Q&A with Honest London Founder: What does celebrity management mean?
Lauren Beeching
Founder Lauren has over 10 years experience when it comes to digital marketing, celebrity management, comms and PR. After experiencing working in-house and client side for a variety of agencies, Lauren set the goal of creating a friendly, honest agency with the overall goal of having not only a fun work environment and never experiencing ‘the dread’ again for herself, dog and colleagues but working with brands/people that truly interest her especially if they’re considered taboo/troublesome.
Lauren, how did you get into the world of celebrities?
It certainly wasn’t something I tried to get into, it kind of just happened.
I’m pretty known by friends for being honest and sometimes blunt… with a smile! It so happens that some friends of mine happen to be in the public eye who would regularly ask for my random opinion on social media or something PR related and would take my advice… This started the recommendation process with other people in the public eye.
My role at the time (Over 7 years ago eep) was PR/Digital marketing which was heavily revolved around UK and USA celebrities, this not only introduced me to a vast amount of different people but really highlighted to me how bad some celebrity PR is.
I built friendship based relationships and would hear horror stories from celebrities of what was in my opinion obvious PR fuck ups that I couldn’t believe happened - my running mouth would suggest solutions which majority would action... Started to realise maybe I’m quite good at this.
These contacts kindly provided me with regular ‘word of mouth’ recommendations and it eventually became a huge part of my career.
I personally thoroughly enjoy working with celebrities as day to day there’s always something new happening that you wouldn’t experience anywhere else. For me, the stranger or essentially more troublesome to public eye the celebrity is the better it is for me. Such a fun challenge to transform someones public identity!
What does celebrity management look like at Honest London?
When we decided to open Honest London, we knew we had to include celebrity management in our offerings - sounds much more professional than “oh text this girl Lauren, she helps me out and eats wings with me when I’m in town.” (I saw the screenshot).
It blew my mind and simply didn’t make sense to me how a PR firm in a big fancy office could give legitimate advice to a celebrity (human) on how they should present themselves in public when the only interaction they’ve had is from some forced awkward ass-licking meetings in a board room.
With having a rather casual approach to how I’ve helped celebrities in the past, I couldn’t imagine a different set up. I feel if I started to suggest to my clients to come sit in a boardroom and discuss their updates and what they need… We’d both get the giggles and feel a little silly. How can I give good PR advice with a fake relationship?
One client comes to mind: She had astonishingly bad PR when we met, dreadful reputation and I fell for it. I was prepared for a terrible introduction and meeting with her going by my research, she came across as the type of girl who would have bullied me at school. I was incredibly intimidated and somewhat terrified.
She arrived and had a bit of ‘diva’ attitude, me thinking.. Oh here we go. I luckily suggested we meet in a very casual place which made her relax immediately and she ended up ordering beers for us, we had a laugh while casually discussing my experiences/her problems in the public eye and how I can help her.
What could have been a forced fake meeting if we did it in a professional setting with a boastful powerpoint turned out to be a huge success and incredibly pleasant surprise.
She had to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever come across, we’ve been ‘working’ together for around 2 years and we message daily. She’s become more of a close friend rather than a client.
I discovered her love of art and how hilarious she is by chatting day to day, not that the public knew this wonderful likeable side of her.
We worked on pushing these attributes rather than her weird fake persona a PR firm insisted on. Her social platforms growth has been insane with a huge mixed audience rather than just one closed off area like before and her opportunities for different televised interviews/magazines/promotions have expanded no end.
If we did that initial formal meeting, this would never have happened - she would have been closed off/awkward and unimpressed. How can I make someone look amazing if I don’t know who they really are and what actually makes them an amazing person?
So what to expect upon arrival at Honest if you’re a celebrity?
There’s no photo when you arrive with our H logo covering a cheap print out wall, how awful is that.
We don’t and will never ask for a photo with you for our social channels/marketing.
We don’t add in our contract that your account must follow ours (How ludicrous when you want to hide the fact you’re using a social media service… If a celebrity management company insist on this.. Maybe question their priorities.)
We won’t treat you like royalty, we’ll treat you like the human you are.
We don’t have a hierarchy of clients, each one is just as important.
We will never place in a contract ‘benefits’ such as tour tickets/merch etc.
You won’t find a photo of a client on this website or their name for that matter.
Only myself and my co-founder would deal with a celebrity account - one client admitted their past celebrity management team had an intern working on their 4m + Instagram account who would read DM’s from verified accounts… This will NEVER happen.
Why do Honest London find it important to keep celebrity clients private?
It’s incredibly important to keep clients private, NDA’s exist for a reason. If we posted our client list online, it could risk the relationship/trust of fans not knowing if their favourite celebrity does in fact post on their Twitter or not. I would never post a photo online of a celebrity on my personal accounts either.
I find it a little cringe seeing competitor sites showing weird headshots of clients along with continuous awful photos of the poor celebrity having to have a photo at every meeting on their Instagram. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it, I’d rather shoot myself in the foot. I’ve had clients say they hate it and it concerned them if fans discovered it.
Does Honest London suffer for not providing evidence of clients online? Oh absolutely. If I was a public figure who discovered this site not from word of mouth, I’d click away - the marketing (on purpose) for it is terrible ha ha. We’re in an incredibly fortunate position where we don’t need this website to sell the celebrity services, it’s simply here to show what services we do provide to potential brand clients.
The thing is, once we meet a potential client - and sign NDA’s we have testimonials of course we can provide. 80% of our clients is word of mouth so they’ve essentially had the testimonial before we’ve even met. We’re good at what we do because we don’t put ourselves first. I’d be doing a terrible job if I promoted our clients, going against essentially all the advice provided especially if it’s social media services they’re using.
Me: So it’s incredibly important for me to research your writing style, humour and what your fans love so I can post accurately as yourself and no one will know while growing your account and providing you with amazing sponsorship deal opportunities.
Client: Great, that’s awesome.
Me: Ok cool. Can we get a photo of you for our website and Instagram where it promotes we do social media services for celebrities? Plus it’s in contract for your account to like the posts… Oh and just one fun one for my own Instagram account so I can show my followers I know you.