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PUBLIC RELATIONS
Wednesday 20th May 2020

A New Type of Talent Means a New Type of Representation

By Charlotte Tobin, Founder & Managing Director, Belle Public Relations.

I am immensely proud to work with some of the UK’s most established and growing talent, both traditional entertainment and online influencers (and the hybrid between the two – more on that below). I am equally as proud to work with their excellent managers (also known as agents) and management teams.

To flip the dialogue, I am fortunate to represent talent who are equally proud to work with us, knowing their output is better when they have a strong, loyal team behind them.

There is nothing new about talent publicists, they are a crucial part of the mechanism of being a ‘celebrity’, in the good and bad times. What is relatively ‘new’ in showbiz circles, is the arrival of online talent, creators or ‘influencers’ as the term was coined.

Over the past decade, the prominence of YouTube stars (‘Vloggers) opened an entire new medium of reach and opportunity, and the rise of image-led social media platforms such as Instagram, and more recently Snapchat and TikTok, supplemented this.

Consequently, this led to a rise of specialist talent management companies in this exact area, one of them, Gleam Futures, has just celebrated their 10-year anniversary. Gleam as they are known, are an award-winning global digital first talent management and influencer marketing agency with offices in London and LA.

I have worked with Dom Smales, Founder and CEO, Lucy Loveridge, Head Of Talent, and their team of dynamic managers since 2018. We are great colleagues and I never doubt they genuinely want the best for their clients personally and professionally. In this industry, loyalty speaks volumes – they have a notoriously low-client turnover and retain their original talent signings from 2010.

‘Digital-first talent’ is an area in which I have learnt to specialise in over the past 24-months. I quickly educated myself on the key players, key agencies and intricacies of this unique world. I now have numerous online-original individuals on my roster at Belle PR and have seen first-hand the sheer influence they have. They have more weekly views on their YouTube channels than some of our most loved prime-time TV-series’. They top Sunday Times Book Best-Seller lists, launch sell-out product lines, and complete incredibly valuable commercial deals breaking all types of records. They had engaged a new, often young, but not always, audience via their online platforms.

They were and are creative entrepreneurs, often one-[wo]man-bands - shooting, editing and promoting their own content.

Over the past five-years forward-thinking television producers noticed this new wave of talent-type, and began to book them for traditional TV shows, for example, ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, and Channel 4’s  Celebrity Bake Off.

The plan was simple, to use their following to boost ratings. Day-time chat shows are also now seeing the spike of having such guests on their sofas, so have followed the trend.

But something else happened with the rise of online promotion platforms, such as Instagram. Traditional mainstream talent now also have vast social media followings which need to be crafted in a specialist, careful, clever way.

Another change came with shows such as ITV’s Love Island, and its metaphoric success with the masses and such a wide breadth of media outlets.

This show produced talent over-night – with them gaining millions of social media followers within weeks. Of course, this isn’t a new concept, Big Brother, TOWIE, Made In Chelsea and Geordie Shore are examples.

What changed is the need for a social strategy to manage the fast-paced changes and advances in technology. Ten-years ago it was important for emerging and existing talent to have a website, and a twitter account, but this was different.

I have always been fascinated with how to prolong the careers of talent who find fame quickly. Not just PR-wise, but how to cultivate their new-found popularity into longevity. Simultaneously, Dom and Lucy were watching this latest development, watching young talent achieve overnight influencer status through broadcast opportunities.

They were also being approached by such talent who had growing followings.

It led to a natural conversation between us.

Alongside their social media speciality, Gleam have other divisions including Gleam Titles [publishing], Gleam Solutions [influencer marketing agency], and Gleam Studios [branded content production arm.] Their next move was a new management arm for TV personalities with a digital focus, ‘Gleam Entertainment’. As Dom Smales describes, ‘this move is for individuals who began their entertainment career on mainstream platforms and have evolved to include digital as a core focus.’

Working exclusively in partnership with Belle PR given our entertainment experience, the announcement in April 2020 was the start of a new venture for our two companies. Already with an impressive roster of talent, Gleam is in sole control of strategic career advice, digital content development, social media best practise, brand partnerships, publishing, broadcast booking and guidance.

Belle PR focuses on its strengths to look after all mainstream media and profiling opportunities.

What does this mean for Belle PR? Well, naturally we get to work closer with Gleam, on their entertainment signings, as well as continuing to work on their digital-first talent projects. The partnership means we can work with a broader talent range, which can only be a good thing for development, all whilst improving our knowledge of the digital landscape. It also gives us, as a smaller agency the flexibility to continue working with other talent, experts, managers, agencies and brands.

I think and hope it will encourage changes within the industry. I believe that exceptional talent, with an excellent team of managers [social, tv, commercial], and a full-time team of publicists is an unbeatable combination. Yes, you can have a ‘good’ career with two out of the three listed, but to have an unrivaled long career in the entertainment world, you need all three.

Whether this sees more managers hiring publicists, working officially with the same publicist / agency for quality and continuity purposes or sees talent agencies hiring their own in-house publicists – it should lead to an overall boost in standards, quality and output for the talent.

Of course, some of this is already happening, and there are those who fulfill the role of manager and publicist, but ultimately for top-tier growing talent, there just isn’t the time to focus on both, very different, jobs at once, without one suffering.

Photo by Pablo Martinez on Unsplash