the 35-storey concrete condo tower in Surrey, which boasts prices starting at $93,900 during pre-construction.
The public relations and social media landscapes are constantly changing and, sometimes, it’s hard to keep up. One way to help stay up-to-date with new techniques and tools is by learning from bright public relations and social media professionals around you. I recently attended a YVR PR Roundtable – a casual meet up group for public relations (PR) pros in Vancouver – and the crew introduced some interesting PR and social media tools that are worth sharing. Although there are many more uses for each tool listed below, I wanted to give an example of how each tool could be used in a PR campaign.
o What they do: live-stream video through Twitter. Meerkat was all anyone could talk about at SXSW this year!
o What’s the difference: although they are very similar apps, Meerkat was first on the scene, while Periscope is owned by Twitter.
o Useful for: raising the profiles of thought-leaders and CEO’s. For example, Hootsuite recently used Periscope to live-stream an AMA (Ask Me Anything Session) with Ryan Homes.
o What it does: curates the best new products on one website; the most popular products are positioned at the top of the site.
o Useful for: gaining momentum for product launches.
These are just a few of the many PR and social media tools on the market today that help communications pros garner top tier results for their company and clients. To keep up with the latest PR and social media trends, connect with YVR PR on Facebook and Twitter.
