Publicists are Celebrities’ Best Accessory

Mayweather vs. Cotto Official HBO Poster
Photo Retrieved From

For Puerto Ricans and worldwide boxing fanatics, this Cinco de Mayo was much more than eating tacos and drinking margaritas. At 11pm that day, the most anticipated HBO PPV boxing fight of 2012, Miguel Cotto vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr., took place. The Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto gave Mayweather a fight beyond expectation. It was a close fight and a tough match. Cotto trapped Floyd against the ropes throughout the fight and landed hard shots to the head that for the first time ever, drew blood from Mayweather’s nose. But, Cotto’s effort was not enough. It was Mayweather's ability to get his uppercuts and jabs in with enough regularity to take most of the fight. Mayweather triumphed in a unanimous decision and blew kisses to a booing and disproving crowd, while Cotto suffered the third loss of his career.

Although a controversial fight, it was a classic boxing match where at the end, one of the opponents wins. The curious thing about this fight, looking at it in a Public Relations standpoint, was what happened after it. In a regular sports competition of this caliber, the main event takes place, a space is allowed for a few informal interviews, and immediately after, a press conference is held with the former opponents. Nonetheless, after hearing the judge’s decision, Miguel Cotto left the boxing ring and headed down to his room without facing the media, refusing to attend the post-fight press conference. As stated by El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s most important newspaper, Miguel Cotto returned to Puerto Rico yesterday and even then, he didn’t talk to the media. The only public statement he gave was through his Twitter account.

One of the best!

I’m proud to say that the School of Communications of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus is officially the first and only communications school outside of the United States that receives an accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC). The Council visited the school this February and granted the accreditation today.

This is a great honor because it raises the prestige of the school and recognizes it as one of the top communications programs of the world.  As alumni I’m extremely thrilled about this announcement. Congratulations to the faculty, current students and graduates of the school! 

Out with the Old, In with the New

We live in a world where communication is shifting towards the Internet and social media. We’ve seen how publicists and artists around the world have been benefiting from new tools like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. to create a more direct and long lasting relationship between their clients and their fan base. 

Additionally, some renowned publicists have already made the new-age leap by offering digital press kits to media outlets in order to facilitate the information and the use of multimedia in journalistic articles. Yet, the vast majority of publicists still feel the need to incorporate traditional PR tools such as EPK’s, official press releases, press conferences and press kits. Although necessary, press kits handed out in hard copy, are becoming wasteful, expensive and basically outdated. With this in mind and a clear objective of providing new life to an old market, IndiAmbassador launched a powerful tool called Presskit.to. 

Welcome to the 10 Million Club

Congratulations to Real Madrid's player Kaká for becoming the first athlete to amass 10 million followers on his Twitter account! 
He and his publicist must be very happy for he is now the ruler of the sports related Twitter world, followed by his teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. He currently ranks number 17th on the overall list of most-followed tweeters according to twittercounter.com, where Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber rule the scoreboard with +20 million followers each.  

Fashionably Responsible

In past recent years we have seen how companies and celebrities are teaming up to fight for a social cause. H&M stores are no different. This brand, originally from Europe, has made it big in the United States and it’s famous for carrying different styles of fashion under one roof.  So they are using their affordability and power in the fashion industry to support a very controversial cause that affect millions of young people around the world, with their new line: Fashion Against AIDS that will be available on stores and online on April 26^th.

It’s really great that they are using their power to support a worthy cause while delivering a very modern and trendy fashion line, but lets take a look at this campaign from a Public Relations standpoint. What stands out the most on this campaign is the fact that a global fashion company is spending lots of money to put together a global campaign that is going to raise awareness and money towards HIV/AIDS projects. That alone is great for the reputation of the company. But there is another factor involved that makes this campaign stand out from the ones in the last four years and that makes it successful even before the fashion line has been released.

Weeks before the official release, H&M is engaging in the first stage of the campaign called "Make Out For A Cause". In this stage they encourage the young to upload a picture of them making out with someone. For each entry they donate a dollar to an HIV/AIDS project. Already, more than 11,000 photos have been uploaded from all over the world. The campaign has already reached awareness in social media sites and has become a trending topic in Twitter. Basically, they’ve already started collecting money for the cause while reaching the desired awareness in a fun and non-traditional way.

Head Over Heels

I thought I'd start this new blogger life writing a little bit about what got me here. 

During my high school years I always wanted to be part of the creative team in an advertising agency. So as soon as I graduated, I entered the University of Puerto Rico to major in Advertising and Public Relations. I wasn't very happy about this because I'd always disliked Public Relations, but I had no choice. I did a couple of internships in global advertising agencies and was very sure that advertising was my correct career path. 

By the first semester of my sophomore year, a law was passed in Puerto Rico stating that the Public Relations profession was going to be regulated and that in order to practice PR in the Island, all recent graduates had to have experience in the field and pass a test. That was the moment that I decided that since I was graduating from both Advertising and Public Relations, I should also engage in a PR Internship. So I landed an internship in a very prominent Entertainment PR Firm in Puerto Rico. 

Two weeks as an intern was all it took for me to fall head over heels for the entertainment PR industry. I cherished each day the satisfaction of being part of the team that made either an event possible or an artist grow. In my year as an intern and then as a Jr. PR Executive, I got the opportunity to work with A-list celebrities such as Ricky Martin and Daddy Yankee, and assisted with the planning and execution of notorious events such as the Enrique Iglesia’s Euphoria Tour, Shakira’s Sun Comes Out Tour, the Mega Electronic Fest and Miss Universe Puerto Rico Pageant, among others. The amount of knowledge I acquired is astonishing and the lessons learned are invaluable. It polished my communication skills and taught me how to develop public relations strategies, pitch stories, coordinate logistics for special events and effectively write media releases. This internship was a great school for me; it made me grown personally, professionally and helped me realize my higher calling: to be a publicist.

With this said, this is my take on the Entertainment & Fashion PR world… Enjoy! 

Above Left: Perfect Partners team (I'm the one in the far right) with Ricky Martin
Down Left: Me and a colleague with Enrique Iglesias
Right: Badges from some of the events I worked in