News

New beginnings
With this new year, we say farewell to Brenda Alling, one of our founders, who helped move AHA! out of the upstairs bedroom and on to the "Top 20" list of women-owned businesses in the Portland area. Brenda's moving on to chase after other dreams and goals, but we'll hold her penchant for perfectionism in our hearts forever. We miss you already, Brenda!

How green is your IT?
Green IT is one of the top ten technology trends facing businesses today—a must for companies looking to cut costs and environmental impact. Resource-intensive printing and imaging present a huge challenge but also a tremendous opportunity for IT to show leadership by driving business results. AHA! created a Green IT Action Plan for HP that outlines how IT leaders should evaluate their organization’s current environment and offers step-by-step guidance for developing tactics to standardize, streamline, and efficiently manage printing and imaging. The action plan is drawing serious interest from customers and some positive press from ZDNet.

AHA! writer makes Best Food Writing 2008
Michael Pollan. Calvin Trillin. Mark Bittman. And don’t forget Alice Waters. Some of the biggest names in food writing made the cut for the just-published Best Food Writing 2008. We’re also very pleased to announce that “rising star” and AHA! writer and editor Sona Pai earned a seat at the table with her piece “Mangoes, memories—and motorcycles.” Congratulations on your well-deserved recognition, Sona!

Want to get the book? Here’s one way.

Applying our communications expertise in spooky economic times
With the fall of prominent banking institutions in September and October, we can’t say we were surprised to see the sharp increase in financial services advertising and marketing communications. It was everywhere—daily newspapers, industry trade pubs, TV, radio and email inboxes. With all the buzz, we called a special all-company session on Halloween to evaluate a wide cross section of these pieces. We split them across small groups for detailed critiques to identify audience, clarity and authenticity of message, and what a piece said about the brand. Then, we came back together to discuss approaches, gauge effectiveness and share what we might have done differently.

Everyone agreed: sessions like these are great tools to help us stay current on the industry and exercise our creative muscles. If your team would benefit from a similar creative session, drop us a line. We can help.

Moving words and pictures tell the inside story
Sometimes words need moving pictures to tell a more complete story. Working with design partners at Murie Design and Curious Media, AHA! encapsulated the inside story of remanufactured print cartridges, lifting the lid on what millions of people who print consider almost every day—the true cost of printing. To tell the story in a compelling way, we used Flash animation, print samples and a whole lot of industry knowledge to debunk myths, define terms and convince customers that using supplies designed for their printers is the best way to glean printing value—and it’s better for the environment to boot. This highly intuitive, comprehensive tool is used by HP’s North American Supplies Sales force to back up an already solid story.

“Vancouver agency AHA! has a Yahoo! moment”
A recent article in the Oregonian—business section, front page features AHA! The piece, written by Allan Brettman, chronicles our story and highlights our clients from HP to Yahoo! One copyedit required: the article states that we don’t write packaging copy, website content and internal communications. In fact, these critical client communications make up a hefty portion of our business, as emphasized in the overall article. We know how those pesky buggers—a don’t, for example, that should be a do—can slip past the most scrutinizing eyes and how one word can change the entire meaning of a sentence.

In short, we’re flattered. And we had a fantastic time showing the Oregonian crew around our office. Give it a read and let us know what you think.

AHA! Market Insights white paper released
We've launched a series of white papers exploring current market conditions and issues of importance to today's business communicators. Check out our first issue addressing financial services and sustainability.

AHA! blogger now contributing to JustMeans
One of AHA!’s resident bloggers, Christian Hicks, is a now contributor to All Things Reconsidered, a community blog about social responsibility hosted by JustMeans. Catch up on Christian’s bimonthly posts and explore JustMeans for the latest news and insights from around the world.