Carrie Soucy, president of Miamore Communications, which represents Thistle & Bee, Mary Esses, CJ Recht, and Leon Megé, among other bauble brands, shares her tips on how to find and vet a PR professional who can actually get your wares on a celebrity.
- Find an agency or a publicist who specializes in celebrity placement. Do some online research and find out who has a proven track record.
- Be wary of agencies offering deals. If they say they’re going to do it for $500 a month, they’re lying. Expect to pay a premium to see results—more than a typical retainer for PR agency.
- Before going into it, know what your objectives are. If you’re paying a lot of money and they only get you placement on a B-List celebrity, you need to figure out if that cost is worth it to you. Celebrity placement is harder to track than editorial PR, where you can see what magazines their clients have been in.
- I would also recommend getting references—talking to other firms who have worked with them. It’s easy to slap up pictures of celebrities wearing this brand or that on their website, but did the PR person really get them that press?
- Ask what stylists they work with, what relationships they have there. If they are talking about having presence at the awards shows suites that take place in L.A., that’s not enough. The chances of getting placement on a celebrity through a booth at an awards suite is almost nonexistent. It’s really about the stylists; they’re the ones dressing the celebrities.
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