The Tin Shingle Blog

If you happened to be on Tin Shingle (or my personal) Facebook or Twitter pages today, you may have heard our buzzing about three great brands featured on Gossip Girl :  Gemma Redux, Kara James Bags, and Lust4Luxe handbags.

I will be the first to admit openly and honestly that I do not watch Gossip Girl (or 90210, or Privilege or the many other hot teen programs), I do understand it's power to change a brand overnight.  Here's a quick lesson on why product placement is important, how to handle it, and great news for members who want their own chance at Gossip Girl!

WHY CARE?

I've had people say to me - "I never watch teen programming, why should I care if my brand is on?"  After I catch my breath and get over my shock I let them know these reasons:

#1 It validates you like crazy - here are a few places that will be interested:

* Weekly Magazines & Blogs:  Fastest way to great celebrity magazine press (Us Weekly, Star, etc) is to have a tie to what shows are hot and what actors and actresses are the most sought after.  Check out your local newsstand and see who they feature regularly - those are the shows and celebrities you want to be seen with or on (your product that is).

* Trendsetters:  Though we may not watch some of these shows, the trendsetters, editors, and fashion personalities who you need to impact often follow them - all it takes is one person to see your brand and you could find yourself in the pages of Glamour's next issue!

#2  It can lead to sales and purchase orders

* Sales & National Stores:  I was recently at a trade show talking to a major department store buyer, and when I inquired about what they needed to see in a brand in order to take a meeting there were some basics I've heard before:  get the major fashion magazines, get product placement in a major program or movie, and high profile celebrity interest, to name a few.

#3 Stylists will get to know you

*Whether the costumers on the show, their friends, or those who follow the fashion focused programming, they will be watching, and they will take note.  We've even had clients who had orders placed from the set after their products caught the eye of network stylists.

#4 You can toot your own horn on and offline

* Placements on national television allow you to toot your own horn as you should!  Tweet, Facebook, Digg, and spread the word!  People get excited about exciting and challenging things, and this is a great way to share your success and open the door to people visiting your website.

* Add it to your media kit - screen shots, show notes, logos, front and center - this will surely attract editors and buyers like we mentioned before!

HOW WILL IT WORK AND HOW DO I PREPARE?

* When you send your product to a wardrobe department be prepared for it to sit there for months.  At times they need the piece immediately, but  normally until they know you and what you have to offer, they will keep it there until it works with an actor or actresses ensemble.

* Don't stalk or ask when it will be returned or used.

* Be prepared to act fast - at times we hear weeks ahead when it will air,  other times (like today) we heard the day of, an hour before it went to air.

* Get a clip!  Call Video Monitoring Services and they will help you get a clip - even an e-clip, quickly that you can use to leverage your placement.

* Write a press release (short and sweet with a link to your product) and send it to the weeklies and fashion magazines asap.  You want some buzz!  If you can get a screen shot too, go for it!  This is a great reason to PING your  favorite outlets you've been building a relationship with.

* Include the news in your newsletter and if you feel up to it, use a promo code for the product that was featured. 

* If it looks like the hit will be huge, prepare sales wise!

* Send a handwritten thank you note after the email you send the moment it airs.  You want the department to reach out to you in the future.  I would also send Fretzels, Sweet Muse, or Gourmetibles ; )

POT OF GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW:

Are you a Tin Shingle member?  We're pulling soon for future Gossip Girl tapings and would love to find some hot new fashion brands to showcase.  Stay tuned to find out how you can submit!

Hey Ladiesssss!

Happy Monday!  To steal a line from Sesame Street, "M is for Monday's"  and it's also for Mother's Day!  If you are a product that would make a great Mother's Day gift now is the time to reach out to your short lead outlets and not a moment later!  May is also sweeps time for television which means competition is even stiffer so be sure your pitch pops!

Short lead, constituting blogs, newspapers, radio, and television (as well as any weekly magazines) are already planning their Mother's Day issues.  Have you submitted your line sheets, samples, or pitches?  If so you should definitely be in follow-up right now! 

Be sure you keep your pitch quick and to the point and make it clear via your headline why you are emailing them.  For instance, be sure to mention if it's:

Eco-friendly Mother's Day Gifts
Under $100.00
Edible
Under $25.00
Personalized
etc.

When you pitch rememeber to quickly introduce yourself, explain why their readers/viewers would enjoy the product, and be sure you have a great looking website with a functioning cart to share with them.  Don't send attachments, and copy/paste your most recent press release in the body below your pitch for more information.

Clock is ticking!  Get moving!

Hey Ladies

A common frustration in pitching is simlar to this one:

"I've pitched Cookie 10 times and they never called back, should I give up?"

or

"InStyle is NEVER going to return my pitches and I send them emails every two months"

or

"Am I not a good enough expert for Fast Company, they never seem to return my calls"

Well here's a secret - sometimes I feel the same way!  Not to toot my own horn but in my years in PR I have landed everything from O Magazine to Daily Candy to CNBC to Entrepreneur and all things in between, but I often have the same frustrations.  Case in point, I have been pitching a major lifestyle magazine since my early days at Escada and I never get a great response.  Does that stop me?  Heck no!  

Sure I could give up and say "they don't like what I have", but instead what I say is "they don't need what I have right now", because that is the truth!  Magazines and television go by what they need, what the trends are, what the price points are, trend stories, breaking news, SO MANY FACTORS!  If you have a great product and good pitch (see our how to's on pitching) chances are they just don't need you yet.

Chances also are that you need to be patient and persistent to be sure they keep you in the back of their minds.  This magazine I pitched finally got back in touch with me last month, and the result was a huge success.  The funny ("funny") thing was that the editor said "how have we never worked together in the past?"  I wanted to say "because you never called me back" but of course i could not, and I knew she was too busy and I was lucky we were creating our relationship now - better late than never!

If you feel funny pitching monthly follow these rules:

* Do it - you must reach out every month IF you and your brand have something new to say or share

* Find something new to say or share

* Piggyback on trends, news stories, seasons, breaking news, or popular stories that you could be an expert on

* Share new products or new pricing or fabrications

* Create a reason to briefly get in touch

* Keep track of these monthly emails so you know when you contacted them last and what you sent

* Read their ed cals if they are a magazine to see how you could help them - if you are a Core member you can find those online at Tin Shingle

* Never give up - have an actor's mentality:  audition, audition, audition and never look back!

Eventually if you are a good fit they will come to you - but only if they remember you, your product, and how patient and easy you have been to work with!

 

Very early on a Thursday, I stopped my workday at 5pm to begin to get ready to moderate a panel put on by Columbia College Women (Office of Alumni Affairs and Development) and the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium, thanks to an invitation from Tin Shingle member Stacie Bach. It was held in a beautiful boardroom on Park Avenue surrounded by oak, the perfect setting for an intimate gathering to learn from six extremely different entrepreneurs.

During the panel, we realized that a thread of similarities ran through these women, as different as their businesses were. The most common themes were: delegating to others; having more than one business; and solving problems. Here is a little bit about what we learned at the panel:

Magaly Colimon-Christopher

creator/writer/producer/director/actress/entrepreneur
Magaly dashed into the meeting in full production garb. She was bundled in sweats because she suddenly had to fill in as producer on her new web series, and they were filming on location, where it's cold outside.
What we learned from her: Magaly is recently married and chose someone who is not only supportive of her many career outlets, but works with her. She has found it a nice balance to have someone else catching the balls as they are juggled. As we heard about how Magaly's mind works, and how it knows no bounds when exploring different areas, we couldn't help but notice her flawless and glowing skin. Not gonna lie. Her secret? Drinking fish oil, and using her own skin care line, AhRomanticSoothers.com, which she developed because she recognized how to solve her own skin care needs with shae butter.

Yscaira Jimenez

Founder of La Pregunta Arts Cafe
Yscaira is a an unstoppable entrepreneur. Where others may falter from analysis by paralysis, she jumps in. She took a giant risk, and a major pay cut, to start La Pregunta Arts Cafe, a Cultural Social Club, founded to stimulate the neighborhood with gallery exhibits, open mics, improv comedy nights, live music, Capoeira and any other expression of Afro-Latino culture.
What we learned from her: Yscaira saw a problem in her neighborhood: there were no cultural outlets for reading, coffee drinking, and expressing. Originally, she wanted to open a bookstore, but there wasn't enought demand for a local bookstore becauase of online and larger bookstores. Sometimes an entrepreneur has to cede to the lack of demand. What she did answer, however, was to be a cultural outlet that serves cultural food. By chance, she named many of her sandwiches after Cuban leaders who happen to be socialists. A large socialist club is now one of her biggest customers. Who knew socialists had money to spend! Most recently, a new problem has arisen for Yscaira to solve: everyone wants her food, so she is branching out into catering. This is the blessing of the entrepreneur: recognizing a need, and delivering.

Erica Woda

CEO and Founder of Level the Field

Erica played soccer for the Columbia University Women's Soccer team, graduated, and then was accepted into the New York City Teaching Follows Program. She taught for two years in a high need district school in the South Bronx and then went on to teach in a charter school in the Bronx. She recognized a problem: kids were not being stimulated outside of school, and therefore, were not developing vital social skills to succeed. She created Level the Field, a program which merges Columbia athletic programs with these kids to keep them active, socialized and succeeding.
What we learned from her: Pitch yourself. All the time. I think it is her natural tendency, as an athlete, to see the end goal in mind and run strategically towards it. When she saw the end goal of Level the Field, she had the vision and the belief. She had no fear pitching her concept to her social circle from various spheres to raise capital. And now she have quite a team behind her.

Wendy Friedmann

Partner RW Delights - Heavenly Souffle

O.M.G. Wendy was a former successful sales and marketing professional in the technology and advertising industries. She took a hiatus to have a family, but soon got the urge to get back into the business world. One might mistake this urge for a serious chocolate craving, because that is what Wendy and her partner and dear friend, Roxann Kam, created: frozen chocolate souffles that you can bake yourself in just 18 minutes called Heavenly Souffle. The first time I ever tried one of these was courtesy of a FreshDirect.com coupon for a free dessert. It was beyond my expectations.
What we learned from her: Diversify. Their product is sold from the website, via licensing, and via other revenue models. Yet they know their limits in terms of dealing with the drawbacks of each as they grow their business. Shipping for them is a huge issue. A glitch in shipping large truckloads of frozen chocolate souffles has different ramifications and stress then shipping an invidvidual order from the website. You may be surprised at her answer as to which stress she prefers.

Caitlin Friedman & Kimberly Yorio

Co-Owners of YC Media, & Co-Founders Girls Guide
Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio are public relations and marketing professionals, authors and entrepreneurs.  Caitlin and Kimberly are the co-owners of YC Media, a boutique agency specializing in cookbooks and the co-founders of Girls Guide, a company created to help women achieve professional success. As authors of the best-selling Girls Guide series (The Girl’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business, The Girl’s Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch), The Girl’s Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear and the upcoming Happy at Home, Happy at Work), Caitlin and Kimberly have been featured on CNN and The Today Show as well as covered by magazines ranging from Time to Parade.
What we learned from them: Partner. Partner when it feels right. When these dynamos branched out on their own, they were getting each other's clients. Meaning, whatever wasn't a solid fit for one, ended up being a fit for the other. As competing PR women, they could have continued on competing. But something about them worked. Their first expense was an office space to get out of their bedroom offices. One of their major leaps of success was based on a declaration of failure - of all of the decisions they've made that have gone wrong in managing their business. But did they stop there? Like any good entrepreneur, the identified a problem, and created a solution: The Girls Guide series.

Hopefully we will hear more from these ladies. Until then, we've got a lot to work with in terms of how their experience can help shape our businesses.

Keep on problem-solving!