Blog
Two Killer Salon PR Ideas for Under $100
Motivate Your Staff Beyond Belief and Generate Great PR in the Process
I have TWO HUGE IDEAS to recommend to start the New Year off right for you and your staff:
- Enter Your Salon Team into NAHA ’09! (Note Deadline To Enter: Feb 2nd)
- Show Your Staff ‘I’m Not Just a Hairdresser‘, the 4-part Video Series from Vivienne Mackinder.
Take it from us, these two steps you can take right now for your salon/spa team members are ABSOLUTE WINNERS for creating motivated employees, client excitement, and plenty of local awareness!. Both ideas will bring your staff to laughter and tears, provide great inspiration, and make a permanently positive imprint on their professional pride and self-esteem. What’s that worth?
Killer PR Idea 1 – Enter Your Team Into the NAHA ’09 Competition and Bring Out Their Professional Pride!
NAHA, the North American Hairstyling Awards hosted annually by the Professional Beauty Association (PBA) – this year on July 9, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas during the North American Cosmoprof Show July 19-21, 2009.
So many stylists and colorists have told me that to simply ‘enter’ NAHA is motivating and satisfying – to actually attend the event is a pure peer thrill beyond belief – and to win/place (or be nominated) in whatever category you enter is a dream. The beauty of it is that those who enter range from industry newbies to industry icons – and they keep on entering whether they win or not because they all JUST LOVE THE EXCITEMENT OF ENTERING NAHA!!! (and attending whenever humanly possible).
In NAHA, Everyone Who Competes Comes Up A Winner!
As an owner, check out the details on the PBA/NAHA website and you’ll quickly discover how easy (and affordable) it is for one or more of your salon team to enter the various categories available. There is an affordable entry fee per person (send in paperwork, check and photo work by February 2nd.
Entrants send in photos; the whole salon has fun collaborating on the model looks submitted and participating in the photo shoot itself (cut, color, make-up, clothes, visual concept, etc). Use your creative resources when finding models/photog. And very important to note, the work is judged fairly and squarely by our industry’s icons and media. Note: Judges never know name of entrant or salon. They focus on purely the quality of work they see in the photographs that were submitted.
Bottom line, your very own salon pros entering NAHA creates a lot of excitement on every level AND there is great merchandiseable PR value in doing so. And even if your entrant(s) doesn’t actually win or even get nominated, most of the spiritual thrill is in the prep and actually entering this prestigious competition. Heaven forbid, you send any of your team to Vegas for the NAHA event, they will never be the same as they find themselves amidst the masters
and the mentors who have paved the paths they now follow (Sassoon, Sorbie,
Mackinder, Lobetta, just to name a few of the greats).
My take? Everyone is a winner who enters NAHA. It just brings out that great and lasting professional pride that drives career and business success! And the local PR opportunities for the salon whose members have entered NAHA are limitless. Here are a few suggestions to get your PR creative juices flowing.
- Send out a local brief press release announcing that your salon has entered the North American Hairstyling Awards. Be sure to include who from the salon has entered and in what category, the date and location of the event, and a sentence or two educating readers about what the prestigious NAHA is all about…the excitement of entering, etc. There’s plenty of descriptive copy ideas on the NAHA website.
- If you are nominated, there’s another excuse to get word out to your local papers, reminding all when the winners will be announced, that your salon is going to Las Vegas to attend the awards event, and so forth. (If you win your category, there’s a huge local announcement right there). Note: The NAHA folks will handle all the national industry promotion connected with the awards evemt/
- Remember that if you are not nominated or don’t win a category, you can still send out your beautiful photos to the local media as a trend statement from your salon – this should not be done until ‘after’ NAHA is over. If you are lucky enough to be nominated or win, the NAHA group will handle all photo usage (be sure to review their rules on their website).
. . . Speaking of Professional Pride and the ‘Greats’ One Meets at NAHA . . .
Killer PR Idea 2 – “I’m Not Just A Hairdresser‘ 4-Part Documentary Video Series by Vivienne Mackinder!
The first time I viewed this powerful video series, I cried (and I’m not even a hairdresser!). Whenever I saw others viewing it (at a show, in a salon, or in a school classroom), I saw them all crying too. These were clearly all tears of pride and joy from being a hairdresser and being a part of this great cosmetology industry . . . being inspired and motivated by the incredible first hand stories of our industry greats of ‘how they got from there to here’. Sometimes we all need ‘hope’ and to be reminded that all things are possible no matter who you are and where you start in life.
This video series is the brainchild of Vivienne Mackinder (btw, a big-time multi-mega winner at NAHA herself), together with talented journalist/fashion photog Aldo Belkouar (one of the most creatively conceptual talents I have ever met). They collaborated on what I believe is one of the most powerful motivational tools you could ever show your staff or your students in an educational setting. As far as I’m concerned watching this video series should be ‘required viewing’ no matter where you are in your career or curriculum . . . owner, staff, student, distributor, manufacturer, and yes, publicist!
Watching ‘Im Not Just A Hairdresser’ is the next best thing to sitting down with career role-models like Sassoon in his living room (or yours) and asking his personal insights and thoughts on success. It’s as if Vidal is talking directly to you. Vivienne does the masterful interviews and since she knows everyone in the videos, they share information with her that we’ll never hear anywhere else.
I recommend that you get all four (under $100) and factor them into a number of your salon activities.
The four videos are:
- ‘ Legends’
- ‘Empires’
- ‘The Leading Ladies Of Hair‘
- ‘Discover Your Passion‘
. . . and here are just a few ways to use these powerful motivators. I’m sure you’ll think of many more.
- Show them during staff meetings (maybe stagger them over 4 weeks in the New Year to create further team motivation and inspiration.
- Having a staff holiday party? What a great time to show ‘Legends‘. It makes compelling points for all watching.
- Having a holiday (or New Year) client ‘special event?’ – They make wonderful mood setters to use as a springboard into your content.
Since Vivienne and Aldo produced their video series in a documentary format, both clients and members of the media love viewing these stories. Think about how we love to view stories about great fashion designers. This series has that same appeal to both the consumer and the beauty professional alike. Here’s a link to her holiday special on this series.
Between helping your staff to enter NAHA ’09 – and showing them the I’m not just a hairdresser’ video series, you will impact their lives forever and be another ‘role-model hero’ to them in the process! Everyone walks away a PR winner!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND YOUR TALENTED TEAM!
Sharon
If you found this article useful, get a free subscription to BeautyPRpro. You’ll receive a FREE copy of our ebook, “Life-Changing PR for Salon & Spa Owners” and receive each article post minutes after it hits the blog.
Feel free to click on the ‘Share This’ icon below to send this post to a friend or mark it at your favorite social bookmarking site.
Some great ideas for salon promotion 🙂
Thank you