[Ford and Shepherds of Good Hope are both clients]

As we get closer to Thanksgiving we often remind ourselves of reasons to be thankful. Here at Thornley Fallis we recalled how, this past summer, The Shepherds of Good Hope declared their cupboards bare.

TFC’s LeeEllen Carroll with the Ford Transit Connect – a home office on the road.

We came up with the idea of “Ford Connects with the Community” – a new community fundraising event organized in hopes of making Thanksgiving a thankful time for everyone in the nation’s capital. Ottawa area Ford dealers are filling their Transit Connect mobile units, when packed to the roof, will provide enough food to fill tables with hundreds of meals in the coming weeks.

While the dealers have invited their staff, customers, communities and friends to contribute, we’ve invited the Parliamentary Press Gallery, local areas MPs and MPPs, as well as municipal politicians and candidates to make a difference.

We’ll be driving the Transit Connect to collect the food at the end of this week. We hope you can join us in celebrating the community connecting to help those in need.

LeeEllen loading food donations into the Transit Connect.

At the conclusion of the Ford Food Drive, Ottawa’s AChannel had a chat with Rob Eady from the Shepherds of Good Hope, Phil Torrinha from Donnelly Ford and a group of Ottawa Sting minor hockey players who wanted to apply their teamwork to their community.

[Ford is a client.]

Here’s an easy and efficient way to take one’s home office on the road. Literally.

Ford’s Transit Connect was developed to be a smart new choice for small business owners. The Ford Work Solutions in-dash computer is capable of linking into a business’s main office computer network or a home computer via the cellular broadband connection.  When I gave it a spin I found the word processing and on-board inkjet printer handy for my own work. It also has a handy “Tool Link” where the RFI will scan the vehicle to ensure all inventory is onboard. This has potential to ensure all hockey and sports equipment makes it back safely as well!

The navigation system contains features including listings for local stations and coffee stops, which both came in handy during my test drive.

CTV’s Paul Brent also got behind the wheel and spoke with an Ottawa-based business about why it’s their choice of business vehicle.

[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.

While we can’t be accused of opening a hardware store, our front lobby has started to accumulate a nifty little collection of awards. Last week we were honoured at the inaugural CPRS Awards Gala when we won the PuRe Elements Awards of Excellence for Innovation in Communications (Water category). VPs Aimee Deziel and LeeEllen Carroll accepted the award on behalf of Thornley Fallis and 76design. They were part of a great team that ran the SHARP 1080pD82 challenge and helped Sharp succeed in getting Canadians to identify the Aquos television as the leader in high definition televisions. To take the TV from trade publications and into family living rooms, the team conceived and ran an integrated campaign which engaged first time bloggers in social media while reducing their carbon footprint.

Emcee Stephen Heckbert entertained the audience with his “Top Communications Moments of 2008″ presentation and he announced the winners of each category when he opened the sealed envelopes. “This was a creative ad compelling program with a great use of new technologies and an innovative way to involve your audience,” Heckbert quoted a judge as saying.

Canwest’s David Akin was the keynote speaker of the night. He regaled the audience with his behind-the-scenes take on CIBC faxing private banking information to a junk lot in West Virginia. It was a story he uncovered while working at CTV News. Listening to his storytelling was like imagining a kimono being unwrapped. Except this story involved the nation’s most trusted anchor.

Three other awards were presented. The Earth Award for Internal Communications went to the Queensway Carleton Hospital, the Air Award for External Communications was awarded to the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists, and the Fire Award for Communicator of the Year was bestowed on Robyn Osgood of Blueprint PR.

CPRS pulled off this inaugural event by pulling together a solid group of volunteers, led by CPRS Ottawa-Gatineau President-Elect Laurie Murphy, LeeEllen Carroll (Thornley Fallis), Leisha MacDonald (76design), Katie Boland (Algonquin student), Adam Weitner (Service Master), and Calline Au (Queensway Carleton Hospital).

“We have very talented public relations practitioners in this area who uphold the values of the profession and of our society through their excellent work,” said CPRS Ottawa-Gatineau Chapter President Danielle Côté. “It’s important for us to recognize their work and their contribution to the field of public relations. Awards like these allow us to celebrate this excellence and share it with other who can learn from their work,” she added.

Like all of my colleagues, I am revved up about the SHARP 1080pD82 Challenge. It’s a program we’ve launched for SHARP Electronics of Canada. Thousands have signed on in the hopes of winning a great tv by improving the environment.

This Aquos tv is manufactured in one of the world’s most sustainable plants. We’re sending a group of journalists over  to Japan this week to tour  the facility and take the opportunity to interview a number of SHARP Executives. The offer to travel on this trip came up, and like a fat kid on a smartie, I was all over it.

And greenhouse gases are all over it too. A round trip from Ottawa to Osaka produces over five tons of carbon emissions. Our team decided to purchase carbon offsets. It’s a simple step. By doing so, we’re investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Though using and producing on one hand, we’re trying to reduce at the same time.

What a joy it was to be appreciated on a recent business trip to Toronto.

Instead of flying into Pearson, I opted to take Porter Air to the Toronto City Island Airport. From the moment I checked in at the counter in Ottawa, and through each encounter with a Porter Air employee, I was greeted with a smile along with a please and thank you. What a difference an airline makes!

The last time I traveled Ottawa to Toronto return on the other carrier, there was not one employee smile. And there wasn’t anything else either, full stop. Over the PA system came an announcement there would be no inflight service due to the short route. Over at Porter, everyone’s served a snack and the beverage cart rolls by at least once during the 45 minute flight.

I will definitely be a return customer. Now - if only they could offer Porter Points.

A well timed knock on my front door gave me a polite and truthful reason to say goodbye to the telemarketer who was interrupting my enjoyment of a Senators playoff game. But I hesitated. What if that knock was someone was trying to sell me yet something else? Perhaps I should have turned off the lights to give the illusion I wasn’t at home. Or run the shower, and wash my suspicions away. 

My hunches were right. It was someone peddling something else. I felt it my civic duty to answer the door though. But the id bearing university student wasn’t actually selling anything, except ideas. His first bright one- handing over a few free compact fluorescent bulbs (CFBs) from Project Porchlight.  By changing one regular light bulb per household for a compact fluorescent one, the average Ottawa resident will save $50 in energy costs on their hydro bill over the lifetime of the bulb. 200,000 bulbs replaced citywide will result in 100,000 fewer tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted. And replacing just one old fashioned lightbulb with one new cfb in every household across Canada is the equivalent of taking 66,000 cars of the road. Now, that’s change within reach!  And just like Saint Nick pulling presents from his sack, this canvasser surrendered even more goodies from his EnviroCentre backpack. It’s an effort to help citizens use less energy and decrease their water usage. In other words, reduce our carbon footprints. Even Queen Betty’s getting involved. 

The EnviroCentre off loaded two 2 low flow showers heads, a kitchen faucet aerator, two bathroom faucet  aerators and foam tubing for my hot water pipes. By lessening the load in his backpack, he helped me lessen my carbon emissions.