Peak has been announced as finalists in the 2013 Ragan PR Daily Awards. Ragan’s awards are regarded as some of the most prestigious in the PR and communications industry worldwide. They recognize excellence in employee communications, corporate, nonprofit and agency PR and marketing, social media and digital PR, executive communications, health care PR and marketing.

The Ragan PR Daily Awards have received notable recognition throughout the industry and attracted respected PR firms from around the globe.  The team at Ragan has stated they are “blown away” by the number of exceptional entries put forward.

Given the volume of competition, Peak is delighted to be announced as finalists in three categories for the PR Daily Awards and the team highly anticipates the winner announcements in late June.

Peak has been declared finalists in the following two award categories, and our client, Avigilon, has been shortlisted as well;

Best Crisis Management – Traditional Media

• For Canada West Veterinary Specialists (CWVS)

Best Fitness/Health Campaign – Community Relations/Special Campaigns

• For the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA)

Best Client of the Year – Talent

• For Avigilon

“We’re extremely happy with our achievements so far,” says Charlotte Sherry, Account Director at Peak Communicators. ”Our team of PR specialists has worked tirelessly over the past 12 months to deliver creative campaigns. We are delighted to have made the finalist list.”

Chris and Bill speak about the future of NDP party leader, Adrian Dix, and speculate who Liberal party leader, Christy Clark, will select to join her in the cabinet. They also express their surprise at the astoundingly high number of British Columbians who did not vote and raise the question of mandatory voting to boost voter participation in future elections.

Location: Vancouver

Reporting to the Vice President and Partners, the Social Media Director will oversee the social media department and play a fundamental role in securing new business through marketing, responding to RFPs and networking. The Social Media Director will also be a mentor and line manager to junior colleagues.

The position would be part-time initially, with the view to full-time when new business is secured.

Responsibilities: Social Media Accounts

• Be responsible for the creation and execution of social media strategies and campaigns for corporate and consumer accounts
• Set client program goals and ensure the team delivers results through the execution of the social media programs
• Develop social media campaigns using all platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube, etc.
• Develop the strategy and metrics/analytics for social media projects
• Offer strategic guidance to clients and oversee the execution of SEO and SEM strategies, vodcasts, podcasts and other digital media activity
• Provide guidance and execute social media crisis communication when needed
• Provide guidance on the different methods of measuring the return on investment of social media campaigns
• Be a trusted advisor for clients
• Oversee quality and operational performance of accounts, ensuring work quality and deadline adherence
• Identify new business opportunities for the social media department and lead proposal generation
• Introduce existing clients to Peak’s social media capabilities
• Manage all client budgets and confidently forecast project costs

Other Responsibilities

• Be a mentor and line manager for the social media team
• Explore new social media tools and educate Peak employees on the tools and trends, providing an in-flow of knowledge about developments in the digital space
• Network regularly to build industry clients and contacts
• Be an ambassador for Peak

Qualifications

• Minimum seven years of relevant experience
• Experience winning new business and writing proposals
• Excellent knowledge of social media
• Proven ability to confidently lead teams and deliver results
• Experience mentoring and line managing individuals
• Regular participation in relevant professional organizations and networking activities
• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field from an accredited college or university

To Apply

Please send your resumé and cover letter to hr@peakco.com. Only those candidates short listed for an interview will be contacted. Thank you for your interest in working with Peak Communicators.

The panel featured a dynamic trio of social moguls discussing how journalists and publishers are using social, multi-media and cross-platform storytelling to adapt business models to their respective platforms. Speakers included:

• Greg Galant, Co-Founder and CEO, Muck Rack
• Jonathan Perelman, VP of Agency Strategy and Industry Development, BuzzFeed
• Paul Smurl, Vice President, NYTimes.com Paid Products

As a digital media specialist, I was obviously eager to glean as much as possible from the social trio. Operating in the relatively small market of Vancouver, it’s not often one has the opportunity to learn and engage with the world’s best social innovators, and I was not disappointed.

Jonathan Perelman, Greg Galant and Paul Smurl at the IPREX Global Leadership Conference 2013.

So…what did I learn?

Social = listen and learn. Despite their uncanny differences, many important similarities surfaced among the presenters. Most importantly, all panelists listened and were open to learning from each other—key skills for anyone working in the social realm.

It’s not news that social journalism is all about listening: to your target audience (what do they care about? What are they interested in?) and to the social web as a whole (What’s trending and why? Can you leverage it to satisfy the aims of your client or campaign?). Learning from what you hear and applying these lessons to your strategies are the most important aspects of social strategy, and it was great to see these three gentleman embodying that in their panel discussion—especially because there was a lot to be learned!

Three remarkably different platforms serving different audiences and aims. What was really interesting was the in-depth perspective they provided on their three very different but equally important platforms. I’ve summarized the key details below:

A new-age storytelling platform, BuzzFeed detects and creates viral news in the form of a video, image or link, and showcases it in real-time. BuzzFeed is very social: 40 per cent of traffic comes from mobile devices and 40 per cent from Facebook.

For the most part, the content that goes viral on BuzzFeed is not considered “quality” news by the average educated person. For example popular categories, known as “badges,” include “WTF,” “OMG” and “CUTE”—‘nuff said.

Despite this, Perelman shares more in common with his thought-provoking co-panelist than we may have thought. Perelman explained that, while there is no mandate on content quality (case in point), the site focuses on virality, which means that trending news, like the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line, is also heavily featured. When BuzzFeed posted breaking world news on the presidential election in 2012, this was no exception. News is news, even if it is unconventional (which for the most part on BuzzFeed, it is).

Muck Rack is a social platform where journalists and PRs connect. This tool identifies credible journalists and their tweets can then be highlighted and followed up with spam-free PR pitches. ‘

Galant advises PRs to treat Muck Rack as an “early warning system.” Tweets from trusted sources can be used to find valuable info such as what projects journos are working on, as well as what content they do not want to see.
(For an interesting post on how to make life easier for journalists, read my colleague Amanda’s blog.)

With 30 million unique visitors per month, over 150 years of experience and a reputation that precedes itself, the NYTimes.com is traditional storytelling. The catch: they want to keep up with the cool kids while maintaining their intellectual stance.

While NYTimes.com is the most trusted and thought-provoking news source in the world, it lacks BuzzFeed’s viral content and social sharing capabilities. The need to reevaluate what was important to readers became evident in 2006 when an NYTimes.com story went viral. The story wasn’t about a high-profile political scandal nor was it an educational piece on the environment. It was a mindless story on how to train your husband, using the same tactics that are used to train Shamu. This story remains the most read article in the publication’s history.

Key takeaway
This panel highlighted an important challenge faced by media outlets. Everyone is struggling to maintain the ultimate balance of upholding a reputation (high-brow or low), while adapting to the changing expectations of their audiences as social platforms continue to evolve. The evolution of storytelling is, well, an evolution, and should be treated as such. Two-way sharing is part of this, and is easily made possible by social channels, which in turn shed light on which content goes viral.

Today Business in Vancouver (BIV) released its annual list of the “Biggest public relations firms in B.C.,” ranking Peak as the largest locally-owned PR firm in the province and the overall fifth biggest PR firm in B.C. this year.

The 2013 BIV list marks Peak’s third year ranked as B.C.’s largest locally-owned firm since its founding in 2003.

“2013 has been a significant year for Peak so far with our 10 year anniversary, new international clients, expansion of our service offerings and a number of new team members,” says Managing Partner Ross Sullivan. 

The “Biggest public relations firms in B.C.” list ranks firms based on the number of B.C. public relations staff in a given year. In 2013, international/national firms Edelman, NATIONAL Public Relations, Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Fleishman-Hillard were named the four biggest PR firms in B.C. with teams ranging from 18-49 members in size.

The full 2013 BIV PR list is here.

Client Objective

Peak has had a successful and ongoing partnership with RAMMP Hospitality Brands for the past several years. Originally engaged to secure media coverage for RAMMP Hospitality in local and national business media, Peak continues to support the objectives of the management group through strategic media relations for RAMMP Hospitality brands, MR. MIKES and The Pantry.

Campaign

Peak has secured top tier media coverage for RAMMP Hospitality across Western Canada by leveraging its ambitious market growth plans and its impressive executive profiles. To build on this exposure, Peak focused its efforts on the MR. MIKES brand, showcasing its strong heritage and contribution to communities across B.C. and beyond.

More recently, Peak has supported RAMMP Hospitality in its efforts to launch multiple restaurants in Western Canada. In addition to local media outreach, Peak provided RAMMP Hospitality’s marketing team with a comprehensive package of customized template media materials for use in future launches.

Key Results

Overall, the ongoing campaigns have generated more than 25 business media hits including stories in the Financial Post, Vancouver Sun, Western Investor, Business in Vancouver and Global TV.

Media Coverage

Typically product recalls are announced when there is a health or safety issue. However, Lululemon recalled its black Luon full-length and cropped pants because they were considered ‘too sheer’ for its yoga-loving customers, an issue that affected 17 per cent of the women’s yoga pants sold by the company.

A product recall isn’t ideal for any company, and it can be costly. Within 24 hours Lululemon’s share price had dropped by five per cent and experts have predicted the mishap could cost the company $67 million (U.S.) in revenue this year.

It’s a tough situation, yet from a brand and PR perspective Lululemon has handled it well, ticking off the basic tenets of issues management in textbook fashion:

Controlling the message from the get-go. By being first out with the news, Lululemon was able to direct initial coverage of the news and maintain brand-friendly messaging. The headline for the news release stated ‘Black Luon Pants Shortage Expected,’ which helped shape media coverage: naturally journalists discussed the product recall, but the ‘shortage’ was also widely discussed. It took the conversation in a different direction, largely emphasizing the demand for Lululemon’s products rather than the failing of this specific batch.

Proactively recognizing and maintaining brand integrity and standards. The main reason given for the recall was that ‘the level of sheerness in some of our women’s black Luon bottoms…falls short of our very high standards.’ Lululemon could have ignored the problem. It didn’t. Known for the high quality of its products, the company reinforced this brand pillar by proactively rectifying the situation.

Immediate action. The company also acted quickly. The product hit the shop floor on March 1 and was removed within two weeks. Store managers noticed the drop in quality, and Lululemon addressed the situation immediately.

Transparency (no bum – er, pun – intended!). Lululemon admitted the pants went through routine product testing without the issue being detected. Being honest when one of your processes fails is essential to reputation management as it reinforces brand integrity and can support customer satisfaction and loyalty. Also, a little humour always helps.

The one area the team seems to have had difficulty managing was the ‘who dunnit’ question. As in most product recall situations, media search for a party to blame. In the news release, Lululemon said it was working closely with its manufacturing company to understand what happened during the period this fabric was made.

Since then, a public spat between Lululemon and the manufacturing company has erupted, which damages the reputation of both organizations as well as their working relationship. From a PR perspective it’s not ideal, but ultimately it is unlikely to cause long-term damage to Lululemon’s reputation due to its strong brand, customer loyalty and overall product quality.

On the whole, Lululemon has dealt with this crisis well. It has been honest and quick to respond. It has also put quality and customer satisfaction above everything else, which is in line with the brand’s mantra and central to the organization’s identity. It will be interesting to see if there is any further media discussion of the issue in the coming weeks, but our guess is it won’t hold the public’s attention for much longer.

Compelling copy, pretty pictures, infographics, mobile-responsive web pages and social media sites are just some examples of content marketing that communications professionals use to captivate, inform and persuade target audiences.

Marketing, PR and corporate communications no longer solely consist of traditional paid and earned media. Content marketing has spurred a new era of owned media carefully crafted to engage target audiences by providing information—seemingly beyond brand interests—for the sake of learning.

This is all well and good, however when developing content the most important thing to consider (and I’m sure you do) is whether the audience can directly link the content to your or your client’s brand or if they simply consider it food for thought.

It’s easy to get caught up creating content to promote a brand in new, exciting and innovative ways and not to link the outcomes directly to a monetary value, but this is a dangerous path to take.

So the question becomes: how can I prove my efforts are making a difference and am I in fact contributing to the financial success of the campaign/client?

As content marketing evolves as an integral element of communications, it’s more important than ever to develop a proactive and effective content marketing metrics strategy (CMMS). Like all other campaign elements, this means developing clear content marketing goals, relevant units and realistic points of measurement. An effective CMMS should produce metrics that are meaningful to both communicators and profit-focused team members, particularly senior management and finance, to justify marketing’s contribution to the bottom line and earn their respect.

While there is no one right or wrong way when it comes to developing an effective CMMS, here are a few pointers from the Content Marketing Institute’s latest Content Marketing Metrics e-book:

Begin with the end in mind

Before embarking on any content marketing campaign, define what you want to achieve and how your content will contribute to the bottom line. Develop goals and KPIs to benchmark your success against your competition and client’s high level objectives.

Shape your content

Ensure your content is interesting, informative and well balanced. Above all, don’t forget to include a call to action – ensure that those who want to act, can.

Define your metrics:

• Consumption metrics
  

How many people viewed, downloaded or listened to your content? Include page, video and document views, downloads, social talk.

• Shared metrics
  

How resonant is this content, and how often is it shared with others? Include Likes, shares, tweets, +1s, pins, forwards, inbound links.

Be careful not to overvalue shared metrics because they’re measured publicly, in full view of prospects and competitors. Assigning an internal business value to only those metrics that are shared among your target audiences is crucial, otherwise you may get caught up in measuring undesirable interest that has no real impact on your bottom line.

• Lead-generation metrics
  

How often does content consumption result in a lead? These include downloads, forms, email and blog subscriptions, blog comments and conversion rates. Use a data analysis program (Google Analytics, Adobe Marketing Cloud) to set goals and measure how content contributes indirectly to lead-gen. For key behaviours that don’t produce revenue immediately, assign a specific dollar value.

• Sales metrics
  

Did you make any money from this content? How many leads became paying customers? How much revenue did these customers generate?

Define the frequency and points of measurement

Not all metrics and points within your content marketing campaign should be measured. Select only those that will help justify your contribution to the bottom line and assist in achieving future goals.

Keep to the numbers

Select metrics that coin-operated departments understand and respect, such as:

• Financial metrics – assigning a dollar value to each lead generated
• Time-based metrics – how long does it take to generate a new lead and convert it to a paying customer?
• Metrics that measure your success relative to the competition and your client’s strategic objectives

For further information, check out the Content Marketing Institute’s “4 Types of Content Marketing Metrics e-Book.”

Happy measuring!

“Pastagate”
As anyone familiar with Quebec knows, language is at the heart of the Quebecois identity and the “language laws” have caused many issues for business owners in the past. In that sense, the case of  “pastagate” was not actually so unique. But the international media attention it garnered was.

Massimo Lecas, co-owner of Buonanotte restaurant, received a warning from the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF) stating there is too much Italian on the menu of his Italian restaurant. Many businesses receive fines and warnings of this sort from the Quebec government; however the power of social and viral media enabled this particular story to take off, and “pastagate” was born. The issue received 60 times more coverage outside the province than a recent trip by Premier Pauline Marois aiming to drum up foreign business for Quebec, including a whopping 350 articles in 14 countries.

As a result of the media attention, a number of other restaurants went public with complaints about similar dealings with the OQLF. One complaint revealed the OQLF went as far as telling the owner to cover up the “redial” and “hold” buttons on the business’ telephone with tape.

The president of the Office québécois de la langue française, Louise Marchand, has since resigned over the controversy, leaving Quebec with an even deeper headache as they scramble to fill her position. Significantly, the OQLF have backed off Mr. Lecas and his business partner.

From a PR perspective, the fact that the restaurant is associated with a controversial socio-political issue has not in any way impacted Buonanotte negatively. In fact, coverage of the restaurant’s run-in with the OQLF triggered media and public backlash against the government, which missed a huge opportunity to reinforce their own messaging on the issue and transform the story into a positive one for itself. Given the events that have transpired since “pastagate” began, it’s possible the coverage could even prove transformative. Perhaps the Quebec government will begin to re-examine their strict language laws, and Buonanotte’s legacy will be tied to a historic shift in Quebec public policy.

PiDGiN
PiDGiN, one of the newest upscale restaurants in Vancouver’s highly-politicized Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood, has seen local residents protesting its existence since day one. The DTES is home to a large low-income and homeless community, and activists are pointing to PiDGiN as symbolic of the wave of high-end establishments moving into the area, gentrifying the neighbourhood and displacing residents.

Widespread negative coverage of this sort would normally result in business owners breaking into a cold sweat and scrambling to develop neutral key messaging in hopes of avoiding damaging media headlines—but for PiDGiN business is booming.

Through the accidental (but positive) coverage, PiDGiN has been given a voice to discuss issues it may never have had the chance to weigh in on. Co-owner Brandon Grossutti leveraged the attention to tell PiDGiN’s story, highlighting how they have not only created jobs for neighborhood residents but also the ability to share their plans to donate both food and funds to local causes.

Zeitgeist and frustration with socio-economic issues can sway media discourse in favour of any person, business or organization. This is usually completely unpredictable, and as PR professionals our job is to navigate this landscape, gauging public opinion and the mood of the media in order to present information to journalists in a positive light. In this way we help share stories and create conversation and, if all goes as planned, our strategy works and we achieve our client’s objectives. In other cases, whether intentionally or inadvertently, organizations prosper from negative media coverage. Either way, coverage is coverage, and once the story grows wings, there’s no telling where it’ll go. And that’s one of the many reasons we love PR.

Over the last decade Peak has grown into the largest Vancouver-based PR agency and we wanted to celebrate our success together with our clients and friends, without whom the last 10 years would not have been possible.

The party was held at Coast’s O-Lounge, located just around the corner from Peak’s headquarters on Robson. Nearly 80 guests—from clients to media to partner agencies and consultants—came out to toast our next 10 years with wine, beer and delectable appies.

You can check out more photos at Peak’s Facebook page. Thank you again to everyone who joined us—here’s to the next 10 years!