Whoever came up with the idea for all the women in my life to spontaneously tell me the colour of their bras deserves an award. Like most men on Facebook, it took a little while for me to figure out exactly what was going on… all these one word status updates. Just a colour mentioned: black, white, beige, violet, periwinkle, leopard… ooh la la!

I’ve since found out it is a breast cancer awareness campaign and I think it’s extremely clever. I’ve read it started with a viral email that women were asked to pass along to women only giving them a sneaky secret society kind of feeling: a way to do good while pulling a prank and teasing the men in their lives.

And it was the mysterious tease that makes this so effective. It makes the men take notice and ask questions. If it doesn’t start an actual discussion about breast cancer, it certainly gets us all (men and women) thinking about it.

It’s a well done, simple and very intelligent campaign. Bravo!

Fact: a close friend of mine recently recounted a news story about a tragic traffic fatality to me. She told me via chat, sending me a link to her Facebook page, which linked to the original news article as well as to a condolences page for the victim.This friend doesn’t subscribe to any daily paper. She doesn’t read them. She barely ever watches TV news and rarely clicks on talk radio. She relies on her network within Facebook, chat and email to keep her informed.That’s just one more reason to include social networks in your company’s public relations and corporate communications efforts. Whether you’re trying to reach an audience in Winnipeg, Manitoba or any where else in the world, people are talking to one another in new and dynamic ways.

The year is getting off to a great start for everyone at Dooley Communications with new clients coming on stream (stay tuned for more info) and old clients coming back with new projects.

It’s exciting to see the firm continue to grow. As we do, we’ll maintain our focus on being a service-oriented PR firm for the Canadian Prairies. Our focus remains on the Winnipeg and Manitoba markets for public relations and corporate communications services, but we also routinely reach into both Northwestern Ontario and Saskatchewan for our clients.

We use a variety of tools and tactics for our clients from traditional media relations to corporate communications, newsletters, magazines, social networks and blogs. We also develop and execute advertising campaigns, stage special events, and host photo ops and public speaking engagements.

As we get started on our third full calendar year in business, I’d like to personally thank all our suppliers for their highly professional and excellent help. They include:

• Twist Design and Communications
• Nova Design
• Prairie Research Associates
• GRP Media Services
• Mirek Photography
• Tony Nardella Photography
• Tint Marketing
• Contemporary Printing
• Marketwire LP
• Cision
• The Great Promotional Products Company

All the best in 2010!

Adam Dooley,
President