LONDON — The tectonic plates of public relations are changing around.
Alexandra Benezra, founder of ASB PR, a boutique agency that started in London in 2021, has moved over the pond and is now popping up in New York City, Los Angeles and Mexico, and moving beyond traditional fashion and beauty communications.
The agency is adding hospitality to its roster of services that include events, talent management, influencer and brand partnerships, and VIP dressing.
For Benezra, the most visible result is coming out of working with VIPs, which is the core focus of the Los Angeles arm of the agency.
Alexandra Benezra
“VIP press accounts for more than 70 percent of the brands I look after. It’s such a fast environment for brands and there’s so much competition out there. If Hailey Bieber is wearing your brand, you can be sure it’s going to be plastered across social media and the press with an amazing return in terms of sales,” said Benezra in an interview.
The reach goes beyond whether a celebrity posts about the brand or not for visibility — as fashion fan accounts do that now. An Instagram account like @kendalljennercloset has accumulated nearly half a million followers, meanwhile @haileyrbiebercloset has a following of 244,000.
Benezra tends to a mostly European clientele that includes brands such as Alexandra Miro, Edge of Ember, Charo Ruiz, Rouje, Boteh, Jia Jia, Oceanus and more.
Oceanus
Konstantin Golovin Aleksandrovic
“All of my clients’ number-one markets are the U.S. and many of them need a global agency rather than depending on several agencies at once,” she said.
Her latest client is Casa Yuma, a resort in Oaxaca, Mexico, which dovetails with her roster of resortwear labels.
In recent times, brands and businesses are killing two birds with one stone by teaming with fashion PRs as a means to invite in a stylish crowd that’s willing to spend. The bigger PR agencies now have separate lifestyle teams that tackle hospitality.
Adriana Degreas
The Swiss-born publicist studied at Glion Institute of Higher Education, a private hospitality management school in Montreux, Switzerland, followed by a three-month internship at Lanvin in Paris that led her to a master’s degree in fashion promotion at Istituto Marangoni in London.
Benezra started her career at Browns, where she worked for nearly three years, but then had the idea for her own agency during parental leave away from work.
“When I used to work at Browns, it was all about championing new talent and this is still really important to me as an agency. I want to really keep it as a boutique and be very close to my client,” she said.
