In a move reflecting the agency’s growth and commitment to client service and the seamless integration of off-line and on-line communications, Thornley Fallis Communications has added senior consumer marketing communications talent to its leadership team.

Jo Langham, ABC has more than 20 years of marketing communications experience spanning the agency, consulting and corporate environments and joins Thornley Fallis as Senior Vice-President & General Manager, Toronto.   With an award-winning reputation for planning and leading innovative, high-impact strategic communications campaigns, Jo will share responsibility for the overall performance and strategic direction of the agency, provide senior client counsel and manage professional development for Toronto staff.

“Thornley Fallis & 76design has established an excellent reputation built on our commitment to provide smart thinking, deliver creative solutions, achieve spectacular results, and exceed our
clients’ expectations. The company has the ability to do this because we have assembled an exceptional team of senior counsellors, strategists, project leaders, designers and developers with a wealth of communications expertise and experience,” said Joseph Thornley, Chairman & CEO of Thornley Fallis Communications Inc.   “In hiring Jo we reiterate our commitment to providing truly integrated communications solutions to our clients.”

Prior to joining Thornley Fallis Jo spent the last four years with a leading independent communications company where she managed the consumer marketing practice and was a member of the senior leadership team. She has experience in a broad range of industries including food & beverage, health & wellness, financial, leisure, beauty and energy and has worked with a variety of internationally recognized brands including Coca-Cola, CIBC VISA, Kellogg Canada, International Schizophrenia Foundation, Toronto Hydro and Unilever.

Jo is an accredited member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), serves on the Accreditation Council of the IABC and is Secretary to the Board of Central Eglinton Children’s Centre.

Thornley Fallis is an innovative, full-service public relations, communications and marketing agency that helps organizations reach, connect with, and build and sustain positive relationships with their communities through the integrated use of on-line and off-line communications tactics.

76design is a creative services and web development agency that conceptualizes, designs and develops brands, identities, print materials, website applications, videos, widgets and tools that enable organizations to reach, connect with and create value for their communities.

[Ford is a client of Thornley Fallis]

On Friday, June 18^th, Doug Heeney of Campbell Ford demonstrated SYNC on A-Channel with Kurt Stoodley.

Check out the clip:

A-Channel – SYNC – Campbell Ford – June 19, 2010

Thornley Fallis’ client Enstream, makers of mobile payment product Zoompass, is hiring.

Check out the job postings:

Marketing Manager

Public Relations Manager

In the past few months, Thornley Fallis has added a few new members to our team in Ottawa: Pierre Killeen, Vice-President, Public Engagement; Carrie Croft, Consultant; and Samantha Hartley, Account Coordinator.

Pierre Killeen, LL.B, LL.L. – Vice-President, Public Engagement
Pierre is a leader and innovator in the field of online public engagement. Trained as a lawyer and fluently bilingual, Pierre has more than ten years of business experience with online communities, public consultations and crowd-sourcing. Since 2006, he has been conducting large-scale online public consultations for cities, public agencies and government departments across Canada. Pierre joins Thornley Fallis from Nanos Research, where he co-created and then led the development, sales and marketing of Nanos’ online consultation service to a range of clients, including the City of Ottawa, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, Industry Canada, the City of Edmonton and Waterfront Toronto.  Prior to his time at Nanos, Pierre served as the Vice-President of Business Development at Jobshark.com (now jobserve.com). From 2000 to 2004, he helped ePALS Classroom Exchange (epals.com) become the world’s largest K-12 online education community. Before that he was the Government Relations Officer for the Association of Canadian Community Colleges.

Carrie Croft, Consultant
Carrie is an experienced communications, media relations and event management professional. She joins Thornley Fallis following her role as Supervisor of Operations Communications for the Vancouver Organizing Committee at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Carrie’s other professional experience includes Regional Event Director for the Mitsubishi City Chase and Campus Chase, Press Manager for the FIL Veissmann Luge World Cup, Media Services Manager for the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships, and Consultant with Interplay Creative Media.  Carrie volunteers her time for numerous organizations and charity events, including the 2011 Canada Games, The Hill Fights Hunger, Capital Fashion Week, the Ontario Summer Games, the FIFA U20 World Cup, and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Ottawa Chapter, where she has been instrumental in the organization and execution of the annual awards gala. She was a 2009 YMCA Women of Distinction nominee.

Samantha Hartley, Account Coordinator
Samantha joins us from the Public Relations program at Algonquin College. She did her co-op placement with us this winter and now we have hired her on full-time. A social media enthusiast, Sam maintains a personal blog. She also enjoys writing about communication practices, social media, health and lifestyle, and has had articles appear in several local print publications and online news sources.

[Ford is a client of Thornley Fallis]

On Saturday May 29th, Dupuis Ford Lincoln’s Mutang Poker Run raised $101,666 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Check out this previous Capital PR post about the event.

On Saturday, June 5^th, Michel Dupuis along with other organizers of the Mustang Poker Run appeared on A-Channel to discuss their great fundraising success.

Check out the clip:
A-Channel Weekend – Dupuis Ford Mustang Poker Run

In order to reinvigorate and revitalize downtown Ottawa businesses hit hard by the recession and the bus strike, Thornley Fallis and 76design  conceived, developed and executed the Picture it Downtown campaign for The City of Ottawa, where residents were encouraged to go downtown, snap a photo and share it online.

Point, shoot, share – a simple concept to get Ottawa excited about all it has to offer. The “Picture It Downtown” concept we developed served to visually promote downtown Ottawa as a whole, but also the eight specific areas being promoted:  Byward Market, Downtown Rideau, Sparks Street, Bank Street, The Glebe, Chinatown, Preston Street (Little Italy) and Wellington-West Village.

Residents could participate in the campaign contest to win daily ($50), weekly ($250) and grand ($500 to $1200) prizes by taking pictures of downtown activities and uploading them to the campaign website.

The campaign included a media launch event involving the Mayor, a website with a list of downtown activites, a description, videos and photos of each area, contest rules and regulations, a photo gallery for people to submit and view photos, and YouTube videos, featuring all that’s cool in several neighbourhoods, print, radio, online and transit advertising, weekly news releases and ongoing online outreach using other social media tools including Twitter and Flickr.

Thousands of people participated and competed for prizing provided by local businesses.

The campaign was to remind Ottawans of all the diverse experiences and excitement downtown Ottawa has to offer, and entice them to visit downtown — ultimately spending money while engaging in the various activities highlighted in the eight main areas being promoted.

For the City of Ottawa, running a marketing campaign with a heavy online and interactive component was not only a smart business and communications decision, but its creativity generated a lot of buzz within Ottawa and got people sharing ideas and photos of great things to do and see in the city.

The fall 2009 campaign resulted in over ten thousand unique visits to the campaign website, more than 1300 entries (photos uploaded to the website), significant earned media in targeted outlets, photo and video assets for future use by the City, and a general buzz across the City about the creativity of the campaign, particularly by government.

Picture it downtown would not have been possible without our lead technologist Brett Tackaberry, senior web developer Steve Lounsbury, our superb designer Steve St. Pierre, the ad campaign led by Laura Mindorff, the videos by Ryan Knuth, writer and producer LeeEllen Carroll and our SEO expert Shaun Scanlon. Special thanks to our GM Keelan Green, who has a knack for assembling the best teams to deliver outstanding results.

Thank you IABC for the recognition. It’s nice to bask in the spotlight… and great to share successes. As I used to say in my former journalistic career, you’re only as good as your last story. So that means back to work. Right now.

In an attempt to reduce the cost of its annual report, The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) engaged 76design and Thornley Fallis for our unique concept of a paperless report. Highlighting achievements and documenting successes,  World Class Care (TOH’s 2008-2009 Annual Report) contains a special feature allowing readers to create their own versions of the report including only the sections and stories appealing to them.

For some, those stories include the 6808 hospital births, the woman who was paying it forward by donating her kidney to a stranger because her own husband was receiving one from an anonymous donor in Ottawa – who had selflessly stepped forward to transplant hope, or the CF soldier, blown to bits in Afghanistan after coming into contact with a land mine. He died. Twice. The second time he was resuscitated during his evacuation flight. He arrived at TOH doped up on morphine. Months of therapy and compassionate care in the Rehabilitation Centre got him back on his feet- running in fact – he recently took part in The Olympic Torch Relay Race, with a new ‘bionic’ leg.

Allow me to cast the awards spotlight on other members of our talented team, who took those stories and turned them into an attention grabbing report: writer Bradley Moseley-Williams, who’s never met an adjective he can’t love, web developers and code masters- Brett Tackaberry and Steve Lounsbury, Mr. Shaun Search Engine Optimization Scanlon, ‘video is the new media’ Ryan Knuth, Resource and Account Manager Laura Mindorff, video killed the radio star LeeEllen Carroll, and top 40 under 50 SVP and GM Keelan Green.

A very special thanks to TOH’s CEO Jack Kitts and VP Nic Ruszkowski for renewing their investment in TF and 76 by inviting us back to partner on their next online annual report.

Here’s to more success stories for The Ottawa Hospital, Thornley Fallis and 76design, our peers at IABC and everyone in our communications community.

[Ford is a client of Thornley Fallis.]

On Saturday May 29, nearly 200 Ford Mustang drivers came out for Dupuis Ford Lincoln’s Mustang Poker Run and helped raise $101,666 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. The grand total was double what they expected and surpassed last year’s record donation. The tears of joy I witnessed at this event gave me enough goose bumps to lift the hair off my skin.

Breast cancer research ranks amongst the top causes Ottawans support and will do anything for – including running a marathon to raise money and awareness for what matters most: the women they love.

Six years ago, Dupuis Ford Lincoln in Casselman decided to take their fundraising initiative for CIBC’s Run for the Cure to a whole new level. For decades, marathon and Race Weekend participants have ran, biked, or rollerbladed across the Eastern Ontario region. A dealership stocked with horsepower and  transmissions, Dupuis Ford Lincoln has a need for speed and a commitment to one of the longest community support initiatives in the Ottawa  area. It was their passion and support from the community that helped create their unique and innovative fundraising event, the Mustang Poker Run.

The 6th edition Mustang Poker Run covered the Eastern Ontario region for a distance of nearly 230 km. Participants stopped at five stations and collected playing cards in attempt to win the grand prize with the best poker hand. Entertainment for the whole family included, “Show & Shine,” “Ford talk,” contests, games, a used books sale, and live performances from local band Hometown.

The fun-filled day was complete with caring families and their beautiful Mustangs, sports car drivers sporting shirts saying “Je t’aime ma femme” or “Je t’aime ma maman,” and stories of survival, honour and praise.

Time spent at the Mustang Poker Run proves there’s more to the pink ribbon campaign than just tying up laces or revving up engines:  there are real people, true stories, and thousands of battles worth fighting.

R to L: Nicole Bourgeois (Cancer survivor and pace car driver), Marie-Claire Ivanski (Organizer), Martin (Son of Nicole), Sylvie (Daughter of Nicole)

L to R: Nicole Bourgeois (Honourary guest), Marie-Claire Ivanski (Organizer), Carole Séguin-Millaire (Organizer)

Michel Dupuis (Owner of Dupuis Ford-bottom right) and Mustang Poker Run team

Mustang Poker Run participants

"Show and Shine"

[Ford is a client of Thornley Fallis]

On Wednesday, May 26^th, Kirk Joseph of Donnelly Ford demonstrated Ford’s Active Park Assist Technology on CTV Ottawa with reporter Paul Brent.

Check out the clip:
CTV Ottawa – Ford Active Park Assist