Clips and tips

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,