#FunFactFriday – 29 Years of Communications History
Today marks my 29th anniversary with HMA Public Relations. I had been freelancing for Scott for about a year when he offered me the opportunity to join the firm fulltime. To commemorate this milestone occasion, today’s #FunFactFriday shares other milestone events in communications history over the past 29 years.
1993: I accept a position at HMA Public Relations (then known as Hanson, Moser & Associates).
1994: Vice President Al Gore (who did not “invent” the Internet) used the phrase “information superhighway” and NBC’s “Today” show struggled to relate it to their viewers. Katie Couric said it’s “becoming really big now” as her co-hosts debated what the @ sign means in email addresses.
1995: Microsoft launches Windows 95; Amazon, Yahoo and eBay all launch; Internet Explorer launches; and Java is created, allowing for animation on websites.
1996: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first significant overhaul of the United States telecommunications law in more than 60 years. The Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, represented a major change in American telecommunication law, since it was the first time that the Internet was included.
1997: The Phoenix Lights are seen at night across the city by hundreds of people and millions more watch it on TV. And every year since, the local news does a story.
1998: Google’s official launch altered the digital landscape with its ability to search for and identify information on the Internet in less than a second. “Google” eventually becomes a verb to mean “search.”
1999: DVDs were just starting to overtake VHS tapes. The first DVD players landed on the scene in 1997 but were pretty expensive. But by 1999 the prices dropped. No more “be kind and rewind” required.
2000: Our agency changed its name to HMA Public Relations. Most people referred to us as HMA so we figured we might as well just go with it.
2001: 9/11. And we spent days glued to the television, watching Brokaw, Rather and Jennings, the kings of broadcast news.
2002: The domain for Linkedin.com was created on November 2, 2002. Creative Commons was introduced in 2002 allowing the content creator to decide which rights they want to be reserved and which they will waive.
2003: Apple launched iTunes and sold one million songs during the first week. The 10 most popular websites were Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Microsoft, eBay, Google, Go.com, Netscape, WindowsMedia, and Weather.com.
2004: Facebook got its start at Harvard University in 2004 and eventually evolves into one of the most (arguably) influential social media platforms.
2005: Dan Rather retired from the CBS Evening News, and Ted Koppel retired from ABC’s Nightline.
2006: On January 27, Western Union discontinued its telegram and commercial messaging services. With everyone having access to other options to send quick messages, there really wasn’t a need for it anymore. Western Union is now a financial services provider and specializes in electronic money transfers.
2007: Apple released the iPhone, the first mainstream smartphone and it revolutionized personal communication by pairing what we expect from a cellphone and a computer.
2008: HMA Time, our agency’s blog launched. As PR practitioners of varying ages and experience levels, each of our personal blog posts gives us the chance to sound off about our industry and related topics. We post daily on communications trends, business best practices, thought leadership, how to’s and more.
2009: On Jan 15, 2009, Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger successfully lands US Airways Flight #1549 on the Hudson River after a malfunction. HMA Public Relations was part of the crisis communications team on the ground here in Phoenix, using Twitter for the first time for real-time news.
2010: We got a look at the haves and have-nots as we tuned into PBS on Sunday nights to see The Crawley family and their loyal staff on Downton Abbey. First aired in 2010, it continued for six more seasons and has launched two (as of now) feature-length films.
2011: After 25 seasons and more than 5,000 episodes, “The Oprah Winfrey Show” airs its last original episode on May 25, 2011.
2012: NBC Sunday Night Football was the most popular television show, Fifty Shades of Grey was the best-selling fiction book, and The Avengers was the highest-grossing film.
2013: The Pope signed on to Twitter this year for the first time ever. Taking “selfies” and posting them to social media was all the rage. Candy Crush became 2013’s most popular game on Facebook.
2014: Ellen DeGeneres posted the most-shared (at the time) selfie in Twitter’s history from the 2014’s Oscar ceremony, with more than 3.4 million retweets and 2.4 million likes.
2015: National Publicists Day is October 30. Founded in 2015, National Publicists Day is a day of appreciation and recognition of public relations professionals. Why October 30? On October 30th, 1906, The New York Times printed verbatim the very first news release written by Ivy Lee (“the father of modern PR”).
2016: The Internet is such an integral part of modern life that in 2016 the United Nations passed a resolution declaring access to the Internet a human right.
2017: A solar eclipse captivated the nation, including various brands and the team at HMA.
2018: In May 2018, New York Magazine published “Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It,” which chronicles the unusual rise of Anna “Delvey” Sorokin. The article, by Jessica Pressler, is now the basis of a Netflix limited series, Inventing Anna. Starring Julia Garner, she might actually use the f-word more in this series than she did as Ruth in Ozark.
2019: Using social media for good, Carson King went viral after holding up a sign during a broadcast of ESPN’s “College GameDay” before the Iowa/Iowa State football game in Ames, Iowa. His simple sign read “Busch Light Supply Needs Replenishing” followed by his address on Venmo. Money started pouring in and only keeping “enough for a case of Busch Light,” King donated the rest to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. With matching funds from both Busch Light and Venmo, more than $3 million was raised.
2020: Worldwide pandemic where for maybe the first time in modern history, all public relations practitioners around the globe were working on the same issue – advising their companies and clients on the impact of the coronavirus. We thought it would be a couple weeks, maybe a month or two. We were wrong.
2021: HMA launches our second podcast, called Copper State of Mind for executives and directors of marketing and communications who want to increase the effectiveness of their public relations and marketing campaigns.
2022: Happy 29th HMA Anniversary – here’s to another successful year ahead!
