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February 2015

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Student Steering Committee Profile: Shamique Bowes
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Meet your 2014/2015 Student Steering Committee!

Over the next few months, we will be posting profiles of CPRS Toronto’s 2014/2015 Student Steering Committee Student Representatives. Stay tuned for more!

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Shamique Bowes, Student Rep
Humber College, Bachelor of Public Relations Program

Deciding to pursue my bachelor degree in public relations has not been easy, as I once took a safe path, in pursuing my diploma in business management. Even though the transition was hard, I have no regrets in following a passion that has brought nothing but a bright future and opportunities n my life.

Where are you from?

I was born in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica and immigrated to Canada in 1992.

What are you most excited for this year?

I simply cannot wait to start participating in upcoming CPRS and CPRS student committee events, such as Passport to PR. This year I hope to sharpen and apply my skills to other organizations such as Speakers Academy; travelling amongst at-risk schools within the GTA and conducting workshops.

Have you interned anywhere?

I have not yet interned anywhere. However I have a vast array of volunteer experience. My most recent and unforgettable experience was volunteering for the NKPR IT Lounge. In the past I had the privilege of volunteering within the marketing communications Sector for the CPRS Ace Awards. Also, being a strong activist for women’s rights I volunteered for IWAA (International Women Achiever Awards), as media relations assistant.

What is your dream job?

With a variety of interests and passion for agency life, I hope to work for an esteemed agency such as NKPR. NKPR continues to be an agency that excels at its craft and delivers perfection.

As motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says, “If you can dream it then you can achieve it.” Even though in awe with this Toronto-based agency, my ultimate goal would be establish my own PR firm.

What do you do outside of school?

When not attending school, working or volunteering, I try to stay active within the theatre community. Besides attending plays, I take classes at Soul Pepper theatre and improvisation classes at the Freedom School of Arts. Being a big yoga buff, you can catch me at Goodlife Fitness attempting the downward dog.

Find Shamique on:

Twitter:@Shambowes
LinkedIn

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Visual Communications and Web 2.0
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Author: Brennan Sarich

One of the things I find most distressing as a communicator is a poorly designed website. Jumbled information, jarring colour scheme, and it looks like the brainchild of a three year old with too many fingerpaints. While it can be fun to make your website look like Geocities from the 90s, it’s a problem that has plagued us since before animated dancing babies and bleeding roses. Good communicators should pay attention to web standards, and one of the biggest developments in online visuals was the idea of Web 2.0.

 

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What is web 2.0?

The concept Web 2.0 was developed around 2000, when web technology was really taking off. Social media was starting to become integrated in both business and personal life. Mobile phones and devices were becoming ‘smart’ also affected how communicators and developers thought about the web. People started asking ‘what is a good online experience, and how can we visualize that?’

Some highlights of good Web 2.0 design:

* The website is interactive and promotes social activity

* It sports colours and fonts that promote readability and usability

* Rich experiences of the website, regardless of whether using a mobile or desktop device. (ie. The mobile version of the site is not the ‘bad’ version of the website.)

A good example of popular website that employs web 2.0 is IMDB:

 

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Trailers are large, with giant play buttons. Photos of celebrities are clear and headings are well organized. Sidebars display information relevant to users in bold text because a site about movies should be able to tell me which movies I should see. There is appropriate white space, making it easier to read text that it’s displayed on the page. And, of course, there’s a giant search bar at the top of the page, to help users find what they’re looking for.

Large websites like IMDB have spent a long time learning how to speak to their users, but that doesn’t mean that communicators can’t apply the same principles when building or redesigning a website.

Why do we want to use Web 2.0?

Coworkers and leadership may ask why you should focus on redesigning a website, especially if you have an existing website that currently is online. Here is a checklist to measure your site against:

* Does this website meet our brand standards? Does it speak to the target audience it was built for?

* Are we maximizing social media and online sharing opportunities for our brand?

* It is easy to use? Is information placed visually where users expect it to find it?

* Are there too many animations or graphical elements? Is there a way to create simpler, cleaner look? (If your site has animated pop-ups, it might be time to evaluate your priorities)

Web 2.0 is a big concept idea of how to visualize content. But the general principles of big visuals, a clean style, and a site that functions properly for your users should be your first priority as a communicator.

 

 

Brennan is currently teaching Visual Communications at Centennial College.

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ACE Award Lessons From Blair Peberdy
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This blog post was written by Charzie Abendanio, a third-year student at the Humber College bachelor of public relations program and Vice President of CPRS Toronto’s Student Steering Committee. 

 

Blair Peberdy

Blair Peberdy

As a judge for the ACE Awards and an award recipient during his time at Toronto Hydro, Blair Peberdy has a lot of valuable insight to applicants in this year’s 2015 ACE Award submissions. In the six times Blair has judged for ACE, he has seen the best that Toronto has to offer. Now with Weber Shandwick, Peberdy took time to shed some light on what judges will be looking for this year.

 

“The ACE Awards are a chance for organizations and companies to gauge how well they are doing compared to their peers,” said Blair. “Even if you don’t win, you gain creative inspiration from all the first-class submissions and winners.”

 

For Blair, the quality of submissions has continued to improve over the years. With new mediums changing how public relations professionals deliver their message, the award show is seeing more “cool and creative campaigns”. While judging, Blair enjoyed campaigns that involved classic corporate communication theory and practice. He recalls last year’s best PR campaign winner, Edelman Toronto, who stole the show with their integrated community relations campaign for client Ontario Graphite.


 

“A campaign like this one drew upon grassroots community around stakeholder issues and issues management,” said Blair, “and their use of new resources led to new and exciting marketing communication.”

 

Blair extolled the critical importance of clearly defined, measureable goals. When arranged logically and the thoughtfully aligned, the more successful the campaign will be. “Tie your measurements to your original objectives while explicitly identifying the measurements that determine the campaign’s success.”

 

A campaign must have all the major components: goals, objectives, strategies, tactics and measurements. “This disciplined PR management approach follows the criteria provided by the ACE Awards,” said Blair. “It goes a long way when a coherent entry allows judges to grasp the full breadth of a campaign.”

 

At the end of our time together, Blair was asked what exactly makes a great submission.

 

“Creativity is important but a great submission should also be organized around entry criteria, error-free, use good graphics, be professionally presented and must be easily navigated by the judges.” A campaign doesn’t necessarily need a large budget but combining the basics, as well as a creative aspect and being well-organized allows the judges to see the big picture.

 

“The ACE Awards showcases top talent in Canada,” said Blair. “It gives our industry the chance to learn from one another and recognize great work. We need to step back, congratulate each other and celebrate our accomplishments together.”

 

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