In the first two parts of this series on porn and PR, seven of the industry’s top PR professionals explained how they enrich their adult industry clients.
Now it’s time to ask how stars should shop for the best PR pros – and detect the ones to be avoided.
The experts who took part in one or more segments in this series include:
– Brian Gross (www.bsgpr.com)
– Erika Icon (www.therubpr.com)
– Jay Kopita (www.deltahousemarketing.com)
– Roger Pipe (www.pipelinemultimedia.com)
– Alexander Raymond (www.starfactorypr.com)
– Lainie Speiser (www.mizlainie.com)
– Wendy Williams (www.hotwendypr.com)
YNOT: Selection time: How should a porn star shop for a good porn PR agent?
Jay Kopita: Do a Google search on their work and their clients; ask around and get feedback from their peers. Your PR agent must be well known and effective.
Lainie Speiser: This is a small industry, so it’s easy to find out who is the right PR person for you. Do your homework online, find out which performers are representing and find out how it’s been going, if there’s been any growth in those performers’ careers.
Erika Icon: I would say do your research, and look at the potential publicist’s track record and their reputation in the industry. You might want to ask someone who already has a publicist
Brian Gross: You should ask people who they have worked with, and how they feel about the publicists they have hired.
Roger Pipe: References are always a good start. But if I were shopping, I would look for someone willing to listen to my needs and help shape a campaign based on that; rather than just relying on what worked for the last client.
YNOT.com: What else should you be doing, and checking, and looking out for during the PR shopping process?
Lainie Speiser: Write down a list of things you need to have done on a weekly or monthly basis. Look for the PR person’s presence on social media and see how professionally they conduct themselves publicly. Reach out to the PR person you are curious about and make the time to have a real phone conversation or even if possible a face to face meeting over coffee.
Wendy Williams: Is he or she familiar with your genre? That is the biggest issue. You want someone who has worked and or familiar with the genre you are in.
Lainie Speiser: I feel it’s so important to have chemistry with your PR person. Even if the work is good, this person may not be the one for you for other reasons. The relationship you have with your publicist is an important one, so by all means go on some “dates” before you choose who is the one for you.
Erika Icon: Don’t hire someone who is a performer and/or owns an adult company. Hire someone who only does PR, so you will always be Number One and your interests will come before theirs for self-promotion.
Make sure you find out what you will be getting for your money, and don’t assume all publicists offer the same services. And, although we don’t have contracts, some companies do, so be leery of signing a contract longer than two to three months.
YNOT: What are the signs of a bad porn PR agent?
Jay Kopita: They include but not limited to (and in no particular order): Poor written and communication skills, bad industry reputation, poor follow up skills (often from being either lazy or disorganized or both), and a small media list.
Roger Pipe: One that tries to make every performer fit their PR template. Every performer is different. Promoting them all the same is a good way to fail.
Lainie Speiser: I’d say a bad PR agent is someone who doesn’t get along with people! It’s “Public Relations”, remember, so the first thing you need to have is a publicist whom everybody likes. I want the mention of my name to bring a smile to your face.
If your PR agent brings a groan or a weird pause, that’s not a good person for you. You know that saying, “It’s not a popularity contest?” In this case it is! Your publicist doesn’t have to be everyone’s best friend, but they definitely have to be a person that people enjoy doing business with.
Erika Icon: I’m always shocked when publicists can’t write, and their press releases are consistently riddled with spelling and grammatical errors.
Another pet peeve I have is publicists who make up stories to get media attention and make the industry look bad. Grandstanding is never good PR.
Lainie Speiser: Another bad sign is if the communication between you and your PR person is bad. If you can’t get a hold of them easily through text, phone calls and emails, it’s not a good relationship. Communication is a huge part of publicity and PR and you should be able to go to your PR person with ideas and questions and assignments easily.
A bad PR person is also someone who isn’t a self-starter. I was lucky at my time at Penthouse that I didn’t have to sit around and wait for assignments. I booked media for Pets and Penthouse every single week on my own. I was always a self-starter and no one had to hold my hand so the job would get done.
Your PR person is supposed to enhance your career and make things easier, not harder.
————–
In Part Four of this series on porn and PR, YNOT.com asks our porn PR pros to ‘put the rubber on the road’, by telling us which porn stars they’ve helped to make more money, extend their reach, and grow their success.
