Julia Labaton, President and Owner of Red PR, is currently finding a silver lining in community. Here, she talks about competitors leaning into the community, product launch plans in these unchartered times, brand messaging and how humor provides much-needed relief.

If there’s a silver lining during a crisis, it’s when communities come together, share information, and talk about what’s working and what’s not. It allows us to be nimble and strategic – as much as one can be when everything is changing so quickly.

I’m in various groups for small PR agencies and independent contractors, all of whom are in the same boat, all leaning in together and helping each other. One such group is the Female Founder Collective. Another, PR Boutiques International, where I serve on the board, last week put together a task force to create best practices for communication management of Covid-19. The document is very thorough – more than the basic advice that you can find on LinkedIn. What makes it particularly valuable is that the people who worked on it, including 40 agencies from around the world, come from different verticals, including health care, real estate, tourism and beauty. They’re bringing knowledge of their sector, and the various problems that clients are facing, and offering key learnings that almost any industry can use.

I’ve had calls on all ends of the spectrum this week. On one hand, we are signing new clients and the crisis doesn’t seem to have changed their launch plans. It might delay them, but as of now things are proceeding. On the other hand, we stood to lose a client, but now they’ve asked to keep us on for a few more months to get them through this. They are not a D2C brand, and their distribution has been removed, so now they’re trying to ramp up their direct-to-consumer retail availability. For them, PR and awareness during this period is vital.

This crisis will change the products and services that we offer, and how we offer them. Hopefully there will be good news for D2C brands and indie brands in particular, that is once people get past the panic of whether they will have enough food and toilet paper. I’m hoping that there will be a lot more room for people to discover D2C brands as we will be only shopping online for a while.

The hardest question we are getting from clients right now is in terms of timing for product launches: should they go ahead or push them off? It really varies by client. For example, for a sun care client, the seasons don’t change and launches pretty much have to stay on time. For other clients, things can be moved from spring to the fall.  

The hardest question we are getting from clients right now is in terms of timing for product launches: should they go ahead or push them off?

With regard to media pitches, no one in beauty should be pitching anything related to COVID-19. We’re not mentioning it in any pitch. Even if it’s a DIY home manicure, it’s still just a DIY home manicure. Just because you can’t go to the salon right now, it would be insensitive to try to capitalize on a terrible epidemic by promoting home kits. Yes, people are at home using face-masks, doing their own manicures, and touching up their roots. And editorial content is still being pushed out about being in quarantine. But I also think people don’t want to hear any more than they have to right now. It’s a tipping point if you incorporate that into beauty.

With regard to media pitches, no one in beauty should be pitching anything related to COVID-19.

Brands have to show and communicate that they care for their community. They need to put a pause – a very temporary pause – on the usual promotions and talk about what they’re doing for their staff and the community as a whole. You have to take a step back on all commercial products because no one’s mind is really on those things. Otherwise it’s very insensitive. You see brands that are doing this very well, and others that are a little bit tone-deaf. No one wants to be accused of doing bad media.

I’m trying to read as much as possible, both within the beauty industry and beyond. I personally find NPR radio to be incredibly valuable. Some of their interviews with medical professionals are in a longer form than what you see on television. I listen to the New York Times’ The Daily, which is always very insightful. I also follow international news to see how the crisis is impacting other countries and how they’re reporting on it.

You want to take in the news and be aware, but the mental fatigue is real and you also need something lighthearted. Humor is the best thing that anyone can offer right now, such as TikTok memes and videos. I’m so appreciative that Stephen Colbert is doing a monologue from his back-porch.

I have a bunch of young women on my team who live alone or are very independent, so I want them to know that their work family is there for them. We have a daily, end-of-day video chat to see how everyone is doing and to keep everyone updated. Our office is an open loft, so we are used to exchanging information all day long. Now, we are a bit more formal in terms of scheduling many meetings. And of course we have our Slack channel, and we’ve created a specific COVID-19 channel.

What the wellness community is doing by offering free classes on Instagram Live, including yoga teachers and fitness studios, is tremendously valuable right now. I’m taking advantage of all those classes. And I have never used FaceTime so much to stay in touch with friends!