THE CHALLENGE
One of the original, and most significant, fashion showcases in the state of Florida is Miami Fashion Week (MFW), formerly known as Fashion Week of the Americas. Whereas Fashion Week of the Americas started out 11 years ago to foster emerging designers from Latin America who sought entrée into the U.S. marketplace, the renamed Miami Fashion Week expanded the focus to feature designers from the four corners of the globe. Given this success, other fashion events began to proliferate in the market, causing confusion. For that reason, Sobol Fashion Productions, producer of Miami Fashion Week, sought a Miami-based public relations firm to help reposition the event as a global fashion force and to attract press attendance and coverage from the U.S., Latin America and throughout the world.
PUBLIC RELATIONS STRATEGIES & TACTICS
When communicating with the media – both previous MFW attendees and those the PR agency invited to attend for the first time – TMA focused on repetitive positioning of the event as a “global” fashion showcase. Regularly issued press releases, e-blasts and messaging on the website, continually reinforced this positioning. Building upon MFW’s media list, the Agency enhanced the list by including social media and Internet reporters who could substantiate a significant following and created the master media reservation list so that registered media and non-registered media received appropriately targeted communications. The Agency also took the extra step of validating freelance reporters who claimed to be on assignment by contacting their editors to verify the assignment, thus weeding out phony reporters and gate crashers and increasing the validity of the reporters who were allowed entry into the fashion theater. Leading up to the week-long event, TMA coordinated with the designers’ and sponsors’ public relations representatives to maximize coverage, secure interviews and maintain consistency of messages. At the event, the Agency staffed media check-in, facilitated interviews, supervised the media seating area and escorted pre-approved media backstage for intimate designer interviews.
THE RESULTS
- 466 reporters pre-registered and attended Miami Fashion Week, representing more than 500 media outlets from 42 countries.
- Included in the media attendees were Fashion TV International, which broadcast coverage to nearly 350 million households throughout the world every week for two months, and CNN en Español, which produced a multi-part series for broadcast in the U.S. and throughout Latin America.
- Local media coverage drove S-R-O ticket sales prior to the event and substantial coverage during the event, including The Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Miami New Times, WFOR-TV, WTVJ-TV, WSVN-TV, Plum TV, Univision, Telemundo, MEGA-TV and more.
- The Agency, client and PR staff at the Greater Miami Visitors & Convention Bureau worked together to organize a “fam” trip for top reporters and in addition to Fashion TV, secured attendance from the fashion writer at the Gulf News in Dubai. Her resulting coverage netted a six-part series on MFW and Miami as a destination.
- Total impressions generated by the coverage of Miami Fashion Week exceeded 125 million with an estimated PR value of more than $1 million.