As a fashion editor of a glossy magazine I have to work in a close contact with PR managers of different fashion brands. Unfortunatelly most of them even don’t know the basics of their profession. So, I’ve decided to dedicate this article to dos and don’ts of the magazine-brand interaction.

To tell you the truth, as a PR manager you don’t need to do anything to get media attention if your clients are Chanel or Dior, in all other cases you have to work hard and smart.

Be sure that your brand is really interesting for the magazine’s audience. If you represent a cheap teen clothing brand don’t try to sell it to high fashion women magazine with readers age range of 35-55.

To introduce yourself to the particular editor or journalist you can send him a personal email (no bulk mails!) If he didn’t reply you can make a call and invite him to share a business brunch with you, where you can discuss possibilities of your future cooperation. In fact, most of editors often refuse this kind of invitation and it’s ok. They have a lot of work and they don’t have enough time to meet with everybody. But you left a good first impression – that is important.

Primary things that you must have to give to journalists upon their first request are:
1) High quality still life images of the every item from the current collection (no need to tell about hi-res?);
2) Campaign images and look books in hi-res also;
3) Price list;
4) Full info about the brand.

Good if you have a special section on your website for press, where journalists can find everything they need (including listed above). In addition you may create a photoalbum on Picasa or Flickr where they can look at the whole collection. It’s a good form to send branded CD (with all info) with printed lookbook and a small sample from the collection (like t-shirt or bracelet as a gift) for the beginning of the season.
Never send emails more that 2 Mb, if you have something to share – use file hosting services.

It’s better if you know magazine’s issues schedule. Most of the magazines make August issue in May for example, so it is useless to send in April news about May activities, hoping that your news will be in the May issue. You had to think about it in February.
If you don’t have any important news – invent them. For example, you can make an accent on your key items, making a special selection – “We present you the top 5 dresses for May” or “Spotted: Kate Moss wears tight jeans!”. It is clear that this kind of trash will never be published but it’s a chance to remind of you. Some magazines publish items with prices. If your company allows you can give to magazines your price list, if not – be extra prompt when you get a price request from the magazines.

Don’t be annoying, don’t call an editor to ask him if your news was interesting or not. Do you like to hear “no”? And nobody likes to tell “no”.  Don’t try to obtain editor’s personal cell phone’s number and never call him after 6 p.m. But it will be nice if you find out editor’s birthday and give compliments to him that day.

Photocredits: Patrick McMullan

Related Articles

Browse Timeline

• « Imran Amed Speaks To Jefferson Hack. Will You Go?
• » Shock Of The Day: Alyona Doletskaya Left Vogue Russia

Comments ( 1 Comment )

Add a Comment