Oil and Gas, Real Estate, Arts and Culture, Technology
Career background
Previously I have worked for various festivals and a museum in a communications capacity, as well as in corporate communications
Education
BA in Communications from the University of Calgary, Public Relations certificate from Simon Fraser University
Volunteer experience
I have volunteered for multiple years with UNICEF, The Calgary International Film Festival and Free the Children on its ‘We Day’ programs
Favourite part of Peak life
Definitely the people, and how open and supportive of an environment Peak is. That and bagel Wednesday!
Career highlight
Creating a speech and presentation with the VP of the Oil Company I used to work for on his keynote at a major conference. It was very exciting to see 800 people give a standing ovation at the end
Favourite B.C. pastime
Hiking, trying new restaurants and biking along the sea wall
Languages
English and French
Furthest flung place you’ve lived?
Dehra Dun, India
Random fact
I once sat next to a nun on the plane and she gave me a piece of Mother Theresa’s dress for helping her translate her documents
The lights, the decorations and the Christmas music are in full swing anywhere you go in the city these days. From big shopping extravanganzas to ‘stuff-a-bus’ campaigns to tree lighting ceremonies to the Starbucks red cup fiasco of 2015, it seems that the holiday season is always the time of year business after business tries to out-do each other for the PR spotlight. Case in point with WestJet’s admittedly impressive stunt in 2013.
This Christmas, forget the large-scale, consumer-focused, out-of-this-world PR campaigns to promote your brand and services. Because, let’s be honest, not many businesses have quite the PR/marketing budget that WestJet has.
Few things give people the warm fuzzies more than a simple heartfelt – and sometimes awkward – Christmas card in the mail. As the holiday season approaches, take this opportunity to send out festive cards (bonus points for snail mail!) to clients and business partners to nurture existing business relationships and to tip the scales in your favour for potential new business relationships in the new year.
In PR, we always talk about the importance of key messages. Don’t miss an opportunity to incorporate these in a company Christmas card! More than just wishing ‘Happy Holidays’ or saying ‘thank you’ via email or social media, use your card as a way to remind clients, past and present, of what makes your business unique and the value you can bring to help them meet their business goals. Think about the big themes that give your company its character and charm and use them as the foundation of your card.
Maybe all your employees are big advocates of health and fitness. Or maybe everyone at the office is an obsessive coffee drinker with an unusual love for cats. It doesn’t have to be big and it doesn’t have to be flashy, but utilize your creativity to incorporate your company’s voice, personality and character into a holiday card without just relying on your company logo and tagline to do the talking.
From the message, to the wackiness of your graphic design, this is the perfect opportunity to capture your brand’s values and personality in a non-invasive, feel-good way. Be classy about it – no one needs to see your website URL in bold 20-point Arial font across the front – but use this card as a PR tool to reinforce your brand values and keep your business at the forefront of people’s minds.
As far as stakeholder management goes, employees can be the greatest brand ambassadors.
Story-telling is just as important on the inside as it is on the outside – keeping employees ‘in the know’ about company news, achievements or changes is critical to inspiring and motivating your biggest asset: your people.
Communications can motivate your employees during times of change. Or, if you are finding that your internal audiences can’t answer basic questions about your business, an internal communications campaign can change that.
We are experienced in developing and executing internal communications campaigns, as a stand-alone initiative or as part of a larger communications plan that encompasses both external and internal communications.
Our track record speaks for itself: one of Peak’s consultants has won awards for an internal communications campaign executed globally.
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
“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate,” is the famous line from the 1967 Paul Newman movie Cool Hand Luke. It best sums up the Marathassa – Burrard Inlet oil spill and points to a critical failure we often see in a crisis. In planning for a crisis, organizations forget the importance of communication, not only in dealing with the crisis, but also when informing the public. They plan how to deploy resources and deal with the crisis internally, while often forgetting what exists outside of their organization.
A timeline in the Globe and Mail shows several communications failures that lead to delays in calling out cleanup and containment crews in the Marathassa spill. Once deployed, the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) teams did an excellent job, cleaning up 80 per cent of the oil in 20 hours, but the communication delays turned what might have been a minor incident into a major event. Those internal communication failures were then compounded by a failure to inform the City of Vancouver until 12 hours after the spill was first reported. This turned it into a major story.
Rather than being praised for its response, the Coast Guard faced a storm of criticism for an inadequate response and cleanup effort. The public was unhappy. Local politicians were unhappy. The Provincial Government was unhappy. This could not come at a worse time for proponents of expanded crude oil shipments out of the Port of Vancouver. Oil spill prevention and a world-class response are central to gaining public support. Public and political sentiment is that this was not world-class. Poor communications lead to a slow response, which let the crisis get out of hand.
The Coast Guard’s prime stakeholder in a crisis situation is not the Federal Government or Coast Guard management in Ottawa. The Coast Guard’s number one stakeholder in a crisis is the public who they are charged with protecting and that includes local governments who represent all of us. That stakeholder was forgotten.
So how do you avoid making the same mistakes in your crisis? Here are seven things to think about:
1) Have a crisis communications plan. Crisis planning is not complete without a crisis communications plan. Who to call (or tweet), when to call (or post on Facebook), what to say, and how to best get your message out. To be seen to be effectively responding, you have to tell someone about it
2) Alert your communications team right away. Don’t wait until the story is out of control—get the communications team working on the crisis from the outset. Bringing in heavy hitters from Ottawa didn’t save the Coast Guard’s reputation, nor change the public perception of the crisis. By then the story was written by the public, the media, and the critics. The story was “clean up was a failure,” “world-class spill response was anything but” and “Coast Guard cuts made the problems worse.”
3) Prepare your statements in advance. Have fill-in-the-blanks templates for media advisories, statements and news releases for predicted events so you can get those out to the public quickly. It should include social media channels and your website as well.
4) First out with the information controls the message. The first voices set the narrative, the tone of the story. It’s your crisis so you know the most and you know first. Use that to your advantage. Become the source of accurate information. Media and the public go to who can provide the best information. In an information vacuum, they go to who screams the loudest.
5) Know who your stakeholders really are.Make a list. Make a list and have it as a key element of your crisis communications plan. Who they are and how to reach them. If the public isn’t on the list, they need to be there and the best way to reach them is through the media: both social media and traditional.
6) Define each potential crisis in advance. You should have a list of potential crises, each given a crisis rating based on seriousness and a planned response for each level of crisis. That way in the heat of the moment you can just follow the plan and effectively manage crisis communications.
7) Exercise the plan often. The worst thing you can do is create a plan and never practice it. If you regularly deal with minor events, get in the habit of pulling out the plan, assessing the seriousness and whether to call in the communications team. It’s free practice! Follow the same steps until they become routine. Use the templates mentioned above. It should become second nature so when a major crisis happens you know what to do. If you don’t have regular minor occurrences, then you need to do formal practice until you are confident in your ability in a crisis.
Look at the oil spill and relate it to a crisis your organization could face. Would you do better or make the same mistakes? If you don’t have a crisis communications plan, or if you have a plan but don’t know how to use it or where it is or who to contact and how to do that, then expect bad news. A crisis defines your organization. Your response to a serious event is revealing.
The foundation of successful communication is clear writing. If you want your message to get across and be taken seriously you need to be clear.
Some people believe that in order to gain attention, their story needs to be BIG and that leads to exaggeration.
One year at CTV Vancouver, we were major offenders ourselves. We had to ban the term “parent’s worst nightmare” because we used it so often on our newscasts. It had become lazy shorthand for almost every story involving a child. A child’s serious life threatening illness was a parent’s worst nightmare. A child being bullied was also a parent’s worst nightmare. So too were a murdered child, injured child, a missing child, even a close call involving a child. It was unnecessary hype which detracted from the news rather than enhancing it. Our news had become a parent’s worst nightmare.
You see this phenomenon in other storytelling. I had a chuckle recently when the price of oil rose by about three dollars overnight and business writers said it had “skyrocketed,”“soared,” or “surged” higher.
The writers might defend themselves by saying a seven per cent overnight move in oil prices, albeit temporary, is a big move, but in saying so it lacked context. It ignored the fall that preceded it. By having a narrow focus on just a few hours, the writers looked foolish to anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the oil market.
Imagine you are watching a movie where actor Jackie Chan jumps off a 107 foot tall building. I like Jackie Chan; he does all his own stunts and has the bruises to show for it. At the 45 foot mark Jackie hits an awning and bounces up about three feet. Would movie goers gasp and say “look at him skyrocket! Wow Jackie is soaring!”? I think not.
Oil had fallen from a high of $107 in the summer to about $45 before thisskyrocketing, soaring, surging move happened. That’s the proper context.
Here are seven ways to avoid similar news release exaggeration, that makes you and your company look silly:
Never forget the context. Context is important and relates not only to you but also to your community and sector in which you operate. So for example, your “best year ever” may be true, but if your competitors have grown twice as fast as you, you might want to focus on something else—like innovation or new product development.
Don’t be lazy; be creative. Clichés such as “parent’s worst nightmare” are a crutch. Don’t use what you used last time by default. Take the time to be creative and get it right.
Be specific. If it’s your best year ever, what is the measure? Sales, sales growth, staff growth, profit, happy customers?
The headline needs to match the story. The headline at the top of the news release needs to be supported by the words below. A critical error is using a jaw-dropping headline which isn’t supported by the facts. It causes media blood pressure to shoot up with excitement and they get let down by the content. A disappointed assignment editor will kill your future story opportunities.
Stick to what you know and can prove. Facts are important. Media will want proof and if you can’t prove what you are saying then a positive event can turn negative in a hurry. Media are like sharks, when they smell blood in the water a feeding frenzy begins. Don’t believe me? Ask a media person. Feeding frenzy is a news media term not limited to the Nature Channel.
Tell your best unique story. If everyone in your industry is telling the same story, highlight what makes your story unique. If you can’t think of anything fresh, neither will the media.
Be flexible. If it’s a busy news day, your story is not getting on. It means your plans need to be flexible. If breaking news has made your story no longer relevant for that day, make yourself available tomorrow. Show you understand the needs of the media and it will pay off down the road. Don’t get mad that your story was bumped, even if the media cancelled an interview at the last second; get your story out there the next day instead.
One final thought. Every time you interact with the media you are making an impression, even when the media decides not to run your story. A good impression means you will get a fair hearing next time while a bad impression closes that door, sometimes forever.
Bell Media CEO Kevin Crull has to go. Wendy Freeman, president of CTV News, must go too.
How can viewers of Canada’s largest private broadcaster have confidence in this news source when the owner dictates how news is covered and the head of news allowed it fearing for her job? In an unprecedented statement from Canada’s broadcast regulator, the CEO of Bell Media which owns CTV was lambasted for meddling in news coverage.
Crull has apologized for interfering in CTV’s coverage of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission’s decision to allow less expensive cable and satellite TV ‘pick and pay’ options which could impact Bell Media’s bottom line.
An obviously enraged Crull banned CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais from all CTV news coverage after he saw him interviewed on Bell-owned BNN, a business television channel.
Fearing for the loss of her job, CTV News chief Wendy Freeman caved in and allowed the manipulation until more ballsy news people in her organization gathered ranks and put Blais on the late news. But Freeman’s waffling and giving up editorial control under pressure let down all those who work in CTV newsrooms across the country.
Real reporters put their jobs on the line when told how to cover news or to leave out elements that balance coverage. They push back harder when their own management tries to influence what should be fair and objective news coverage for commercial interests.
Crull’s weak mea culpa explanation of how he was merely suggesting coverage that showed the impact of the CRTC decision, apparently without the CRTC chairman’s input, is not enough.
Enlightened Canadians will wonder what other news stories have been ‘shaped’ by CTV’s ownership. What credibility does CTV News have now?
Years ago, I was one of three reporters who strongly protested a decision by the television station president who blocked coverage of a lawsuit launched by disgruntled contestants of a game show produced there.
We told him this could never happen again and pointed out the damage that could be done to the station’s reputation as well as our professional reputations. To my knowledge, there was no further meddling.
That was immediate action with a strong statement to maintain independence and objectivity in reporting news. Bell Media and CTV also have to make the strongest statement possible to regain and retain credibility. That can only be done with the removal of those who don’t uphold these principles.
For those regulars on the Peak blog, you’ll recall that, towards the end of last year, we shared some tips from the Art of Leadership conference.
There were a lot of key takeaways that day so here are a few more to consider when looking at how you can be a more effective and inspirational leader (or start working towards becoming one).
Overall, some of the main points that stood out to me included:
Leadership is about values and behaviour
It’s about having the right set of goals that everyone is aware of
Collaboration is a key leadership quality
Positivity goes a long way
At one point, the conference host remarked, “True leadership happens when you’re not in the room.” That struck a chord with me as so often we feel like we have to be extremely involved with a process or team in order to achieve the desired outcomes. This statement challenges that concept. True leadership essentially should make everyone a leader.
Dr. Vince Molinaro of Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions was also one of the conference speakers. Dr. Molinaro emphasised the important of getting the best out of people, of leadership accountability, and the skill of being able to connect strategy and leadership.
He brought his approach down to four key terms that leaders need to sign up to – in what he called “The Leadership Contract”:
Decisions: Define who you are as a leader. Be deliberate in your decision making. Differentiate between you as a person and you as a leader.
Obligation: As a leader, you have to step-up. It’s your job to make things better. What’s your leadership legacy? You want to ensure you leave a company in a better and sustainable state for the future. Position your company for success.
Get tough! As a leader, you still have to tackle the hard work. Ensure you have regular check-ins with yourself and question whether you’re wimping out on anything you shouldn’t be. Make those tough decisions and have candid conversations.
Connect! Ultimately you’re leading a community. Who has got your back? Clarity breeds commitment.
It’s easy to listen to the theory. But, in order to grow as leaders, we need to look at how we can realistically apply some of these theories to our day-to-day work. Something as simple as creating a checklist or assessing more challenging situations and how you approached them can be a really effective way of continual learning. And don’t be afraid to seek feedback from your colleagues. It’s the best way to learn.
When it comes to releasing your news, timing and distribution channels are everything. Not heeding them could lead to disastrous communications consequences.
To understand why, you need to know how journalists think and what they’re looking for.
Get internal buy-in
Before you release your story to media, make sure everyone in your organization is OK with it, that it is factually correct, that all stakeholders have been informed when it will be released, and that spokespeople are willing and ready to comment on it.
It’s a nightmare to “take back” a story once it’s been published. So make sure everyone in your organization is ready.
Share it with all media at once
Every journalist wants to be the first one to share a story with the public. Don’t expect journalists to cover a story that has already been covered one or more days earlier by another media outlet. By then it’s old news.
To guard against being old news, make sure you share your story with everyone at once, rather than sending it to one media outlet one day and another the next.
If you want further coverage days later, you’re going to have to add to the story by pitching a new angle and/or releasing new information.
Consider the “news cycle”
If you can choose a time to release your story, tell media about it on a day and at a time when they’re looking for stories.
9:00 a.m. on a Tuesday = good. Journalists have just sat down at their desks and are looking to see what’s going on that day for them to cover.
4:00 p.m. on a Friday = bad. Journalists have already nailed down what they’re going to cover that day. Most have already done their interviews and created their stories. They’re ready for the weekend.
On a date when you know other news will be happening (e.g. election day) = bad.
These are the general trends. That said, media will always pick up a great story, and different media outlets have different news cycles.
Have your resources ready to share
If media decide to cover the story, they are going to be on deadline. And if they’re on deadline, so are you.
With little turnaround time, media could ask for any or all of:
Relevant photos and captions, including correct spellings of names, dates and locations for the photos
Interviews with spokespeople by phone or in person
Further factual information
Samples / site visits / concrete examples relevant to your story
Make sure you have your resources internally approved and ready to go so you can provide them easily and quickly.
In this second leadership post that explores some of the key takeaways from The Art of Leadership conference last month, I’m going to shift the focus away from New York City and Rudy Giuliani’s leadership principles and focus on the power of pictures.
I have to confess that several people have recommended Dan Roam’s The Back of a Napkin to me. In fact, I went so far as to buy the book last year. But it remained unread on my shelf, having taken second place to life. Newly-inspired by Dan’s talk on the power of pictures, it has been promoted to my bedside table in the hope that I’ll soon never have to communicate through text again.
Dan’s presentation was simple yet effective, just like his ‘matchstick’ pictures. He discussed how pictures are a common language and pointed out that every company and leader needs a vision and a vision requires pictures. He reminded us that pictures can serve the following purposes:
Make complex issues, simple
Help solve problems
Clarify, create, convince
They are compelling and memorable
When you think about it, it doesn’t make sense that we neglect the visual side of our brain so much. Roam encouraged us to tap into this potential more regularly, reminding us that our visual mind never sleeps and that humans are visual processing machines. Yet we’re often not intentional around our use of images. He gave us some tools and tips to takeaway that will help solve problems and/or help share understanding among team members. Here you can see how he adopts this simple approach by getting people to talk through the who/what, how much, where, when, how and why of something, to help map-out a pathway.
I don’t think it’d be realistic to start drafting news releases that only include images or sending client reports showcasing stickmen. But I do think there’s a lot of value in leaders and communications professionals considering using images more frequently, whether it be during brainstorms, strategy planning sessions, or in proposals. Ultimately, we all relate to pictures. And I’d argue that the more we can simplify life, the better.
