Let’s start by defining what actually PR (Public Relations) means.
PR is a formal practice defined as “influencing, engaging and building a relationship with key stakeholders across numerous platforms in order to shape and frame the public perception of an organization.”
In recent years, with the development of technology, PR has faced some changes like every other industry. As it is a practice where consumer engagement and experience are the key elements of successful communication and public relation, it is significantly valuable for companies and brands to follow the latest developments.
What About Fashion PR?
The fashion PR world is like a magical land where all the fun and creative part of the work happens. It might be hard, with long working hours and a lot to follow, but it’s all worth it for what you accomplish in the end.
PR has always been an essential part of the fashion business, especially after content has become extremely valuable for companies and media outlets.
“The fashion PR industry focuses on managing brand positioning and developing brand awareness.” By this, we can understand that fashion PR is responsible for promoting the brand or the company in the best way possible in order to reach the target and raise awareness. Which is why it’s essential for PR to follow the trends and use the most popular and effective ways of promoting.
Traditions Are OUT
Startup Fashion has divided fashion PR into two as Traditional Approach to Fashion PR and New Approach to Fashion PR. The traditional one, which is the approach that’s been used before the latest digital changes, used to rely on product placements and creating press coverage. However, as Startup Fashion suggests, with a plethora of media outlets, an overload of content and instantly developing communication channels the traditional approach became deficient and expensive.
In the New Approach, on the other hand, media and brands work together in order to have more efficient results of originality and creativity by promoting productivity. Also, as well as the fashion PR industry itself, the media industry has a major part in these developments.
So, What Are These Latest Changes That Rock The Fashion PR World?
When it comes to the fashion world, technology becomes even more important for brands, as I mentioned above. As we can all see, the digital world nowadays has become the basis of every foundation where companies focus on promoting their new products or brands by digital platforms rather than the traditional methods that we were familiar before.
Obviously, there are some numerous digital innovations that effected the fashion PR world, starting with the invention of TV, laptop and mobile phones. We might be all aware that these are the core innovations for technology and surely for PR. But what has developed and changed in the early 2000s can be defined as the contemporary impacts for PR business in the fashion world.
•Blogs
Surely, blogs are one of the most recognizable changes that affected the fashion PR industry in the early 2000s. As The New York Times states, with the launch of the first fashion blog in 2007, people started reading blogs to learn about the latest fashion trends which led the fashion business to become an online community. This gave rise to some of the most successful fashion voices of today such as Business of Fashion.
The queen of PR and social media, Instagram, has launched in 2010 as an online sharing platform for individuals. Through years, it developed into a popular social media platform where likes, comments and followers have become the new way of “popularity” which led businesses to create Instagram accounts for promoting their brands and products.
With new innovations each year, Instagram broke down the “traditional” way of advertising and promoting for businesses and it became an essential aspect of fashion PR with options such as advertisements, adding links, and shopping on brands’ profiles.
•YouTube
After uploading videos on YouTube started to become a serious job, companies started promoting their businesses through content creators of YouTube (YouTubers). And how this impacts the fashion PR world is a bit different than Instagram or other social media platforms;
YouTubers create contents where they upload videos in which they open the PR boxes and try new products that come from brands, which are also known as “Unboxing videos”.
It is beneficial for businesses to promote their products on YouTube because of the credibility and visibility that advertisements or paid partnerships cannot provide. And considering that visibility is essential for the fashion industry, YouTube has become a significant platform for the business of fashion PR.
These three platforms, which, in my opinion, are the top 3 innovations of the 2000s, rocked the fashion PR world with their unexpected digital developments. Even though the traditional approach to PR is still relevant and important for companies, following the latest digital trends is the key element of a successful business in today’s world considering that social media has become the core fundamental of the everyday life.