In this week’s (Monday, October 11th) issue of The Hill Times, Kate Malloy interviews Terry Fallis of Thornley Fallis about his new book The High Road.

Terry’s first book, The Best Laid Plans, won the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour.

[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.

Earlier this year, Thornley Fallis & 76design worked with the Office of Consumer Affairs at Industry Canada as Secretariat for the Consumer Measures Committee to design and develop a new online presence for the Canadian Consumer Handbook.

Launched in April 2010, the handbook provides users with a searchable and easy-to-navigate platform as well as the option to build a customized handbook that only contains information they are interested in.

The Handbook is intended to help users become better-informed and more confident consumers. It offers information on a wide range of topics such as online shopping, contracts, housing and home renovations, identity theft, collection agencies, and much more, to help users build their buying skills.

Along with consumer tips, the Handbook includes a directory of government and non-government contacts useful to consumers.

The Handbook was created and is updated by the Consumer Measures Committee. This Committee is a joint federal/provincial/territorial committee which provides a forum for national cooperation to improve the marketplace for Canadian consumers, through the harmonization of laws, regulations and practices and through actions to raise public awareness.

Thornley Fallis & 76design are demo-ing a Starbucks office coffee machine in our Ottawa office. For more info, go to www.betterofficecoffee.ca.

IT GRINDS FRESH BEANS FOR EVERY CUP!!!

So far the new machine (we currently have one from another company) is getting rave reviews. Here are a few of the comments we received when we asked our team in Ottawa what they thought:

• Best thing since sliced bread.
• It is the ray of sunshine that I look forward too while on the long bus ride.
• It’s like a triple rainbow.
• I selected “Max Buzz” 12 oz feature and I just stopped vibrating. My teeth—which are still humming—feel like I’ve been chewing coffee grounds most of the morning.
• I think we could use the starbucks machine as a hiring perk. It’s that good.
• It’s uber fantastic, and you know I mean business with a word like uber!

 Looks likew we’ll be keeping it and looking at getting one for our Toronto office.

[Ford is a client of Thornley Fallis]

On Tuesday, June 29th, Sean Hallett of Erinwood Ford presented a 2011 Ford Mustang to an Erindale Secondary School graduate and award winner for outstanding leadership on Rogers First Local, Mississauga.

Check out the clip:

[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

[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.