I’ve written in this blog before about my admiration for the accomplishments of my Irish friends and colleagues Padraic and Sonia Deasy. So I was extremely pleased when PPA’s Professional Photographer magazine presented a cover-article feature about them in the December 2011 issue to call attention to their business program at Imaging USA in January. It was my pleasure to introduce them in New Orleans, where I mentioned that it is rare to find a studio business that combines the success elements of artistry, marketing, sales and financial management to the degree exhibited by Deasy Photography Studio.

To illustrate their marketing savvy, I want to point out how last year they made the most of the Irish PPA’s “Happy Faces Day” charitable promotion, the promotion upon which PPA Charities’ own “Celebration of Smiles” is based. What it demonstrates is the power of charitable marketing to help you accomplish marketing goals you might not accomplish any other way.

While they Deasys have a lovely studio facility in a downtown retail area, an established mall display, and plenty of notoriety (he currently is European Portrait Photographer of the Year and Irish Photographer of the Year), you might wonder why they would want to participate in a freebie promotion. It’s because they are smart marketers! Padraic and Sonia used “Happy Faces Day,” the charitable promotion upon which PPA Charities’ “Celebration of Smiles” is based, as a strategy to move their business forward by offering to conduct the promotion in Kildare Village, an upscale mall where they had not had an opportunity to display their photography. Here’s their setup:



To call attention to the on-location promotion, the Deasys created this cute video ad featuring their children.

IPPA Happy Faces 2011 from Deasy Photographic on Vimeo.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Kildare Village folks were so pleased with the effort the couple put into driving customers to the mall for the Happy Faces Day event, that they invited Padraic and Sonia to return for a holiday promotion.

The moral of this story is, of course, is that charitable marketing is one of the best tools you have to introduce your business to consumers and potential marketing partners whom you might not have an opportunity to meet any other way. So if you haven’t signed up for PPA Charities’ “Celebration of Smiles” Day set for April 21, then I hope you’ll do it NOW! Simply log on to ppacharities.com and you see the registration button.

I want to express my thanks to all of the PPA members who responded (with or without our nagging) to PPA Charities’ year-end fund raising efforts! What your generous donations made possible, for the third year in a row, was for the PPA Charities to proudly present a check for $100,000 to Operation Smile! The presentation took place at the PPACH Celebration Gala on January 14, in New Orleans, the night before the start of Imaging U.S.A. This year’s event was especially exciting, as Dr. William Magee, co-founder with his wife, Kathy, of Operation Smile, PPACH’s charitable partner. You can see a recap and photos of this fun evening, on the PPA Charities news blog.


The evening's high point was an address by Dr. Magee, who expressed appreciation to PPACH and PPA photographers for their continued support of Operation Smile, and the check presentation by PPACH trustees and PPA President Don Dickson to Dr. Magee and his sister-in-law Beth Marshall, who is Kathy Magee’s sister and director of Operation Smile's Southeast Region and Senior Executive Advisor for Latin America, In thanking PPA members for this donation, Beth pointed out that this $100,000 donation brings PPA’s total donations to Operation Smile to $500,000! The importance of this milestone, she added, is that this amount translates to 2,000 children who have been helped through the generosity of PPA photographers.

I’m presently involved in planning a very exciting nationwide promotion, sponsored by PPA Charities, which will take place on April 21, 2012. The promotion itself will be officially unveiled at Imaging USA at a Sunday, January 15 platform program featuring Sarah Petty, Mary Fisk Taylor and Beverly Walden, with a special appearance by Dr. William Magee, co-founder of Operation Smile. Dr. Magee also will be on hand for the January 14 PPA Charities Gala on Friday night, January 14 at 9:00 P.M. Last year there was a huge crowd there because of the great auction bargains, and there will be plenty this year as well. But this event is not to be missed, as rarely do you get to meet and greet a humanitarian of Dr. Magee’s stature. He is a true hero to me and to all the hundreds of thousands of lives Operation Smile has touched; so please don’t miss this exceptional opportunity.

Now, back to Celebration of Smiles: You’ll be hearing lots about the promotion in plenty of time to take part in it, but what I want you to know is where and how PPA Charities got the inspiration to host this event.

I have been honored to get to know many wonderful photographers through the Irish Professional Photographer’s Association (IPPA), and I was astonished to learn that their association