We love
working with incredible brands here at TSG PR. It's always exciting to see passionate
entrepreneurs making things happen for themselves. We love bringing brands recognition
through amazing press. The best way to create a piece of national press is to
find the right fit for your particular brand and stretch your mind to create a
desirable, original story for the editor or producer you are targeting. There
are numerous techniques for doing this; we have devised our own formula over
the years that we hope you find helpful. Here are a few clips and tips to help make your
dream come true.
1.) Find
your target demographic
When
working with any client, the first step is to find the audience you are trying
to reach and study them. After a decade of working with brands, we here at The
Smith Group are pretty attuned to target demo's and know how to spot them. For
those who don't, Google is your best friend. CC SKYE's jewelry is youthful,
celebrity/pop-culture/trend driven, with a sophisticated edge. This makes the
group of people CC caters to larger than most. Obviously female driven, this
line ranges in age from 25-40 year old women. When researching age groups look
to publications such as Consumer Reports to learn about your target audience.
There are researchers who make a deep study of where men/women of every age
shop, what they eat, talk about, read, where they vacation, etc... Eventually the best ways to gather such information will become second nature to you; in the meantime research,
research, research all of your potential customers.
Given the
fact that this particular CC SKYE style is following the color-blocking trend,
here at TSG PR we decided that this would make for an amazing summer feature.
Weekly publications such as OK! Magazine are ideal because you don’t have to
grapple with the traditional three-month lead times; you get instant
gratification, which leads to immediate sales. Case in point: TSG PR was able
to land a spot for CC SKYE on OK! Magazine's Summer Hot List. A general rule of
thumb when working with weeklies is to have three celebrities in your pitch who
love the particular product or service you are approaching an editor with.
OK! chose to list Fergie for this feature and we were quite pleased with the
result - as was CC SKYE.
2.) Gift
One great way
to round up the celebrities you need for features is to gift them with your
product and look out for a shot of them wearing the dress or watch, or whatever
it is. You want to be truthful about naming celebrities who love your brand as
this will make for an honest relationship with the press and your celebrity
fans. TSG PR recently worked with the amazing Mikoh Swimwear girls Kalani and
Oleema Miller to gift a number of celebrities, who shall remain nameless. Let's
just say that when thumbing through US Magazine, these girls grace pretty much
every page you turn to. It’s great to work with brands that are open to
sending product. While this may not be affordable for all, it is something to consider
factoring into your production run. A good rule of thumb is to save 10% of your
product for celebrity and editor gifting.
3.) Find
brand advocates
Aside from
the amazing press you will receive from gifting product, you will start to
develop a relationship with various "brand advocates." If you are
launching a clothing line, "brand advocates" would consist of
celebrities who love your line and do so consistently. For a makeup line this
would be amazing makeup artists and models who use your product in
shoots/fashion shows, and so on. For a company such as quartz surface
Caesarstone a "brand advocate" is someone who uses the product in a
way that attracts the attention of your target customers. TSG PR created a PR
plan for Caesarstone from the ground up. Although it was popular in the design
community, the company was little known in the media world. The Smith Group
tapped into Caesarstone’s core group of customers, women aged 35-50, and
wallpapered media in all of the various outlets these women and household
decision makers focused their attention. When working with House Beautiful
magazine for Kitchen of the Year, celebrity host Jeff Lewis developed a close
relationship with TSG PR. Through gifting countertops for his various projects,
Caesarstone eventually became a series regular on his show "Flipping
Out" as he filmed each of his renovation projects using the product. TSG
PR created an official partnership with Jeff whereby he appeared in
commercials, webisodes, and filmed at Caesarstone's offices. Caesarstone received
over 11 minutes on his show and over 13 million viewers watched as he labored
over which color to choose and named his own hue with Caesarstone and TSG PR
executives. This turned out to be one of the main reasons the brand was able to
sell and go public on the NASDAQ within a year of the episode airing. This is
one of TSG PR's proudest moments, and an example of utilizing brand advocates
in a mutually beneficial manner.
4.) Work
with people you love
Jeff Lewis
is an example of working with someone you love. If you are going to develop a
relationship with someone you need to get along, share the same vision, and
have the same goals in mind. Let's face it, you aren't an entrepreneur because
you want to deal with the same problems you faced in your old job, that's for
sure. Gone are the days of hating your boss. Choose to surround yourself with
people who bring you happiness and you will succeed. It's like the old high
school saying of "you are who you hang out with." In the world of media
you want to be around people you admire and respect. TSG PR has a long-standing
and deep relationship with many people in the media. Eva Longoria is a prime
example. We have worked together for so many years we call on one another when
projects arise. Lately this has consisted of gifting suites for various
charitable events since Eva is a true philanthropist, and a beautiful person
inside and out. Creating a superb gifting suite is again knowing your target
demo, utilizing brand advocates such as Eva, tapping into your resources, and
giving in a way that brings your brand attention. With over four million
followers on Twitter, Eva Longoria's tweet using TSG PR's e-mag filled with
amazing sponsors for an ESPY award gifting suite garnered over 600,000 views within
a few hours, and countless sales for brands such as Piperlime and Nixon. In
turn, there’s no doubt this created relationships that will continue to grow.
Find your tight-knit crew of people who love you and are your brand advocates
and this will happen for you.
5.) Network
Cheesy as
it sounds, networking really does work! TSG PR is an example of that in every
way. When working with C&C California, TSG PR was fortunate enough to work
with an old friend at an ad agency looking for two women launching a brand from
home for a Visa commercial. C&C California fit the bill. TSG PR submitted
the co-founders to the casting agents, they booked the commercial and within a
month of it airing Oprah Winfrey's producer came calling. She loved the shirts
and wanted to feature them on her "Spring Favorite Thing" show.
By the time this episode aired on the east coast the t-shirts were sold out in
every store. It was truly a life-changing moment for the brand and no doubt
created the eventual extremely lucrative sale to clothing giant Liz Claiborne.
All because of a casual conversation with an old friend with a need TSG PR was
able to fill. If that isn't a testament to the power of networking we don't
know what is.
6.) Use
Social Media to your benefit
Reach out
to the many friends you've amassed over the years. They may want you to join
Farmville, but you are using this outlet as a tool to build your business. While
they grow their crops, grow your brand. You've heard the phrase "there's
no such thing as a free lunch" well on Facebook this is true. Giveaways
will draw the attention to your particular product or service. Whether it's a
groupon deal, a Gilt Groupe promotion, or a One Kings Lane sale... these
websites have hundreds of thousands, and some of them millions of fans, so
partner up and watch your numbers soar! If you build it they will come as
cliché as it sounds. The real challenge is what to do once your fans/friends
arrive. That is where sweepstakes come into play. Get creative in finding ways
to engage your target demographic and get your brand’s message across while
rewarding them for the effort of paying attention to you. The contest below is
just one example of the many creative ways to build buzz in social media.
7.) Stay up
on new media
There are
new sites popping up on a daily basis. The best ones we have found for building
buzz for your sweepstakes are Instagram/Pinterest and microsites. Instagram is
the new Facebook, let's face it. People love it, your friends are on it as we
speak.... so use it! You can promote your sweepstakes with a simple screen grab
posted to your instagram account and cross-reference each site on Twitter to
round out the circle of social media. Pinterest is a great place to run a
contest or promotion as people are building their boards already, why not have
them build one about your brand? When it comes to microsites, while they're a
bit more costly and complicated, they're worth every penny. Unlike the
aforementioned sites, with a microsite you own the data. Meaning, for every
contest entry you now have a new customer who will want to hear about your
product or service through your newsletter and will share his or her contact
information with you when entering the contest. Any of these forms of media, or
the plethora of others we haven’t had time to mention in this post create a
perfect outlet for you to promote your company, garner material to work with in
your e-blasts, and above all call attention to your brand. This will help when
pitching editors, finding brand advocates, and networking with the people you
love.
8.) Watch
your business grow!
Want to
live a moment like this? Keep up the hard work! It will happen for you.
With love,
