The really fun part of the job? Walking down the red carpet at the Emmys, Oscars and Grammys. Zack’s job is to control the situation during these public events, making sure everything is in place while the celebrity is being interviewed and photographed.
Without further ado, here are a few more Q’s thrown at Zack.
Fashionista: Why
did you want to get into celebrity PR?
Zack Teperman: Before I got into public relations here in Los Angeles I was
working as a radio host across Canada on various stations such as KISS 92.5,
Z103.5, Mix100, and for a little bit at Y100 in Miami, Florida.
As a radio host I had always been in touch with celebrities who
would come on our shows, and whenever the celebs were in town, I would help
them get other interviews, take them out and/or get them endorsement deals with
various brands in my city. That was my first real taste of personal public
relations.
After helping different companies and celebs grow their brands
through my connections, I realized my true passion wasn’t entertaining and
being on-air, but the public relations side of things and
helping to build and shape careers – both in the celebrity and corporate world.
With this new passion in mind, the opportunity came to change
careers as I was helping with the Toronto International Film Festival’s gifting
suite one year and met Steve Rohr, the owner of Lexicon Public Relations, as
his client Martin Sheen was in town for the festival. Steve and I got talking
and eventually came up with a strategy to expand his boutique firm both in the
United States and Canada.
A year later, I quit radio in Toronto and moved to
sunny Los Angeles where I was hired as Lexicon’s Management Consultant, which
grew into a position as their Operations Manager / Senior Account Executive.
F: What’s the worst part of
the job?
Z: There really isn’t a “worst part”, but sometimes
we do work crazy hours and pull all-nighters for projects. When normal jobs
offer two weeks vacations and such, in PR, there really is no vacations, as the
media never stops, and if you stop working for a client they fade away or
the momentum you have built for them slows down, which is never very
good. But I’ve gotten used to the 28-hour days and love it now. If you love
what you do, working all hours doesn’t feel like work – as cliche as
that sounds.
What are the kinds of
clients/products you’d pitch to Milwaukee Magazine?
First we’d pitch any clients, such as Chuti Tiu who starred
in “The Internship” recently, that grew up in the Milwaukee area; hometown papers
and media outlets are always fun “gets” for clients. And then we’d
look at lifestyle products and fashion products that either have just launched
in the area, or are general enough globally that the particular media outlet would talk
about it.
How do you try sell
editors/bookers on your clients?
We take a no-BS type of approach, which means we tell
editors and writers the facts and try and also give them ideas on angles they
can run a story in hopes that one of them works. We like
working closely with the media so that they get what they need to
make an awesome article and our clients are satisfied with what is being
written.
What is the worst
celebrity encounter you’ve had?
Keeping with the name of PR and out of respect for our
current and past clients – as trust and confidence is very important in
this field – we don’t talk about bad experiences, but I can say we
have had a few “fun” and “out there” clients.
