We held an informal talk on PR and Product Placement and were joined by PR practitioner Alison Lowe from Felicities, and freelance music and celebrity stylist Aimee Croysdill.
Aimee is a successful stylist who liaises with record labels, music videos, press shoots, styling for staging and red carpet events. During the talk she explained that if you are a designer looking to get known you should:
Forge a relationship with stylists- when your garment is used for a shoot or video, your designs will be noticed by many people in different areas of the industry.
Take a chance with new music artists- they may be up and coming but could be the next 'big thing' so this could be very beneficial for promoting your brand. Mulberry noticed Lana Del Ray and now they have named a best selling bag after her.
Fashion shoots are fast paced- garments may not come back in the same quality they left you, if a garment is very precious to you, only lend to editorial shoots.
Social networking is important- most stylists have a Twitter account and are on other social network sites such as Facebook and Pinterest, so make sure you are always following and interacting with them.
High profile events- If you know there is a big event coming up, contact the stylist in your network to see if they need anything for their clients. Let them know what you have available to borrow at that time.
Alison Lowe has run several successful businesses including Felicities, a specialist PR and business support agency for emerging fashion talent. As well as having her own business, Alison provides PR and business support to a range of emerging fashion brands. Alison's tips on generating PR for your business were:
Communicate- talk to everyone and anyone about what you do, you never know what contacts people may have.
Know your target market- look through magazines and find styling that suits you and then get hold of the stylist of these shoots. If you want to be a credible designer, put your garments on credible models.
Social networking- Emails to journalists regularly go straight into spam mail so try and build relationships on social networking sites whenever you can.
Use Twitter and Pinterest- ‘Twitter and Pinterest are the biggest things to hit fashion in... forever!’
Respond quickly to any press enquiries- make sure your images are not large file sizes so are quick to download. Large files should be sent via a http site such as Dropbox.
Press releases should always be straight to the point- journalists do not need to know your inspiration, your garments should stand up for themselves. Make sure you keep the information as back up ready if it is needed for interviews.
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| Alison Lowe, Alison Lewy and Aimee Croysdill |
-Talk to everyone
-Use social media to build relationships NOT to bombard people
-Respond to opportunities ASAP, people will not wait around for you
-Target your audience
-Have sturdy samples with nice labels, good quality zips and materials
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By Sophie Gunn
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