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1. Contemporary Fashion PR
Fashion PR in the Digital Age
©Michelle Sadlier 2011

2. Personal Background
• EDUCATION
– BA Honours Media & Marketing
– HDIP in Journalism and Media Communications
– Cert for Social Media in Business
• EXPERIENCE
– Retail sales assistant, management and merchandiser at Oasis, Jigsaw and Benetton
– PA to Luxury Womenswear Designer
– Traditional fashion PR at London based agency
– Style social media curator at Storyful.com
– Sponsorship at the British Fashion Council
• CURRENT ROLE
– Digital Strategist and PR Consultant at Karla Otto International and the Pencil Agency.
– Clients include Rugby Ralph Lauren, Casio, COS, LuisaViaRoma, Gareth Pugh and Marni.
– Consultant to international conferences e.g. SXSW and The Influencer Con.
• SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE
– @Shelbyshelly
– http://shelbyshelly.com
– Linked In: Michelle Sadlier
– Facebook Page: ShelbyShelly

3. Class Questions
• Who uses social media?
– Twitter
– Facebook
– Blog hosting site
– Linked In
– Tumblr
– Foursquare

4. What is Social Media?
• ‘an umbrella term that defines the various
activities that integrate technology, social
interaction, and the construction of
words, pictures, videos and audio’.
• Essentially, it’s a way to describe the millions of
conversations that people are having online. i.e.
It’s word of mouth BUT ON STEROIDS.
• It is the engine of discovery.

5. Why is social media important?
• One in every nine people on Earth is on Facebook ( This number is calculated by dividing the planets 6.94 billion people by
Facebook’s 750 million users)
• People spend 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• Each Facebook user spends on average 15 hours and 33 minutes a month on the site
• More than 250 million people access Facebook through their mobile devices
• More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook30 billion pieces of content is shared on Facebook each
month300,000 users helped translate Facebook into 70 languages
• People on Facebook install 20 million “Apps” every day
• YouTube has 490 million unique users who visit every month (as of February 2011)YouTube generates 92 billion page views
per month (These YouTube stats don’t include videos viewed on phones and embedded in websites)
• Users on YouTube spend a total of 2.9 billion hours per month (326,294 years)
• Wikipedia hosts 17 million articles
• Wikipedia authors total over 91,000 contributors
• People upload 3,000 images to Flickr (the photo sharing social media site) every minute
• Flickr hosts over 5 billion images190 million average Tweets per day occur on Twitter (May 2011)Twitter is handling 1.6
billion queries per day
• Twitter is adding nearly 500,000 users a day
• Google+ has more than 25 million users
• Google+ was the fastest social network to reach 10 million users at 16 days (Twitter took 780 days and Facebook 852 days)
• 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media.
• Social media is DIALOGUE and not MONOLOGUE.
• Don’t assume social media is the answer to everything
• If you’re product sucks, social media won’t fix it
• Social media now IS media.

6. ‘The ultimate challenge for all luxury
brands is to go digital — without
losing their key attributes of
individuality and identity.’
– Suzy Menkes, NY Times.

7. How is the fashion industry embracing
social media?
• Social success
• Taking the digital plunge
• Democracy Vs Exclusivity
• New influencers
• PR Vs Marketing?

8. Case Studies:
• KCD, Karla Otto and Starworks
– Digital Division Vs Outsourcing
• Tom Ford Vs Burberry
– Exclusivity and Democracy
– Innovation and Tradition
• The London ShowRooms and TheCorner.com
– Brand partnerships
– New media initiatives
• Gucci’s Connect E Event
• Jimmy Choocatchachoo
• Coach’s Guest Bloggers

9. Fashion 2.0
• Technological developments have skewed the traditional exclusivity and hierarchy
of the fashion industry.
• Digital should be seen as an integrated tool as opposed to an exclusive one.
• There is an overflow of information and conversation online, the challenge is to try
and control and influence that dialogue.
• The digitization of fashion shows have created a dichotomy of opinion on the
future of fashion e.g. fashion cycle, how it should be presented, exclusivity Vs
inclusivity.
• The technological industry has converged with fashion and they no longer exist
exclusively.
• Technology is everywhere, its social.
• Digital has disrupted fashion pr’s traditional methods of communication.
• Data will drive campaigns, prove ROI and inform success.
• New PR is all about the adaption of Web 2.0 tools in to the fashion industry.
• The new runway
• The new interactive magazine

10. What is Digital PR
• It applies an agency’s fashion expertise in both PR and
Production to connect the fashion and digital worlds.
Services include: Strategizing Digital Opportunities for Fashion
Brands
– Sourcing Experts and Talent for Digital Brand Building Activities
– Management of Relationships Between Fashion Brands and
Digital Partners
– Development and Implementation of Digital Press Strategies
– Development of Social Media
– Strategies Initiation and Management of Digital Content and
Experiences for Fashion Brands
– Development of Projects and Programs for Non-Fashion Brands
to Provide Access to the Fashion Industry

11. Digital PR contd.
• Relationships between media brands and your client. E.g.
Twitter/Skype/Facebook/Mashable.
• Digital communications can play a valuable and critical role
in spreading information about the brand.
• Digital’s primary role is to communicate the dream
(particularly for luxury brands, building brand image and
mythology).
• Digital should be integrated and seen as a bigger part of the
jigsaw.
• Documenting and publicizing an event, supporting an iconic
event with an online showcase.
• WHY should people engage?
• Be a cultural tastemaker

12. 6 steps to successful Fashion PR in the
Digital Age
• Listen (audience, client, culture)
• Data (research and analyze)
• Target (be specific because you can)
• Engage (are you on Twitter?)
• Share (self PR)
• Analyze Data (better execution)

13. Examples
1. Share anything behind the scenes (photo shoots, fashion shows, planning meetings,
production.
2. Archives (vintage photos, historical press clippings, old ads)
3. Feedback (start discussions, encourage opinions, ask for feedback on products).
4. ACTUALLY LISTEN AND TAKE ACTION!!!
5. Feature your employees (their fav products, their style, their tips, a day of your life)
6. LIVE report from an event (trade shows, fashion shows, PR events, parties, tv
shows)
7. Be Inspiring (photos, quotes, destinations, articles)
8. Host an online event (Q&A with company stars, interviewing industry events, live
stream anything)
9. Share press highlights (magazine articles, blog mentions, celebrity sightings, awards)

14. Fashion PR in the Digital Age
Reputation management in an always-on communication cycle
• information stream
• Data available 24/7
• Responsibility to ensure information is correct.
• Rapid response reputation management is NB (reaction times have to be quicker and more efficient).
Building digital expertise from inside — and out
• outsource expertise
• build the digital vision (e.g. KCD, Starworks, Karla Otto).
• PR’s need to prioritise their digital agenda.
• It should be seen as an opportunity to grow their service offerings.
Relationships — not numbers — count most in blogger engagement.
• Influence Vs Followers (e.g. Susie Lau Twitter Vs Facebook).
• development a blogger engagement strategy. E.g. Blogger breakfast.
• Decide your selection process.
Monitoring, amplifying and measuring social buzz.
• the public’s interactivity is actual the most important.
• consumers shape the overall brand conception.
• Twitter accounts for PR Agencies?
• Use social media monitoring tools (Radian 6, Google Analytics, Klout and Alexa Ratings).
Streamlining traditional PR processes with digital tools.
• Fashion GPS
• Tech Vs Real life engagement and knowledge.

15. How to pitch to new media
• Relationships are built on engagement
• Have online presence
• Target lists
• Research their voice, brands they like etc
• Engage, respond, deliver.
• Marketing for a PR

16. Linked In
• LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional
network with over 120 million members and
growing rapidly.
• LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts
and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas,
and opportunities with a broader network of
professionals.

17. LinkedIn for the Fashion Industry
• Join but make sure profile is polished with
supportive tools (e.g blog/facebook page/twitter)
before communicating.
• NEVER connect with someone without a
message.
• Don’t become a SPAMMER!
• Use it for research (e.g. meetings)
• Groups on LinkedIn…join them! Learn! Connect!
Become a networker, but be informative.

18. Resources
Websites:
- Mashable
- Fashionably Marketing
- The Fash Collective
- The Business of Fashion
- Techcrunch
- The Huffington Post
Social Media Tools:
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Wordpress
- Tumblr
- Linked In
*Shelbyshelly.com ‘Digital Fashion Feed’ list on my blog.

19. Trends to watch…
• Social shopping
• Foursquare RADAR
• Mobile
• News from the noise (CONTEXT!)
• Marketing AND PR as a service
• The new runway
• VIDEO