Author Archives: Scott Hanson
#MediaMonday – Keith Jenkins
Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from Keith Jenkins, who works for The Associated Press and is also president of the Arizona Association of Black Journalists. Keith, time to share: The Arizona Association of Black Journalists is on a mission to promote diversity in media, elevate our members and support those in need. The chapter is […]
READ MOREWild Animals Will Attack Humans
We’ve seen it time and time again that when animals do “human-like” things, it makes news. It even happens when animals do animal-like things, such as the recent incident at the Wildlife World Zoo west of Phoenix when a jaguar clawed a patron and pinned her to the outside of the cage after she had […]
READ MORETaking It To The Street
Public relations programming is essential to the tourism and hospitality industry. “Build it and they will come” just doesn’t work all by itself. A destination is nothing more than an accidental stop-over if nobody knows about it. With that said, we in the PR industry still often find it difficult to explain to lay people […]
READ MOREA Million Egos
HMA Public Relations has been involved with dozens of successful restaurant openings over the years. Projects like that are often short-term and high-energy and typically involve a healthy serving of media relations, community relations and special event planning. They definitely get an agency’s adrenaline pumping. I was watching a recent episode of “A Million Little […]
READ MORETour Guides Are Ambassadors
Whenever one of our HMA team makes a speech or we give a presentation, we usually practice it before we do it for real. We counsel our clients to do the same, sometimes serving as coaches. Practice can make perfect – or at least really good. On a recent trip, I had the opportunity to […]
READ MOREWhat is Crisis Communications at Sea?
HMA Public Relations has worked on some major crisis communication projects over the years. Sometimes we are a part of them even when we’re on vacation. This time, it was as the target audience. While on a recent cruise to Central America, I had the opportunity to watch a cruise ship’s leadership team spring into […]
READ MORE#Book Club — The Later Years
Imagine having such a profound impact on an industry that your teachings were still relevant nearly a quarter-century after you had died. That’s the case for Edward Bernays, the Austrian-American known as “the father of public relations.” At a recent gathering of PR pros, a fellow PRSA Fellow of mine, Paula Pedene, gave me a […]
READ MOREWhat’s Your App-titude?
According to a recent report released by App Annie, the average consumer has 100 apps on his or her phone. One hundred! Among some of the report’s other tidbits: consumers downloaded 194 billion apps in 2018, with half of them in China. I feel so simple, with my handful of apps for local news and […]
READ MORESadly, We’re #1!
There are countless polls and lists that rank cities and industries on their respective standing amongst their peers. The business lists, like the Book of Lists, have become tainted over the years, with business owners or their representatives grossly inflating their numbers so as to appear higher on the list than they actually should. And […]
READ MORESeparation of Church and State
We all know how essential it is to step away from work every now and then – even if it is unplanned, as Kelsey Makings pointed out recently. And Alison Bailin Batz has written about what some of the HMAers do in their spare time. Those who are able to manage a good work/life balance […]
READ MOREPRetty Good Start to New Year
I’ve never been a big New Year’s Resolution guy. For some reason, the calendar just doesn’t have that much of an impact on how I operate. But, I did take the time to write down some things I think I can do better this year. And, I sought the input from the HMA Public Relations […]
READ MOREReal Estate Provides Insight Into PR Growth Areas
With 2019 rapidly approaching, agencies are busy planning for the next 12 months. Among the biggest questions: What sectors will provide the greatest opportunities for growth? And are they sustainable? To start with, astute real estate executives have historically been strong believers in the value of effective public relations programming. The industry has a lot […]
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