By Emily Nicoline, Utah Valley University
“The moment I knew there would be public relations professionals from Warner Brothers, I knew it was a session I couldn’t miss,” says Stephanie Swiatek, VP of external relations, DePaul University Chapter. “I even blocked out an hour of time, so I make sure I got a seat.”
Tammy Golihew, Senior VP of Publicity of Warner Brothers was happy about the number of students who attended the class, “I had a fear last night that no one would be in the room,” said Golihew.
Jeff Tobler, Director of Publicity Initiatives, at Warner Bros. Television played the role of moderator between Golihew and Holbrook. Tobler covered an array of topics: a typical day in entertainment public relations, email pitching, off the record, social media, regretting social media posts, keeping up with trends, complete internships, what is expected of job candidates, and lastly advice.
Below are the following thoughts on those topics.
A Typical Day in Entertainment Relations
Damian: There is no 9-5p.m. anymore. I think, what emails can I get to first, I check email, I check Twitter, and I look to see if shows are cancelled or if actors are arrested. I then come up with a priority list and prep or look for something to pitch to my editors. I can watch ten minutes of a show, get into a fight with someone on Twitter, and continue screening information.
Tammy: I oversee 50 shows and there is no such thing as a typical day. We have a great publicity team. I couldn’t do my job if we didn’t have amazing people working on our shows. I thrive on the variety in my work, my job is never the same, and it’s never boring.
Email Pitching
Damian: I like receiving email pitches over phone calls, it allows me to be free. It is important when giving me a pitch that I am given a hook. Why do I want to talk to this person? Pitch to me a reason why their name is important. If I could receive a pitch that was 140 characters, it’d be amazing! The headline has to sing, it needs to be something funny, clever, and informative. Avoid any clichés.
Tammy: Headlines are important, I’m the headline queen. Warner Brothers has writing teams to work on their pitches. We need to make our pitches attractive and fun.
Going Off the Record
Damian: A conversation can be truly off the record. I had a lot of journalism training and we have a long ethics class where we understood the true meaning of off the record. If you go off the record, it’s never going to find its way into print. Make sure you trust those you have off the record conversations with. These comments can be used as leverage with publicists to get exclusives.
Tammy: I’ve been having off the record conversations for a long time. The difference between off the record and background is that off the record cannot be used in a story. Background can potentially be used in the story but not attribute the source. When I talk to Damian, I trust him and know it’s off of the record. It’s all about relationships. I can’t express how important they are. It’s a relationship based business, I’ve seen people be burned before.
Social Media
Damian: Warner Brothers’ casts for the most part, are really active online. You can write about a variety of things- fashion, food, literature- and find a fan base that loves what you’re writing about.
Tammy: I love social media. We adapted social media early in Warner Brothers publicity. At first I didn’t understand exactly what it was, but I knew something was there. It’s evolved and changed our business so much. With your social media, if you question whether or not you should send your tweets out, save your tweets and review it later to look at. I think it’s important that our fans have more access to engage with us through social media. It takes down red velvet rope area, the talent enjoys it, it engages our fans, and implements our methods. I’m a huge advocate, no matter your industry, that press releases have a hashtag and Twitter. I used the example from Vocus’ media release for Budweiser.
Regretting Tweets
Damian: I've regretted my tweets many times. Sometimes I’ve made mistakes because my accounts are connected between my personal and TV Guide. Sometimes my world bleeds together and my mouth gets ahead of my sensor. Then my editor will call me when I’m going back and forth with someone on Twitter, he’ll tells me to stop, and then I tell him I’m sorry. Recently, I tweeted about the subplot on Modern Family, I went back and forth with one of the actors who got mad at me. As we were tweeting each other I was thinking, “My boss is going to kill me.” Sometimes I could use a “takeback button.”
Tammy: You have a digital reputation. Warner Brothers got on social media early and used the following two steps. One, we do not trash talk our competitors, it is the rule of thumb. Think of Thumper’s motto from Bambi. Two, we are fans of TV in general. We’ve made it organic, and we like to talk about other TV shows we like. I love Walking Dead, American Horror Story, and Game of Thrones. Try to stump me later to see if you can find one TV show that I haven’t seen.
Keeping Up With the Trends
Damian: Use Deadlines, Hollywood Reporter, and Media Bistro. Follow friends in the agency. Deadline.com features news casting, ratings, and insider Hollywood.
Tammy: Use Deadlines, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Google Alerts.Understand the industry you’re going to be a part of. Love film, understand film. Love TV, understand TV. Understand we look for those who keep up with the trend, know about the business, and have both a consumer and business side to themselves.
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Complete Internships
Damian: Do internships. School can’t teach you to really understand what it’s like to be on set for eight hours on show. You need to understand that this is about relationship and learning how to deal with personalities on a set.
Tammy: Hopefully you’re doing great internships. Internships don’t exist like they do now. So many people have had great internships at other companies to increase value. I was an English major. It helps in general to have the background to put it into practice. Try to do over two internships.
Job Candidates
Tammy: We want someone who likes television. If you secretly love movies, tell me you love TV the most. I want someone who loves pop culture. Someone who is savvy about the business. I ask non-traditional questions when I’m interviewing. I want to have a conversation with you and get to know how you are as a person. I like diversity, different points of view, our team is only as strong as the diversity that there. I want people who are into technology and love using applications. I’ll ask questions about what do you read, and the top three sites you go to online. What do you do in spare time? You have to be on social media. I wouldn't hire someone if they weren't on Instagram and Twitter. I’m going to go and Google you, I’ll look at your photos, and I’ll see what you have tweeted. Don’t have photos of drinking, your digital reputation is important.
Advice to Everyone
Damian: Play nice and play fair. This is business is all about relationships if you’re going to be in PR or entertainment PR. You’ll be spending a lot of time on sets and the red carpets, what you do is remembered. If I tweet or write something negative, I need to own it and really mean what I say. You don’t want to be that person known for being scuzzy.
Tammy: This advice was given to me and I should pass it onto you. Pick your boss, not your job. If you really have someone that you respect, you’ll learn more. You also need to be relentless but not annoying. “No” is the starting point of a negotiation and you’ll go from there. We get told no so many times, you have to manage it, find a way around, or get a yes. You need a mentor, there’s also peer to peer mentoring. I hope you’re exchanging information with each other and keeping in touch. You find things through other people. A mentor can guide you with career advice. My boss at Sony said, “Never let anyone else tell your boss something about something you said.” Think about it, make sure you keep everyone informed. I couldn’t do my job without a team of people telling me what’s going on. I need to know what’s going on right away. If you need to own up to something, walk into someone’s office, own up to the issue, have a solution, tell them right away, and be trustworthy.
Dreams Do Come True
Tammy: I remember how I first met Jeff Tobler. I was on a publicist team, and you are always going to eat last on a publicist team. I walked up to the table and got one of the last hamburgers, and there was no cheese left. Jeff came over to me and gave me his slice of cheese. I remember thinking, “We’re going to work together someday.” This happened eight years before working with each other, but dreams do come true.
Warner Bros. Talk to Students Hours after Presentation and Continue Answering Questions through Social Media
Tammy Golihew, Damian Holbrook, and Jeff Tobler did an amazing job reaching out to PRSSA students and making them feel valued by taking several hours to connect with them and answer questions. They organized a cupcake social with Philly Cupcake, showed a television series pilot, and offered prizes to those who offered good feedback. They also created a Facebook page to stay connected with students from PRSSA. They stated to students that they wanted to stay connected with them. The three entertainment PR pros were flocked by students after the presentation. Once they started the television pilot, Damian and Jeff continued to talk to student’s one on one, and Tammy did an amazing job patiently speaking to each student and helping them feel valued. Damian and I spoke for about half an hour and I appreciate how down to earth he was with me. Leaving the session, I saw a group of 25 students listening to Tammy Golihew, and I heard her say something around the lines of the following: “You all are like puppies and butterscotch. I appreciate that you are all willing to learn. Don’t doubt yourself, you can make it in this industry if you’re willing to try and work hard.” Later that evening, Tammy Golihew took almost an hour of her evening responding to tweets to students and sent over 45 tweets out to students.
“PRSSA Students Are Not Messing Around”
Damian: This is a smart group of people. What a great group. Sitting in this room, I was like, wow—these people are not messing around. These are smart sharks in training! You guys are on the ball! I spoke at a college journalism event in New York in the spring, they didn’t have any questions. Tammy is going to back to Warner Brothers and be like, these younger people are sharp and they’re coming to get your jobs. The fact that you guys are here at the PRSSA National Conference, trying to learn about PR, finding out from real people how the trade is done - that’s important experience. You have people that know how to do their jobs well, and they’re here for a reason.
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