What is the fashion PR agency going to look like by the end of the year?
I spoke to a founder last week who is mulling over whether a showroom will now be necessary. Rental on a space in London – or any UK city – is a burdensome overhead, particularly right now when landlords are still expecting payment, even when firms aren’t allowed to use them. But what about in, say, September. Will everyone flood back to them? Do they need to? A showroom is for showing but are the press going to come to events like press days now?
A showroom is also a hub for fashion samples but does having samples make economic sense going forward? It takes a lot of manpower – four, five juniors? – and expense to run showroom samples, logging, delivering and retrieving a huge amount of product to go to and from press, with no guarantee of placement. Does that need to be a given function of a fashion PR agency or could it be an extra service taken on for an extra charge by the clients who want it?
Is the future a leaner, meaner, a la carte service? Could that possibly be a good thing? As always, would love to hear your thoughts.
