There is a perception in some areas that PR is just standing on doors checking invites, press lunches and chatting with designers, it’s a stereotype that is far from the reality of the industry, how would you describe the core functions of a good PR agency?
That’s a funny one and to be fair there is an amount of this, but nobody seems to realise that in order to understand your product and the markets needs as well as the medias demographic we need to spend a lot of time with our clients and press, I’ll be damned if I’m doing it sitting on the edge of someone’s desk with a coffee in a plastic cup and PowerPoint presentation in the other.
We create dynamic content for our clients and present this to press through whichever way we feel appropriate. We know what products need to be shown to who and what they will pick up on, we also read people, you can tell when someone doesn’t give a flying F about a product by the glazed look in their eye. The other function is honesty, when a client has a product that isn’t right, we have to tell the client and work out a way in which it can be represented to them in a way that they might like.
Pop PR has a client base of both established and emerging designers, with the emerging fashion labels in the UK there is a huge amount of churn, what do you think it takes to move from start up to established?
Money, patience and timing – gone are the days when people will do something for nothing, so if you are a start-up brand, make sure you have a marketing budget that allows for press stunts and ideas that excite media so they come back to you again and again.
Will you ever move away from the instantly recognisable Fashion Week look of all black everything for your team?
The only reason we do it is because everyone has black in their wardrobe, it usually looks smart and makes the team instantly recognisable if someone needs to speak to one of the team. I am a huge fan of this look and when I was junior, this was the uniform guidelines we were given which actually worked very well.
Speaking of LFW, do you think the BFC is doing enough to support British labels as it’s come in for some criticism that it’s featuring the same designers season after season and the costs of being on the schedule or in the showrooms is pricing out young talented people?
It’s a tricky one, I understand why the BFC is there and I recognise a lot of good that they do, however as someone that has stood on the side-lines I have witnessed them turn away numerous international brands for reasons nobody understands. We have a client from Malaysia who repeatedly applied and kept being declined, that client has gone onto opening stores around the world with runway shows in every other major city and was summoned by Kate Middleton to attend an event here in London this year.
The guidelines to be an on-schedule designer have not changed in years which indicate a dated view on how designers achieve the goal for being on-schedule. That said I have a lot of respect and time for the BFC and I believe we need them here. The hulk of British designers have lower budgets than international brands which is maybe why the BFC haven’t been able to help the UK fashion labels.
Are Haribo the perfect invite bribe, or does a Percy Pig still reign supreme?
strictly vegan Percy Pigs only . . .
''Thank you so much for the intro MilliOnAir – I am a Londoner who considers herself a punching bag to the fashion masses, mother of 1 chihuahua and 2 labs, girlfriend to an American entrepreneur and not so secret mouthy feminist. I am also the MD for POP PR which is a fashion, beauty, tech and events agency.''