Talk PR Open Day....

Last week I attended one of the quarterly open days hosted by the lovely Talk PR. The open day consisted of a series of informal sessions with the different Talk PR teams, with the addition of two fantastic guest speakers, Madeline Crisp (beauty editor of New! Magazine and columnist for the Daily Mirror) and Jess Markwood (Editorial director of Aigua Media). The day was a fantastic opportunity to get an insight into the PR industry and have a good chat with people who clearly knew what they were talking about. Just in case I forget, or if anyone else is interested in reading it, I  thought I would note down some of the things that I picked up from the day (tips/advice, great bits of coverage, and some amazing products and designers).

Having just finished LFW there were some fantastic examples of how, when it comes to PR, (especially with beauty products), its not just about selling the individual items but offering the whole package. This means brands such as Wella styling and sponsoring the shows, as well as producing media supplements such as backstage edits (see the Backstage video from the Felder Felder show below). 

One of my favourites from S/S '12 : a 1950s Miami Beach Glamour
styled by Panos Papadrianos & the Wella Professionals Creative Team
for Charlotte Olympia. 


Backstage: LFW AW12 Felder Felder - Adam Reed, Hair How To from Talk PR on Vimeo.

One of the two NEWGEN designers that Talk look after is the AMAZING Holly Fulton. I got to see her SS12 collection, which I have to say, is even better in the flesh. 

Holly Fulton AW 2012 (style.com)

Jess is the Editorial Director of Aigua Media, an online publishing network which manages 13 fashion, beauty and lifestyle MEGAzines (including the blogs 'Catwalk Queen', 'The BagLady', 'Kiss & Make-up' and the retail platforms 'OSOYOU' and 'OSOGLAM'). Incredibly driven, Jess' career is a fantastic example of why the simplest route is not always the one in which you learn the most.  Having pulled OSOYOU out the other side of administration and learnt incredible amounts along the way, the success of Aigua media is a credit to her talent and determination. Below are her DOs and DONTs for those wishing to go into PR:

 




Before attending the open day, technology PR wasn't something that I had ever really considered (and yes, I admit that I had been put off by the 'geek stereotype'), but the girls (yes girls) were anything but geeky, and what they had to say about the changing face of consumer technology was really interesting. One of their recent products was the Fujifilm X100, a camera that aimed to place fujifilm in the league of the big professional brands such as Nikon and Canon. To raise awareness, they had teamed up with professional photographers, such as Grazia's 'Style Hunter' Phil Taylor, to showcase not just the product but the quality of the photos. They also gave one to David Beckham to take document Victoria's NYFW show!

{Image from Grazia}

Madeline is the Beauty Editor of New! magazine, a columnist for the Daily Mirror, a freelance journalist, and clearly one of the top in her field when it comes to beauty. Her favourite new product at the moment are the multi-purpose BB creams (what's not to love about them!) Here are some of her top tips from a journalists perspective: 

An interactive brainstorming session rounded off the day meaning that we could all try our hand at some of the things that we had learnt before sharing a glass of wine with everyone at the end. Essentially the day confirmed the fact that PR is the field of work that I want to go into and I would love to end up working for a company as exciting as Talk. Everyone there, the other girls included, was unbelievably friendly and would advise anyone wishing to go into Beauty/Fashion/Technology PR to go along and see what Talk is about. 

L x