Extraordinary Examples of Caring

So, we don't want to toot our own horn, but...well, we will.

Recently, Hayslett Group won an Overall LACP Bronze Vision award for the first ever Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals (GACH) Annual Report, Extraordinary Examples of Caring. Of course we are honored, but what was more of an honor, was the act of creating the publication.

Involving the GACH member hospitals in the development of the publication gave us the opportunity to hear and share the heart-lifting stories from various community hospitals around Georgia. We are not saying this just because GACH is our client. The hospitals we featured in the publication truly gave their all in helping us tell their stories, and quite honestly, give their all every day in their communities.

While the client made this project fulfilling, I have to mention that I found the atmosphere at Hayslett Group surrounding the project very exciting also. While Hayslett Group has produced many wonderful publications over the years, and has won over 80 awards for their endeavors, this would be the first annual report Hayslett Group planned, wrote, art directed, designed and produced all in- house. The only outside vendor was our printer. As a team, Hayslett Group worked on the project utilizing every staff member's unique and complementary talents to produce an award-winning, and heart-rending annual report.

It's one of those things I think we could do a better job of telling our clients about....we do it all.

And we do it well.

Too often we get pigeon-holed as a PR firm, but our everyday operations, and our name "Hayslett Group, Strategic Communications," says it all. We are communicators, not just pr practitioners. We are strategists, designers, speechwriters, media reps, marketers, copywriters, producers, fighters, dreamers and believers...okay that got a little hokey, but you get the picture.

Oh yeah, we also happen to love what we do.

Do you? Tell us about it.

Atlanta Traffic

I was thinking the other day, as I sat on Roswell Road (going nowhere fast), how many times I've had to be on time for an important meeting, only to be thwarted by the uncooperative and always-present Atlanta traffic...it's hard to rememeber a time when I didn't rely on my cell phone to call a client or boss, to let them know I might be a few minutes late, thanks to an unexpected lane closure/wreck/thunderstorm on Ga. 400/I-285/I-85/I-75/I-20/elsewhere. I figured this might be a fun thread to ask BloHGers to share their stories about how they managed to make an important meeting PRIOR to the days of Cingular, Sprint PCS and Nextel...tell how your creativity came into play as you tried to get from Point A to Point B!

Meanwhile, I'll sit here and wait...much the same way I do in my car, on a daily basis.... :)

Leap of Faith

Every so often... Wonderful, successful, insightful, inspiring, progressive and innovative ideas and work get all the way through the myriad of levels of client approvals, and pleasantly astonish both a client and the client's industry peers. Examples of this kind of work? Industry professional organizations' competitions showcase extraordinary work and so do industry publications. They are great sources for inspiration and hope that the latest, greatest idea you or your team has had may in fact make it to the other side of the chasm of approvals and land on safe ground. A lot of times, it requires the "leap of faith."

Communicating in new ways, using new tools and ideas, can be overwhelming, confusing and quite honestly, scary for clients used to doing things one way. Change as we all know is not necessarily an easy or fun thing. But some companies are embracing the challenges of being progressive and are pushing forward to establish themselves as new and innovative communicators in industries that are traditionally very conservative.

For example, in the highly educated, specialized worlds of semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, customers and stakeholders were just not getting the message. The challenge? Very often to just make what so many "regular" people consider "boring and complex" stuff actually interesting, exciting and appealing. Many companies feel that they may lose the mystique of their complex industry or are lowering themselves to pander to the crowds, but quite frankly, the companies that strive to listen to, adapt for and reach out to their customers and stakeholders (on their terms) are pleasing and engaging the very people that make a company successfull.


Here are a few examples of exciting communications from conservative companies recently showcased in the magazine, STEP INSIDE DESIGN. The first being a recruiting brochure for Xoma, a biopharmaceutical company hoping to attract energetic and upbeat potential employees. Their website is beautiful also.


This next example is of the annual report for The Semiconductor Industry Association. This annual report was physically smaller than 8.5 x 11, and employed silver inks and bold type treatments...not exactly traditional or conservative...it was instead, engaging and exciting.



Finally, The Baltimore Museum of Industry's quarterly "Nuts & Bolts" newsletter was revamped to hopefully generate a buzz around a museum most Baltimore residents were unaware even existed. The result was very dramatic oversized publication.

Guerilla Communications

With all the stress that is involved in a communications professional's life and work, I on occasion seek refreshing examples of communication in action. I have always been fond of guerilla artists...Artists who take their messages to the street and share random stuff everywhere and anywhere.

For example, in our own Little Five Points here in Atlanta, and actually in other neighborhoods also, you may have noticed "Stop" signs that are stickered or written on to read "Stop berating your self" "Stop acting like your mother" etc. or perhaps you have seen the "Obey" Andre the Giant stickers & posters around...one artist started putting these up years ago, now there is worldwide involvement, a website and a successfull business based on it! Not to mention "Obey" was on the Simpsons a couple of weeks ago. Check out Obey the Giant if it intrigues you.

In any case, today I found a wonderful, happy communications effort, that cheered me up. I share with you the "You are Beautiful" campaign...which has also spread across the U.S. All done willingly and for free by random folks. All communicating effectively a lovely little thought to a whole lot of people who could use it.

Hmm...now I want to join in...

All the Glitters is not Sold

Now I love technology. It is an integral part of every single one of my days. I spend huge amounts of time struggling to keep up with new software, techniques and trends. In particular, trends that are web related.

Our firm has been very proactive about learning and finding out more about RSS, blogs, online media rooms, etc. and how they can help or hinder our clients' communications efforts. Lately though, I have been getting annoyed by all the glitter in technology. What I mean is, all the new animation, effects, super-cool sounds and fancy pants gadgets and gizmos that are soooo distracting if used in a careless manner. These things were developed to help illustrate a message...they are instead becoming the message. I see it all the time. Super cool flash intros on websites (which always have "click to skip intro" buttons on them, which everyone clicks, so I wonder why they make these, and why companies pay for them, in the first place), hi-tech presentations, e-newsletters that flash and blink and move around...I can't concentrate on what I am trying to read when all this stuff is going on around me.

If I am trying to reach my audience with a specific message for them, which is competing with about a jillion other messages to get into a modern day person's media burned out mind, why on earth would I think that adding more "Stuff" to the message will make it clearer?

Not to mention while we think everyone in the world is as up to speed with all the new technology...let's think about it, alot of folks don't even have DSL. Tons still don't have computers!

Yes technology is cool. Yes it all has its place, and when used carefully to highlight our messages, can be very effective. I rant on this over and over again...I apologize for that, but for several years now I have been constantly amazed by all the websites I see that have all the glitter and no message, or a message from 5 years ago because no one has updated it. Or you can't find what you are looking for or navigate the site because it is poorly designed....or the type is so small you have to squint! If you would like to read some website tips that do not include me ranting, check out this article that ran in our newsletter recently.

Okay I am done ranting...I guess you can tell that with me, I prefer clean, simple, user-friendly communications. If it glitters, I am not neccessarily sold.

Its the little things that count

Yesterday I was blown away by a very often recommended and more often than not unused business practice. The personal touch. The handwritten note. Just a month ago at an American Marketing Association meeting, the handwritten note's virtues were extolled. Here is a wonderful example of it in action.

I live in Atlanta and on Wednesday, bought flowers from a tiny local florist in Brooklyn Hts., Ohio for a local family, I had never used them long distance before. I grew up with the florist in the neighborhood, and I know that they in fact work out of their basement. On Thursday, I received in the mail from this tiny florist in an Ohio suburb a handwritten note thanking me for my business, my receipt, a promotional magnet and a "menu" of services. I couldn't believe it. I can't remember the last time a service or product I have spent considerably more money on than the flowers has ever done this. And it impressed me. With that kind of personal attention, it is no wonder they have been in business for over 15 years.

On occasion I would use online flower services for my various long-distance flower needs in Ohio, but no more! I will stick with the little business that showed me they cared...or at least has a really good idea about what communications can do for them!

War of Words

Slate this week weighs in on the Bush administration's attempt to change its name for the "global war on terrorism" to the "global struggle against violent extremism."

Cynicism aside -- and cynicism seems a pretty reasonable response -- the White House's choice of words also seems a little odd.

After all, "war," conducted justly, can have a noble end. It was war that liberated Europe from the Nazis. But my dictionary defines "struggle" as "strife," or "violent exertion." It's not exactly a hopeful term, is it?

Meanwhile, "extremism" seems an odd thing for GOP wordsmiths to struggle against. After all, it was Barry Goldwater, father of the modern conservative movement, who proclaimed, "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."

When your medium goes bad...naughty radio

I used to listen to this one radio station alot. But honestly it has gotten so trite, nasty and just plain repulsive in the mornings that I had stopped and switched over to more "ear-friendly" radio.

This morning I switched back and promptly heard the announcers give away the ending to the new Harry Potter Book...with glee...referring to the readers of the books as "retards." Now I don't read this series, but its success seems to be a huge positive thing for americans young and old. I am pro anything that encourages reading in our TV fried soceity. But this experience made me wonder how something like this will effect the advertisers on this station. If at all. It's not swearing or porn that was leaked, but a well-loved positive book ending. The station's audience is varied, maybe a little on the "wild" side, but still.

I find it interesting that this offended me more than some of the seriously questionable material and pranks played on the station...I guess the main question is: does anyone care anymore? Are the audiences dead to the messages behind the products? Do advertisers to a wild audience or any really, pull their endorsements anymore? Seems like sports and celebrity folks can be drug addicts and murders and still sell shoes and clothes. Politicians break laws and get re-elected. Drug companies lie and endanger patients lives, but still sell billions of dollars in hope and solace through other products. Is the day of the product/person/service with a conscience gone? Should I just sigh, shake my head and take it as the bitter truth?

Birth of a hospital

It's a very cool thing when you see your work have an impact.

Three years ago, we won an award for one of the country's 10 best publicity campaigns, for our work supporting DeKalb Medical Center's regulatory fight to build a new hospital in south DeKalb County.

This week, the hospital opened.

Congrats to our friends at DeKalb. (And we enjoyed the party.)

(Photo: Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

We interrupt this sentence...

For those of you who didn't feel quite slimy enough reading about Michael Jackson, a new innovation: in-story advertising.

The Bayou Buzz, out of Louisiana, apparently sells sponsorships by the word. For example, check this piece on Jacko and point to the underlined word "law." Voila. You can get your own law degree, presumably to help M.J. beat the rap next time.

Ewwww.

Hi there.

And welcome.

We'll resist the temptation to pontificate at length on the brave new world of blogs that we hereby stick our agency toe into today, and how it's going to change the face of communications forever, blah blah blog.

Instead, we'll just say, check this space once in a while. We're PR people, and as such, we pretty much like to talk about PR. And the media. And perceptions. And communications. And funny stuff we found someplace.

And that's what we'll do here. Join in.