For this episode, I’m delighted to welcome back Andy Thê-Anh, an immensely talented stylist and fashion designer whom I interviewed in episode 70, when we analyzed Lululemon’s successes. We also spoke with Andy in episode 80, when we discussed the Netflix documentary Wonder Boy, which presents the creative director of Balmain, Olivier Rousteing.

In this episode, we continue our discussion and explore the evolution of the Gucci brand.

The movie

House of Gucci is a 2021 American biographical crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott, based on the 2001 book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden. The film follows Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) and Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) as their romance transforms into a fight for control of the Italian fashion brand Gucci. Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Jack Huston, Salma Hayek and Al Pacino also star in the movie.

Hello Andy! Thank you for accepting my invitation to talk about the film and the Gucci brand.

- What did you think of the movie?

- How do you perceive the history and evolution of Gucci?

- Tom Ford's arrival as artistic director propelled Gucci to the top of the big fashion houses in the 90s and 2000s; why do you think that is?

- In 2004, Frida Giannini successfully took up the torch, and Alessandro Michele was appointed artistic director in 2015. Alessandro brings a whole new style that combines colour, androgyny, and contemporary romanticism. A real tour de force. What do you think?

- Do you think Gucci today is avant-garde with its desire to eliminate the male and female genders? Where do you think the brand is going?

HOUSE OF GUCCI

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/movie/house-of-gucci/id1597143789?l=fr%3Fl

Find Andy Thê-Anh on:

LINKEDIN

INSTAGRAM

I hope you enjoyed this episode and that this PR/marketing moment stimulates your creativity.

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Most of what we know comes from what we read online or in the media.

Think about it – a large part of what you know comes from what you read and news bulletins, which are available online or in hard copy. We often let the media guide us when deciding what car to buy, where to go on vacation, or what toothpaste to use.

This observation undoubtedly illustrates the harmful effect of fake news. The more people read it, the more the algorithm suggests similar stories that are just as inaccurate as the previous ones.

Opinions are generally formed by a combination of what we read and word of mouth, and public relations therefore play a role that I am passionate about—influencing influencers and journalists so that they choose to talk about our clients.

The media and the Internet are where the public get most of their information. We better understand the damage it causes when leaders of major nations ban access to certain media or Western social media that enjoy freedom of expression.

Without the media and the spread of information online, it is practically impossible to participate in a Western society like ours and obtain information on the economy, politics and new consumer products. You’ll tell me that you don’t believe everything you read—which is great—but traditional and social media are still hugely influential.

If we compare the influence of the media with advertising, we quickly realize that advertising doesn’t—and never will—have the same credibility.

Advertising won’t bring you brand awareness. If you have the choice between purchasing an ad in a newspaper or an interview with a journalist, which one would you choose?

The interview of course, because when you read a newspaper, watch a news bulletin or a video on YouTube, where do you spend the most time? Do you do what I do, and impatiently wait for the moment when you can skip the ad to go back to what you were actually watching? In conclusion, you watch little—and read even less—of ads that are imposed on you, even though they may account for 70% of a publication (with only 30% being content).

I hope that you enjoyed and were inspired by this little public relations break.

Join us and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.

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We often hear new customers tell us: why waste our time with a PR campaign when I can use that money to do Facebook / Instagram advertising where I can target my potential customers more precisely?

The answer is very simple, to develop a brand, to build a brand image that will last over time, advertising will not do this work for you.

Advertising is important to help generate revenue, but it is not what makes you attractive in the eyes of your customers.

Today, nothing is more powerful than your online community and the articles about published online or in the mainstream media. Even today, nothing beats a TV interview where a journalist tells your story despite declining ratings.

Your notoriety will increase tenfold because an intermediary is talking about you. The same goes for influencers who discover you and who, without being paid, talk about you to their community. Especially if that influencer's fans are very engaged. Public relations is what will give you that credibility.

Think of brands such as Apple, Microsoft, Starbuck and even Tesla: these brands could not have built their foundation without the support of the media. In the case of Tesla or a brand like Zara, there is little use of public relations agencies, but they know how to get people talking about them and use public relations to their advantage. The case of Elon Musk is a relatively simple public relations case to understand; the more they talk about him, the more Tesla shines with its potential customers.

All these giants give us the impression that TV interviews and newspaper stories are exclusive to them. But knowing the power of RP will teach you, on the contrary, that it is available to all of us.

Public relations effective in boosting your SEO

You have probably heard me say that PR helps increase your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) several times. Boosting your SEO should be part of any good marketing plan because it is what will get you easily spotted on search engines and increase your visibility and sales.

Your SEO improves when articles and interviews on you or your product are published online. The same goes for your blog or podcast. This combination is the magic recipe that all the major brands know very well. Yes, they have substantial budgets and can work with several agencies and experts, but what is remarkable today is that everyone can do the same, thanks to the Web.

You can build your own very targeted press list with less than 100 contacts and succeed in getting people talking about you and considerably increasing your SEO.

And yes, that's what I teach you at NATA PR SCHOOL: how to combine PR with your social media.

Again, it is not advertising that will bring you this notoriety. But obviously, nothing better than combining advertising campaigns and public relations. But if your budgets are tight and you are just starting out then, public relations and social media will become your best allies.

Join me, sign up for our lists and trainings where I teach you step-by-step PR tactics you can implement right away.

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For this 87thepisode, I am delighted to welcome one of our students from NATA PR SCHOOL, Marie-Pier St-Laurent. Marie-Pier launched her own company Marine Marketing recently and decided to enroll in one of our training to create a public relations campaign for one of her clients: LE BON PANIER.

Digital marketing specialist, after 6 years in the service of various enterprises, Marie-Pier decided to launch her own company: Marine Marketing. Her main goal is to serve her clients honestly while making sure they understand her digital marketing services.

Find Marie-Pier St-Laurent et Marine Marketing :

https://marinemarketing.ca/

LE BON PANIER

https://lebonpanier.ca/

I hope you enjoyed this episode and that this PR/marketing moment stimulates your creativity.

Reserve your spot todayto learn, like Marie-Pier, how to get featured in the press for free.

The doors are closing soon.

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For this 86th episode, I am delighted to welcome one of our students from NATA PR SCHOOL, Antoine Bolduc, a new entrepreneur who participated in one of our training programs and had great success.

Antoine is a trained accountant and an outdoor lover, which led him to create his vegan clothing and accessories company to enjoy outings in nature in complete harmony. Atypic was founded in 2019 and launched a highly successful crowdfunding campaign in September 2021.

Thanks for agreeing to join me, Antoine. Following that brief overview, and before we talk about Atypic, I always begin by asking my guests a super simple question:

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that this PR/marketing moment stimulates your creativity.

Find ATYPIC EQUIPMENT at: https://atypicequipment.com/

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Interview with David Tremblay, Vice President, Partner at NATA PR

Hello, David, and welcome to this 85thepisode of the NATA PR SCHOOL podcast. So much has happened since our interview way back in our 10th episode!

For those who would like to get to know David better, I invite you to listen to the 10th episode where he tells us about himself and the public relations profession.

I asked him to join me again today because a lot has happened since the pandemic and the 10th episode.

David oversees several major clients the agency is currently working with in the US market. I wanted to invite him to tell us about the main differences between these two markets because this is a question that our customers often ask us.

If you are curious to hear us chat live, you can also check out NATA PR’s Instagram account. The links are provided under this episode.

1- What do you think are the main differences between the Canadian and American markets when it comes to PR and social media?

2- Can you give us examples of campaigns you are currently running?

3- Would it be interesting for a brand to start with the Canadian market? If so, why? If not, why not?

4- What do these markets have in common?

5- Do you have a preference for Canada or the United States?

Get people talking about you in the media and online!

Stand out from the crowd!

We often receive calls from start-ups and companies that have never used public relations and don’t know where to begin. Meanwhile, their competitors are being mentioned in articles and appearing in TV interviews.

Many marketing specialists who have to create public relations campaigns that they can combine with their social media strategies simply don’t know how, and know even less about working with a PR agency.

They don’t have the $5,000 to $10,000 a month you need to work with a leading public relations agency.

If you want to develop your public relations campaign, learn how to write your own press releases and, above all, capture the attention of journalists and influencers to broaden your community and increase your sales,this program is for you!

At your own pace

We will soon be launching our training, which will start on May 4, 2022. Spaces are limited for this first class because we want to offer the best support possible.

This training will teach you the steps to develop relevant public relations strategies quickly and easily. I will teach you about the best tools we use at the agency.

STRAIGHT TO THE POINT

Our new program draws on the training we give to our new employees and our tips to quickly generate results.

It provides practical and simple exercises that you can follow step by step and implement immediately.

You will have access to many press releases that have generated successful outcomes for the agency that you can use as templates. You will learn how to tell your story in a press release and an email and discover our structured method that is available to everyone.

Get people talking about you in traditional and social media, for free!

Between now and the start of our program on May 4, I encourage you to download the free six-step NATA PR model, which is our essential day-to-day tool. In it, you will learn how to create a public relations or social media campaign. This is the first step of our program:

FREE NATA PR MODEL

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BE THE FIRST IN CLASS

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Brands that have successfully made themselves known among their target client bases have, at one point or another, used these two public relations strategies.

Founders or executives have chosen to reach their potential clients by telling their story thousands of times to journalists and influencers.

This strategy can be used simultaneously with the first one. Telling one’s story and using ambassadors can be a great strategy. However, if the company’s creator is unknown or not alive anymore, it is in the brand’s interest to partner with celebrities and/or influencers. This strategy enables brands to be more visible in traditional media and on social media.

Making yourself known is exactly what we teach at NATA PR SCHOOL. Our clients who want to use this public relations tool, which is extremely powerful when combined with social media, also benefit from NATA PR’s expertise.

Telling your story and partnering with ambassadors are two of the most widely used strategies. They have certainly been used since people began buying and selling. For example, Marie-Antoinette is a personality who comes to mind to illustrate the second strategy. She is known in history for being an early ambassador of the fashions of her time. Perfume creators, jewellers and hat makers rushed to court to offer her their products and services. Imagine how these merchants could expand their client base by telling people that the queen is now wearing their new hats, clothes or diamonds.

Today, major brands hire celebrities, artists, athletes or Internet personalities to get their brands known, like the Chanels of the world that offer paid partnerships to represent their products. This strategy helps bring traditional brands back to centre stage. For example, Chanel No. 5, which, since Marylin Monroe’s famous “I only wear Chanel No. 5” quote, has consistently renewed its image by partnering with a series of iconic stars. This is a perfect example of the icon strategy. More recently, Billie Eilish, the young singing prodigy who got her start online, became the voice of the latest James Bond movie (No Time to Die) and has renewed the public’s interest in the mysterious double agent. She also appeared on the cover of British Vogue and was invited to the Met Gala. All these events aim to stimulate conversation about their brands, products or good causes.

By making these partnerships more accessible, the Internet is enabling new brands to get people talking about them and get themselves known by partnering with current-day influencers.

It’s possible to tell your story in press releases and on social media. First, you have to be able to answer one simple question:

Why would people talk about you? And that’s the first step of the NATA PR model. Try to define what will capture the attention of journalists and influencers.

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that this PR/marketing moment stimulates your creativity.

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Right off the top, it’s good to clarify that marketing includes PR and advertising. Let’s say marketing is the umbrella that generally covers five areas, known as the 5 Ps:

The 5 Ps are also called the marketing mix. Some SMEs focus on the 4 P mix, especially if they’re not selling directly to the consumer.

As for the 7 P mix, this often involves companies that specialize in the quick sale, such as inventory liquidation.

Along with the 5 Ps come the following two concepts:

Of course, you can also classify Process under Place and Physical Proof under Promotion.

For us, inbound marketingis very much a part of the marketing mix. This strategy is about creating content to attract visitors to your website. It could easily belong to the P of Promotion.

This strategy, offered by digital marketing agencies (online agencies), consists of preparing landing pages that tell potential customers about services or products. Each of these pages generally contains a call to action such as:

The possibilities here are endless and, as you may have already seen, every digital agency has its own inbound strategy. I find this aspect of online marketing fascinating because you can test out this type of strategy with a very limited budget.

I’ll definitely be covering this in more detail in an upcoming podcast.

Nothing affects humans more than sincerity and candour. What are we to think of people who talk about their mistakes or admit they’ve never gotten their driver’s license because they have no sense of direction or they can’t tell north from south or left from right? Well, it’s that law we’re going to talk about here: putting the less glamorous aspects of your product out in front.

In North America, the Listerine mouthwash brand is the perfect example of this law of candour. They’re the first to admit it tastes like medicine – just like Buckley’s cough syrup, whose ads revolve around that. So, consumers assume it’s effective: if it tastes bad, it must be good for you.

When a brand owns up to having a downside, consumers immediately accept this as true. Such honesty is highly lucrative in PR and in marketing strategies. We’re also seeing it more and more with executives who are talking more openly about their failures, their depression or their mental health issues. Honesty gets human beings right in the heart.

But you’ve got to be careful with this, because announcing any less-than-stellar aspects will leave a lasting mark on the product. Once that information has settled in consumers’ minds, it will take years to get them to see things differently. In such cases, you’ve got to change the product’s formula to get rid of the bad taste. This very powerful law of candour applies to human beings as well. Think of one of your employees who has, say, confided to their coworkers that they drink too much. They probably won't be able to shake the “heavy drinker” label for a very long time. We also have to admit that we retain the negative aspects more than the positive – just as much for a brand as we do for a person.

I remember hearing a young singer announce to her audience that she was very nervous, because it was her very first time on a big stage. An enormous wave of sympathy spread through the crowd, who was then ready to accept all of this young woman’s hesitations and mistakes.

I often urge my employees to say: “I’m still learning” or “I need help”. They can even write to a reporter to tell them: “I don't think my subject is for you, but maybe you could point me to one of your colleagues who might be interested in this product.” You’d be amazed how much people also like helping their neighbours.

Can it be that we tend to overestimate the “positive thinking” trend? The one that’s been growing in popularity for years now. Obviously, living with a black cloud of negative thoughts over our head all the time could ruin our quality of life in the long term. However, I think this law of candour is fascinating and important to know, because it confirms that being honest is especially powerful when we’re ready to put our weaknesses out there.

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that this PR/marketing moment stimulates your creativity.

BUCKLEY’S:

https://www.buckleys.ca/?ds_rl=1269992&gclid=Cj0KCQiA3rKQBhCNARIsACUEW_bia_8kiv4B8r85xFIfaHJzxBA4ufbikAQXIiULnYmSnEJ9blSzPNsaArQyEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

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