Lindsey Smolan’s Post

In the world of business, Public Relations (PR) and Branding are two sides of the same coin, working together to shape perceptions, build credibility, and foster trust. The symbiotic relationship between them is crucial to crafting a cohesive narrative that resonates with your audience and stands the test of time. PR plays a vital role in establishing trust and credibility by effectively managing communication channels and disseminating authentic messaging. Branding defines and communicates the essence of a brand, ensuring that every communication aligns with the brand's identity. PR works hand in hand with branding, creating a consistent identity across all touchpoints. PR acts as a megaphone for branding efforts, amplifying brand messaging through media coverage, influencer partnerships, and social media engagement. It reaches wider audiences and reinforces the brand's positioning in the market. PR initiatives help nurture relationships with stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors, and the community at large. By building meaningful connections and fostering brand advocacy, PR strengthens the brand's reputation and loyalty among its target audience. Ultimately, the synergy between PR and branding drives business objectives, contributing to achieving overarching goals and driving sustainable growth. By recognizing and harnessing their symbiotic relationship, businesses can create a compelling narrative that resonates with their audience. Let's keep in mind that PR and branding are not isolated silos, but rather interconnected elements that work together to shape perceptions, foster relationships, and drive success. #PR #Branding #BrandIdentity #CommunicationStrategy #publicrelations #strategiccommunications

"We find we only get press coverage when we launch a new beauty product...how do we start getting evergreen press coverage?" I heard this recently on a discovery call with the marketing director at an established beauty brand, and it's a GREAT question! Essentially, this brand noticed an uptick whenever they launched a new product, but they didn't know how to maintain momentum in media coverage throughout the year. They wanted to bring on a PR agency to create a more consistent pitching cadence, hopefully resulting in increased evergreen content, and not just coverage tied to new launches. And this makes complete sense - a steady stream of coverage throughout the year boosts brand awareness, establishes credibility and trust, and keeps the brand story top of mind. Hiring a PR agency who speaks with editors daily knows how to position your brand and its products throughout the year to fit into seasonal stories, tie into recent trends, and respond quickly to editor call-outs who work on stories your brand can fit into. We also love getting creative for our clients - diving deep into the founder story or the business's growth plans, or tying products into current trends, is so fun for us and truly our passion. It's our responsibility to garner press coverage that ties back to your messaging and ultimate business goals - and we love doing it! So while press coverage surrounding new launches is important, the real impact comes during other points in the year, when your brand story and product innovation can shine through. ✨✨✨ I'm Lindsey, the Founder and President of VLIV Communications, a NYC based PR agency that catapults beauty, fashion, wellness and CPG brands to new levels of business growth with impactful media coverage. Feel feel to DM me or email me if you have any PR questions! #FashionPR #FashionMarketing #MediaRelations #BeautyPR #BeautyMarketing

My lifestyle and PR agency VLIV Communications often partners with fashion and beauty brands that are newly launching to the market, are coming out with a new collection, or undergoing a rebrand, and who want to make as much of a splash as possible in popular top-tier consumer and trade media. BUT - if brands don't have the right pieces in place prior to enlisting PR support, they may not see the coverage they're looking for. There's a few vital pieces any brand with a new launch or messaging should have in place before enlisting PR to support a new brand or launch to maximize chances of securing great press. What are they? 🛍️ Retail Strategy: Even if you're not carried in stores yet, determine if you plan on going the wholesale route or want to stay DTC. And make sure you have a functioning, shoppable website! 📸 High Res Imagery: Both lifestyle and flat products shots are key for press as many outlets don't photograph in house. 🗣️ Trained Spokesperson: Whether it's the founder, designer, or formulator, make sure there is someone who can authentically speak to key messages + provide a human element. 🗓️ Launch Timeline: Have a calendar of all new launches + marketing plans laid out for the next year - while this will likely change, creating a loose plan is important. 💄 Product Samples: Certain types of products can make do without many samples, but for products that need to be tested in person, you'll need to have some to gift/loan to editors. ✍🏻 Brand Messaging: Make sure your key pillars + values are all hashed out before going to the media. 🤝 Affiliate Marketing Strategy: This is crucial nowadays - make sure you're either part of an affiliate network or that you sell on a retailer that is, as many outlets will only feature products that they're able to earn a commission from. Was there any part of this that surprised you? Let me know in the comments below! And for more PR insights, feel free to sign up for our newsletter, The VLIV Edit, linked in comments below. #beautypr #fashionpr #beautymarketing #fashionmarketing #mediarelations ✨✨✨ I'm Lindsey, the Founder and President of VLIV Communications, a NYC based PR agency that catapults beauty, fashion, wellness and CPG brands to new levels of business growth with impactful media coverage. Feel feel to DM me or email me if you have any PR questions!

What does PR mean to me? 🗞️ 📰 In this ever changing digital world, PR feels different to when I first started out. Of course we adore the printed column inches, double page spreads and front page news but perhaps in 2024, the most value can be found Online and TV. 📸 10 years ago, when I was a PR Assistant, I carried around a Vogue which featured Kate Upton wearing a Freya Active Sports Bra on the centre fold. The image was black and white and she was crawling through the tide, to be honest it wasn’t the best image of the sports bra but there it was written in words on the centre fold of Vogue, on Kate Uptons body and shot by Mario Testino. This felt like the most phenomenal moment, I carried that Vogue around for months because I was SO proud of this feature and I wanted to show everyone! 🪩 PR is the most beautiful world where relationships, contacts, reputation and brand offering come together to create amazing opportunities for minimum budget. That is the biggest thrill for me, achieving such greatness without huge budgets, but through believing in the brands you work with and being able to share them with the world in such a positive light that others can’t help but put them on the pages of their magazines, wear them on Tik Tok or feature them on daytime TV. 🔮 Brand Awareness is in my DNA. I have always been straddling the world of PR and Social Media in my career, seeing huge success getting the right products on the right people. Working with influencers is one of the most exciting parts of my career, I love to give them amazing opportunities, build a relationship and create experiences, it’s what makes me tick. (I still own the Vogue and took this picture tonight ✨)

Public Relations Build Your Brand Image The fashion industry is heavily driven by brand image and reputation. That makes public relations (PR) one of the top fashion marketing trends. In the fashion industry, the perception of a brand can influence consumer behavior. PR helps create a positive public image and build a strong brand identity. PR is also important for launching new fashion lines or products. It can help you generate buzz through events, press releases, and media coverage. Finally, fashion brands often aim to be seen as trendsetters. PR strategies can help position you as a thought leader in the industry. This can influence trends and consumer preferences through strategic communication. Start by identifying how to tell your brand’s unique and compelling story. This story should be woven into all your PR activities. It can include the inspiration behind your collections, your values and mission, or the designer journey. Next, be sure to build and maintain relationships with media outlets, bloggers, journalists, and stylists most interested in your story. These individuals can amplify your brand’s message to a wide and targeted audience. Collaborate with them for product launches, special events, and exclusive previews.

#Inconversationwith Komal Lath founder, Tute Consult, An integrated Communications Services Consultancy; ✨What is the biggest challenge facing the PR and beauty industry today? PR like any industry is facing challenges, I think one of the key challenge is, that we are trying to sell the unattainable to the aspirational segment. What is required today is a narrative and build on what beauty does for the consumer, the value it adds, and that beauty enhances but is also very present around us. In the PR beauty industry, embracing beauty requires worthwhile and inclusive communication. ✨What advice would you give to someone wanting to start a PR or Beauty career? It's a fascinating field and I remember my days of being creative and using all that energy back into campaigns and building brands. The one thing I personally feel is important in #pr is the love of giving brands a space to sparkle like diamonds. This can only be achieved if you have a passion for PR and marketing in a manner of speaking and that passion is what makes you last longer in this field. It can be applicable for any field but in PR it is a labor of love and commitment towards your clients.  Some of the things that come to my mind for the younger folks are developing skills that you will need and having the desire to learn something new and #dynamic every day. 💡Be curious enough to know what fact finds, read labels, ask questions, and have some very very good writing skills and talking skills. #knowledge is a power that a good PR agent or agency can effectively use to communicate. Use curiosity combined with seeking knowledge to help solve a problem for your clients and the larger challenge in the world. Beauty and the Beauty industry give people hope and spread love and appreciation. It enhances what is already beautiful and adds a certain sparkle.  Beauty gives hope, makes people feel confident, it makes them feel good about themselves. 🚀What are some of the most important trends in the PR and Beauty industry right now? The important trends in the PR and beauty industry right now are based on a lot of ingredient-based beauty, clean beauty, and sustainability. It’s incredible with these new trends that home-grown brands are on the rise and those who work with small batches of products are coming up. Consumers like the niche, and what it brings and love consuming them. From a retail standpoint, offline and online both are merging, and omnichannel and experiential are moving to light, making brands and their narrative reflect what’s important for them. #external #interview #beauty #pr #bcpl

I have been a communications girly for my entire working life. Media and PR is second nature to me and it's an obvious choice to include it when building campaigns to market beauty brands. But media doesn't work unless you feed it with stories. Anything else is considered advertising. While the media landscape has change drastically in the last 20 years, the old stalwarts still lead the game in terms of credibility and reach. Which can translate to website traffic and back links for you. This is precisely why I include media in every campaign plan and offer my "quick refresh" media planning and PR service to beauty brands who want to add some media coverage for the launch of their brands.

What is the role of a PR Professional? Get your pens to note down today's KamComm notes! Since I've been conducting interviews for the past few days for hiring under communications, the most prevalent challenge I witnessed was the non-clarity as to what a PR professional does. To summarise : - PR is the art of securing trust. We specialize in building strong relations with people who help in various ways to establish a brand. These relations are organic and thus sustainable. - Who are these people? - Well, journalists, High network influencers (HNI), brands, and creators from different fields. Every relationship can lead to a potential advantage to the brand you're building. It's about intertwining relations that lead to powerful collaborations. - We build stories: For eg : XYZ brand is vegan vs XYZ brand is vegan because of so and so founder's personal experience. The emotion bit strikes a chord right? We narrate stories in a way that people can remember the brand or profile that is being worked upon. - Product placement: Eg For you see a celebrity at an event. You like what they're wearing, you talk about it, good, bad, ugly, but it still strikes a conversation and maybe you buy it also. Now these looks are placed on celebrities mindfully to push the brand further. That's called sourcing. We source garments in exchange for deliverables that make the brand prevalent in the limelight. As PR professionals, we also must ensure whom are we dressing and whether is that good for the brand or not. These calls are up to us. Mixing this all up, we build a brand's quality authentically to establish it long-term. Makes sense? #PublicRelations #PR #PRtstories

PR Chat: Your first big story! Do you remember the first big campaign you delivered? The one that you’re still really proud of? In 2008 I was a baby PR and had landed a role as a manager in a boutique PR agency. When I first joined the agency slightly inexperienced and a little bit out of my depth, I landed a huge campaign. JD Willams’ lingerie brand Simply Yours had taken on Gok Wan to design a collection of shapewear and I was to develop and deliver the PR strategy- I discovered this on my first day! The collection was completely aligned with Gok’s ‘How to Look Naked’ TV Show which at the time was absolutely huge. Excited- tick, terrified, also tick, but what an opportunity. In 2008 the PR landscape was entirely different.  Now, we would launch a campaign like this via social media using various influencers and celebrities to promote it on their channels. Earned media would still be important, but less so- particularly for an online brand. Probably some paid media features with online outlets would drive the collaboration further.   Then, print press was king. All the coverage generated was verbally pitched (by phone!) and earned.  I was so fortunate that the press were completely engaged with Gok and the collection. We launched the collection to the UK press at a large party in a London nightclub. Gok was of course in attendance, alongside celebrities and the vast majority of the UK press.  It was a huge deal for this baby PR, with paps outside and a huge fanfare. Following this, was a press call day with one-to-one time with Gok. Most PR’s know that these days can be tricky, if the name or moment isn’t right, the press aren’t interested and there can be some tumbleweed moments. But there weren’t enough hours in the day for the activity, generating coverage in volume in all the key print publications. But the moment I still am the most proud of was the print exclusive launching the collection in You Magazine. A front cover and a five page feature starring Gok and four models wearing solely his collection. The icing on the cake; Gok was interviewed by Liz Jones and shot by Diana Gomez. All these years later, this is still my favourite piece of coverage and I still have multiple copies of the magazine in my office! This leap into a position that was a little bit out of my depth, into delivering a project for which I was slightly inexperienced forced me to hit the ground running. How much I believed in the project drove me to make it a success. In the end, the collaboration ran for seven seasons and I delivered many projects with Gok- from taking the collection to Edinburgh Fringe Festival to touring the UK. It shaped the way I approach campaigns now, it taught me resilience, that the projects can seem overwhelming are usually the most rewarding. What’s your favourite ever campaign that you have delivered? What did you learn? Here’s a terrible scan of the You Magazine cover…as press clippings were very different in 2008!!!