Luxury fashion PR is all so glam right? Who is wearing who and how much press is a luxury brand getting these days. Those are the elements that drive the world of fashion PR. One luxury brand took a hot bet on Twitter and no they did not depend on Interns to lead the way. Little insider, MosnarCommunications.com invested more in our Twitter persona awareness. In fact we never did a Facebook page. Yes, its true we don’t actually have a Facebook page. So all those who continue to write us about where is the Facebook page we don’t have one. Do we plan on getting one in the future? Well, who knows what the future holds but Facebook would have to do some major changes if we do. Says our Ann Lane, aka @UrbanLuxury …
DKNY, understood the value of Twitter. With more than 400,000 followers and 40,000 Tweets on the @dkny account. Aliza Licht, SVP, global communications at Donna Karan International, is the voice leading the luxury brand’s Twitter success.
“In 2009, we knew that embarking on social was the next big thing and even though very few fashion luxury brands were in the space, we felt our brand DNA was strong enough to tell a unique, NY-centric story,” Ms. Licht told The eTail Blog. “Which story though, was the question. As a PR person, credibility is always paramount and I knew we didn’t want people to think this was actually Donna Karan Tweeting. So I came up with the character ‘DKNY PR GIRL,’ but for convenience purposes, the handle would simply be @dkny.”
Donna Karan’s PR had “a ton of content to draw from” including marketing events, runway shows, celebrity dressing and other editorial. She added, “Being a fly on our wall allows someone to witness not only success, but failure and frustration. Did I mention stress?”
The company decided that she would be the only one Tweeting so the voice would be consistent, but that the whole PR team would also contribute content for this “PR GIRL” character. However, she said it “very quickly became obvious that it was one person and that person was real. So we scrapped the made-up character idea and traded it for anonymity of the person behind the sketch. That lasted about two years until we decided enough was enough, and the veil was pulled back.”
Aliza Licht, SVP, global communications at Donna Karan International
She revealed her true identity as ‘DKNY PR GIRL,’ in October 2011 in a YouTube video.
For those who presume social media is handled by interns, it may come as a surprise to learn that Aliza Licht, SVP, global communications at Donna Karan International, is the voice leading the luxury brand’s Twitter success.