Recapping “Lights, Camera, Action!” – Entertainment PR

For those of you who were unable to make it to our event last week, here is a recap of what we heard from our outstanding entertainment PR panel.  We all learned so much about the industry through the discussion!

Rita Tateel (The Celebrity Source) discussed the role of celebrity sponsorships and promotional placements in PR. Her company negotiates with celebrities to appear at events and in campaigns for three reasons—for money, a good cause or free giftbags.  She also went on to detail the ways in which a celebrity can single-handedly drive a brand but cautioned us that he/she can only do so with the proper credibility, capability and motivation.

Matt Paget (Rogers & Cowan) spoke about aligning consumer and sports accounts with social media and buzz entertainment strategies. He described a recent Dasani “Green Cap” campaign that was associated with Earth Day in NYC and LA. He partnered with celebrities such as Donatella Versace and Nicole Ritchie to make customized hats to get people excited about Dasani’s new 100 percent recyclable water bottle. This campaign resulted in more than 300 million media impressions!  Matt’s advice to us was to go into job or client situations with an emphasis on your own strengths that might not necessarily be the agency or client’s strengths.

Tiffany Everett (Warner Brothers) discussed online publicity specifically dealing with the release of the movies, The Hangover and Valentine’s Day. Online buzz marketing/viral campaigns are taking over the publicity side of studios, and she’s seen rapid changes between sites like MySpace, Facebook and, now, FourSquare.  Tiffany’s advice to young professionals was to keep networking, and take great care never to burn bridges.

Beth Morris (Rogers & Cowan) went into depth about representing personalities and talent. She has become a pitching machine, as she works specifically on up-and-coming stars and is usually their first publicist.  She delivers to her clients a customized approach that forms the personalities that will define them in the industry, booking photo shoots, magazine covers, red carpet-wear, etc.  Despite all the perceived glitz and glam of entertainment publicity, Beth reminded us that the job still boils down to the nuts and bolts types of PR principles involved in creating and developing a good brand.

Leslie Jacobe (Sony) is a rising young professional, who began her career at Sony four years ago during college.  While it has not always been easy to obtain jobs from college internships in the past few years, Leslie has succeeded. Her focus at Sony involves working with satellite offices all over the nation and spearheading regional marketing for movie releases with print/online and broadcast coverage.  Leslie’s pragmatic approach to working in PR has translated to her feeling that everyone has a different path into the field but for her, the longevity of her internships played a key role.  It was her method of standing out from the crowd and making herself an integral part of the team at Sony.

Nicole Wilson (Universal Pictures), another rising young professional, rounded out our panel.  She began her career in talent publicity and has moved around quite a bit in her early years. If it’s any consolation for all of you “confused” young professionals, she had to bring in her resume because she had so many “career changes” after she graduated from college!  From the talent agency, she moved into studio publicity but then to talent publicity at PMK, back to studio work at Universal.  After listing all that out, she took a deep breath and gave us the advice to keep working hard at writing, as the press is often lazy and will sometimes simply print exactly what we’ve written.

The most uplifting theme of this panel was how passionate and comfortable the speakers are with their careers. It was inspiring to hear each panelists’ view on following their PR dreams, and it was readily apparent that they all truly love what they’re doing in the industry.

Thanks so much to those of you who were able to make it out for the event!  For those of you who couldn’t, hopefully this recap covers it for you, and you are able to join us next month for a discussion on going digital.

Details, Details…

On Wednesday’s entertainment PR panel!  We’re excited to welcome a great lineup of speakers to cover the entertainment industry from multiple viewpoints.

• Rita Tateel, Past President of the Public Relations Society of America, talking about the role of celebrity in PR
• Matt Paget, Rogers & Cowan, talking about aligning consumer and sports accounts with entertainment
• Tiffany Everett, Warner Bros, talking about online publicity
• Beth Morris, Rogers & Cowan, talking about personal publicity
• Leslie Jacobe, Sony, rising Young Professional
• Nicole Wilson, Universal Pictures, rising Young Professional

Per the norm, networking starts at 6:30 p.m.  Parking is available in the parking structure of the Pacific Design Center:

Rogers & Cowan
8687 Melrose Ave., 7th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Take the elevator up to the 7th Floor of the green building.  Parking will be validated by Rogers & Cowan.  See you all Wednesday!  (RSVP to our Facebook event)

Lights, Camera, Action! – Entertainment PR Panel Discussion

We are pleased to announce the second YP panel discussion for the year—entertainment PR.  Save the date!

Date: May 19, 2010

Time: Networking: 6:30 p.m.
Program: 7-8:30 p.m.

Location: Rogers & Cowan
8687 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Parking: Validation for parking will be provided.

Cost: $10 for PRSA/PRSSA members and $20 for non-members/guests. (Please note new cost for non-members.)

A list of speakers and a payment/RSVP link will be provided in a subsequent post.  Make plans to join us, and check back later this week for more information!

Feeling stressed, PR pros? You’re not alone!

The world of social media being what it is, I have now seen links to this article pop up on my Twitter feed from a number of sources.

Apparently PR is the 8^th most stressful job in the country today, according to a recent Career Cast article.  A little deeper inspection of the data also reveals that it might also be one of the least understood.

Any (all) of us young pros who have dealt with the deadlines, never-ending phone calls, meetings and after hours events can attest to the stressful nature of our job.  However, this article’s rationale for justifying that ranking is quite revealing as to the general perception of the profession as a whole.

The numbers for PR:

8. Public Relations Officer
Stress Rank: 193
Stress Score: 78.523
Unemployment: Low*
Hours Per Day: 9
Time Pressure: High
Competition: Very High

Public relations specialists make speeches and give presentations, often in front of large crowds. Because it is a highly competitive field, specialists must work quickly and creatively to meet deadlines. In addition, some PR officers are required to interact with potentially hostile members of the media.

Before those among you who are in perma- job search mode dismiss the article on the basis of unemployment being categorized as “low” or others of your scoff at the notion of the workday being nine hours long, take a read through the disparate professions that make this top 10 list.

No, despite what editors would have us believe, we don’t face the constant threat of death in our field like firefighters (#1 on the list), but in crisis communications, putting out fires is not all that uncommon.  For many of us, it falls into the “necessary evil” category of our job, but it does contribute to the stress level.  Those of us in corporate America—either at large enterprises or in agency work with corporate clients—know well how executives (#XX) can impact stress levels.

Additionally, the piece does touch on two points that are inherent in PR: deadline pressure and competition.  For young pros, both of these come from multiple sources at once (clients, superiors, peers, etc.) and can become overwhelming.  To an extent, that is the nature of the beast in this field, but this is also where organization and time management skills become critical, as they can enable us to set ourselves apart from the rest of our young peers and put us in a position to drive our careers.

It’s not easy, but it is fast-paced, fun and rewarding.  And, as evidenced by groups such as this Young Professionals affinity group, you’re not alone.  Reach out and connect!  Sometimes the best part about building your network is hitting your peers up for happy hour after a rough one at the office.  Do it.  It’s a valuable skill—and a stress relief tactic.