Today Cody Eastmond and Francesca Shuch, from the PR company, The Communication Store, held a GFW Live! panel, where they discussed the other side of fashion communication.
Cody Eastmond is the Senior Director of the Digital department. Today he started the talk by explaining how digital platforms such as Instagram have recently been embraced by luxury fashion brands.
Francesca Shuch, who studied to be a lawyer, reflects on the transition from her choice of studies to the fashion world. She continues Cody’s explanation by saying that “social media, especially with Tu, helps us think about the ultimate consumer. It gives us a better understanding of the brand’s customer, resulting in the possibility to convey the world of Tu in the best possible way”.
Speaking of the newborn role of fashion influencers, Cody tells us that they are taking up an increasingly big proportion of the marketing budgets. He says that “PR is the way for brands like Tu, that have beautiful collections to connect with the media- we specialise in public relations, influencer engagement and unique content production”.
Another important role of a PR team is to organise events, and to create the opportunity for the customer to experience the brand at 360 degrees. In their work with Tu, The Communication Store have focused on their representation of Modern Britain, and on ensuring that the brand’s DNA, it’s values of democracy and of openness towards every body type, is delivered to the customers.
Talking about the requirements for a successful lookbook, Francesca and Cody proceeded to say that “the strategy is guided around making the lookbook as cleverly as possible. After that, it is our place to try to promote the images to the best editors, so that the brand’s identity is preserved, all whilst delivering well on the commercial side”.
With some final words of advice to Fashion Promotion and Fashion Communication students, Cody says that “trying out new forms of commercialising, is the best way to engage a new audience, especially with the endless possibilities that the digital world has to offer”.
Cody’s echoed by Francesca who continues with, “navigate trends whilst being confident of your vision for the brand you are working on. Remember that different brands work in different ways, so not every brand will necessarily get good promotion from the most popular influencer in the world. You have to keep in mind what the brand’s mission is, and choose the right people depending on the content they share and their following”.
Written by Sara Liberati
Photography by Becky Mukerji