Reputations are created every day ... every minute. At blackcoffee, we understand the need to preserve your carefully cultivated reputation during a crisis and while minding your day to day business. But we don't stop there, we dream big ... creating bold and innovative strategies and bring them to life with smart words, the right imagery and impeccable materials. We won't accept good enough or status quo. We believe in moving forward, continuously enhancing and delivering differentiation in the marketplace and mindshare.
brand enhancement & story development•media relations planning & execution
issues management•crisis communications•internal communications•strategic writing
How we do it
Our big picture thinking reaches farther, differentiates better, and engages an audience clearly and directly, touching minds and hearts.
The upfront work is extensive, the root cause fully explored, and solutions are executed with sophisticated strategies and finely crafted communications tools: from blogs, to speeches and opeds, to full websites.
We don't just offer advice... we know how to get our hands dirty and deliver real work that connects with real people.
discover
- Communications audits
- Stakeholder & staff outreach
- Research
- Focus groups & polling
plan
- Communications plans
- Media and media event plans
- Brand development
- Crisis planning
- Issues strategy
- Digital media strategies
execute
- Message development
- Speeches
- Media event execution
- Media coaching
- News release writing & distribution
- Website
- Blogs
- Digital media writing & outreach
training
- Media relations
- Public speaking
- Face to face communications
Who we are
Shannon Larkins, Principal • blackcoffee communications
Reputation management is the foundation for Shannon Larkins' consulting practice. Shannon has the unique ability to approach strategic communications with the appropriate balance of rational thought and research-based inputs, while never excluding creativity and innovation from the mix. Shannon goes beyond the expected to create savvy solutions for government, business and industry. These solutions are enhanced by Shannon's uncanny and intuitive understanding of target populations honed while attending countless focus groups and absorbing endless polls.
A talented writer with strong mainstream and new media instincts, and solid relationships with media across the province, Shannon is called on by key organizations in Alberta for her ability to protect and enhance reputations through a broad range of service offerings.
Deliver every idea respectfully, every promise
graciously, every message seriously.
What clients are saying...
Shannon has a remarkable knack for reading and understanding public opinion. And she can explain it so that people understand what she's saying. And she knows the media; how they think, what they're looking for... Shannon is experienced in media training; she improves the performance of the skilled and not-so-skilled; the self-anointed experts and keeners-in-training.
She's smart. She's intuitive. She has a friendly manner to her but she tells it like it is to whomever she's talking to.
Jim Dinning
I've worked with Shannon on some very complex and challenging projects and can honestly say she's one of the best communications professionals in the business. She starts with an outstanding ability to listen to people and deeply understand situations before she jumps to conclusions. She is perceptive and thoughtful in her approach. She's also refreshing in the solutions she proposes, using her natural creativity, experience and insights to come up with ideas that are not only new and different - they work. Whenever I'm asked to recommend a communications professional, Shannon is the first person I think of.
Peggy Garritty
ATB Senior Vice President, Communications and Corporate Responsibility
Shannon is a very motivated and savvy communications professional. Her clients benefit greatly from her wealth of experience dealing with complex communications challenges. Shannon has always demonstrated an appreciation for the specific nuances of the business needs or political challenges clients bring to her. She is able to quickly assess the problem and then identify strategic communications solutions which are practical and effective.
Lee Funke
Managing Director, Public Affairs Bureau
Alberta Government
Shannon Larkins elevates the practice of communications by marrying strategic and creative thinking to find solutions that advance business objectives. Her sharp instincts, application of sound research and ability to get up to speed quickly help ensure opportunities are leveraged and issues mitigated. And on the creative side her willingness to think bold and get ahead of trends make her a leading edge communications expert in the evolving world of mass media and new media. Although willing to push the envelope hard to get ahead of an issue, Shannon consistently backs every move with sound and full thinking while maintaining excellent working relationships. Quite simply she brings solutions that not only work, but strongly move us forward.
Mary Lou Reeleder
Communications Business Partner, Community Services
City of Edmonton
