New York Fashion PR | PR Couture: Fashion PR, Marketing & Social Media

Post Fashion Week Strategy with Tadashi Shoji’s HL Group Fashion PR Team

March 1, 2012 1 Comment written by Dara

This season, I had the pleasure of attending Tadashi Shoji’s Fall 2012 show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Inspired by the Golden Age of Shanghai, Shoji utilized rich, delicate and opulent colors and fabrics to set an ominous tone. The collection incorporated Chantilly and Venetian lace, high necklines, beaded embroidery, scalloped sequins and chiffon along with rich velvet.

With such a powerful fashion week collection, it’s no surprise that the designer was asked to dress a notable red-carpet starlet at this year’s Oscars. Drawing upon this season’s series of pale nude beaded dresses, ‘Best Supporting Actress’ winner Octavia Spencer, donned a custom hand-beaded, ivory silk and tulle draped cap sleeve gown that was absolutely perfect for her big moment.

After the fashion week madness, I caught up with the ladies at Tadashi Shoji’s top-notch PR powerhouse, HL Group. The Tadashi Shoji PR team consists of Kimberly Flaster (Managing Director), Kelly Ricci (Senior Account Manager) and Zeba Rashid (Account Coordinator). We were curious as to what these PR Mavens do after fashion week:

What designers, shows or events did HL Group represent this fashion week?

HL Group produced 19 shows during NYFW. Some of which included Tadashi Shoji, Rachel Roy, Oscar de la Renta, Elie Tahari, Dennis Basso, Marchesa and BCBG.

How many fashion weeks have you executed? What do you love most about it?

Amongst the three of us, we have over 15 years of experience planning, producing and executing shows. We look forward to prepping and completing each show for our clients because we know in the end our hard work is demonstrated with the successful press outcome.

What was your favorite fashion week outfit that you wore this season? (Can you send a picture of it?)

Poppin Fashion Week Survival bag, Royal Blue Tadashi Shoji dress, seating chart and of course a smile! (See Kelly pictured in the Poppin bag below.)

From left Zeba Rashid (Account Coordinator), Kelly Ricci (Senior Account Manager) and Kimberly Flaster (Managing Director).

How do you decompress after fashion week? Any essential remedies? Or, do you even get a chance to de-stress?

Luckily enough, we had a long holiday weekend right after fashion week, which was lovely. We got to catch up on much needed sleep, caught up with our friends and family as we haven’t spoken to them in a month and of course eat a proper meal!

What are a fashion publicist’s core responsibilities post-fashion week?

A publicist’s responsibilities never end when it concerns fashion week. Immediately following shows, we have to work on recaps, compile media alerts, service images and follow up with scheduled press print and broadcast interviews. Additionally, we have a two week break, then it’s on to planning Press Days for editors.

When do you start planning the next fashion week?

We are always planning the next fashion week but for Spring 2013 we will get hands on in July.

How does HL Group use social and digital media to complement your PR efforts post fashion-week?

It comes from all angles. Most of us at the agency have our own social media logins and help support and promote our clients internally. Some of our clients handle their own social media and some hire agencies that specialize in managing their social channels. We all work together to successful promote in a timely manner.

Thank you HL Group for taking the time to chat with PR Couture, can’t wait to catch up with you lovely ladies next season!

Filed Under: Fashion Brands, PR Couture, PR Interviews Tagged With: #NYFW, Fashion Events, New York Fashion PR, Social Media

Business Acquisition: Maintaining a Boutique PR feel in a Corporate PR Setting

February 22, 2012 0 Comment written by Crosby

Merging 5SPR with Regan has allowed me to resume doing what I do best, all while joining a phenomenal team of some of the most talented publicists I have met in my career. – Jessica deGuardiola

Jessica deGuardiola had owned her Boston-based boutique fashion PR firm, 5sPR, for about three years when she realized two important things. First, that she was spending the majority of her time in New York and second, that she was spending more and more of her time dealing with the logistics of business ownership and less time doing what she loved: public relations. Despite receiving repeated interest from big New York firms, it wasn’t until she sat down for coffee with a Regan Communications VP Erin Tracy about to go on maternity leave that she began to seriously consider her options. “We instantly clicked,” said Jessica, and it wasn’t long before discussions turned to mutual business opportunities. “Regan had a very strong hospitality, business and tech sector, but was lacking in the fashion and lifestyle divisions. We all saw it as a great opportunity to combine our various skill sets and backgrounds.” Jessica’s team and existing clientele offered the perfect new specialty practice for Regan’s New York office.

Maintaining a boutique feel in a corporate setting

In August, 2011 it became official. Regan Communications acquired 5sPR, with Jessica assuming the role of Vice President in New York, and the current 5sPR client roster transferred to Regan. It was important to Jessica that despite the change from small boutique agency to corporate firm, her clients maintained access to Jessica and she remained an integral part of current client strategy and management, while developing in her new role. “With corporate firms, the “higher-ups” are often sent in to land an account, but the workload is then passed off to junior level staff. With boutique firms, the principals are usually involved in a client’s account on a day-to-day basis. This approach is why I’ve tried to stay away from corporate firms throughout my career. However, Regan is an anomaly in that despite it’s size, there are always multiple senior level associates involved in a client’s account. If there is a larger account that comes through one of our satellite offices, we have the ability to lean on the senior teams out of our Boston headquarters for additional assistance, all of which come from varied and impressive backgrounds that allow for new and exciting angles to pitch. I was pleasantly surprised when I learned this about the company, and am grateful it’s structured like this every day.”

Marzi Alavi- Senior Account Coordinator, Liz Austin- Account Coordinator, Chelsea Lada- Social Media Coordinator, Tom Cunningham- SVP, Marketing and Business Development, Erin Tracy- VP/Team Leader, Jessica deGuardiola- VP, Megan Esteves- Deputy Team Leader, Sarah Cox- Account Executive

Added value for clients

One of the key benefits for 5s and Regan clients out of the merger is the ability to leverage each specialty’s expertise, media relationships and point of view to identify and secure new opportunities. Regan’s New York office’s five main sectors include: Fashion & Lifestyle PR headed up by Jessica, Travel & Hospitality PR headed up by Erin Tracy, Green/Tech & B2B PR headed up by Megan Esteves, and Entertainment PR, headed up by Marzi Alavi and the Fitness and Broadcast division, headed up by Nicole Glor.

“For example, if we are speaking to a fashion-related client, my fashion background is a given, but the team is also equipped to offer a more layered campaign that focuses on a wide array of angles in addition to my efforts, such as business profiling, in which we work to establish by-lined articles and or/industry related profile pieces that immediately introduce them to a wider audience.” Beyond the traditional fashion campaign, Regan can offer clients the benefit of multiple perspectives on a single project, increasing coverage and client success.

One such new client is a new gift registry site called All I Really Want. Jessica is confident the start-up chose Regan because “we not only have demonstrated expertise working with fashion-focused and lifestyle media but because of our equally strong tech and business background. Early calls covered all aspects of the business, from website design to mobile apps. It was so exciting to see how our team seamlessly worked together to not only bring on a new client, but offer them so much more than traditional PR.”

Celebrating 5 years

After a successful seven months at Regan, Jessica and the NY team are focused on Regan’s upcoming 5-year anniversary in April, securing office space and of course, bringing on a varied roster of of clientele in all sectors. “What started out as an office of 3 has grown into an office of 9 that is made up of a team of amazingly talented publicists, all of whom have contributed to establishing Regan NYC as a force to be reckoned with amongst some of the largest, most well-known firms in New York.”

For those considering pursuing or who are being pursued, Jessica shared the following advice for boutique PR owners:

3 tips for boutique agencies interested in mergers

Do your homework. Make sure that you can bring something different to the company you’re merging with, whether that be client experience or a new roster of media contacts.
Be sensitive to all preexisting issues and team dynamics. Remember that you are joining a new environment, and change is difficult for everyone. It’s so important to remain as open minded as possible, while also establishing a mutual balance of professionalism and respect.
Embrace your new opportunity wholeheartedly! Keep in mind that the first few months of transition might be difficult, but that you are embarking on a new and exciting chapter in your career that was made possible because of all your hard work….enjoy it!

Stay in touch with the Regan NY team on Twitter

Regan Communications- @ReganComm

Jessica- @JdGNYC

Erin- @ETwittyNYC

Megan- @Esteves1

Marzi- @marZbarZnyc

Nikki – @NikkiFitness

Image Source

Filed Under: Featured, PR Couture, PR Interviews Tagged With: Fashion PR, New York Fashion PR

A PR Gentleman’s FW12 Fashion Week Diary: Native Son Presentation

February 13, 2012 0 Comment written by Michael Shane

3 Days to Fashion Week

8:00 AM

Launch an all out assault pitching menswear line, NATIVE SON, a new client that I picked up the previous Friday night, to editors. Includes sending out invites to their New York Fashion Week show just days away and pitching the collection preview, short film based on the collection’s inspiration and their new collaboration with Raleigh Denim.
Set up the invite and send it out to my lists. Since this is a presentation and not a seated runway show I can be much less restrictive of who can attend aka pretty much anyone that RSVP’s.

9:00 AM

Invites sent to over 2000 editors, writers, bloggers and photogs who would potentially be in town for the shows.

9:05 AM

RSVP’s start pouring in. Ignore them and move on to pitching exclusives. I’m looking to generate pre-show buzz so obviously, long-leads are out of the question at this point. I seek out 3 of the top menswear blogs and shoot over personal emails.

10:00 AM

RSVPs continue… AHH. Make some tea; time for a little boost. Check non-RSVP emails and respond to client requests. Also, catch up on the news.
Get a text from an editor friend to meet for breakfast @ The Mercer. We discuss Love, Life and Fashion (of course). Models passing by the window distract me throughout the meal. Ahh the beauty of fashion week comes to life before my very eyes.

12:30 PM

I cab it back to my office aka apartment for a meeting with the team to discuss logistics of the Native Son show and after-party. The staffing needs will be very light and consist of a couple people at check-in. I will be ensuring the top editors attend and have what they need to cover the show. I will also be setting up on-site interviews with the designer. Things are running smoothly so far.
I have to say that I love presentations, and prefer them to runway shows because they are so easy to manage. People will attend throughout the hour so there aren’t seating issues and definitely no carrying seating charts across town, on the subway like fab publicist @OscarPRgirl. I add that if you aren’t following her tweets you are truly missing out on a brilliant and witty fashion insider’s POV.

3:00 PM

Meet with the designer to go over the run of show and staffing needs. We also discuss the after-party, which is usually an after-thought for most designers. They leave it up to their teams and just go with the flow.

5:00 PM

Returned to the office and confirmed a venue called STASH that I had on hold for our party.
Everything is coming together very fast so at this point the office turns back into my apartment and I can start to relax a bit… or at least try. I have friends in town from Paris so of course they want to go out. I abide. We set dinner plans and head out for a bit.

2 Days Until the Show

8:00 AM

RSVP’s and pre-show coverage confirmations.

11:00 AM

Getting pretty hungry and decide to make breakfast. I make a bomb frittata, just ask anyone I’ve made brekkie for and they will tell you.
Received two out of three confirmations that my pre-show stories are going to run. This is very good news for a publicist; especially working on such short notice.

Day before the Show

10:00 AM

Got to sleep in a little today aka woke up at 10. The glory of working freelance is that you basically wake up in your office. Today focused on gathering more RSVP’s and sending out confirmations. Even though I have someone else building the list it is imperative to my sanity that I go through every email myself and ensure that not one name has been missed. This takes all day and is extremely inefficient but I must do it. Once that is complete I set up the list in my email program and send them out.
With confirmations sent I need to scan the list and see what important editors have not RSVP’d yet so I can send them personal emails, text messages, etc to get them to confirm. Everyone is extremely busy so its easy to overlook an email or two.

Welcome to Thursday, aka Show Day

Thursday

8:00 AM

Wake up to a few dozen more RSVPs.

2:00PM

PR team arrival at venue

4:00 PM

Doors… but we’re not opening until we have at least 50 people waiting… only takes a few mins but we hold the doors until 10 after anyway. I’m very happy this doesn’t take very long to happen. Shows are expected to be late but I prefer to run on-time. Shows can be late for an array of reasons such as late models or waiting on a few specific editors to arrive. In this case everyone was on-time.

Here are a few highlights from backstage…

7:00 PM

Received the show photos from the house photographer and created the post show recap that I sent out to over 5000 international press contacts. I then scanned the internet for some fresh coverage and sent it off to the team.

8:00 PM

Rush off to MILK MADE @ Milk Studios in the Meatpacking District for Libertine, whose creative director, Johnson Hartig, is an old friend. His collections are always the talk of the town and this was the first time I would be able to make his show since he started showing again in NYC. We arrive around 8:30 and it’s a complete zoo, inside and out. I literally felt like I was being herded in, but instead of cows it was fashionista’s and socialites.

Day 5 – Native Son After-party

Most people will ask why we chose to do the after party the day after the show and not the night of. We’ll, technically it’s still an after party so it shouldn’t matter, but we opted for the day after because of an early morning media call with the designer (oh an the venue wasn’t available anyway!)
Since the invites were sent out with the show photo’s last night I already have about 1000 RSVPs for the after party in my inbox so I needed to get cracking on the list.
Half way through the day I decided to leave RSVP hell and head back to Lincoln Center to see celebrated fur accessories designer Brandon Sun’s presentation. As I walked in, Rick Genest aka “Zombie Boy” from last season’s Thierry Mugler campaign, walked past me… wait what? Beautiful furs surround me and Rick Genest is just hanging out decked in leather and studs from head to toe. What an interesting juxtaposition.