Coffee and conversation

Last month, Environics Communications’ Health Sciences Practice and Business Wire co-hosted a media panel discussion with leading health care reporters at top-tier print and broadcast media outlets. More than 50 PR professionals gathered at the National Association for Broadcasters in Washington, D.C., for our first-ever “Coffee and Conversation: An up close and personal discussion with [...]

Read More...

Email communications – friend or foe?

Can you imagine functioning in your role as a communicator without email? Impossible. We have become fully dependent upon the tool. Sure, we may complain about the number of emails we receive, but at the same time, we can easily rhyme off the advantages of having email in our lives. For example:
Simple communication with a [...]

Read More...

Awareness wars

As communications professionals, we are well aware of Awareness Months / Weeks / Days. This rings especially true if you work in health care. Considerable planning is done around these occasions and ultimately our campaigns depend on being seen during these times. Ironically, communications professionals are constantly fighting for awareness of their awareness. So imagine [...]

Read More...

In plain English

As communicators, we’re accustomed to writing for different audiences in a variety of voices. We’re taught to write “in plain English” or, put another way, in language that an eighth grader would understand. That’s the reading level of the average American – scary, I know, but that’s fodder for another blog post.
But when it comes [...]

Read More...

Lessons learned from CES

This past Monday I boarded a plane bound for fabulous Las Vegas to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on behalf of my client, the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA). Not only was I excited to go to Vegas for work, but I was also eager to help EDTA promote its educational consumer brand – [...]

Read More...

Building strong legacy relationships

I am very proud of the numerous long-term client relationships we have at Environics Communications. Considering it has been less than 18 years since we opened our doors, we have several clients with 10-years-plus relationships. In most of these cases, one of the original Environics people who pitched and won the account is still involved [...]

Read More...

“What do *you* think?”

What do you think?
Four little words: What. Do. You. Think.
Accent on you.
While they are simple words, together they might be the most important words in any client-agency relationship. They are the first words in any collaborative discussion. When they’re unsaid, the discussion is invariably one-sided.
We’re fortunate at Environics Communications to have client relationships that are [...]

Read More...

Address needs, not noise

When my colleague Corrinne and I were asked to make a digital overview presentation at a recent financial services client planning session, I’ll freely admit that at first I was a little concerned. Why? My financial advisor would be the first to tell you that I’m no genius when it comes to investment planning, and [...]

Read More...

The top five things I learned while working in-house

It was not that long ago, while enjoying the utopia of the Corporate American middle-management lifestyle, that I was a client of four PR agencies. They all tell me now that I was a great client, and they miss working with me.
What they failed to realize – and what I am now in tune with [...]

Read More...

Power to the people

I work with a number of wonderful non-profit and association clients with strong national presence and media-trained spokespeople whom we can tap for coveted interviews. The leaders of these organizations are impressive for a number of reasons: first, they can answer challenging media questions with aplomb thanks (I’d like to believe) to our media preparation [...]

Read More...