Wednesday 31 May 2017

Fashion + Celebrities = the perfect PR fit

* Guest post from Jack Walton, first year PR specialist student

PR is that one thing that can apply to anything. Every industry will need some form of public relations, be that the media industry, hospitality industry, sport, healthcare, leisure... and of course, fashion, the list is endless. 

Fashion and public relations go hand in hand. Celebrity culture is more closely linked than ever in this. When I completed my media relations module, I had to analyse a section of a newspaper; I choose the style section of the Daily Mail. It was interesting to me how closely linked fashion and celebrities were - and just how prominent PR was in this industry. Prior to never studying PR before I was just a consumer of fashion, I was looking from the outside in. Participating in this module made me realise how much actually went into the clothing I buy and how PR has a big role to play in how it’s advertised, marketed and consumed.

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When superstar BeyoncĂ© was recently seen on Instagram sporting Gucci’s latest collection, her fans and the public went mad and obviously wanted to wear and get their hands on what she was wearing. BeyoncĂ© and Gucci undoubtedly had some form of arrangement for her to pose wearing their latest collection, because they have a strong team of PR working at Gucci who all know the power of social media, particularly within the fashion industry, and how influential Queen Bey is. 

One of the photos shared received in excess of 1.8 million likes. A short Google search later and I quickly found several articles which had re-posted the images and included how much some of the items were - another example of the press picking up on a PR opportunity. Many of us know that if someone in the limelight is seen wearing something many will then buy it, even if it is for a crazy price, so the potential impact is huge.

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PR campaigns are used heavily within the fashion industry. My favourite fashion campaign to date has to be by H&M, 'Kiss For a Cause', which was launched by the fashion brand  back in 2008. The Fashion Against Aids campaign asked customers to 'kiss for a cause' and also buy a piece from the specially designed collection. Huge interest was generated from 2008 to 2012 and many articles still talk about the awareness achieved through this campaign. I feel when any brand adds a charitable element to a campaign it really makes you want to find out more and explore the brand or products being sold. In this particular instance, 25% of all sales from the collection went directly to a variety of youth HIV charities. 

Overall fashion and PR will always work well together. Online shopping has been declared the preferred purchase method of the future. Being able to buy something in the spur of the moment at 2am is now a convenient reality for most consumers - no waiting in queues in busy shopping malls. 

PR always had a role to play in fashion but I believe with technology and online shopping subsequently increasing its only got more significant in terms of selling that product and marketing it to as many as possible.

Post by Jack Walton, first year Media and Communication student at BCU. Follow Jack on Twitter and his media blog, Jack Walton Media.


If you would like to feature in a guest interview or write a post for #BCUWeArePR, get in touch.

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