Welcome to Winnipeg Target and Bullseye!

Targets mission statement is “to deliver outstanding value, continuous innovation, and an exceptional shopping experience and to make Target our preferred shopping destination.”

How are they going to make Winnipeggers feel that they are going to have this?  By promoting it! 

Target is a one stop shop that allows you to pick up all of your household needs and more. 

 Target needs to get out the word and to do this successfully they will have to have many events to promote it as they have many target audiences; from families all the way to seniors. 

One of the major events that I would do would be a family fun day which will have activities that the whole family can do.  Bring in Bullseye (the mascot) for everyone to meet have face painting, cotton candy, and games and rides for the children to do.  I would also have the Target race car there with Juan Pablo Montoya (the driver of the race car) signing autographs and promoting Target.  This will bring in people from the community and will allow them to see that Target wants to be known for being part of the community.

Another event would be a gala where people attending would have to buy tickets, all the money for these tickets would be donated to a charity that Target invests in.  This event would have a red carpet and would also have Bullseye.  It would have a fashion show, music and dancing and an auction with prizes from the store.  This would allow some of the people in the fashion industry what Target has to offer as well as other people that have different interests other then the family.

I would also have Bullseye doing some major events around the time that it was opening as this would also be another great time for Target to get its name out.  Bullseye has some pictures that I have noticed that he is wearing a racing suit so I would contact Red River Coop Speedway and see if I would be able to get Bullseye to come to one of their events where you could meet him have gift certificates to win and watch racing I would also get Juan Pablo Montoya to come out with his race car and have him signing autographs.  This will also promote Winnipeg’s race track which is part of the community.

There is so much that Target can do to promote itself and I cannot wait to see what they do as the possibilities are endless!

NHL and players association get back to bargaining table

http://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/nhl-and-players-association-get-back-to-bargaining-table-1.1023186#commentsForm-340560

With us hearing the same news over and over again does it make us feel better or worse?  Do we want to be educated and see the behind the scenes of who is really being greedy and who really wants to play hockey? 

We are being educated and as the public we need to look at the big picture.  Just getting the Jets back to Winnipeg was so exciting and energizing, but with everything going on, how much money has been lost, not only to the Jets but to the establishments that were built around our new arena, an arena that was sold out. 

It’s time to get back to the table and look at the big picture rebuilding.  We all know that they want more money but cities are suffering and fans are being lost, it’s going to cost a lot more money to repair the damage that they have caused.  

Ben and Jerry's Schweddy Balls wasn't funny at all!

Ben and Jerry’s thought that doing an ice cream after a Saturday Night Live skit wasn’t going to cause any type of hype they were wrong.   Why is the name Schweddy balls causing so much media attention  and leaving such a bad taste in the “American Family Association Group” mouth? 

When Ben and Jerry launched this ice cream I am sure that they were thinking that it was going to be funny and everyone would associate it to Saturday Night Live, there was a cow on the container with a  Saturday Night Live t-shirt on it.  The spokesman Sean Greenwood said:  "We've always been a company that has had a sense of humor," he said. Sometimes, he said, they spend time discussing serious business and other times "we just do fun."

Ben and Jerry’s have released other ice cream names in the past that have been questionable think hubby hubby (a reference to gay marriages), Karmel Sutra and Black and Tan (a reference to the infamous police force that burned down chunks of Ireland in the 1920’s). 

Although they had fun coming up with the name who wanted to eat the ice cream that tastes like Schweddy Balls?  Sure its ice cream with rum and malt balls what could be wrong with that?  But think about it nobody wants to eat ice cream after thinking about Schweddy Balls.

We will never know if they did RACE (Research/Assessment/Communication/Evaluation), but if they would have looked more into Schweddy Balls they could have saved themselves some time, money and effort.  This is why it is important to do the “back work” in Public Relations so this can be avoided or you can be prepared if you are going to have a backlash like this.

Although this caused Ben and Jerry’s to discontinue Schweddy Balls, or as they call it put it into the “graveyard” it didn’t destroy them all together, they still have a great reputation as they are such a huge corporation, but if they were smaller they could have had some major damage and this could have cost them a lot of time, money and effort to rebuild their company.

So next time you are thinking of doing something new without doing the “back work” think Schweddy Balls!    

Research-The Road map

                   Research is the road map to developing an effective public relations campaign.
Research allows the public relations professional to gain a prospective into the company by educating the stakeholders by identifying potential problems, needs or opportunities before implementing the campaign. Doing the research allows the public relations professional to save time and use the funds that were allocated to them in a productive way, this also allows stakeholders to see where and how there funds are being spent. An example of this would be how much is spent on advertising for the launch of a new store.
Through research you define your publics by polling, interviewing, and focus groups.  This allows the stakeholders to define objectives such as determining if their company is in the right location and if they are targeting the right publics.  They can set up goals and with the help of the public relations professional can provide direction to become successful.
With providing research this will ensure that planning the campaign will run smoothly as the public relations professional and the stakeholders will have a clear road map to follow.

Introducing Jason Permanand

I would like to introduce you to Jason Permanand, he works at the Canadian Cancer Society as a Communications Manager.  He graduated from Red River Community College and has always been involved with Public Relations and Communications.

I interviewed Jason as I was interested in knowing what he did, as it has always been my dream to work at the Canadian Cancer Society doing Public Relations work.  I was honored when I called him and he agreed to do a face to face interview with me for my PR class.

Some of the things that Jason and I discussed:

What's a typical work week like?
There is no typical work week and its a career that you will never get bored at.  He goes from one day working on a fundraising event to the next where he is in a press conference talking about Cancer Research.

Tell me about a project you worked on that you are especially proud of.
The daffodil campaign, where you wear a daffodil pin, it is the second year that it has been happening and it has raised awareness up a lot especially in Manitoba.

What do you do to keep current in the PR industry?
 Reading a lot of online blogs, facebook, twitter, and professional development.

What do you wish you would have known before starting your career in PR?
To never underestimate the amount of work.   This includes work in communication, marketing and advertising.

How important is writing in your career?
It is huge!  It is also the first thing that he describes when he tells you the things that he does.
If you've ever worked for an agency, how is agency life different from corporate PR life?
He has never worked for an agency, but when you do, you go from one project to another instead of working with the organization as a whole.

What three tips would you offer someone just starting out in PR?
Network as much as you can!
When doing work experience do it in two different areas so you can see what else goes on.
Writing and editing are extremely important.  Make sure you get an outside department to look at your documents, you can never edit too much.
Forge new relationships with media, make sure you are proactive.

What has surprised you the most about working in PR?
The workload is massive.  He did expect a huge workload but in PR you are always working, checking your emails, you always have to stay on top of what is new.

When your company is hiring for an entry-level PR position, what makes a candidate stand out?
It all comes down to passion to work at an organization and not afraid to get your hands wet.

After interviewing Jason for this assignment I am more likely to want a career in PR.  I know that it will be hard work and long hours but I do know that in the long run it will be worth it.  I look forward to never doing the same thing everyday and find that it will be a fun and exciting challenge.

For more information on the Canadian Cancer Society please visit www.cancer.ca

The Excitement On Giroux Street!

This is what my neighborhood was faced with on Monday night as I am one of the many people who live on Giroux Street.
I was in my PR class at the U of W when these pictures and buzzing of my cell phone kept going off from my husband Chris and my neighbor and friend, Nikkole.
There is a big fire with explosions and they are talking about evacuating the area.
My husband said that race gas has something to do with it (I know that race gas is highly explosive and flammable).

Then the text came in from my husband that we are getting evacuated and he wanted to know what I wanted.  That's when I said that I was coming home and I would help him, not thinking that it would probably be all blocked off....to be honest I think I was in a state of shock and I just wanted to get home to make sure everything was safe.
I didn't get a chance to get home as it was all blocked off, so off to my sisters house to figure out what we were going to do.  We waited and waited and finally at 10:30 we decided that we were going to go and take a drive and see if any of the police officers knew anything about getting back into our home or if we were going to stay at a hotel.
Once we got to the Curling Club we knew it didn't look good as the flames were still pretty high.  Once talking to the police officer there he said that the likely hood of us getting back into our house was not going to happen, so off to the Windsor Park Inn for the night!
In the morning I turned on my cell to see if we could go home and on CJOB it was posted that we could.
Since I am in PR I wanted to know what kind of stories I was going to see.  To be honest I was looking for one major thing and I have to admit I was pretty disappointed.
The news that I did see I was extremely happy with but one major thing that I didn't see was any type of statement from the owner of Speedway International, Royce Rostecki. Here myself and my neighbors were evacuated and not one statement from him in regards to making sure we were safe or anything.  I got to admit this makes him look bad.....is he hiding something?  Was the race fuel not stored safely?  I now have all of these speculations...I would have expected that someone in his position would have expressed his concern for his community.

http://www.etonline.com/fashion/123724_Hit_or_Miss/index.html?page=37

The Many "Hats" of Public Relations- From Counseling to Marketing Communication

I thought Public Relations was just media awareness, public events, press releases and dealing with the public.  It is so much more than that,  just one of the many "hats" that PR wears.  I now need to look at PR from a different prospective......it is one of the hardest things to define......why?!?  Because it has so many roles and responsibilities it’s not marketing, journalism or advertising, its different but yet similar to them in so many ways....so what is it?  It is counseling management on policies, financial relations, marketing communications, media relations, public affairs and issue management, this is just a few of the many "hats" that PR has.  

This is still not a clear definition of PR it’s more of what some of the PR roles can be.  After the first class I am now looking at PR as a relationship.  A positive relationship between the public and an organization.  This to me is the best way to describe it in my own words and yet it is more.

This has really surprised me......My thoughts of event planning (which I want to do) is just one of the "hats" of many and yet such a small one.  I never thought of all the behind the scenes or how much work that PR does.  How will I get my name out there?  How do I get started?  How does this not scare me?  Well it does, but not in a bad way in a good way, it really makes me excited to get started in this new chapter in my life and open up new doors.  

What has peaked my interest most is how important PR is and how it has so many "hats".  It has now made me think outside of the box that I thought that PR was. I am really looking forward to learning more about how all of this is tied together and how it is all going to help me get started in PR.  I want to know the outcomes of media awareness and the importance of it and how to get everything all organized.

With all of the questions that I have about PR and where this is going to take me I wonder with so many options to choose from which one am I going to take that will allow me to become successful. With PR I can't ever imagine becoming bored as there are so many different "hats” that there are out there to choose.

I am looking forward to the PR journey that I am about to take!

Blog Post name......Why was it so hard to choose?!?

So...yes I think that I finally picked a new blog address as well as a new blog post name......I know what was with all of the changes?!?
I didn't think that It was going to be so hard to pick a name!  I thought how hard could this be.....but then Samantha's words kept on replaying in my head...."be creative, have fun with this, this is something that a lot of people are going to see".  That got me thinking and scared all at the same time.....I didn't want a blog that no one was going to look at and I didn't want a blog that people were going to click on and say this isn't what I was expecting so I looked on the internet and did a lot of research on what public relations was and is today and thought it has so many terms and meanings and then it finally hit me, I cant take all of the credit though, my husband helped me too, but we finally came up with a name....one that I think fits perfect with PR and one that I am finally happy with......at least for now!!!