As we’ve entered week 10 of social distancing here in Massachusetts, all eyes are on strategies for resuming activities without compromising safety. Working at a healthcare-focused PR agency like Aria during the COVID-19 pandemic has given us insight not only on the acute effects of the crisis, but on the wider-reaching consequences the virus has on the industry. With quarantine and stay-at-home orders in place, people have missed routine and non-emergent medical appointments, forgoing care that they might have sought in a more normal circumstance.

The beginning of the year always provides a perfect opportunity to pause and reflect on the past, and strategize how to make the future the best yet. That rings true at Aria, where we fuel our healthcare communications work with a robust wellness offering. As we prepare for another successful year of public relations wins, we are bringing the best of 2019's wellness initiative forward, plus scheming up new plans and activities. Here’s a taste of what we did last year plus a sampling of our team’s feedback and goals for 2020.

While we are fully embracing the start of 2022, we did want to take a moment to look back on our fourth quarter of 2021, as we were able to close out a wild year with some top-notch results for our clients.

Read on for some of our favorite highlights from this past quarter:

I am very excited to introduce our “Pitch” followers to one of Aria’s newest employees, Lindsey Honig. Lindsey was hired as an Account Executive, and she will be responsible for things like managing speakers’ bureaus and awards programs, running social media initiatives, and executing media relations strategies. Now that Lindsey has survived her first couple of weeks at Aria (and, says she wants to stay!), I thought it would be a good time to sit down with her and get to know her a little bit better. Since she has already sat through enough Aria interviews, I figured a one-minute ‘speed dating’-type interview, a la Watch What Happens Live, would be fun. Here we go!

Weeks ago, when COVID-19 shutdowns began in Boston, we decided to highlight some of the team’s favorite local businesses with the hopes that a social media boost would help increase patronage. Then, as part of our response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others, we felt compelled to shift the focus of this post to spotlight our favorite Black- and POC-owned businesses. We invite you to join us in supporting them.

The entire world is experiencing the effects of the coronavirus pandemic as it is impacting every facet of our lives from our jobs, to the way we shop for groceries, to social engagements and more. In particular, the content of the news has changed with the majority of information now being shared through the lens of COVID-19. As a healthcare PR agency, Aria is uniquely positioned to support our healthcare clients (who provide services across the industry) during this period of uncertainty.

A couple of weeks ago, a few members of our team attended the annual Thrive Summit, put on by our client, Virgin Pulse. This three-day conference was jam-packed with inspiring wellness messages delivered through motivating keynotes, client testimonials and other informative sessions. Here are some of our takeaways and highlights.

We are excited to welcome Olga Frech, our new Account Executive, to the Aria family.  Not only is Olga our newest addition, but she has also traveled the farthest to be here.  Born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Olga came to the U.S. to continue her education and begin her career. We thought we’d use our new blog as an excuse to find out a little more about Olga, why she came, and how she likes the U.S.

I started working at Aria Marketing just over a month ago, and one of the first things that impressed me about the company is that there are so many people who have become “Aria lifers” (Scott, Jessica, Ross, Nancy, Chanel and Katie). So, I set out to find out what keeps people at this PR agency. Is it the #BreakfastWednesdays (a habit hard to break, once you get used to it), the diversity that each one of Aria’s clients brings to the table, the continuously evolving and exciting field of healthcare, the energetic and passionate  team, or Aria’s monthly #HappyHour event? To get to the bottom of the “Aria lifer” trend, I decided to go right to the source(s). Here’s what they had to say: