👋, I’m Kimberly. I’ve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, I’m giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
This is Part 3 in a series about PR.
I dived into how to get press talking about your brand, and how to get people talking about your brand. Now, I’m talking to a few of the most brilliant PR experts around.
I’m kicking off the interview portion of this series with Jennifer Birn—one of the smartest, wittiest, all around good humans I know.
She also happens to be a PR guru who’s worked with amazing brands like Virgin America, Plum Organics, JSX, Dagne Dover, Soapbox, and Harmless Harvest.
Jennifer Birn is the owner of boutique marketing/PR company Birn Communications (formerly Simplyjen Creative Consulting Inc) and Editor-in-Chief of Austin Life magazine. She began her career as a journalist, starting as a columnist for The Arizona Republic and later became a founding editor of OK! Magazine. Using her knowledge of journalism and PR, she marries brands + talent + media to connect the dots to reach client goals. Jennifer is a Texas-bred New Yorker who lived in LA and now resides in Austin.
Jen’s Top Advice to Any Brand
Start with Your Objectives
I start talking to the client about what their objectives are. And everyone's are different. Some are trying to sell products. Some are trying to extend already established brands.
Connect the dots between where you want to be and how you can get there.
Give People a Reason to Write About You
Unless you're a super innovative brand doing something we've never seen before, you need to give people a little bit more reason to write about it. From a journalist mindset, what would I want write about? What's the story people want to read?
There has to be a lever attached. US Weekly is not interested in just saying, “Here's toothpaste, it's new, but they come a great flavors!" They're not going to do that.
But, if you integrate the product into a celebrity event and have celebrities naturally interacting with the product, there’s a much higher likelihood you’ll procure a placement.
Use Every Resource Available
Especially when you're scrappy… just try everything.
You can't be too scared to jump. Take strategic risks, and try to figure out whether that is best done through integrating into an event, talent seeding, a partnership, a collaboration, an experience, or an innovative social media strategy.
Think About How Long the Press Will Live
I love magazines. They're my first love, because I've a journalist. But I think GQ dot com is better than GQ the magazine now. Being in the magazines is a trophy…
It's a great thing to frame and hang on your wall, but it's there for a month and then it's gone—whereas you have an online story at a big outlet, and it lives forever.
Use Social Impact Make a Great Story—And Everyone Wins
I always like to try to find a way with brands to leave some kind of social impact.
People want to get involved more if there is social impact. It's an easy way to raise money and awareness for good causes and for brands.
For Those with Small Budgets
Remember that PR is One Of Your Best Investments as a Brand
Bill Gates said if he had $1 left for his business, he would spend it on PR. You can have a great product or a great brand or great event—but if nobody knows about it, then is it successful?
What to Do If You Have No Money…
I always say, "Give it all way." If you want people know about your product, you're going to have to let them try it.
The most inexpensive thing you can do is give away your product to everyone, because of the margins there. You're usually losing less money by giving away products than if you had to pay to be involved in an event.
If You Were Going to Spend Money on Just One Thing…
Usually some kind of experiential marketing or collaboration. Come up with something that could get the most news attention for the highest ROI for the lowest spend.
It's not always expensive. It could be going in Time Square, and it’s National Donut Day—go give away donuts in Times Square.
Brainstorm the smartest way you can get your product in front of a lot of people without spending a lot of money.
On Having People Represent Your Brand
Don’t Be Contrived
In today's influencer society, a lot of people think that if you attach a celebrity or an influencer to the brand, then it's all you have to do. But, it's important that it's an authentic relationship.
If you give makeup to a celebrity who doesn't wear make-up but wants the $20,000 you'll give them to post about it—their followers probably aren't going to be into make up either, so you're not gonna sell any make-up.
You don't want to get someone who doesn't speak to the brand, because people aren't dumb, and they're starting to see that people that just do things for money.
Do Pick the Right Person
I've had brands sell out to their whole SKU within hours of the celebrity posting, but it has to be the right celebrity.
If you give makeup to a person who posts makeup tutorials all the time, people will go buy the makeup the person liked. This person might be a YouTuber who not a lot of people have heard about. But these people and the people who watch them are the ones who will buy your product.
The Biggest Pitching Mistake is…
Pitching outlets a story that doesn't have any relevancy. You'll just annoy and frustrate the editors and the writers you're pitching. You need to really know the outlet you're pitching—and know that what you're pitching is right for the magazine, if you want to establish a relationship with the writers there and get press for your clients.
So often, I'll get pitches, and I wonder if this person has even read the magazine. If you want a story or your brand in the magazine, read the magazine. Reach out to the editor of the section that's relevant to the story you're pitching, and you have a lot more likelihood that you'll be successful.
Right now, I write for Austin Life, and everything is hyper local. When people pitch me these national brands that have no tag or tied to Austin, I can't work with that.
When I worked at celebrity weeklies, people would pitch me the most random things. I'd ask "What celebrity is involved?" And there isn't one. If you read the magazine, you know everything involves a celebrity.
Working with PR People
The Lie to Watch Out For
Brands will say to me all the time, "Well, this agency promised they can get this many press hits if they do this."
And I say, "They're lying, because you can't promise press unless you're paying for it. And that's called advertising.”
I can tell you, “I always have good ROI and I have good relationships, and I know the formula.” But you can't promise. PR is not quantifiable, and anyone who tells you that is not being truthful.
When You’re Hiring…
It's a close relationship, PR and the brand, especially startups, because it's such an important part of their budget. Make sure that the PR company is passionate about the brand. A lot of people just take something for the money.
Know who your day-to-day person is going to be. Is it going to be the founder, a senior executive, or a junior executive?
If you'd rather go to a bigger agency, know that it might be a junior executive who's your day-to-day.
If you require a lot of hand-holding, then you want an individual or a small boutique. They're the ones who are likely to take your call at 11 o'clock on a Saturday because you're freaking out about something, or you just have an idea and you want to brainstorm.
Jen’s Checklist for Making Sure You’re Ready for PR
Before you start pitching, make sure:
Your product is great.
You have inventory—so if it does have a lot of traction, you can sell through.
You know the message you want to rely backwards and forwards. You don't want to get that interview and not be ready.
You’ve thought about how your product is getting delivered. Jen has seen things get frozen when people sent them in the winter—and had leaky boxes delivered to her door. That's not a look you want… so understand what packaging you need to ensure this doesn't happen.
You’re ready to be authentic about your founder story. The person behind the brand had never been more important, and you really have to know what you stand for as a brand before you go out and be public-facing.
A Few of Jen’s Greatest Hits
Soapbox Soap
Jen is working on a tour of giving that starts July 15, where Soapbox Soap is going to 14 cities around the country with a 21-foot soap bottle and giving out nearly 10000 bars of soap in each city, as well as toiletry packs to local homeless shelters.
It's going break world records for the biggest giving tour of personal care products ever. It brings awareness to the soap—but it also helps a lot of people, and reminds people to still wash their hands.
Hello Toothpaste
Shortly after Hello oral care brand launched, they were doing a lot of advertising in magazines like Rolling Stone and In Style.
Jen told the founder, "Give me the budget you spend in one ad page, and I’ll get you more earned media at Sundance than the ad pages."
To promote the brand’s breathe spray, Jen and the team created a kissing booth on Main Street and donated money to charity for each person who took a picture behind their booth.
The activation got a lot of talent to participate, raised money for charity and garneed a lot of press.
Sundance Swag
One year, Kevin Bacon gathered celebrities’ swag from Sundance, and he auctioned it on his charity website. Jen thought that was a great idea—and she back pocketed it.
A few years later, it was right after Hurricane Sandy, and Jen was doing PR for Rally.org and the opening of Rock & Reilly’s at Sundance. She decided to do a Reverse Swag Drive. She had talent drop off their swag and donate it at the bar. Then, Bon Jovi auctioned it for his charity and Hurricane Sandy.
That got a lot of press, because it was people doing social good at Sundance. And instead of taking things, they were giving things away.
Next Week
In Part 4 of this series on PR, I’ll be interviewing Alyssa Musket—a mission-driven PR maven and the cofounder of therapist-led group support platform Sesh.
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About Me
I help early stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, they’ll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprint—a uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.