* 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 Beyoncé 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. Beyoncé 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.
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