What We Do

Our team is experienced in all aspects of public relations: issues and crisis management, messaging, framing and public narrative creation, stakeholder consultation, media relations, spokesperson training, community dialogue, investor communications and social media.

Our Services

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING

Some issues are difficult, some opportunities important. A strategic communications plan is designed to help your organization to communicate effectively, while meeting your objectives. Having a well-designed and solid communications plan helps you to drive forward your goals and strategies, but also to generate measurable results from these initiatives.

The first step is to assess the facts with formative research- using our 30 years of PR experience, we conduct a situational analysis that will provide hard data.  Once we establish the fundamentals, including an organizational risk assessment, we can look at how to roll out your plan; what strategies and channels will serve you and your audience best, and how will we measure success?

By helping you to build a well-researched and solid Strategic Communications plan with clear and compelling messaging, the Hoggan team works to ensure you get maximum results, minimum risk, and measurable outcomes.

Crisis & Issues Management

In the age of Twitter, crisis moves rapidly, and It becomes difficult to make quick, effective decisions to do the right thing. People get into deeper trouble when they are seen to be mismanaging the problem. Most reputational damage comes from handling crisis badly.

And it is an article of faith at Hoggan that we will care about your good reputation as much as you do.

The best crises are the ones that die quickly or never make it to the front page of the newspaper: calamities that you avoid through thoughtful strategy; catastrophes no one notices because you handle them with skill and composure. For any organization with a public profile, prevention is the best policy and Hoggan has a well-tested Crisis Planning Program that includes auditing risk factors, identifying key players and preparing a full crisis plan. There are many ways to protect or revive a personal or corporate reputation. We do so with discretion and confidentiality.

If the worst still happens, Hoggan also has the bench strength and the experience to back you up. We've handled hundreds of highly difficult situations, and have won one of the PR industry's highest honours on just such a project. Every crisis is a test of character and we're here to help you pass the test.

MEDIA RELATIONS, OUTREACH & STRATEGY

At Hoggan we think of media in the same way we think about fireworks: we love them both, but we are conscious of the need to handle them with care and make sure nobody drops the match at the wrong time.

It's one thing to deliver a strong, solid message - it's another to deliver it to critics, or in the midst of conflict. Whether you are looking for media attention or managing a media maelstrom, we offer a full range of services, from generating news coverage in print and broadcast outlets around the world, to monitoring and managing ongoing media relationships. We make it our business to know all that we can about media outlets and the influential individuals within them, all in the interest of enriching your media experience and minimizing unhelpful explosions.

Our media relations services are designed to help you understand your audience, frame your story, and communicate in a manner that builds credibility, trust and engagement.

COMMUNITY & GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

Creating good relations within your communities of interest and at appropriate levels of government can be essential to the success of your reputation.

The Hoggan team is expert at facilitating consultation programs that build the community and government support you need, whether the issue is a minor rezoning or a major infrastructure project. Our community and government relations services include: public opinion and focus
group research, strategic positioning on public issues, media relations, message and presentation development, open houses and other forms of community involvement, such as online consultation and reporting.

Media Spokesperson Coaching & Seminars

Every media encounter is an opportunity to tell your story, not just pitch the "key messages," but to frame – to build your corporate profile and identity and to overcome both disinformation and
disinterest. It's an opportunity that you dare not waste and one for which you want to be well prepared.

The objective of Hoggan Media Training is to give you the confidence to engage the media constructively. Starting with theoretical review, we follow with a practical, on-camera practice session that will help you get the best results when the official tape starts rolling. In times of crisis, we make you aware of questions that could derail your focus, and prepare you to handle misinformation or aggressive interview tactics.

Whether you are an experienced speaker, or a novice in dealing with the media, Hoggan and Associates can provide coaching to bring you to that next level, especially in times of crisis.

Sustainability & Environmental Communications

Successful communications campaigns are founded in compelling messages, repeated frequently by credible sources.

This is especially true when communicating with the public about sustainability and the environment—issues where government and corporate credibility remain low and public confusion and skepticism run high. In recent years, Hoggan has participated in $2 million worth
of proprietary research on public understanding and attitudes toward sustainability and the environment. This gives us a unique understanding of the most effective ways to communicate on the environment; enabling us to help our clients develop compelling, credible and persuasive messages their audiences will understand.

Whether you are someone wanting to raise awareness of your environmental leadership, or an organization managing a difficult environmental issue, we have the insight and experience to help you achieve your communications goals.

Messaging, FRAMING AND NARRATIVE WORKSHOPS

To communicate well, you must be heard and understood. Framing helps - it's a way of constructing messages and stories that strengthen the impact of what you have to say.

In a noisy world driven by social media, the dominant voices are those that successfully "frame" the story. Telling your own story is more important than ever - if you don't take control of your story, someone else will tell it for you, and often not very well.

A frame is more than an explanation of events. It is a way of understanding the world that helps people manage information. In Jim Hoggan's recent book, cognitive scientist George Lakoff explains that facts alone don't change minds. Cold, logical messaging is not enough. To truly connect with people you need a story or metaphor that blends emotion, values and facts. That's the frame.

We help clients identify the optimum frame and establish it in the public mind. Using dialogue, polling and social science, we take a close look at what people think, and how they think. In a crisis, we can help lift a story out of a frame that might have been set up by critics. We use deep academic understanding and a lot of front-line experience to develop a compelling narrative that reflects your brand and works for your audience.

Search Engine Reputation Management

There is your reputation and there is your reputation online, and the two are not necessarily the same. This is especially true when dealing with crisis and controversy.

Before powerful search engines such as Google became part of our daily routine, bad publicity had a much shorter shelf life. Radio and TV broadcasts were history in a matter of hours, while headlines in a newspaper one day were fish wrap the next. Not so today. Thanks to the Internet, articles, photos, videos, posts and tweets have an infinite life online.

This is important to remember given that the Internet is often an intermediary between you and your next client, customer, employer or business partner. Chances are the next person you’re meeting for the first time, in person or by phone, has done at least a cursory search of your credentials online. What will they find?

The results can change your future, for better or worse. At Hoggan & Associates, we understand the importance of building and maintaining your reputation both online and offline. Our advanced understanding of the power of search engines has put us at the forefront of the burgeoning field of Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM). SERM ensures that your current reputation isn’t marred by past failures and controversies that linger on the Internet.