Marketing Happy Hour - PR 101: Set Yourself Apart | Alice Hampton of ACP Management

Episode Date: January 27, 2022

"When looking to build campaigns, listen to your audience and ask questions. You can learn so much and get feedback from every demographic and age group." In this episode of Marketing Happy Hour, we chat with Alice Hampton, founder of full-service celebrity talent agency ACP Management. Prior to launching her agency, Alice's corporate career was filled with overseeing the global communications strategies for UGG Australia, Shiseido Makeup, bareMinerals, Estée Lauder, Tom Ford & Clinique, and working with some of the world's most well-known talent including Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Hailey Bieber. Currently, Alice manages and represents global fashion designer Anine Bing, celebrity makeup artist Nikki DeRoest, sustainability ambassador Petra Nemcova, luxury personal shopper Gab Waller and global TikTok phenomenon Kat Stickler. Alice also advises a number of Fortune 500 companies, and is on the Board of Directors for several companies within the beauty sector. In this Marketing Happy Hour interview, Alice shares insightful strategies for building and executing effective public relations strategies for your business, no matter how big or small. Some takeaways you'll learn in this episode include:  The skills you need to succeed in corporate PR Alice's number one hack for productivity and work-life balance...a lesson that can be applied to a corporate role or entrepreneurship How to approach PR and influencer campaigns in order to get the ROI you're looking for  Steps to take before engaging with online and print media publications  How to vet brand collaborations as a talent and celebrity manager  Grab a drink and listen in to our conversation with Alice Hampton. ----- Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Alice's episode: The Future of Events, Post-Pandemic | Cayley Smith of Digiday Empathy in the Workplace + Humanizing Your Brand | Ally Golden of Upwork __ Say hi! DM us on Instagram and share your favorite moments from this episode - we can't wait to hear from you!  Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. NEW: Check out our website! NEW: Join our email list! Connect with Alice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-hampton-97b18719/ View the ACP Management Website: https://www.acp-management.com/ Follow MHH on Instagram: https://instagram.com/marketinghappyhr Follow MHH on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-happy-hour/ Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Marketing Happy Hour Weekly: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/marketing-happy-hour-weekly-6950530577867427840/ Join our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9238088/

Hey there, welcome to the Marketing Happy Hour podcast, where each week we're learning career-defining advice, powerful social media strategies, unique creative tips, groundbreaking influencer marketing tactics, and more from marketing experts that represent some of the world's leading brands. Let's dive in. Grab a drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode. Hey, it's Cassie. In preparation for today's interview, I'm going to break down what public relations is and a few of the traditional

and modern tactics that brands are utilizing for their promotional efforts. According to the PRSA website, public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. Traditional PR tactics are diverse and include things like event coordination, crisis communications, reputation management, press release distribution, media relations, and many more. In more recent days, PR has taken a digital turn with the added benefit of impacting SEO and link building. In the world of digital PR, professionals are focusing on relationships with bloggers or influencers in order to increase a brand's authority and build awareness. While traditional and new age digital PR are both used simultaneously today, it's important to first evaluate your business objectives to determine which tactics would be best to utilize in your campaign.

This episode is truly special. Cassie and I had an amazing conversation with Alice Hampton, founder of full-service celebrity talent agency, ACP Management. She talks about the journey from full-time corporate VP to launching her own agency and all of the nuances that come with that, as well as her best advice for those looking to venture of the world's most sought after talent, including Rosie Huntington Whiteley and Haley Bieber, and has overseen the global communication strategies for Bare Minerals, Estee Lauder, Tom Ford, Clinique, and more. Her qualifications are plentiful, and yet she's beyond humble. In fact, she'll reveal that her number one secret to success is developing real relationships and truly listening to people. Grab a pen and paper, a glass of your favorite beverage, and cheers to a wonderful episode with the fabulous Alice Hampton. Enjoy. Hey, Alice, how are you? Hi, guys. I'm good. How are you?

Good. It is so wonderful to have you on this podcast. I had the pleasure of actually meeting you in person a few months ago at a Beekman 1802 event, which was so wonderful. And you shared a lot of your story and everything you've been up to recently. So we had the idea of having you on the podcast to kind of share that with our listeners as well. So we're so excited to have you today. But one question that we always start with, with all of our speakers that we have on the podcast is what is in your glass? Because it is marketing happy hour after all. Well, I'm glad you asked. I have a glass of cap sab and Napa cap sab. It's my kind of go-to. And, you know you know, uh, I think at the end

of the day, there's nothing better than sitting down with your husband or your friend or whoever it might be and just unwinding from the day, sharing your day. Um, so I'm a big Napa red, big full-bodied cap sab lover. I think this is an aperture I've got ready to go. So that's what I'm drinking. I'm not sure what you're drinking. I actually have a glass of hot tea. It has been surprisingly cold in Florida. So I'm trying to warm up a little bit, but yeah. How about you, Erica? I unsurprisingly, everyone who listens to the marketing happy hour podcast probably knows about me because I have one in every episode. It's an Anda. So it's an onda so it's a sparkling tequila beverage um from shay which yeah shay she's great yeah she's amazing and so i literally drink this like all the time i love it i love it

we're we're bi-coastal here having a happy hour together yes that's amazing. Alice, can you start by just telling us how you got into the world of PR and what did that journey early on look like for you? Right, of course. So I mean, I'm Australian. You can probably hear my accent. I grew up in Sydney and I went to university there. And honestly, I actually went into university wanting to be a journalist. So I majored in journalism and PR and sub-majored in psychology. And I remember very vividly, I was in a lecture room and my lecturer came in and it was back in the day of like this, it's called a cold call when you knock on someone's door and you're a reporter and you're like, how do you feel your child was in an accident? And I thought, oh my gosh, that is

the worst thing to ever do to someone. I would never want to do that. So I just started moving more into the world of PR, which was all very positive, how to get brands out of crisis. And I just, honestly, I fell into that and I loved it. And I'm so glad that that very pivotal moment happened because it really, I think you have to, with any career or with any relationship or with any decision you're making in life, you really want to do a gut check. Does it feel right for me as a person? Because if it doesn't, then don't do it. So I'm really, really big on how things make me feel. And that was just the pivotal moment, how I fell into PR.

Then I worked at De Beers Diamonds. I worked in various PR agencies. And then I just kept kind of growing and going to the next company. And then I was at Estee Lauder and then they moved me to New York. And then I was in, you know, so that's basically how it started. So a very backwards way, because originally I wanted to be a journalist. That's amazing. And as you were working through your career and collaborating with brands like Thug Australia and Clinique and Estee Lauder, what skills did you feel were crucial for you to develop

in order to be successful in that field? So I think, you know, again, I think it doesn't matter what your title is or what your profession is. I think being a people person, number one, and being a problem solver, right? You are always going to run into issues and conflicts and big decisions and decisions you have to make in very high stress situations.

And there's a lot on the line. And I think if you can always have that human element and put the people first and also just try and understand why, okay, we're in a boardroom where all there's a huge conflict, there's an issue or there's some crisis happening in Japan or there's whatever it might be, understanding the psychology behind the problem, before reacting, I think is such a key skill to have. And I don't know if that was my psychology background, or just being someone who just loves people, loves understanding people, loves getting inside people's minds and why people do various things. That absolutely, number one would be probably my best skill. And just being someone

who listens to people, really listens, like give people the attention, you know, or I think even all my girls will tell you now, I think they all think that, you know, they're my only client and that's how I want them to feel. And that's how it should feel because I give them my 100% focus. Doesn't mean in the back of my mind, there might be a thousand things I'm like, oh my gosh, I've got to do this X, Y, and Z. But you know, how you make people feel, I think it just, that's such a key advantage in business in so many different ways. Yeah, absolutely. That's a wonderful point. And you mentioned how you have a few different clients at this point on your own. Did you always picture yourself starting your own firm? What did that process of moving away from corporate and into your own venture look like? 100% not. I was never, I was never ever going to have my own company. It was something that had been brought to me time and time again. And I'm such a corporate girl through and through, you know, 25 years in corporate. My last role, I was vice president of bare minerals and Shiseido makeup

and living in New York and running global and absolutely loved it. And then what kind of happened, it was kind of a culmination of personal and business kind of converging at the same time. My husband had been, we'd been trying to have children. We did seven rounds of IVF. We unfortunately kept miscarrying our children. And I was on a plane every second week and I loved what I did. I didn't want to give it up, but I knew something also had to give. And I'd been headhunted my whole life. I was very lucky to have a very blessed career. And, and I just kept saying yes to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing I'd never gone for a job. And it just got to a point where I was in New York, I was traveling constantly. I had two offices, I had two teams, you know, I had two

different brand strategies, you know, big, big, you know, multi-billion dollar brands and doing the communications for them. And I loved it, but it also was a point where something there just had to be a give and I just went you know what I need to take a step I need to take six months off for me um and and I also on boring reasons but I had to get my green card I had to do those things where I couldn't travel out of country for six months which was unheard of in my job. I just was always traveling. So I took a step back. I gave three months notice. I think I've changed my leaving time three times because I couldn't bear to leave. And I loved my president, Jill, and I love my teams. I love the brands. And then I did that. And then of course, COVID hit. So then it was something like, okay okay I'm ready to get back into corporate and I was there was something happening it was all I couldn't talk about it because um

you know it wasn't announced yet what was happening but then things kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed and so my girlfriend Anina Bing I'm wearing one of her jackets I wear something of hers every day beautiful girlfriend of mine and you know she just said look in the meantime would you just mind doing some of my personal deals? You know, I've worked with a lot of talent over the years and I've done a hundred thousand different deals. Usually I'd be on the brand side bringing, you know, the brand to the talent. And then it literally flipped overnight. Suddenly I'm like, it just took off.

And I have all these incredible women. I keep my team extremely small. I never want to be an IMG or a CAA. I think they're amazing at what they do, but I couldn't have 50 or 60 girls on my roster to look after because I'm so hands-on I'm there. Everything like I, you know, I, I, I just couldn't do it any other way. I'm so in on the detail. I'm agent manager, therapist, publicist, you know, all of the things. So I have, you know, a small group of incredible women. I'm so blessed to work with every day. And that's how it started. And Nina just asked me,

and I didn't, it did, it was never meant to go where it has. And I'm so glad and grateful it has because I love what I do every day. I get up, I love my job. But no, I did not mean to do this, if that answers your question. That's amazing. You can hear the passion in your voice, which is just incredible. I love that. I love that. Well, I'm very, I'm very lucky. You know, I don't take it for granted. I take my, my job and my role extremely seriously. And, and, you know, the trust that my girls have put me, I say girls, you know, it just happens to be they're all incredible women, nothing against men.

But, you know, I take it very seriously. And I think a lot of my, I have this big maternal instinct, right? And, you know, like I said, we tried to have children. It didn't happen. And, you know, we're okay with that now. But I feel like my girls and my babies, you know, I will protect them like a mama cub

and mama bear and their cubs. And so, you know, and I think that's the difference. It's not just a transaction. It's not just a business thing. I want to have relationships with these people, with these brands, you know, at the end of the day, you get so much more, you know, out of something when you, you know, bring honey to a bee or it's just, I don't know. I think there's a way to do business. You don't have to be ruthless and cutthroat. I can be tough and I'm strong and I'm not at all afraid to stand up for my girls and what they need and absolutely, but there's a way to do it. And I think being in corporate for so long, I saw the best of people and I saw the worst

of people. And you learn from both of those experiences. Yeah. I love hearing that story. And I remember you shared it a few months ago and it was just so inspiring and so cool to see how things that you would never expect to happen, just come out of thin air essentially, but what an awesome story with everything that you did in the corporate side, what skills did you obtain on that corporate side that helped you kind of be successful on your own and what you're doing now? That's a really great question. I think, I mean, obviously you want to be someone who's hungry to learn and eager to learn. I, you know, like I'm not a finance expert, but one of my, some of my favorite meetings with a huge budget planning, you know, these meetings would go on for a week and you're in there and you are deep diving and you into the different market nuances and different

strategies and how to run a pnl and honestly just being a sponge and absorbing and learning i love learning and i would often look at my job and the positions that i was in and the rooms i was allowed to enter and the people i was allowed to interact with and think how incredible I get paid to learn from the best in the business. Like, this is incredible. It's such an honor. It wasn't like, oh no, here we go, another three-day meeting.

Like, how boring. No, I'm like, I'm so excited. Okay, maybe this, you know, because as when you're in the leadership team, you get brought into a whole lot of different areas of the business that's not necessarily your one niche. But I would just, I don't know. I think I was always extremely grateful week. I came from nothing. Nothing was ever handed to me. I was from a town of 5,000 people in, you know, rural New South Wales. You know, my dad was a farmer.

It was to me like going from a town of 5,000 to being in New York and traveling the globe was, it just was, everything was always exciting. So I think I've just always had that so grateful, so honored. And, you know, I obviously, I don't want to let anyone down. So I will, you know, show up even more than what, you know, they're expecting just because I'm just so grateful to have a seat at the table and have my ideas. Maybe they agree with them, maybe they don't agree with them, but I don't know. I think just being interested and giving people the respect and learning and building fostering relationships. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, it's all about how we connect, whether it's business, relationship, personal, whatever it might be, but nothing

happens without humans connecting. And so if you can figure out a way to make that happen with as little animosity and drama as possible, then I'm here for it. I want to hear a little bit with all of this passion that you have for your career and all of these girls that you love interacting with and helping. What do you feel about work-life balance? I feel like that's just a term that's always thrown around, but I just love to hear from someone who's so passionate about their career that you're probably working long hours. How do you make that work? You know, that's a really great question. I think it's a different work-life balance now than what it was in corporate, you know, corporate. I remember my, my gorgeous assistant, Kelly, I don't know if Kelly's listening, but she was always so fabulous.

She would run my schedule, run my calendar because, you know, I had sometimes when you're on one brand, there's a lot of general, you know, recurring meetings that would happen that you can kind of maneuver around and you can always be at. But when you've got two different brands who, you know, they're trying to get on my calendar and she would manage my calendar and, you know, I'd get in, she'd hand me my coffee, she'd fill my water. I'd be like, where am I now? She'd write, boardroom here, you're going in here, you're going to talk to these people about this. Okay, got it. Okay, where are we going now? And she would run it, you know, so seamlessly. And I adore her, I miss her a lot. But at the end of the day, at six o'clock at night, I'd get back to my office, and then the day would start. So and then, you know, then you're working till, you know,

whatever time and that's fine. I've never been shy for hard work um you do take I like to take maybe a Saturday off and then by Sunday I really am those that kind of person where I want to feel I'm prepared for the week ahead I want to list out what my you know objectives are for the week ahead and what I need to follow up what I need to close what I need to finish whatever I need to do so close, what I need to finish, whatever I need to do. So I always, and my husband's the same, we both love working. So usually on a Sunday, there'll be at least a good three hours of the day somewhere, maybe in the morning, maybe in the evening, we'll both kind of step aside and get some work done. But honestly, that's more just my own. So I can sleep that night and not wake up stressed. Now having your own business, it's different. But it's also, there's a lot of

positives. Here's one thing I will not compromise on unless I've got a really early morning flight, like I did this morning, I had to fly back from Phoenix. I don't put an alarm on. That's my number one rule. I've done it for 25 years in corporate and traveling and always being jet lagged, but I don't, I allow myself to sleep and sleep is honestly probably the number one luxury. I think we can all give ourselves. Um, and so that is a blessing. And I, I know I'm lucky I get to do my calendar and, you know, if I do want to take the dog out quickly for a walk, I can do that. Um, but then also my work goes into the evenings and weekends and that's fine. I, I, you know, here's the thing. What do they say? Do something you love. You never work a day in your life. Right. So I'm really lucky. I get to do something. I, you know,

99% of the time I love it. Of course you have stressful days like anyone, but I think work life balance, you know, I'm at a position in my career. I'm lucky. I get to choose who I bring on how much work I want to do. And at the end of the day, I think the biggest thing is, is people need to feel empowered that they don't like something you can move right you can leave you don't have to stay you're not no one's forced to do anything so you know i mean i'm talking to a degree right there's circumstances and people have responsibilities i understand that but at the end of that if something was if i was so miserable or if i hated what I did, you know, then, okay, it's the onus is on me to figure it out. And that's, I think we

have to build a life that we want to love living. That's what I do. I love that. And you mentioned sleep, which in my opinion is a major productivity hack for myself, because if I do not sleep, I am not productive. And I know there's a lot of business owners that are listening to this podcast, but besides sleep and making sure to prioritize that, do you have any productivity hacks? Do you calendar batch? What are some things that you like to work into your schedule? Okay.

So funny. We should talk about sleeping and all you sound like now you're going to think all I do is sleep. I'm I think Ariana Huffington is one. Churchill was one. I'm a big believer in the 10-minute power nap. So, and I actually, this is probably a little dirty secret. I used to do this when I was in corporate.

And, you know, whether I was at St. Louis or at Shiseido, and I was, my brain was so overwhelmed with, and I just knew I can put another good eight hours in. I don't care if it's, you know, three in the afternoon. I can do it again. I need to just have 15 minutes where I lay down, whether it was in my office, I'd shut the door and lay on the couch in New York, or, you know, whether it's here, and I'm working from home, and it's much easier. But then if give me that, it's like a whole new day. And they say a 10

minute power nap is like, you know, four hours of sleep or something like, I can literally feel like I've got a whole new day ahead. And I can keep going. I feel like the day started again. So that's probably my number one, I guess, secret. Although it just, all it sounds like I do is sleep, which I promise you I don't. No, it's okay. It's so important. And it's funny because I was at a conference last week and we probably spent two hours talking about the importance of sleep and one book they recommended was called why we sleep. I'm not sure who wrote it, but if you all haven't read it, definitely recommend it talks about the science behind, you know, the brain and how it affects everything, but it's so important. So I think you can talk about it all you want because it definitely affects everything. Yeah.

Honestly, I'm such a big advocate for those companies that have sleep pods and I would dream of that. But, you know, like I said, when you're in corporate, I'd have to just run up to the sick bay and go, oh, I just need to lay down, just shut the door. Or, you know, if I had my own office, it was easier. But it is a game changer and in business. And honestly, you feel like I've just got a whole new week to start again, like a whole new day. So yeah, I'm a big fan of it, but not everyone can do it. I know my, my partner, he tries, but he can't. Absolutely. So you've talked about your

girls a little bit, and I'm, I can only imagine the amount of brands that approach you for different collaborations and campaigns, but what does the brand vetting process look like for you when you are considering partnerships for your talent? Right. Well, I guess number one, you know, each of my girls, they're a brand themselves, right? So what do they stand for? So if a brand comes to me, number one, does it make sense for there to be an alignment there has to you know because the consumer's too smart right it can't just be a money grab yes sometimes there might be things you have to you know push the needle a little bit and do something they might

want a little maybe a little out of the normal what you usually would but that's that's compromise and that's fine flexibility is important in business but if they're if it's just a brand that's just not authentic to them like there's just no point like don't do it and so and I remember saying this to you know one of my girls Kat Cassie who you met at the Beekman event like I remember in the very beginning I said you have to trust me that it's we it's okay to walk away like we can walk away and in the beginning you're like yeah but that's my that's my rant or that's my and I and it's nerve-wracking but I said just trust me you've got to trust me that I'm going to make sure you are looked after and that it's it's going to be better in the long run but you just

can't say yes everything also you dilute your value number one um and you dilute your brand equity so I think that would be the first thing. And also obviously, you know, doing due diligence that there's this brand hasn't been brought into distribute in any way. So, you know, you can do a pretty quick Google search on news stories. You know, generally, most brands, you kind of relatively know if they're a safe brand or not. But if there was a brand that there was any conflict of interest or they had some shady dealings in the past or there was any issues with whatever it might be, it's just not worth it.

Because what happens is when you merge a brand with a talent, you're transferring that brand equity of the talent and also the equity of the talent and also the the the equity of the talent onto the brand so it becomes one right so you see it all the time a big celebrity will sign with x brand then something disaster will happen some scandal and then bang the brand cancels the contract or the talent walks away because they can't be associated. So there's a lot of risk involved. So doing, I guess, risk mitigation and just, you know, doing your due diligence, you know, you have to do the homework or else, you know, you're just setting yourself up for failure. Yeah, absolutely. Do you have any advice for brands that are looking to pitch to

influencers and celebrities that are similar to the caliber of influencers and celebrities that you work with? Oh my gosh. I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is get their name right. I mean, it sounds so crazy. I mean, maybe it's my journalist background, but you spell the name wrong or you get their name wrong. I'm like, do you even know who you're actually reaching out about? Like be a professional, right? I'm such a stickler and I take my job so responsibly that I represent these girls. And, and, or I, you know, when I represent brands, not that I was the face of the brand, I wasn't the model, but I would speak on behalf of the brand or I'd meet with press or influencers or you know other brand partners and so be professional right be warm don't be rude um and just be respectful like these people this is

their job this is their time no do they want to do all this stuff for free just because you want it maybe not um and so just working with someone um i think it's honestly just human 101 like it really isn't that hard uh but also obviously understanding what's the rationale what's the intent out of this are you looking for an upper funnel awareness play you're looking for lower funnel conversion like what is the goal because then let's work backwards on how to build out a campaign or develop assets or whatever it might be. Because, and it's funny, actually, you know, I will actually, because I have a lot of brand experience in the, you know, I will actually jump and say, no, no, guys, you shouldn't do this. You should do this. And it kind of becomes comical because they're like, wait, you're just meant to be the agent. I'm like, well, yes. And you don't have

to listen to me at all, but this is what I would do if I were you. And guess what? I've done this before. I ran, you know, global markets who did this. So and then they're like, oh, my gosh, this is great. So I think, you know, being flexible, working with people. But number one, be polite, know your stuff. Like if you want us to do our due diligence and and learn and download and brief and understand

your brand and your brand values and what pillars make your brand you know the point of difference and their success and all of that kind of thing then they should have the same respect and do it for the talent absolutely that's uh it seems like going back to basics there but uh very good advice i have been on the brand side of things and have even had the brand's names spelled wrong when when incidents are pitching which is just incredible I think it's it's so wild how things can be and it seems so silly I literally got an email just then I won't say who or what but it was for a friend and they they're like, I'm representing this big celebrity. I won't say who. And they spelled her name wrong. And I went, wow,

like that's just such a shame. Like you can't even spell her name. Like it's just, it really isn't that hard to do a quick spell check, you know? And of course we're all on iPhone and, you know, texting on the run or, you know, things happen, but you got to get the name right. I don't know. It's just one of my things, please to get the name right I don't know it's just one of my things please just get their name right absolutely that's definitely a very good piece of advice um just to follow up there do you have any specific protection requirements in place to ensure the privacy of your clients and what does that look like when you're working with a brand yeah so I mean generally all my goals all of correspondence, like if anyone were to want to reach out to them, apart from DMs,

right, we're in the world of social media and I'm not talking about that or, you know, comments and things like that, but any brand deals come directly to me. So whether they're email, marketing, link, it's, it's always comes to me. So I always find it quite funny because it clearly says Alice at ACP management, but a lot of them are like, hi Kat. Hi Nina. Hi Nikki. You know, whatever it might be. But, and that's just really good because I can vet, I can very quickly decipher who's serious. Who's not, who just wants a marriage proposal, who wants to invite who to a wedding?

Like it's just, there's a lot that you see, trust me, you see a lot on this side. So, you know, from that sense, obviously any cell numbers given out is always mine. Like I will patch, we're doing press interviews, unless it's a Zoom, I will patch my client in. I'm very, very particular about, and obviously having PO boxes, no personal addresses, obviously putting in security cameras and all of that kind of thing when the fans start getting a little crazy and a little too close, you know. And, you know, obviously in over, you know, over the years, I've worked with some huge, huge, huge stars. So obviously working with their security teams and their publicist and, and just ensuring seamless entry to hotels,

back entrances, like whatever it might be like making sure that you know when we fly to japan all their clothes are ready and set up and you know like just the rooms they fly in the like the protocol there's um you know scanning properties before we go in i mean i've been to things where secret service has gone into a restaurant cleared the restaurant then we all come in and sit down and you know you I've seen it from every extreme um but you know also like even being out like at dinners sometimes you see you know we love the fans it's always so in my number one I see you have to be gracious and the fans are what made you you know generally in in in the world I'm working in now so you know always giving back

having photos with them obviously if it's COVID safe and all that but sometimes you see some getting a little too close and then you just sweep in get out and we're moving along now thank you so much and and that's it you just control it like I would control a press interview if we're doing press and sitting down like there's been times where I'm like I'm sorry we're not answering that question but let's move on to the next one there's a nice way to do it um so yeah just being you just have your eyes open and and just you know, make sure that your girls are safe and, and, and well and happy.

And that's, that's the main thing. Do you have any favorite collaborations or campaigns you've worked on, whether on the brand side or with your clients? You know what, it's, it's a little bit of a cop-out to say it really comes down to the people you work with. I mean, obviously the brands and making sure the brand and the talent fit is in alignment and, you know, one plus one equals three

and the brand and the talent and everyone's just so crazy happy with the results. Absolutely. But it really comes down to the partnerships, I think. The relationships you build on the way, the people you meet, you know, at the end of the day, we all work hard,

like let's have fun while we do it and let's do great things um i mean i do remember on the corporate side it was uh bare minerals i was vice president bare minerals and we were launching it was called power of good it was like the you know charity initiative of the brand and we had a huge event in london we took over soho farmhouse and rosie hunting and whiteley was there and hayley Bieber came and then her husband, Justin, came in. And, you know, those people from 130 marketsruik this product or post about this it was such a i don't know it was just such a classy thing for a brand to do um and of course it was just made so magical because all these people came in and you know it was pretty special moment for the guests and a lot of amazing things happened um but being a part of those special moments that um i think that that was a very that was just a

really really amazing moment and my husband came as well and he loved it he's like oh my god this is amazing because he deals with lawyers every day so for him he was like wow this is crazy so I think probably yeah maybe that just when when I think there's a deeper meaning you know like there's there was a purpose there was something it was just so philanthropic and such a positive experience all around. And it wasn't, it wasn't just a quick, let's get column inches or let's get social media posts. It was really for something so much bigger that that felt really rewarding. Yeah. And I think Eric and I can both agree with working with some large brands in the past is it does come down to the people and that shines through to on the marketing side of things. So if you have this authentic group of people that's

working for the brand, it shines through in your social media and really allows people to connect with your brand in an authentic, really great way. So I agree. I think having good, solid people underneath your brand to, you know, exude that throughout your different campaigns that you're building is really important. And so on the brand side too, do you have any recommendations or advice for people looking to build influencer campaigns? Would you recommend long-term campaigns with a specific influencer or does it really depend on what you're looking to do in your objective? There's so many different objectives, right? Like what we were talking about before, is it an awareness play? Is it a conversion play? What are you looking for as an engagement? Is it

followers? You're trying to get more followers to the brand. Is it, you know, there's so many different, are you entering a new market? Like you trying to bring a US brand into Asia? Like it could be so many different objectives. So I think it's, it's, there's not a one size fits all. And I think the biggest thing, like if we're talking about on a global scale, like one thing that, and especially someone who's, I've lived in London, I've lived in Australia, lived in the US, just say you've got a US brand, doesn't mean that that necessarily translates in the Middle East or in Japan or in Southeast Asia or in Europe or EMEA. You want to have a global strategy, but you want to also allow a little bit of flexibility for

local nuances, right? It's so important. I remember once there was a French skincare brand. I worked for years and years and years ago. I won't say the name, but it was in Australia and it was a beautiful brand, very premium. And part of their training was you couldn't eat white rice, but they were entering China and Japan. And I'm like, that's not going to work. Like that's just not, you can't seriously think a whole country who loves this brand has now got to adopt this philosophy of you can't have white rice in your you know diet i mean and so it's just like you want to make sure that a brand has the same pillars and values and and that so around the world you do get that same experience but you you do want to be flexible because often you know i i used to feel terrible for these local markets who've got these small budgets. They're trying to execute on a global strategy

where they don't have the same dollars, you know, marketing dollars behind them. And they're meant to kind of create something that makes absolutely no sense. So, I mean, even just you look at the different seasonality things. I remember being in Australia and I was communications manager of SA Lauder.

So this was what, 10, 15 years ago. And, you know, we'd get these beautiful Christmas campaigns and holiday campaigns, but they're always shot in the snow. And I'm like, well, you know, it's 108 degrees here in Sydney, like that just doesn't translate. So, you know, that's where I say having a little bit of flexibility and just listening to your brand custodians and your marketing experts around the world or, you know, locally, wherever it might be, like, listen to them, you know, some of the best marketing initiatives have come out of, you know, I look at someone like Jen Atkin, right? She was one of the pioneers of asking her audience, hey guys, what do you think of weight? What do you think of this product? Would you rather have

a hair product or would you rather a body product? You know, she was brilliant in how she built that business. And I've so much respect for her as a business woman and a person. And she was smart. She went straight to social media. She had a very engaged, you know, audience set who, you know, loved everything she did. And she brought them in with her on the ride. And that was just genius.

So, you know, I think the days of it's, you know, this, you know, iron building in New York and everyone's just sitting around making decisions. That's no, you want to ask different markets, different age groups. I mean, gosh, I call my 13 year old niece all the time. I'm like, okay, what do you think of this? But love her. I'm like, okay, great. I get the Ella approval.

Like, so I shouldn't say she's 13. I think she's 16. So, but, um, you know, it's so important, you know, I'm almost 45. I get the Ella approval like so I shouldn't say she's 13 I think she's 16 so but um you know it's so important you know I'm almost 45 I don't know what's cool but she does so you know being open to other people's feedback and it's not that old way of oh the older you get the more you know people should listen to you yes I'm all about being respectful to everyone and respect your elders but you can learn so much from every part of life and every consumer and every demographic. It's so important that you don't cut off a whole, you know, part of your business that you might not have even realized was there. Yeah, absolutely. It's so funny that you mentioned Jen Atkin. I worked for a hair care brand for a

while and we looked to her all the time and what she was doing with way and my team and I would send each other all of that all of the influencer packages they're they're so good at that we would just always send those to each other as inspiration so yeah definitely inspired by what she does and she still does that with way she still does customer testing and things like that and she's so incredibly just generous with her time and, you know, she's so gracious and, you know, she's that's now that is how business should be done. Like, I mean, that being said, I, you know, her to do this and, you know, she's so, I'm sure she's so crazy busy and, you know, you want to make sure you've got your balance in family time and, you know, she's got a beautiful husband and baby and doggies and things, but, you know, so, but I think she just, she got it. She really got it and she nailed it.

And I'm just so happy for her success. She's going to continue to have, because she really understood the consumer and she really respected the consumer. Yeah, absolutely. And I learned a lot from her too, in her book, actually, that she she released I think it was last year the best hilarious also love that title I sent her a photo because I was reading it my husband took a photo of me I'm on a flight and I remember going why is everyone looking at me funny but the title and I'm like oh my gosh and I remember I sent it to her and she's like oh my god Alice it's hilarious it's not exactly the book you want to read on a plane but yeah maybe not at a coffee shop either right not in first class um so let's say so we asked this a little bit but um let's say that you have a cpg brand

and you want to make an awareness play it's a a US-based brand and you're looking for awareness within the US and you want to work with influencers, but you're not sure where to start with that. So what do you recommend for someone like that? I know that we have listeners that are going to be thinking about these things in their brain. And so I'm wondering about your advice on

clients of your caliber, kind of where would you start with that? Would you recommend doing a longer campaign over the course of, you know, a year or several months, or would you recommend just boom, boom, boom with smaller influencers? You know, it's such a, like, how long is a piece of string? It's, it could be so dependent on what the brand, the product, the service, all of that is. I mean, I guess where I would start, I'm just thinking in my head, you know, this is a CPG, but this could be anything, right? CPG brand. What's their tone of voice. Okay. And if I wanted to partner with an influencer, who, what kind of influencer would have that similar tone of voice? Would they be comedic?

Would they be funny? Would they be, you know, I would look at that and then how it's almost like if that brand was a person, who would that be? Then I'd start to like brain map all that out. Okay. Would it be, you know, I don't even, I won't even say any names, but would it be this person? Cause they're voluptuous. Think about the brand almost. If you could personify that brand, who would that ideal person be? Okay. Maybe you're not going to get that person for whatever reason, but start to

brain map that out. And then in terms of whether it should be a long-term or short-term strategy, if you're going into working with influencers for a first time, you know, you want to do a test and learn, you don't have to throw all your marketing dollars, you know, at the first person that comes along, do a test and learn, keep building, measure the ROI, look at the analytics, see the conversion, track everything, you know, data is your best, you know, you know, it's going to be your best guide to the future. That's really going to determine where you should keep leaning into.

If you can do brand health deep dives and start to kind of build out roadmaps of what your consumer is saying and and you'll see it in google analytics and you all of those kind of you know there's so many platforms that can provide you with that feedback and um you start to build you'll start to see a story come to life and then that's where you can start to interplay influences or celebrities or you know what kind of talent you want but then how do you continue that conversation how do you how do you add them to the element and then make the story explode or go viral or bring more awareness or bring more awareness, or bring more sales, or whatever the objective is. But I'd really look at kind of brand propositions, brand values, the brand pillars, the tone of voice, all of those things, and then go, okay, if I then had to take this brand and match it to someone,

who would that ideal person be? And then work backwards from that. That is such good advice. I think a lot of brands miss that because they're just looking for the next campaign, and they're just so busy that they don't take the time to understand who they are. And I think a lot of people just throw things at a wall and think, okay, this stick this in, but you know, you really want to be considered. And, you know, I've always thought, oh my gosh, there's a lot of marketing dollars out there and this is not my money. So, you know, I want to be respectful to the people that work before me to get, build this brand. So they have these marketing dollars. So, you know, just, just, you know, just, you don't have to, it doesn't have to all be done

overnight. Like you can build it up and, and, you know, a lot of the time you want to do like a multi-tier, you know know influence outreach strategy where you work with macros you work with mid-tiers you work with micros because each kind of layer of the funnel has a different value that it brings right you might do seeding and these micros might not even get paid but guess what word of mouth from a micro influencer can be game changer so many brands big big brands were built on having really robust micro influencer strategies that they didn't put a lot of dollars into, but they did a lot of seeding, a lot of clever seeding. And then as the dollars started coming in, they started getting

mid-tiers in, started getting macros, and then it becomes this, you know, 360 campaign. And then you just see this brand everywhere and everyone's like, got to get this brand what is this brand so yeah yeah very very good advice thank you for that um so shifting gears just a little bit um if you could give one piece of advice to anyone looking to start their PR publicity talent management career what would it be and are there any resources that you recommend so I guess I would say is just get involved you know when I I mean I feel I feel ancient but like when I was in high school I was always doing work experience in my summer holidays I'd go to a radio station or I'd go you know learn from this personal work you know it didn't matter it was unpaid I was just I you know I felt I was like 15 and I put on my mum's big shoulder pads and the suit because I

saw that in the movies that's what you know I'd wear my little heels and I thought I was so fabulous and I'd go to you know I'd bring my lunch and and honestly I just loved it and I was just so grateful to be there and and having these, I didn't care if I was doing just their faxes when there was fax machines, you know, that didn't matter. I just got involved. I networked because guess what? I love people. It wasn't hard for me. I loved, sometimes I'd be three different events a night. I loved it. If I could fit in more, I would, I just had to get up to bed. But, you know, I think meeting people, working with people, helping people. I'm such a big advocate in free mentorship.

And, you know, it's our duty to help the next generations. And, you know, things have changed. Like life, you know, back in the day, you know, it was important to be best friends with the editor of Vogue. You know, those days have changed, right? Traditional media has changed. But whatever it is like i don't know give your time you know i think we're so lucky in our careers we've come as far as we've come so it's very important to be able to give back as much as possible i'm constantly mentoring

and my husband's like who are you talking to now and i'm like it's just some sweetie who found me on instagram i don't know i'm just giving my two cents and they can take it or leave it. But if they feel it's valuable to them, then that's my duty to give them that. So yeah, I say, get involved. Like I said, I came from a town of 5,000 people with, you know, there was like two traffic lights. There was nothing. I was a farm girl and I certainly didn't ever think I'd be living in New York or traveling the world and doing that. And you just keep going and being the best that you can be. And then you get to the next job and you'd be the best at that. And then the best of that. And then, and that's it really get involved, enjoy it, enjoy the journey. Yeah. It's such simple advice, but it's so true, right? It's, it's so, so impactful. And so for me,

I had a question too, about kind of the PR industry as a whole. So I got my degree in PR and I know ever since even I graduated, the industry has changed so much. The way that people do things and approach situations has evolved even just within a few years. Do you have any recommendations for staying on top of industry trends or, you know, what's happening and shifting within the industry? I mean, I guess you could talk about something like social media and like the influx of TikTok is a new trend, I guess.

Or you could talk about trends where it's actual three, five, 10 year forecasting for product development and things. I mean, there's a lot of different companies out there that actually specialize in what the next big thing will be or where we you know like the airbnb movement or the you know everything's going to be personalized everything everyone wants bespoke personalized customization there's companies that specialize in that and certainly on a corporate level we would engage those companies very often to think about future trends especially when it comes to came to innovation product development all of that kind of thing. In the world of PR, I mean, I think, honestly, the best place you can look at them is the generation behind you. They're the

ones that are coming through. They're going to be the ones telling you what they want to see, how they want to be fed their consumerism, where they want to shop, how they want to digest news, how they interact with their peers. You only have to look at the youth to really see where the future is going. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's been a theme throughout. I don't even know the past couple of seasons of this podcast is just learning from Gen Z and then all of the one coming up behind them. They're leaning more into brands that, you know, they resonate with, with their empathy and their, you know, connection with people and not just, you know, the product you

see in the store that's the most popular. It's about who you are as a brand and speaking to those younger generations and then learning from them and adjusting. Dialogue now, like back in the day, you know, an ad would come out of being bogus beautiful and it's a literally a one-way communication from the brand this is this is how we want you to perceive the brand and this is the image it is and this is the feeling you get from it and this is the level of prestige or the mass or whatever it is and that's how it would be now especially with social media it is a two-way dialogue and if you've got a consumer who's not happy with you trust me you want to you want to do something about that or you want to at least be aware of it um because that should really you know dictate a lot of your

decision making for the future um because it's not how it used to be it's very much a dialogue they're consumers and especially like you're saying gen z it's authenticity much a dialogue. They're consumers and especially, like you were saying, Gen Z, it's authenticity. People can see through it now. I'm so incredibly excited about the youth today and the changes that they're going to make. You know, I'm talking on an environmental level, on so many levels and we won't get political, but I mean, thank God they're coming, you know,

because our generation, or I shouldn't say you're so much younger and more beautiful, but like there's so many mistakes that were made and, and, you know, yes, we're going through a time of a lot of healing and change and learning. Um, but I think it's needed, right. Um, so I'm optimistic, um, for the future. And I think the youth really, you know, they've got a lot of power in their hands. And I think it's great. I'm all for it. Yeah, absolutely. It makes me think of our last episode that we have with Zaria of Duolingo. I don't know if you've seen like the Duolingo TikToks and how amazing and just absurd they really are. And she was talking about how authenticity is shifting into the world of

like absurdity on social media and just you know like laughing with a brand like having that interaction that you really didn't get before when it was just the the magazines right um personifying the brand so and that's why I say like bringing in humor is such a great way because you know, what are you doing? You sit down with your girlfriends on a Friday, have a glass of wine, have a laugh, you know, you connect. It's an emotional connection.

I remember one of my favorite quotes is the shortest distance between two people is through a story. And that was something I used to use a lot when I was doing my conferences and, you know, obviously being a publicist back in the day. You know, people might not remember what you said but it's how you made them feel or they might remember oh that was the what she had this great story there's something that you can get so if a brand can be remembered in a way and if there's an emotional aspect you can bring to it that's that's marketing 101 like you want to have that

emotional stickiness so um you know the consumer will continue to come back to that brand and you know even if they're like oh look there's another brand just you know what that brand gets me I get it I love it we've got each other like that's what you want it's about connection definitely definitely and we know some of our listeners that are working in PR for brands actually so if someone is looking to get their brand into an online publication or magazine, I'm sure you have some experience with that being in communications.

What are the steps that you would recommend to take to get there if they've not started yet? So, I mean, obviously you want to build up your arsenal of assets. So you want to have products. I mean, again, I don't know what brands we're talking about it. You want to have product shots. You want to have press releases done. You want to have fact sheets done. You want to have talking points.

You want to have anything that a journalist or, you know, someone who is potentially going to write about the brand might need. You want to have all that done. Headshots, you know, maybe it's a founder bio. Maybe it's they want to do interviews with the founder of the brand whatever it might be having all of that obviously you know the easiest thing to do is engage a great PR agency and and you know because they are the ones that already set up with all the contacts and things but also you want to make sure that whatever you develop is in it you want to make sure that it's in alignment with everything that

you're putting out to the consumer so your social media your instagram handle your linkedin page your all of the brand elements the packaging i mean everything has to coexist in a in a in a universe that makes sense um because again like i said yes you want global strategy but local relevance you still need to have this kind of um trust right you need to have those brand pillars the brand values everything that makes that brand unique and different and has a special point of difference um but you want them all you want all those elements set up um so that when the journalist or whoever it is is about to write, they've got everything at their fingertips.

They almost don't even need to call you because they're like, great, I've got the story. Obviously you want angles. You want to have innovation. You want to bring, you know, tidbits. You want newsworthiness. You can't just be like, oh, I've got this brand. Write about it.

No, what's interesting? What makes it interesting? Why did you develop this brand? What's coming down the track? Have you got something that's new and innovative and revolutionary for the industry? What are all those key angles? And then putting together a PR strategy of, and then how to then capitalize on that, right? Obviously, UGC content,

leveraging all of the fans that are out there using the brand already, like repurposing those assets on your own channel, if you can, you know, you've already got free content, they're doing shoots, you know, product shots. I think just having, you know, you want to have a good marketing strategy ready to go before you launch. If just so you're prepared, you never want to be kind of chasing your feet. That's awesome. And so let's just say there's a brand that's on the smaller side, you know, they're not necessarily nationally

known. How do you recommend that they make that first introduction to reporters or to news publications? Like what does that outreach look like for those small brands that you'd recommend? I mean, I think number one, I guess is is seating, right? A great creative mailer. And obviously everyone's got different budgets and things like that, but some type of seating that's going to make that person notice it, right? These editors and journalists and influencers and celebrities and talent, I mean, a hundred boxers a day that turn up. So what's going to make it different? So that's why creative mailers, I mean, and look, there's a little bit of backlash with creative mailers as well. You know, the environmental impact is terrible so if you can figure out how to

bring sustainability into your messaging if that's obviously important to the brand hopefully it is but you know you want to make sure it's everything you do is still within the brand elements and touch points that make that brand that brand um but i mean seeding is honestly the probably the easiest thing to do when i say it's easy it's not i'm not saying it's easy but it's probably the simplest step um you know you want people to fall in love with the product get them the product okay um doing obviously we're in the days of covid but events are coming back you know can you do an event can you hold an influencer event in la or new York or in Chicago or wherever it might be and bring key opinion leaders and bring them in and have them interact and just start to kind of build that awareness and people start seeing and they're

like oh hang on there's that brand again there's that brand again you know as it gets bigger do you then want to sign a face to it to really give it that huge push like you know the you know erica's drink the shea and under drink like what what's you know it's it's a strategy and you know the brand continues to evolve and as it grows you know you start putting more marketing dollars into it and repurposing um so but yeah you want to i think seeding is probably the simplest step to you know at the end of the day you can't make someone fall in love with the brand if they haven't seen it or touched it or tried it. Yeah, absolutely. And we are unfortunately coming to the close of the interview, which is so sad, but this is one of our favorite questions. We love to ask our guests on the podcast and it's a little bit of a loaded question, but where do

you see yourself in five years time? Will you be representing the same talent? Will you be hiring and branching out? What are you the most looking forward to in the future of your career? Oh gosh, that's a great question. I mean, I feel like my life is every year. It just, it changes. Um, I, all I can say is I hand on heart, love what I do. I love my girls. I honestly can't imagine a day where I'm not in touch with them every day because I just, you know, but maybe things happen and then that's okay. Maybe it isn't like that.

But, you know, certainly I never set out to have an IMG or a CAA. That's just not my thing. I'm very much about, you know, full service 360 like service. I do everything. But yes, I'm probably going to have to bring on, you know, certainly an assistant for me. You know, cause I like to, I do like to, I like to work hard, but I do enjoy having my vacations here and there and going back to

Australia and things. But yeah, I don't know. Honestly, I I sometimes I think that can be a limiting question because it could be so much bigger than I imagine I'm just such a I'm such a person that says yes to everything so I'm like let's just see what happens I'm so excited about some of the things that are in the works for some of my talent and my goals I'm so proud of them and a lot of them have come through huge you know personal things and I'm just how they handle things. I just could not be prouder and I love them so much. So I don't know.

I think we'll just keep building and creating great things. And let's see, sky's the limit. I think nothing's, you know, there's no, there's no end to it. Who knows? But I love, I love what I do and I'm just extremely grateful I get to do it every day. We are so excited to follow along with the rest of your journey, Alice, which actually brings me to my last and final question. Where can people follow you online and keep up with all of your adventures in life and career? Oh, you're so sweet. Well, I mean, obviously I'm on Instagram. It's just my name, Alice Hampton. I have obviously, you know,

a website for my company, acpmanagement.com. But yeah, really, that's it. I mean, it's not that exciting. You know, it's my husband, my dog, myself and some of my girls. But yeah, just usually Instagram, a lot of people get a ton of messages on DMs and even brands reaching out about deals for, you know, my girls and things like that. And then of course, email and that's on my website. So yes, anyone can reach out and please say that Cassie and Erica sent you. Awesome. Thank you so much, Alice. We so much loved having you on the podcast and we're excited for everyone to hear all the insight and amazing stories that you shared with us today. Oh, it's such an honor and congratulations to you both. What a great podcast you've got and really excited to see all the, hear all the other people that you

have on the show after. It's really great. I love it. So I don't know about you, but I walked away from that interview with a full page of notes. How refreshing to hear from someone who adores what they do and who they impact. Thank you so much to Alice for joining us. It was such a privilege to speak with you and we hope to cross paths again someday. If you enjoyed this episode, please let us know by leaving a review and reaching out to us on social media. As always, follow along on Instagram at Marketing Happy Hour. That's at Marketing Happy HR.