World-renowned weather, sandy beaches, beautiful people and buzz-worthy nightlife- all things that attract celebrities to Stingaree, one of our longtime clients, like flies to honey. Since first opening its doors in 2005, Stingaree quickly became a Mecca for celebrities visiting San Diego. From an outsider’s perspective, celeb appearances are about glitz and glamour; red carpets and champagne. However, for the J Public Relations team, there’s much more to the story.
Upon receiving the “go-ahead” from the Stingaree team, meaning that a signed contract is in place and we are free to release information about the celebrity and/or event, we quickly work to put together a media alert (the Who, What, When, Where, Why, How) to be distributed to local, regional and national lifestyle and entertainment media outlets. As contracts can sometimes take a while to be agreed upon or celebs pop up at the last minute, the lead-time can be anywhere from as much as two weeks or as little as two days. Depending on the terms of the contract, we pitch media to send photographers to cover the step and repeat (red carpet), reporters to conduct interviews and TV crews to shoot live. We also book a house photographer who will shoot the red carpet, as well as have exclusive rights to the penthouse or at the bottle service table where the celebrity is sitting, so as to respect his or her space.
The night of operations is always filled energy, adrenaline and a million things to complete. We arrive earlier in the night, around 10:00pm to set up the step and repeat. if there’s hefty media coverage or a high profile, celeb (think: Black Eyed Peas), we’ll often assign media a certain place on the red carpet . This creates a bit more control and order. From there, we play the waiting game. Arrival time for celebrities can range anywhere from 11:00 pm to close (thankfully, this rarely happens and is frowned upon). Once the celebrity’s manager or point person lets the Stingaree team know he or she is on the way, its go time! Upon arriving, our team greets the celebrity and his or her team, quickly discusses pictures and interviews, and then takes to the celeb to the red carpet. We are responsible for ensuring that we get solo shots of the celeb and shots with the Stingaree team (if granted). We also oversee all interviews, if the celebrity agrees to them, and then gets the in-house photographer in place. From there we work quickly, Often within the first 15 minutes of he or she getting inside the club, we’ve already gotten candid shots of the celeb having fun, partying, etc., which will later be distributed to media. Once all of that is complete, we are done for the night and free to enjoy the rest of the evening.
Work continues the morning after! We’re up at 8am to receive all of the images from the house photographer and are responsible for sorting out the best ones that are “media appropriate.” We then craft a pitch to send to national lifestyle outlets, such as People and US Weekly, along with online sites like PerezHilton.com. These posts and articles can include all types of information from what time the celeb arrived, to what their disposition was like, to what they ate or drank, and more! Completing the circle, we pick up the weekly mags to hopefully see the celeb and Stingaree included in the “Spotted” or “Party Pictures” sections!
It’s a lot of fun to be involved with celebrity wrangling and press outreach, but at the same time requires a lot of hard work. It’s definitely not all glitz and glam! At the end of the day, all of the hard work pays off when you secure a placement for your client in a major, national outlet. We’ve had the pleasure of working with some of today’s hottest celebs including Paris Hilton, Kate Hudson, Pamela Anderson, Beyonce, Fergie, Kim Kardashian, John Legend, and the Black Eyed Peas, among others. Stingaree continues to be a hotbed for Hollywood hipsters. Who’s up next, you ask? Kevin Dillon, star of HBO’s hit series Entourage, and also known as “Johnny Drama,” returns to Stingaree for the second year in a row to celebrate his birthday! And keep an eye out for the pink ladies working the red carpet!
Think pink!
