Celebrity tie-ins

Celebrity publicists: Interviewer will promote your clients

9/30/2011 By Joan 1 Comment

Celebrity Publicists: This could be a good opportunity to promote major news about your client like a new CD or book, or very minor news like your client’s birthday party.

A top international entertainment news agency has hired freelancer Bill Hooey, a celebrity interviewer, to supply them with short videos of celebrity interviews. Hooey won’t identify the agency, but its client list consists of more than 3,000 media outlets worldwide.

These are easy interviews with softball questions that help the celebrity look good.

“I ask questions the celebrities enjoy answering,” Hooey says. “I’m not looking to do long interviews. The standard interview is less than five minutes. I’ll arrive, ask a few questions, and then leave.”

Interview topics can include:

Comments about something in the news
Information that the celebrity would like to clarify
An important announcement
The client’s marriage or divorce
A milestone in the celebrity’s career
A new CD, book or movie
Attendance at a red carpet event or film premiere, fundraiser or major show biz party

Call Hooey at 323-397-8740 or email wildguy (at) earthlink.net.

You can see samples of his interviews at his YouTube channel.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 1981, Hooey has hosted two local television shows and four radio talk shows. For the last six years, he has been writing the weekly newspaper column “Life In The Fast Lane” for the LA Xpress Newspaper (weekly circ. 129,000).

Filed Under: Celebrity tie-ins, Video Tagged With: Bill Hooey, celebrity interview, celebrity news, Hollywood celebrities, red carpet event, video of the stars

Girls: You could be the next Milk Mustache star

3/6/2011 By Joan 2 Comments

Actress Julianne Hough is teaming up with the national “got milk?” campaign and Seventeen magazine to find nine girls throughout the United States to become the next Milk Mustache stars.

The “Power of 9″ campaign emphasizes the power of milk’s nine essential nutrients and encourages girls to celebrate the power of looking and feeling their best, which can inspire confidence and help girls reach their goals.

The campaign is looking for girls who “are not afraid to speak up; who are confident; respected, quirky and smart; and know that lowfat milk is an important ingredient for a well-balanced life. ”

Watch the video:

How to Enter

Teens can log onto the site and submit a short video that shows who they are, what inspires them, and why milk is an important ingredient in their lives. The website also includes Hough’s tips for making a winning entry, plus other sample submissions from teens.

Hough and a panel of judges will choose the top entries, and teens across the U.S. will have a chance to vote on their favorite nine.

Winners will be flown to Los Angeles where they’ll meet their fellow winners before posing together for a Milk Mustache ad, to be featured as a special two-page spread in the pages of Seventeen magazine this fall. They will also be able to write at the Power of 9 blog on Seventeen.com.

This is a terrific opportunity for any girl who wants publicity.

My Ideas on How to Use This Contest

PR people, your clients’ daughters might want to know about this.
Nonprofits, if your cause or issue ties into the topic of healthy eating, or girls, this contest is a natural for you.
Schools, let your students know.
Girls Scouts, 4-H and Campfire Girls, tell your members.
If you blog about these kinds of topics, and your audience would want to know, share this with your readers.
Spread the news on Twitter and Facebook.

Drink up! And start shooting.

Filed Under: Advertising, Celebrity tie-ins, Contests, Facebook, Magazine Publicity, PR Consultants/Publicists, YouTube Tagged With: got milk?, julianne hough, milk mustache, power of 9, seventeen magazine

6 ways to tie your pitch to breaking news for PR, publicity

7/14/2010 By Joan 1 Comment

News is breaking all around you.

Here are 6 tips on how to generate publicity from breaking news.

Update: We’ll be discussing these tips and many others during the webinar “How to Tie Your Story Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interview YOU” tomorrow, Wednesday, July 21.

1. The local angle. If you’re the “local angle” to a national breaking news story, let the media know. Example: Coffee prices nationwide skyrocket. You own a coffee bar. How will you deal with the price increase? Let your local newspapers and TV stations know. (This blog has an entire sub-category on the local angle.)

2. Comment on celebrity news. Al and Tipper Gore announce they will divorce. You’re a divorce attorney. Can you offer tips for national men’s and women’s magazines on how wealthy divorcing couples can negotiate for the best settlement possible?

3. Pay attention to weather news. Your area has just had 4 weeks of rain and people are bailing water out of their basements. You’re an expert on how to remove mold from houses. Contact every media outlet that’s covering the weather and offer your comments.

4. Target industry journalists and bloggers. If there’s breaking news within your industry, or an industry you target, and you’re a part of it, or you can offer expert commentary, contact business reporters and bloggers who write about that industry. How do you know who they are? You create a Google Alert for the topic.

5. Share your expertise on the social media sites. For any type of breaking news on which you can comment, be sure you write about it at your blog and the social media sites, where many journalists are looking for sources.

6. Pitch photos, not just stories. It’s the harvest season. You own a farmer’s market and you have a gargantuan pumpkin in your field. It might not be worth a story, but it’s worth a photo in your daily newspaper.

Learn more tips from a crackerjack publicist on how to contact busy journalists and bloggers, how to craft an email that gets their attention, what to offer to tip the scales in your favor, and how to follow up. Publicist Michelle Tennant of Wasabi Publicity will be my guest on the webinar “How to Tie Your Pitch to Breaking News and Make the Media Interviw YOU” at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 21.

She’ll share tips for the best places to find breaking news quickly, a terrific free resource she found online that gives media contact information (saving you thousands of dollars on fancy media directories), and examples of emails to the media that resulted in fabulous publicity for her clients. You can use the same elements in your emails that she used in hers.

How have you tied your story idea to a breaking news event, and what kind of publicity did you generate as a result? Comment here.

Filed Under: Blogs, Celebrity tie-ins, Magazine Publicity, Newspaper Publicity, Photos & Graphics, PR Consultants/Publicists, Publicity Resources, Social media marketing, The Local Angle, TV Publicity

Oprah looks for the next big TV star—Is it you?

5/25/2010 By Joan Leave a Comment

If you’ve always dreamed of having your own TV show because you just KNOW it would be a lot better than all the other junk on the tube, this is your chance.

Oprah Winfrey and her new network, OWN TV, are looking for the next big TV star.

Not surprisingly, that certain someone must have a lot of the same characteristics Oprah has. Let her tell you herself. Watch the video at her website.

Open casting calls for your OWN show will be held in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Deadline for entries is Saturday, June 26.

Not interested in your own show but you’d like a shot at being on Oprah before she ends her current show next year? Susan Harrow knows all the inside secrets on how to get booked on Oprah.

Filed Under: Celebrity tie-ins, Special Events, TV Publicity Tagged With: casting call, oprah Winfrey, OWN TV

Artist needs tips for placing artwork on TV, movie sets

1/19/2010 By Joan 5 Comments

Consuelo Okdie from Tampa Bay, Fla., writes:

“I’m hoping that you or one of your readers will be able to tell me how to get my artwork used as set decoration for TV or films.

“My work is unique in medium and application as I am one of a very few artists using polymer clay to create illustrations & paintings. Any information you may be able to give me will be greatly appreciated.”

The Publicity Hound says:

First, you need to be willing to do the research necessary to pitch set designers, costume coordinators, production coordinators, prop masters and product placement decision-makers for specific movies and TV shows. I hosted a teleseminar with Amy Bates Stumpf two years ago on How to Get Your Consumer Product onto the Sets of Movies and TV Shows.

A few quick pointers from that training session:

The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety are magazines that report on upcoming production schedules. That’s a good place to start.
If you’re pitching specific TV shows, be sure watch the show first. In your pitch, explain why you think your product or artwork is a good tie-in.
Don’t send unsolicited products.
Pitch early. Getting in on the ground floor of a TV show or movie or you might miss your opportunity.