Get huge, powerful, cheap exposure for your brand by harnessing the star power of celebrities.
If you want your product to be a household name, look no further than the so-called Rich and Famous, who, as Susan Ashbrook shows in this practical, star-studded guide, wield potent influence over the buying public. Through colorful stories straight from the red carpet, hard-won lessons taken from years in the industry, and interviews with the top names in celebrity marketing, Ashbrook shows you how to
get your product on the body or in the hands of a celebrity
connect with stylists, publicists, and other handlers who have access to the star
avoid awkward product-celebrity match-ups and find the perfect person for your brand
execute a celebrity marketing campaign for next to nothing
get valuable loaned product back from sticky-fingered stars
prepare for the attention and increased demand when you have a celebrity hit
Though focused on fashion, Ashbrook's advice is applicable to almost any type of product, and she makes a brilliant case for why placing products with celebrities can increase sales more successfully and economically than traditional advertising.
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Susan J. Ashbrook has been involved in celebrity product placement for twenty years. She founded and pioneered Film Fashion, the first fashion product placement company in Los Angeles. Her first client was Ralph Lauren, and she went on to match top celebrities with a roster of clients that included Lanvin, Chopard, Swarovski, Escada, Isaac Mizrahi, and many more. She has also consulted for non-fashion brands like Nikon, Hasbro, and MasterCard. Ashbrook sold Film Fashion to the PR powerhouse Rogers & Cowan in 2008.
Product Details
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press (September 1, 2011)
With an innovative entrepreneurial spirit, a keen eye for fashion and a warm personality, Susan J. Ashbrook blazed a trail for celebrity product placement and has created countless connections in the fashion world during her twenty years in the business.
Growing up in the Midwest, Susan followed in the footsteps of her grandmother Pearl, who started several successful businesses at a time when being a female entrepreneur was a highly uncommon pursuit. After Susan left the Midwest she moved to New York, and later, to Los Angeles. She quickly fell in love with the excitement, beauty and constantly changing landscape of the fashion industry.
Following her position as the Director of Public Relations for designer Richard Tyler, Susan founded and developed her own company--Film Fashion, a groundbreaking agency that paired top celebrities with designers and fashion brands to gain international media coverage. The company landed Ralph Lauren as its first client and Susan has since worked with such A-listers as Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez and such clients as Lanvin, Kenneth Cole, Swarovski, Herve Leger and Harry Winston.
In 2008 Susan sold Film Fashion to the public relations powerhouse Rogers & Cowan. She is passionate about sharing her expertise and teaching others how to create new businesses and how to use celebrity product placements to boost brand awareness. Susan's first book, Will Work for Shoes (September 2011), details the art and business of red carpet marketing.
Ashbrook is available for speaking engagements which have included: The Fashion Institute of Costume & Design, Fashion Group International, Mastercard, and others.
I was in a rush, and more or less bought this book just because of the jacket. Somehow I ran across it. And liked the looks and bought it for my trip last weekend. I was thinking I had a hot romance or mystery... I love Hollywood type novels. When I started reading it, I was disappointed for about a nano- second. With the first sentence I was hooked. Ms. Ashbrook give a very fun, informative story of building her business. Lots of Famous Hollywood names and story's. I am not into fashion. But now I sure will look at movie stars and what they are wearing in a different light. Lol even went out and bought a few magazines to see what I had just learned! ( It was really nice for once to read a book about Hollywood, that was not a "hot romance or mystery". To learn & enjoy as much as I did this.. It's a read again kind of book.)
I would rate this book a 10. I hope there is a part 2.
I LOVE this book!!! I was listening to an terrific interview with the author on Bloomberg radio and tracked her down thru Google. Not only is it easy and fun to read....it gives you all the tips you need to jump start your unique collection!! I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone who knows what they want but doesn't know how to get there. Immensely enjoyable and wonderfully affordable.
Anyone in this modern age who has watched an award show or picked up a pop culture publication can wonder how these beautiful people always seem to have the right clothes and look. Thanks to Susan Ashbrook, they can now cash in on their celebrity by getting products for free or at least borrow them for a night on the town. For the last twenty years, Susan Ashbrook has been involved in celebrity product placement. It does make sense to do so. It may take fifty thousand dollars to put a full page ad in the People Magazine but less than that if a celebrity is wearing a particular product and their smiling mug is plastered on the glossy pages. In a step by step approach, Ashbrook does a marvelous jobs of the dos and don't of this public relations industry. She shares her good stories when a photograph. Kim Basinger in Escada dress after her 1998 Oscar win made all the right publication. She also warns of celebrities not returning products or worse yet not wearing them as promised. This book takes you behind the Hollywood glimmer and gives you a behind the screen tour of the magic of Hollywood.
Will Work for Shoes woke me up to the power of the Red Carpet. Susan J. Ashbrook makes it clear that attention to "details" when walking down the crowded lane of media exposure can be worth millions for both the product producer that is adorning the celebrity, and for the celebrity selected to be the virtual billboard for the product. It's a win win for celebrities and products. Any product. The book moves fast in a quiet, confident manner and dishes out information that everyone can find, at the very least, captivating and, at the most, a goldmine of marketing wisdom. Ashbrook, with her company Film Fashion, set a high bar for PR and marketing innovation. The book is up to date with information on every kind of media exposure. It is a must have handbook for anyone wanting to investigate every possible avenue to shine the light on product and/or celebrity. I found it fascinating how closely linked our perception of what is "in" is tied to what celebrities and product producers have negotiated behind doors and presented as the latest thing. It is interesting that the book itself is an example of what celebrity and product partnerships can do. This brilliant business woman, with her book, shares her savy insight about the role celebrities play in today's marketplace. It's a big picture window on how world culture is being shaped, and it's going to continue. Stay tuned. Read this book!!!
Great pictures, great how to. Well written, with pithy stories about the Red Carpet. Informative and interesting. Anyone who likes fashion and Hollywood should read "Will Work For Shoes."
That the book is about product placement is somewhat a misstatement. The book discusses in very generic level how to get celebrities to accept free products and use them in the public. The advises unfortunately have little outside generalizations like targeting a right product for right person, being persistent and creative. The book therefore stays shallow, consisting of small anecdotes, stories on how certain celebrity used certain free product and for that reason it offers little for someone who is interested in product placement.
If you have never performed a celebrity product placement action before, WILL WORK FOR SHOES: THE BUSINESS BEHIND RED CARPET PRODUCT PLACEMENT by Susan J. Ashbrook is a book for you. I devoured this book in about two days, after finding it in Amazon for a super interesting price. It was so catchy from minute one that I really couldn't leave it. Mostly because of the tone in which it's written and the multiple practical examples and real cases the book offers. This book goes straight to the point (just like Ready to Launch: The PR Couture guide). This is something I deeply appreciate when I read a book because I want to learn something. Will work for shoes is a book about celebrity placement, but it goes beyond the basics and shows you every single detail of it: how to get your product on the hands of a celebrity, how to decide whether a celebrity is worthy for your product or not, how to design a proper campaign, how to deal with the crew around the celebrity (networking is key!), how to convince this people that your product is the perfect match for the star, how to select the right media for the exposure, how to measure results and how to get ready for the BIG BOOM after the celebrity had used your product. Read the full review here: [...]
