PR is a complex world. One that, unless you are involved in it, most do not understand. “Is it kind of like advertising?” is something PRs often hear. Simple answer – no.
PR, and especially Beauty PR, is becoming increasingly important and valued in the UK due to crowded markets, recovering economies and a more fragmented target audience. A few years ago if you wanted to target 50+ ABC1 women in the UK, you needed to be mentioned in the likes of Good Housekeeping, Prima and Easy Living. Job done. Now, you still need to be in those titles (though Easy Living is no more), but you also must be on websites too as this generation have become tech-savvy, and have a social media presence (the fastest growing demographic on Twitter is 55-64 year olds) that responds to complaints in a timely fashion but also speaks to these women in their language.
Phew! It’s a lot to handle, but these are all activities that a good quality Beauty PR team can manage for you. At the last estimate back in 2012, the UK beauty industry was worth over £15bn (CEW), with hundreds of different brands vying for a slice of the pie, and also vying for beauty journalists’ attention.
It is our job to know every single beauty journalist relevant for your brand in the UK and speak with them frequently, making sure your brand is at the forefront of their mind when they come to write their features. As you can imagine this takes up quite a lot of time. However, putting the effort into this means we have incredibly strong relationships and can achieve the best results possible.
We also know celebrity agents to negotiate either big campaign deals with or simpler brand endorsement, as well as department store buyer teams should you need introductions to try to secure stockists. We manage social media accounts right from big campaign ideas to customer complaints, and write different content relevant for the different channels’ audience in order to increase your follower engagement.
So, are we like advertising? Complex answer – no, traditional Beauty PR is perhaps like an advert from a third-party expert (usually the Beauty Editor) but has a lot more power than a simple advert. This is also just one fraction of the work we do in the ever-changing and ever-evolving UK beauty industry. Product placement, expert comment, London Fashion Week, sampling, social media, beauty bloggers, celebrity relationships, copywriting, research, events, journalist hospitality…the list seems never-ending.
This is what we love. The different PR landscape creates more work for us, but also more excitement and opportunities than ever before.
Christina Moore, CCD Beauty Account Manager