This is the time of year we get very busy with UNICEF Canada activities. As public relations consultants Manitoba and Saskatchewan, we help organize all the media relation activities for the annual Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign.

We help coordinate campaign launch events in multiple cities, set up interviews with radio, television and print reporters across both provinces, and work with UNICEF’s national office to ensure it’s all working in concert with the national campaign.

Among our various October projects for UNICEF, this is the second year we’re organizing a Celebrity Pumpkin Carving contest. We’re currently locking in our guest carvers and sourcing our pumpkins for the big showdown Tuesday, October 27 from 11:45 to 1:15 at Kildonan Place Shopping Centre. So far, it looks as though we’ll have more carving teams than last year with organizations such as CTV, CBC, Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Police Service, Hot 103 and the Winnipeg Goldeyes attending.

Events like this are a great way to get some attention for your organization. This one works well because it has several really good elements including notable contestants from media, business, arts and other walks of life. It also has good visuals: cameras like this whether they’re shooting for a television station, a paper or a website. It ties in to a major cultural event: Halloween. And it supports a good cause in UNICEF.

Media relations is almost always a crap shoot - especially if you’re pitching soft news. You never know what kind of news day you’ll be up against and sometimes newsrooms can be unpredictable as to what they want to cover.

As a former reporter, I know the first step is to try to pitch a story to the media that’s relevant to their audiences and find something that works in their media. Make sure you have a visual story to tell for television. Make sure you have details and context as well as a good photo op for print. Radio thrives on being instantaneous and requires a good speaker who can break complex ideas down to sound bites. Online media (see all of the above) thrives on immediacy.

Media relations (and media training) is an important part of what we do at Dooley Communications. Right now, we’re doing a lot of work in this regard for UNICEF Canada. Last month, we helped them with publicity around a special meeting on the sexual exploitation of children in Winnipeg. This month, we’re working on the annual Trick or Treat campaign.We have an entire month of events and activities planned and high hopes of earning some positive media attention.

Sometimes being good at media relations means being nimble. Yesterday was a case in point. We heard that one of our UNICEF schools in Regina was holding an assembly today featuring a popular local Canadian Idol contestant. We quickly put together a media advisory and made sure it made it into the right hands of the major media outlets in Regina. This morning, we were pleased to see reporters from two television stations and the major daily paper out to cover the event. I’ll post the links later.

UNICEF has been a big part of Halloween in Canada for generations, and Dooley Communications is pleased to be helping the Prairies Region office publicize the annual Trick or Treat campaign throughout October.

It’s a busy time as we gear up our efforts to spread the word about the campaign that educates thousands of children across the country about what life is like on the other side of the world. There is also a fundraising element that collects money for UNICEF’s Schools for Africa program, which builds schools in Rwanda and Malawi.

Dooley Communications is managing UNICEF’s public relations efforts for all of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. That includes arranging for regular media advisories, news releases and managing several events in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Regina. In addition to our regular launch event, this year, we’re planning our first ever Celebrity Pumpkin Carving Contest late in the month at Kildonan Place.

We will also be hosting Walk for Water events on October 23 in all three cities where children will get a first hand sense of what is like to have to walk some distance for daily drinking water. It will be a learning experience for the kids and we hope it will generate some exposure for a very worthwhile campaign.

This is the second year that Dooley Communications has handled the public relations for UNICEF Canada’s Prairies Region. We’re proud to be associated with an organization so well known for its work around the world in helping children at risk. We handle media relations, give media training to speakers, manage events and provide general strategic direction for the local campaign.

Check it out - and donate today - at www.trickortreatforunicef.ca.