It's somewhat ironic that winter fashion starts to arrive in store during our hottest month of the year. Timelines for fashion buying, production and promotion run up to 12 months ahead. So we thought we'd ask Gina Pearce of Savage PR who specialises in beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands, for a few fabulously well-designed fashion PR tips:
1. Monthly magazines work on a 3-4 month lead time so make sure you get them information, images and press releases at least 3 months before you would like the editorials to be published. This is especially import for events and seasonal fashion collections.
2. If something exciting is going on in your business, you launch into a new territory, you have a celebrity wearing your clothes or you have new packaging, make sure you get the news out there. News is interesting, so put it out there and build your brand. If you don’t have the time, or the contacts, hire a professional PR.
3. Always present your business in a professional light. Designing your company website yourself, or getting your P.A’s daughter (no matter how pretty she is) to model your fashion collection for your media shots is a false economy. If your first impression looks unprofessional what does that say about your business? Always if you can afford to, use professional designers, photographers, printers, models, stylist and PRs. They do this job everyday and know what they are talking about.
4. Look at what kind of articles and stories the media feature. Would an article on you or your business fit in that publication? Do you have a great event that they need to know about for the social pages? Do you have a good hook? Is it newsworthy? This is very important; if it isn’t newsworthy it won’t be featured.
5. Tailor releases for the section in the magazine or newspaper you want to target rather than just a generic release. For example if you own a restaurant, target the food supplement, beauty salons or day spas should target the beauty pages and fashion designers target fashion and lifestyle sections and so on.
6. Make sure you target the correct journalist at the publication. For example, don’t contact the editor of the newspaper for a new car accessory story, contact the motoring editor. This means your story is more likely to cut through.
7. When drafting a media release or even an article, make sure it has a dynamic headline, include the, who, what, when, where and why and make sure it is professional with the most important information at the beginning of the release. Don’t forget correct grammar and no spelling mistakes. The release is presenting your business and you want to come across as a professional enterprise.
8. No matter how great your story is and how you have ‘pitched it’ there is no obligation for the journalist or publication to cover it. Never pester a journalist to ask why they haven’t covered your story or bug them about featuring it - this is the best way to NOT get your stories covered in the future.
Gina Pearce is the Director of Savage Public Relations, a Sunshine Coast based boutique PR and Advertising agency specialising in fashion, beauty and lifestyle clients.
Any other tips out there Slicers? We'd love to hear from you.
Tracking the media, monitoring the message
