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Phil Soper of Royal LePage Real Estate Received the 2014 CEO Award of Excellence in Public Relations

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Phil Soper, President and CEO, Royal LePage Real Estate Services, with his family at the Toronto CEO Award of Excellence in Public Relations on Wednesday, January 28, 2015. The Canadian Press Images PHOTO/CPRS Toronto

Phil Soper, President and CEO, Royal LePage Real Estate Services, with his family at the Toronto CEO Award of Excellence in Public Relations on Wednesday, January 28, 2015. The Canadian Press Images PHOTO/CPRS Toronto

The 22nd CPRS Toronto CEO Award of Excellence in Public Relations luncheon was a wonderful success! Fellow practitioners gathered together to celebrate the public relations industry, strengthen professional and personal relationships, and to reinvigorate passion for effective communications.

The honouree, Phil Soper, presented an excellent speech, which highlighted his natural communication skills and thanked everyone who has helped him achieve the CEO Award of Excellence in Public Relations. He thanked his family first and foremost for being a supportive presence throughout his road to success. He also informed the audience of his family history, which has played a significant role in his goal setting and achievements.

Phil said, “writing skills are an integral part of CEO excellence,” and his family has a history of great writing.
It could be said that Phil was destined to be a great leader. With the help of Kaiser-Lachance Communications Inc., he has used effective communications to lead a business strategy and achieve business success.

Included in his speech was a summary of some fundamental public relations principles. It was encouraging to hear the President and Chief Executive Officer of Royal LePage spell out the importance of public relations to achieve effective communications. Kaiser-Lachance Communications has helped Royal LePage with strategic positioning, thought leadership, media relations, and much more. Public relations is a game changer for business strategies when it is applied effectively.

The CPRS Toronto CEO Award luncheon is a tradition that not only recognizes the honoured CEO, but also provides an opportunity to celebrate the work public relations professionals do and the counsel they provide to leaders of all types of organizations. A strong partnership with public relations professionals makes communications a strong foundation for business strategies.

Congratulations again to Phil Soper, President and CEO of Royal LePage, for being the 2014 winner of the CEO Award of Excellence in Public Relations.

Focus on Royal LePage president and CEO Phil Soper: An Effective Leader with Words and Actions

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CEO award of excellence in public relations_edited-1The old adage, “actions speak louder than words” may be true in certain circumstances, but words are required in today’s society to create connection and understanding. The spoken word can be used to lead and influence action.

Communication through active listening, authenticity, humble confidence and connection is one of the most effective leadership tools. Without a clear message, even the best cause or idea would go unnoticed, or worse; obtain a negative or incorrect connotation.

As we near the luncheon to honour this year’s recipient of the CPRS Toronto CEO of the Year Award in Public Relations, it is interesting to see how effective communications has helped create positive results throughout history.

Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafazi, Eric “Astro” Teller, and Jack Welch. These names represent people who have caused incredible positive changes throughout the world. Change is a process that can be long and arduous; it takes consistency, passion and effective communication. We must never underestimate the importance of effective communication; it is the common platform where influence, inspiration and unity are built.

Nelson Mandela is known as one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen. He is famous for promoting a message of forgiveness and equality. Mandela actively listened to what was going on around him, which led to his passionate fight against apartheid. Although he was sentenced to life in prison, Mandela continued to put respect and forgiveness above all else. He insisted on having a respectful relationship with prison guards and other prisoners. This practice gave him influence to have them understand his perspective. Ending apartheid was a long and difficult battle, but Mandela never strayed from his key message. He was authentic and humbly confident in his message of forgiveness and equality; his actions spoke as loud as his words.

Malala Yousafazi is a modern symbol of influence. She survived a Taliban assassination attempt, which only fuelled her passion for female education activism. Malala actively speaks out with great energy, authenticity and confidence. Malala has a clear point of view for the cause of freedom and education for all; she is inspirational, focused and articulate. Malala is the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner. At the ceremony, her speech included her powerful statement, “I tell my story, not because it is unique, but because it is not.” Malala is an active listener and builds connection with her audience whether they are survivors in the same fight or not. Building connection is an integral part of effective communication because it helps to create awareness, understanding and further action.

Eric “Astro” Teller is Google’s “Chief of Moonshots” in their Google X division. The Google X division is a team of people who take on the impossible (i.e. moon shots). The inspirational quote, “shoot for the moon because even if you miss you’ll land among the stars” sums up the work performed at Google X. However, when you’re striving to reach the impossible, it can be difficult to stay motivated. Even if you land among the stars from time to time, constantly failing a moon shot will take a toll on motivation. This is where Astro shines as an effective communicator, both internally and externally. As a scientist and entrepreneur, Astro understands the technical aspects of his job, but also has the ability to engage with the general public and be easy to understand. He is able to communicate by telling stories and really connecting with his audience. Astro is authentic as a scientist who believes in his work, and is humbly confident in every shot he takes at the moon.

Jack Welch is known for his track record of success and the way he transformed General Electric (GE) from a $13 billion company into a $525 billion giant. When working to create change in a business or in other areas of life, effective communication is needed to develop understanding and acceptance. Change is a process and it requires everyone involved to believe the change is necessary or relevant. Welch developed new procedures for GE, but he would have experienced resistance before their implementation. Through active listening, Welch understood areas of GE that were under-performing. This process built trust in his humble confidence and enabled GE employees to see Welch as an ally and not someone to resist. Through effective communication, Welch was able to provide an understanding of the direction GE needed to go and acceptance of the new procedures. Without employees to champion and use new procedures or ideas, GE would not have been able to grow.

Communication through active listening, authenticity, humble confidence and connection is one of the most effective leadership tools. Whether you are communicating with one person, a room full of people, or millions in a crowd, the process of effective communication remains the same.

Phil Soper is the recipient of the 2014 CEO Award of Excellence in Public Relations because of his work in defining Royal LePage’s vision and communicating it with impact across Canada. Phil believes in the act of engaging people, active listening, leadership through voluntary engagement, and sharing his insight. If you’re following Phil on Twitter, you already know he has insightful knowledge to share and excellent communication skills. He was an early adopter of social media as a tool to enhance his firm’s effectiveness and communications reach.

Phil believes in his work; home ownership is an incredibly personal and substantial part of many Canadians’ lives. Realtors are helping hundreds of thousands of Canadians to chase their dreams, and Phil knows that improving communications and procedures for realtors will positively impact their clients. Since assuming his current role at the helm of Royal LePage in 2002, the business has more than tripled revenue and doubled agent count. Communications can be a game changer when it’s effective, and Phil has given us another example of authentic, humble confidence being a base for creating connection, understanding and positive change.

Join the Canadian Public Relations Society (Toronto) on Wednesday, January 28, 2015 at noon at the Eaton Chelsea Hotel, 33 Gerrard Street West as the Society honours Phil Soper from Royal LePage as the winner of the 2014 CEO of the Year Award in Public Relations.
For tickets information please click HERE.

Case Study: How Fleishman-Hillard Toronto won a prestigious ACE Award in the Best Use of Media Relations Under $50,000 Category

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Liza_photoBy Liza Butcher

On April 26, 2012 the Canadian Public Relations Society Toronto (CPRS Toronto) celebrated the PR industry’s elite at the annual Achieving Communications Excellence (ACE) Awards gala.

The ACE Awards gala was full of celebration for winning campaigns, where Fleishman-Hillard Toronto won a prestigious ACE Award in the Best Use of Media Relations Under $50,000 for “The National Garage Sale for Shelter” media relations campaign.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Teresa Cugliari, Associate Consultant at Fleishman-Hillard Toronto, to understand more about the success around the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation: The National Garage Sale for Shelter.

Can you tell me about your winning campaign? (What was the objective and why was it so successful?)

Royal LePage is the only Canadian real estate company to have its own charitable foundation, known as The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation. The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation is Canada’s largest public foundation dedicated exclusively to supporting women’s shelters and ending violence against women and children. Each year, the Shelter Foundation hosts The National Garage Sale for Shelter – a one-day charitable garage sale which takes place in more than 120 communities across Canada. Royal LePage brokers and agents volunteer to host the garage sales, which are often held outside Royal LePage offices. One hundred per cent of the funds raised are distributed to local women’s shelters in each community.

To help raise awareness and drive participation in The National Garage Sale for Shelter, Fleishman-Hillard (FH) developed and executed a community relations strategy under $50,000 CDN. FH was engaged to support all communications activities around the event including research, planning, materials development and media relations. At the core of the strategy, Royal LePage brokers and agents who volunteered their time to participate in the event were identified as excellent community champions given their passion and dedication to supporting the cause.

While the media relations strategy called for FH to conduct national media relations, a plan was developed to empower Royal LePage volunteers to conduct their own local media relations to generate awareness and drive event participation in their communities. FH supported this strategy by developing media toolkits for all designated spokespeople consisting of local release templates, interview tips and other marketing materials for use in Royal LePage offices. In addition, FH held a media coaching session with all regional spokespeople via conference call where tips were shared to maximize local media coverage and community engagement while ensuring strong key message penetration.

What inspired you to submit for an ACE Award?

The FHteam felt that this campaign was worthy of an award submission since the media results and overall funds raised exceeded initial goals. Overall, the 2011 National Garage Sale for Shelter generated a total of 369 media stories – a 77 per cent increase over 2010’s total – and 35,833,867 media impressions, an 84 per cent increase over last year. FH was successful in generating coverage in national, major regional and local media outlets, with 21 per cent of all coverage appearing in Tier One outlets.The mix of media coverage shows that messaging developed for the Shelter Foundation resonated with both local communities and larger metropolitan areas alike.

The increased amount of media coverage for the 2011 National Garage Sale for Shelter also led to increased participation in the event, which resulted in a record-setting fundraising total. In 2011, The National Garage Sale for Shelter was successful in raising more than $417,000 for the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation – a 32 per cent increase (and counting) over 2010’s fundraising total.

What are the benefits of winning an ACE Award?

Awards help set you apart from the competition. Not only do they build your agency’s reputation but they also help recognize the hard work put in by your colleagues. FH purchased additional copies of the award for each team member as well as our client. It’s a symbol of success as well as the memories of both the campaign and the gala ceremony. It was a very fun evening that we look forward to each year.

Winning the 2011 CPRS ACE Award for Royal LePage’s Shelter Foundation validated the great results we achieved throughout this campaign and also shows FH’s clients that we are willing to go above and beyond to get them the recognition they deserve.

Do you have any tips for others submitting for Award consideration.

Be sure to get a head start on the submission process and be mindful of submission deadlines. It can be somewhat of a challenge juggling client work as well as your agency’s marketing and promotional needs. Be sure to loop in team members to help with the process so you can submit a high quality award that reflects your team’s hard work.

Also, if you know you are working on an award-worthy campaign, start taking notes during the campaign for your submission. As time passes, you will find these notes invaluable since almost a full year can go by before you start pulling together your submission binder.

What did you make sure to include in your binder submission?

FH’s submission binder included a range of media materials (press releases, social media releases, media advisories, as well as the volunteer media outreach toolkit and interview best practices) and supporting metrics (MRP reports and coverage samples) that allowed the judges to get a better understanding of how the FH team met and exceeded our measurable objectives.

In addition, the FH team also included a sizzle reel highlighting national Tier One broadcast coverage secured with their key spokespeople throughout the campaign. This multimedia addition is a more personal touch that allows the judges to visualize the campaign and give a sense of depth to the quality and variety of coverage FH secured.

How did it feel to receive your award at the gala?

Receiving the award at the gala was extremely meaningful for both the FH team and our client, who was in attendance that evening as well. Lots of hard work and effort was put into the campaign and it was great to share this experience with fellow communications professionals.

Fleishman-Hillard Team Members: Sarah Louise Gardiner, Teresa Cugliari, Michael Gotzamanis

Royal LePage Shelter Foundation Team Members: Shanan Spencer-Brown, Tammy Gilmer, Royal LePage spokespeople