The first session covered sponsorship and featured speakers from the British Fashion Council and Vauxhall, giving two different perspectives on how designers can successfully seek sponsorships. Advice ranged from the obvious (don’t be shy to pick up the phone) to very interesting inside-tips on how the sponsorship process works (look at who is currently sponsoring fashion and seek out their competitors, remember to follow up with your sponsors, show results).

Yesterday’s session covered PR, including how to get the most out of working with PR agencies and how to do your PR in-house. Here are some of the points raised with comments:

• Make your own news. Actively create newsworthy pieces – these may include a show, a celebrity wearing / talking about your creations, a collaboration with another designer or similar one-off project. Journalists are always looking for news and it’s best to serve them up ready for publication! Look at the sorts of stories that are coming up in your favourite media for inspiration.
• Tell your own story, but don’t go overboard. It’s important to include a paragraph or two about who you are and what you want to get across with your creations. The more compelling the story, the more likely it is to be published. Avoid a long CV-style rehash of everything you’ve done. Rather, start off with where you are now, and move on to discussing your relevant background in relation to that.
• Give a taste of what your collections are about. If you don’t have the resources to put on elaborate shows this is a great avenue to get more of your vision across. Help the reader understand what inspired you. Also consider putting it in the context of your other work.
• Make sure press releases are newsworthy. Your press releases should tell a coherent, specific story. Look over your press releases and make sure they contains an actual story that an outsider would be able to pick up clearly. More importantly, make sure an outsider would be able to retell that story in an interesting way. It’s a good idea to show it to some friends and ask them how they would retell that story in their own words.
• Have a press pack ready. If a media outlet is interested in your story, make sense you have plenty of materials ready for them if they want to do a story on you. Watch this space for more tips on putting together an effective press pack.
• Stay on the radar. Even if you don’t get coverage, getting word out about what you’re up to is vital. Make sure your name is coming to the attention of journalists periodically.
• Find journalists and build relationships with them. Look at the masthead of the publications you want to be featured in and get to know what different journalists are interested in. Pick one or two that you think might be interested in what you’re doing. Find their contact details or telephone their organisation to find out.
• Working with a PR agency is a complement, not a substitute for your own PR. Agencies bring many benefits, most importantly contacts and expertise. However, they can often be more reactive than proactive. Many agencies simply provide space in a showroom and don’t go out of their way to promote you. Make sure you talk to the agency periodically to check what they’re doing for you.
• One off PR for shows. If you’re doing a show, but don’t have a PR agency it makes sense to hire an agency to fill up seats and handle distributing the invitations. Agencies will have a database of people they can invite to your show, and the one-off fee involved is lower than contracting an agency for all your PR.

As you can see it was a very informative and useful session. For more information look at the Vauxhaull Fashion Scout website. It’s free to attend for all emerging designers.

I’m surprised that it’s taken them this long to catch on to the potential of viral video. I’m even more surprised that smaller labels aren’t doing more videos to promote themselves. It’s not an entirely level playing field; the buzz created by the release of these videos show that marketing budgets are important. However, smaller labels can make a big impact with viral video – much more cheaply than by forking out for adverts or billboards.

Let us know if you know of any good examples of viral video campaigns by smaller labels!

Below is a teaser of the Dior video:

And, for comparison, here’s the Chanel video: