Publicists, the crucial middlemen of celebrity culture, are Hollywood fixtures busily introducing their clients to reporters to secure a spot on the local news or the next installment of “Entertainment Tonight.”
While publicists’ services do not come cheap, every aspiring actor or singer knows having one can boost a career. That may be why a number of top brokers in the city have hired publicists with the hope of transforming their name from a line next to a listing into a bona fide brand.
Publicist Linda Alexander of the Alexander Marketing Corp. represents uber-broker Toni Haber of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and says enough brokers have sought out publicists that it qualifies as “a total trend” in New York City real estate.
“A company will send a list of ‘just solds’ to the New York Times, the New York Post, The Real Deal, but they cannot push an individual broker, they just can’t,” says Alexander.
This is where a publicist can step in and shift the publicity machine into high gear. Alexander, who will only represent one broker at a time in order to avoid a conflict of interest, meets with Haber weekly in order to find out what they can promote.
Alexander adds, “A publicist is someone who is always on the phone, who is pushing your agenda, helps you look a certain way, dress a certain way, takes you to parties, and is always enhancing your image.”
Haber, a senior vice president at Elliman, hired Alexander in May to “take my business to the next level.” A broker for 23 years, Haber says that in the last two years, she lost some of her momentum following the death of her mother, and took much-needed time with her family. “I’m on like a fierce comeback. I’m ready to kick butt, so I evaluated what I needed to do,” says Haber.
At the cornerstone of her “comeback” approach was hiring a publicist. Haber interviewed two publicists and chose Alexander.
“I wanted someone who got it, understands what I am trying to do in the real estate industry,” says Haber. So far it has paid off. “I’ve been in the New York Post, New York magazine, the Wall Street Journal. I’ve been in Hamptons magazine practically every week this summer. People keep seeing me and my face and it’s going to start clicking.”
Publicists work on retainer and on average charge clients between $2,500 and $7,500 a month. Haber has also retained the services of a business coach and a person who handles all of her marketing, advertising and a personal Web site.
Dave Platter of Publitas LLC currently represents a brokerage team as opposed to an individual broker, handling publicity for the Lisa Maysonet Group, covering the eponymous founder and her team of brokers. Platter says publicity leads to more business and deals than a broker can achieve on his or her own.
“The first thing that happens with publicity is that people see it. It is like that magazine or newspaper is endorsing that person. I encourage my clients to get all the juice out of that orange, by putting their media appearances on mailers, on the Web,” says Platter.
That success isn’t all a publicist’s doing. Platter says most publicists would hesitate taking on someone who has not achieved some sort of success as a broker already. “For brokers who aren’t real successful or known, they should start by generating publicity by themselves,” he says. “The reality is there is less we can do for them.”
Cindy Rachlin, a Prudential Douglas Elliman broker since May 2004, says she was initially baffled by how much publicity some of her fellow brokers were receiving.
“‘What the hell are they doing that I am not doing?’ was my thought,” recalls Rachlin. At a recent social outing to a trendy Midtown lounge, she was approached by a publicist. “I am on the bathroom line and I get into a conversation with a woman on the line and she turns out to be a publicist and she says she is working with a lot of companies to help promote firms and brokers. I am not sure if I will call, but I kept the card,” says Rachlin.
Jennefer Witter, who started her own publicity firm two and a half years ago, represents Jacky Teplitzky, an executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman. Witter says she has successfully gotten Teplitzky’s name in the papers by booking speaking engagements, writing press releases and articles that include Teplitzky’s name, helping her client write marketing literature, and through visible involvement in charity organizations.
She communicates with Teplitzky every day, by phone or e-mail. “You have to be willing to spend 20 to 30 percent of your time with your publicist,” Witter says. “You have to be ready to turn on a dime for a media opportunity.”
But Barbara Fox, president of Fox Residential Group and a fixture in the New York real estate market for nearly two decades, feels publicity too often puts style over substance, and can lead to overexposure.
“It’s become more important to perfect the art of self-promotion than knowing and understanding the real estate business,” says Fox.
Fox has three proposals from publicists currently sitting on her desk.
“There’s more to look at than the ads someone takes out and the number of times a broker is quoted. People come to me because of my professionalism, not because of how many times my information is in their face,” she says. “In order to become a real estate broker today, the way it has evolved, you have to be a publicity hound. The competition is much rougher than it was a couple of years ago.”
Fox, who started Fox Residential Group in 1989, says she hired a publicist during the first five years of her business and periodically since, but says, “I never really thought I was getting enough bang for the buck.