Caffeine bubble dreams

Humber PR is moving into the future!

A big thanks to Jenna and Zack for running Humber PR 2C's Future Camp. It really gave us a chance to strengthen our current connections with our peers and develop ways to keep them strong for the future.

Plus, it's another great excuse to hang out with the most awesome people ever!

The focus was on our future in PR. Where we want to work? What our passions are? We also created a digital time capsule (pink boas anyone) and added to the Google Doc shuffle where we could write why our colleagues were so awesome.


I hope we can stay connected over the years. And in the social media world it's easy to do so. We also vow to have bi-monthly activities for face-to-face time, in I'm going to say it HumberPR, I'm going to miss your face.

What would our world be like without tigers?

Survivor's 1982 hit Eye Of The Tiger would have never become the theme to Rocky, nor topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for six straight weeks upon its release. Without tigers, the song would be Eye of the, which is significantly less powerful.

Without tigers, who would grace the box of one of my favourite cereal boxes, Frosted Flakes? Tony the Tiger is what made this cereal Grrr-eat, and without him Frosted Flakes is just another corn flake cereal. Tony the Tiger is a cereal icon.


Tigers have become our lovable sports team mascots. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats wouldn't have the same team spirit without these magnificent cats. Without tigers, they wouldn't even be able to call themselves Tiger-Cats, it would just be Cats, which doesn't have the same edge in football.


And who can forget the bouncy, lovable Tigger from Winnie the Pooh? Children would never hear all the wonderful things about tiggers, er tigers. Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, would be just Winnie the Pooh. I'm pretty sure he'd be lonely.


Without tigers, the world would be a different place. So as much as we feel protecting our tigers doesn't involve us, it does, because tigers are a part of us in one way or another.

I don't want future generations to live without tigers. Do you?

In November Roots Canada got involved in the Right to Play campaign, changing the lives of children in disadvantaged regions in the world through the power of sport and play. The official press release outlined this would be a partnership of Roots Canada, Mastercard and Right to Play.

Proceeds from the Canada Collection by Roots would go to Right to Play programs; donations were also accepted. This campaign was made most memorable by the television spots such as the following:

This commercial was very much overtaken by Mastercard, with its classic "priceless" format. Roots' involvement was briefly mentioned, although it has an entire collection dedicated to raise money for this cause. Since commercials did not scream Roots, I decided to look into other social media outlets to discover how Roots promoted its involvement in this campaign.

And then there was Twitter. Looking since Nov. 4, @RootsCanada has posted or retweeted 13 tweets mentioning the Right to Play campaign. That's 13 tweets in nearly five months. Amongst the 13 tweets, there were product suggestions, photos of favourite products, calls for donations, and photographs of Canadian collection-clad celebrities.

Roots Canada has a Facebook page with 12,912 fans; significantly more than the 2,499 followers it has on Twitter. The Facebook page is interactive with pictures, polls, and promotions. The Facebook fan page had 22 mentions by Roots Canada about the Right to Play campaign, and it was more than mentions. The posts included photos of the Canada Collection, celebrities wearing the clothing, links to the commercials, and most importantly information about the Right to Play foundation. Overall, I think Facebook was better utilized in this campaign than Twitter. Especially for the type of campaign it was, Facebook was better because it was visually dynamic. Viewers did not need to click elsewhere to be directed to videos and images.


Threat: Roots and the Right to Play campaign is in competition with every other company raising money for every other charity. It needs to step up communication on every platform to make sure people get the message. Roots is not alone in trying to make a difference in the world, and we need to know more about what makes this campaign special.

Weakness: This campaign is not cohesive over all platforms. The Roots website is the best source of information about Right to Play and the Canada Collection. Facebook is second, followed by Twitter, then by YouTube. In order to get a full picture of this campaign, you'd have to use all these channels equally to maximize viewership. The platforms are skewed in the sense, that one platform gives significantly more information than another.

Having said all this, I think Roots is a wonderful company involved in many positive initiatives including community involvement and environmental sustainability. I feel with the Right to Play campaign, Roots has been overshadowed by Mastercard, which seems to be a bigger sponsor of this campaign. But Roots is supplying the product that donates money to the foundation, therefore, I believe it should be more visible to the public.

For different takes on the Roots' Right to Play campaign, please see my colleagues Jenna's and Ali's blogs.

For Social Media class we were asked to search within ourselves, look at ourselves critically and develop an identity that we could put into words.

And so I did.

High energy meets high ambitions; a passionate young writer searching for her place in public relations.

Please view my SlideShare presentation of my brand. And remember, I always appreciate comments and suggestions.

In context: Using Deirdre Breakenridge's article PR 2.0: A Communicator's Manifesto, as well as social media experience in Social Media class, I have put together a (hopefully) comic take on the changing ways of public relations.

Find out how PR Guy saves the day for Businessman. Not once, but twice!