Gabby Howard: There's a lot of people out there doing a lot of things these days, and I think the people who get cut through and the brands who get cut through are those who have really great stories they're telling to back up their new releases. Niche sounds bad sometimes when you're trying to build a big audience and a build brand. But if you nail that niche, you can then actually grow that niche. You can no longer go out into the world and say, hey, I've created, you know, five new pink jumpers. Isn't that amazing? It has to be. Why? Why pink jumpers? Why these particular types of jumpers? You know, why should consumers care about your pink jumpers versus someone else'?
[Voiceover]: Welcome to Add to Cart, the podcast that Express delivers all you need to
Gabby Howard: know in the fast moving world of E commerce.
[Voiceover]: Every month, Nathan Bush from 12 High
Gabby Howard: and an E commerce industry expert will
[Voiceover]: share the news, research and insights that you need to know to keep you
Gabby Howard: at the top of your game.
[Voiceover]: And of course, keep your customers adding to Cart. Hello and welcome to Add to Cart. My name is Nathan Bush, host of Add to Cart and and director at E commerce talent agency E Suite. Today we're here to talk about a different kind of marketplace that many of you may not be familiar with. Flaunter is a public relations or PR marketplace that connects brands like Allbirds, Cotton on and Asos with media partners like Marie Claire, Popsugar and Vogue. I'm joined by founder and CEO Gabby Howard to share how Flaunter is getting brands up to 300% more coverage to by connecting directly into publishers. But more than just Flaunter, I thought we'd pick the PR brains of Gabby to get a bit of a PR 101 for E commerce brands. In this conversation, we cover how to turn your products into stories that the media will actually care about. We also have a chat around how gifts for PR are on the way out and how we can foster a greater community of female entrepreneurs in Australia. So, thanks to our partners Shopify plus and Signet, here's our conversation with Gabby Howard from Flaunter. Gabby Howard, welcome to Add to Cart.
Gabby Howard: Thank you for having me. Hello.
[Voiceover]: Great to meet you. You are actually our first PR expert that we've had on Add to Cart.
Gabby Howard: It's a privilege. Thank you. I'm very excited.
[Voiceover]: We'll see how you feel by the end of it.
Gabby Howard: Yeah, I know. Yeah. I hope we still walk away with the PR expert, but kind of bit after my name by the end of this.
[Voiceover]: I'm sure you will. I'm sure you will. All right, so before we get into it, we're going to talk a lot around PR for e commerce brands and how to make the most of it. But can you first tell us, because it's a fascinating story. You're the CEO and the founder of Flaunter. Can you tell us what Flaunter is and how you came up with the idea?
Gabby Howard: Yeah, what Flaunter is. So Flaunter is software for PR and marketing teams and we help those teams to streamline the daily flow of media relations, content sharing, sharing, sample tracking and reporting. So we basically provide digital showrooms and branded media centers that help PR marketing teams to more easily leverage and distribute and also track and build data around their PR content. We also have a marketplace component. So all of that content that teams are managing internally within Flaunter and sharing out their existing networks is also actually available on demand to the media network that we have built within Flaunter so media can create their own profiles within Flaunter and access branded content on demand.
[Voiceover]: All right, so you're a two sided marketplace and you've got media on one side and then agencies on the other. Do you also have brands on that side doing their PR direct?
Gabby Howard: Yes, absolutely we do. So there's probably a 5050 mix in terms of agency representation and then straight brand usage on Flaunter. So we have, you know, very large brands like Oryton and Cotton On Group and Nautica and some really big kind of names down to some, I guess, some Australian focused Beckonbridge brands like that. And then we also have the big agencies who are running fashion and interior showrooms and they're both leveraging Flaunter.
[Voiceover]: There's some big names.
Gabby Howard: They are, yeah, we've got some fantastic customers who we love and cherish deeply. But yes, we have some big names and the focus really is on that kind of medium to large scaled brand. Yeah, great.
[Voiceover]: So for me, not coming from a world of pr, what is the problem that you're solving for these brands? How does Flaunter actually make it easier for them to get the word out?
Gabby Howard: Yeah, so Flaunter really, I mean some, some background into why I started Flaunta in the first place. So quite clearly my background is in pr. I had just started my own agency and I had, I had been managing six or seven clients at the time by myself, early days. And the that I was trying to solve for was that with all of these, you know, this is kind of way back. I'm not going to tell you how old I am now, but this is the kind of way back before Flaunta started. But, you know, the problem was it was a huge amount of content that was beginning to be produced, digital visual content that was being produced by these brands at a kind of a rapidly escalating scale. And there was no clear, easy way to actually be able to distribute, house distribute and also display that content so that all of my media connections at the time could have that editorial control over what they wanted to browse and download from my customers, my clients and how they wanted to use that content. So the original problem really was about streamlining workflow and making it easier on myself as an expensive resource and a limited resource. I was starting my own agency. It was just me. And then also on the flip side of things for media, it was also about saving them time through that piece instead of the email back and forth and please send me a USB stick or a cd. It was really about streamlining workflow and making life easier.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. Great. And is that from a media perspective, is the type of PR that they're normally chasing? Is it more lifestyle pr, like the collections of products or, you know, the Sunday mag kind of content?
Gabby Howard: Yeah. What do you mean by lifestyle? Just clarify with me.
[Voiceover]: Oh, don't go on my version of pr. So it's very basic. So if we're talking about the type of stories that you typically see media looking for content for in Flaunter, what are the main types of stories or press that they usually turn to Flaunter to create?
Gabby Howard: Yeah, yeah. So there's all sorts of reasons that media use Flaunter, and I use the term media pretty loosely. Like it's a very big term that we use inside Flaunter. So we're talking print journalists, we're talking stylists, we're talking influencers. So there's kind of like a really big. Even retailers who are actually their own publishers these days is a really big kind of like group of people that we media. And so they're all coming into Flaunter for lots of different reasons. And also our customers. So our brands and agencies are using Flaunter to share out with a really diverse range of groups as well, of people who they're hoping will be able to kind of give them that increased exposure. And so what all those people are looking for varies at times. It could be product samples. They can shoot and create their own content that's becoming more and more popular. As people like to start creating their own looks and feel around particular brands and products, they might be looking for images to, you know, to sit alongside, feature stories around a particular brand or a profile on a founder, for example. Or they might be looking for still flat, flat lay product shots, you know, to build out shopping pages. So there's a huge variety of content on Flaunter that's available and that's just up to the brands on what they want to share. And in terms of what media are looking for, they're looking for anything that will make a great tail story. And in today's day and age and today, what people are producing something that makes a great story must have imagery, must have images, video. It's a visual storytelling world out there. And I think, you know, you can't just publish something with words anymore. So whatever it is that you're producing, when you're producing content, it has to have images.
[Voiceover]: Fashion retailer Incoo has been introducing customers to new international brands for nearly 20 years. With 10 retail stores, E commerce has been a support player. But in the last year it got really serious. They've upgraded from a custom site to Shopify and now Shopify Plus Incoo sales have grown nearly 300% year on year. Shopify plus features such as Launchpad for automation flow to manage nearly 2,000 SKUs, scripts for customization and Shopify plus merchant growth model have all had a compounding effect. Not only are sales up 300% year on year, conversion rates are up 80%, average session engagement up 91% and bounce rate down 40%. Incoo more like in.
Gabby Howard: Whoa.
[Voiceover]: To read more of Incu's story and see other case studies, visit the customer sections on shopify.com. If a media brand picks up or an influencer like you said, you know, we've got to think much broader than just our traditional media channels. If someone picks up the content from a brand within Flaunter and uses it, will that brand know that it's being used or will it only be if they see it out in the world?
Gabby Howard: No. So this is the like. As a former publicist, this is probably one of my favorite like parts of Flaunter and what we do. And that's baking in data and building in insights into all of those interactions that happen between brands or agencies and mediums. So it's not just, you know, you might use the Dropbox link if you're not using Flaunter. I don't know why you would. But anyway, if you're not using Flaunter and you're using Dropbox, you send out a link to 100 contacts, for example, you have no visibility on what's happened with that content other than having to chase those particular individuals, that's 100 of them, and try and get some feedback from them on what they might have looked at, what might have piqued their interest, what they may have actually then taken from that folder and potentially will publish in some future date. With Flaunter. When you're sharing out links to your content, which looks far more beautiful than it does in a Dropbox link to start with, it's much more easily accessible. It's available to kind of curate and download by media in the way that they want to, which is really important. So it's a really nice user experience for all of your journalists or media contacts. But what they actually then provide you with estimated published dates, you actually start to build data on what images are most popular, what's being looked at, what's not being looked at, which media are engaging with your brand, who's not. And so all of that is insight that you can immediately build on without actually having to go back and forth and trying to desperately get information back from a contact that may be busy with a million other brands that they're also working with and won't have the time for one on one replies about whether they were interested in your media release or interested in your new collection kind of images. Yeah, it's one of my favorite parts about what we do and the kind of insights that we provide to our users is really about that potential for publication and who's engaging with your content.
[Voiceover]: That's great. And then in terms of being within the platform where you would normally send an email with a Dropbox link to approach a media partner or a journalist, can you reach out one on one to individuals or publications within the platform?
Gabby Howard: You can. So most brands who come to Flaunta or agencies who come to Flaunta will have their own media lists and they are tightly curated, tightly held. You know, they're a very important piece of a PR or marketing person's kind of inventory or you know, like their secret sauce. And so they'll come with those lists and you know, using Flaunter links to send to those, those contacts within their own emails is super easy and really functional. And then there is the ability to direct message via Flaunter as well. So have media profiles on Flaunter. We don't call ourselves a media list service. We're not a media full media directory. Our profiles are actually of those of media who have self like they've joined the platform themselves and created their own rich kind of profiles on Flaunter so they can be contacted by brands via the platform. And we find that that one on one connection is really important in how you distribute your story and your content. No one wants mass emails anymore, no one wants mass distribution. We will. You know, everyone listening here would know intimately the importance of personalization and that's not just in your products and in your brand, but that's also in the way you communicate with your media audience as well.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. Awesome. Has there been a moment with Flaunter where you've seen your two sides come together? You've seen brands and media come together in a way that's really surprised you and kind of blown you away.
Gabby Howard: We get amazing feedback from our customers all the time in terms of the types of connections they've been able to make. You know, cover stories that have happened via connections in Flaunter brands using Flaunter data to help them stock differently in different regions within the country because they know that they're going to have press or some sort of feature out in for example, we're talking, let's say we're cotton on, we're talking about, you know, we have Australia wide reach but we know that there's like three articles that are coming out in Vic Victoria because of downloads that we've been able to track by Flaunter and they're coming out in May. So what we're going to do is actually stock up on these five particular items that are being featured and that helps them actually to increase sales on that particular item as well as increase the exposure via that media piece. So we get all sorts of kind of amazing stories that come out of that, those connections that happen within Flaunter.
[Voiceover]: Awesome. So before we pick your brains around PR in general, just on the Flaunter piece, if brands are interested in joining Flaunter, are you able to give an indication on cost to access the marketplace?
Gabby Howard: Yes, definitely. So we're a subscription model month to month or you can sign up for a yearly package with 10% discount. Our prices range from 100 to 400 plus per month depending on the kind of inventory that you have and that you're going to manage through Flaunter and the number of assets that you have and want to upload into Flaunter. Yeah, so it's very much, you know, pay as you go. And the size of the brand will indicate the size of the package or the subscription that you'll take.
[Voiceover]: Brilliant. All right, so if we look at the broader PR&E commerce industries in general, do you think current E commerce and retail brands are making the most out of the PR opportunities that are available to them?
Gabby Howard: I think some of them are doing really great things. It's really, you know, it's one of those things I, you know, for those people listening and for the PR and marketing teams listening, it's how long you is a piece of string. And so obviously, you could always be doing more and better. I think some of the things that people are doing really well is doubling down on the storytelling and really leveraging those PR skills to actually become amazing content producers and actually starting to share the stories of the brand, the mission behind the brand, the founders behind the brand, the products, and actually leveraging those great stories to create content and then to create, like, bigger audiences around those stories. And I think, you know, that there's definitely always room to move in terms of the data piece and actually monitoring. We know who your engaged audience is and how to effectively communicate with the right people who want to talk about your brand and not get so caught up in trying to have, you know, reach across the board and trying to do that kind of mass. Have that mass appeal that we talked about earlier. So I think people who are doing things well are really personalizing their outreach to media. They're looking at what their existing kind of database is talking about and how they fit into that. They're creating amazing content. I think that's probably one of the most critical aspects of how to do PR well is you have to have amazing resources to be able to share out. And you've got really good, solid storytelling and you're telling really good stories that have meanings.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. When you talk about stories, can you give us some examples of the type of stories that you've seen resonate really well?
Gabby Howard: Yes. So founder stories resonate really well. The history behind the brand resonates really well. The history behind a particular product or collection resonates really well. I think you can't. You can no longer go out into the world and say, hey, I've created, you know, five new pink jumpers. Isn't that amazing? And here are some photos of my five new pink jumpers. It has to be, why pink jumpers? Why these particular types of jumpers? You know, why should consumers care about your pink jumpers versus someone else's? To that element of storytelling in terms of having kind of more depth to what you're releasing versus just, you know, traditionally, like in the past, and it was often like here, sending out an email with some pictures to a lookbook and saying, hey, I have this collection, isn't it amazing? And you know, you try and get pick up some kind of media attention off the back of that. And that would have worked potentially, but where, you know, there's a lot of people out there doing a lot of things these days. And I think the people who get cut through and the brands who get cut through are those who have really great stories that they're telling to back up their new releases.
[Voiceover]: Now, what if you are just creating pink jumpers because they're on trend for this year and there's huge margin in them and there's actually no story?
Gabby Howard: Yeah. Well, then you can have to start to create a story. So your pink jumper is probably, if you're creating it because it's on trend, there's probably some, you know, influencer, some famous person wearing it, or, you know, There are like 10 other brands producing pink jumpers. And, and so why don't you pitch that pink jumper story as a trend story instead of just pitching it as my individual pink jumpers? There's power in numbers. So that's again, going back to your data and research and looking at what people are talking about as a collective and industry wide. And so it's looking at angles that you can use to sell that pink jumper that's, I guess, more creative, a bit more clever and you know, something that a reader, like an audience member or someone who's going to read that particular journalist that you're pitching, who's going to read their content and actually be interested in what they have to say. So, you know, if you think about it, journalists have metrics that they're trying to, like they're working to as well. Those metrics are reach and engagement and all of the same ones that you're trying to work to. And so if you can put yourself in their shoes and think about what the people that they're talking to would want to hear about, you'll be much, much better off and you'll be in a much better place in terms of understanding how to pitch to them than if you're just trying to think about yourself and, you know, getting your five pink jumpers out into the world because, you know, you've got, got to watch your own metrics.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, that's a great example. I really liked your point earlier where you were talking about, don't just go after mass reach. Think about being really targeted and personalized and go after the sources that will make a big impact. Is there any tools that you would recommend to find those channels or those sources that will resonate best with your customers?
Gabby Howard: This is basic. This is diving deep into customer Personas and really understanding where your customers live. And so doing the work on customers Personas will actually kind of help you across all of your different channels. So pr, sales, e commerce, it will be the same customer that you're after. So if you're talking about your customer specifically, then obviously it's going down to, like, what music do they like to listen to, where do they like to shop, what cafes are they at, what brands are they buying other than your brand? And then actually, when you then take that step back and you're thinking, okay, well then how am I going to target them through my PR and media strategy or marketing strategy? It's then thinking about, all right, well, how am I going to get to those particular places that my customer is? What publications are there, what influences are there, what bloggers are there? Who is in the circle of my customer, and how am I going to reach those people and target those people? Because I know that they have an interest in the same customer that I do. So it's really building out your. Your customer Personas really, really well. We have brands that come in and they're like, oh, I think my customer could be everyone. And, yeah, that's a fair call. I mean, you know, everyone could say that their customer could be every woman between 18 and, you know, 45. And potentially someone there might buy their product. But actually, the more granular you can get and the more focused you can get to begin with, the more successful you will become because you will have a very clear and consistent message that you're sending out to a very kind of, you know, niche sounds bad sometimes when you're trying to build a big audience and a build brand. But if you nail that niche, you can then actually grow that niche.
[Voiceover]: Yep. Cool. And then is it literally just keeping an eye on the journalists, the influencers, the sources that are talking about that and just manually noting who it is and they're the people you need to reach out to.
Gabby Howard: Absolutely. And that's how you start to list build. You just have to do the research. There is work in doing it. Obviously, tools like Flaunter make that work a lot easier. So you've got all of your content in Flaunter. You are distributing it through Flaunter and you're building data on who is engaging with your content through flaunter or who is not engaging with your content. Right. So if you have a particular target, influencer or journalist, and they're not engaging with the things that you send them, you can actually start to backtrack and actually start to build some sort of story or case around what they're not engaging with and therefore try something new versus if you didn't have that data, you could just keep wasting your time trying to try the same thing. But yes, it's building out a list from all of the research that you've done and maintained really good relationships with the people in that list. It's also really important to be aware that like people, you know, journalists are busy, media are busy, stylists are really busy. So not getting a response from someone immediately doesn't mean that they are not into your brand. If you feel like you've really well researched this person, they're talking about the kind of things that you think that you can sell them or share with them, then I would suggest you keep trying a really kind of, of nice, friendly, you know, non pushy kind of way to get that cut through because they are busy and they might reply on the fifth email or the fifth release if you're really certain that, that that person is in your like target.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, absolutely.
Gabby Howard: Yeah.
[Voiceover]: And beyond the stories and the images and the video that we've already talked about, are there any other keys to getting the attention of these influencers and journalists? Do things like sending gift packs still work or is that old school now?
Gabby Howard: Gift packs? I think that that's probably, that's a tough one. I don't think sending gift packs does still work in the sense that we used to send the way we used to send gift packs. So you know, you'd get a list of 100 people, you were targeting those that entire hundred people would get that same gift. You'd hope that they would talk about it or take a photo of it or post it on social. I just don' think it works that way anymore. You're not going to see the same kind of results that you might have five years ago. Gifting can still work, but again it has to be like highly personalized and really finely tuned to the like the individual person. So you actually may get much better value out of gifting five people, not 100, but something that they really want and will use and talk about if you really want to gift. Otherwise it's really creative. I think you brands have to focus on creating great products for their category and having a great brand experience across the board. And I would spend my money on doing that and creating beautiful assets rather than spending the money gifting people. We are all gifted lots and lots of things in this industry. Journalists, media influencers, as we all know, they would have piles of gifts sitting in their houses unopened and unused. So I don't think that's how you're going to get cut through unless it's completely personalized and very bespoke.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, makes sense. And in terms of creating those assets, we've talked a little bit about it. Can we go into a little bit more detail around the types of assets that people should be creating? What is the baseline that all brands should have on hand in terms of assets and then what are the nice to have?
Gabby Howard: Yeah, so I think the same assets, it used to be E Commerce, you know, you'd have your really kind of plain white background images and you'd have one image per product and that's how you used to kind of build your web store. But I think, you know, very in the same vein that E commerce like the imagery that you need to create for E commerce platforms now and how interactive and beautiful and moment creating those images need to be for E Comm. It's the same thing for PR and media. You want to be creating all different types of assets. So you want to have your lifestyle, you want to have your deep edge, you want to be able to cover all the different bases and really create that beautiful feeling around your brand that images can help you do and that story. With pr, the more different types of assets that you can have at hand, the better. One person will be looking for deep edge flat lay. Another will be looking only for lookbook or campaign. And someone might be just looking for some sort of prepackaged content which includes a blog post as well as those images and video. So the more of that that you can create, the better, the more different types. But having said that, you have to be really careful with the quality that you're producing because that is also just as important. There is no point in producing 100 images of low quality. You're better off producing five high quality images at the end of the day.
[Voiceover]: And are you talking high quality as in literally like size and or are you talking about being a bit more imaginative with it so that it stands out?
Gabby Howard: Yeah, that's a good point. So in terms of like the technical aspects of it. Yes, a high quality like in terms of size. So you want High resolution assets that can sit across all different formats. Also, you know, we're looking at, you know, displays now and even on your mobile where, you know, you can't have low res 72dpi images. Everything that we need to produce has to be super high quality and look like it's going to jump off a screen. But yes, also in terms of high quality is, yeah, the more creative that you can be, but within your brand, obviously your brand look and feel, obviously the better and the more differentiated you can be, the better.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. And to get super nerdy, what is kind of the minimum standard in terms of that technical quality that you would deem to be high quality?
Gabby Howard: Yeah. So on Flaunta, we say that the images have to be minimum 300 dpi. That's just. Even if it's going to go on a website or even it's going to be used just for social. We have minimum 300dpi on the platform.
[Voiceover]: Brilliant. Now if we've got people listening to this, especially founders who are going, oh, wow, pr. I probably haven't given it as much attention as I should and we really need to play a bit of catch up here. Obviously you've got two options. You can do it in house or you can do it with agencies and you have both as clients. So I'm not, I'm not going to ask you the question around which one's better, but can you give us a really high level pros and cons of each that our founders should think about when they're considering whether to in. In source this or outsource it?
Gabby Howard: Yeah, yeah, that's a really good question and probably I could answer it in 10 different ways, you know, for 10 different brands. But if I'm going to talk, I'm going to talk generally, then it would really depend on the resources that you have. If you are able to hire, you know, more than one person to do the job internally, then fantastic. And that would actually probably be a really strong position to be in and keep, keep the brand, keep everything that you're doing internally and then leverage, I think an agency, if you ever needed to kind of scale up your team. But if you don't have the ability to hire more than one person internally to manage your PR media relations, then absolutely. Agencies just provide that scale and breadth of knowledge that you just can't possibly have internally. And we're talking the PR function now is actually growing in size. So the things that you have to do when you're in charge of PR and marketing, like the channels that you have manage the content that you have to produce. It's pretty out of this world if you're going to be like best practice brand. So the more, the more resources that you can have and the more expertise that you can have, the better. So yes, I 100% think that agencies are fantastic for that. Having said that, if I had all of the money and resources in the world, then scaling up a team internally is probably the way I would go.
[Voiceover]: Did you know that Lush Cosmetics have committed to being naked 50% of the time? That means free from packaging, you sickos. But when packaging is used, it needs to meet stringent environmental guidelines, including being 100% recyclable. So that's when Lush joined forces with our partner Signet to provide an eco friendly outer packaging solution which helps get their products in the hands of retailers in perfect condition while making a minimal environmental impact. To see the packaging solutions that lush cosmetics use, plus five and a half thousand other solutions, visit signet.net au and up your E commerce packaging game today. I thought it was really interesting where in our conversation you talked about PR being like integrated with everything that you're doing. You know, telling the product story. You know, if you get pr, you might have to stock up in areas where, where that PR is dropping. So it kind of impacts the whole business. Do you see it's still core to the marketing function or do you see it broader than that?
Gabby Howard: Look, I think pr, sales, marketing, all of that probably if I'm building my own team in a brand, I would want cross functional teams because everything touches on everything these days. That's such kind of a loose statement to make. But I just think that nothing works in silos anymore. So the more you can integrate your teams across those functions, think the better. So you know, an example of pr, there are some stockers now that will ask you for all of your PR results, will, you know, do a really critical review of your brand online before they will even have a meeting with you about stocking any of your brand, like your brand or your product in their stores, be that E commerce or physical retail. And you know, having that really strong PR presence is incredibly important to sales, really at that level and then doubling down on, you know, distributing. One article that you may have had about your brand is actually really important in terms of like a marketing, marketing function as well. So it does sit across everything I think now. And the more you can integrate your teams, the smarter your business will be.
[Voiceover]: Awesome. Now you do an incredible amount to help other female founders. What do you think are the most impactful ways that we can help foster a more diverse entrepreneur kind of ecosystem in Australia.
Gabby Howard: That's a very nice thing for you to say. I'm not sure how altruistic I really am, but anyway, yes, I do. It is very important to me to be as helpful as I can be to other women founders. I think, you know, first and foremost, you can't be what you can't see. That's, you know, like pretty straightforward. The more women there are out there in founding roles, CEOs, heads of, the better it is for everybody. I think, you know, mentoring and doing that kind of work in terms of helping to share experience, real experience, not just, you know, the pretty PR pictures and stories that you read in media about successes, but also sharing. Being happy to share failures is also a really important part of that mentoring piece. So I think probably number one is just being visible in market and helping to share stories. Again, I'm all about sharing stories, stories. So talking about experiences, mentoring. I think there needs to be better access to funding for women who are founding their own businesses. For example, we were just the recipients recently of the Boosting Female founders government grant, which is specifically tailored to women founders. So I think having more of that available in the ecosystem is also really important. So money, knowledge, personal experience, and just visibility are probably the key things that we need to do better at.
[Voiceover]: Yeah. Fantastic. And do you think it's a business leaders taking it or do you think it's got to come from government?
Gabby Howard: I think it has to come from everywhere. It has to come from everywhere. So an example. You know, I used to hate the idea of quotas. That seemed really not the best way to go from a personal perspective. But now, you know, you have government talking about quotas in a very real way way and you have industry talking about quotas as well. That's just one example where I think if both sides of that equation are tackling that issue in the same way, then I think that strengthens the position. But yeah, definitely it has to come from everywhere. And it has to come from women, it has to come from men. It has to come from, you know, junior, junior roles right through to senior roles.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, yeah, I love the way you put that there. That it's got to come from everyone. Like is not one sex's problem to solve? It's not for, you know, it's got to come from all leadership positions.
Gabby Howard: Exactly. And you know, yeah, it's t. It could be tiring to be, you know, the only person, you know, it Could. First of all, it's really tiring to be the only woman in the room and second of all, it's really, really tiring to be the only woman in the room and then having to kind of be there and speak for all of the other women who aren't in the room all the time. So, yeah, all those men in the room. Room need to speak up to.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, absolutely. Gabby, I'm loving the Flaunter story and we're obviously still in the early stages, despite the incredible success you've had so far. We've heard some of those great brands and that you've been working with. What's next for Flaunter?
Gabby Howard: What's next for Flaunter? There's a lot that's next for Flaunter. Immediately next is growing our presence internationally, so growing our footprint outside of Australia. We've done a lot of work on the Australian market and Australian community. It's our birthplace and we've been really proud of, as you've mentioned, like, the great quality and caliber of brands and publishers that we've worked with here. And Flaunto was really born global from day one. So our focus has always been to be a tool that we can actually deliver to the entire world and that is very much next on the agenda. So, you know, going to the us, North America, UK and really focusing on the kind of solutions that we can provide over there is. Is the immediate next step.
[Voiceover]: Yeah, that's exciting.
Gabby Howard: Yes. This is a little bit big, you know, just. Just a little bit big, but really exciting and already, like, we're already seeing the fruits of that labor. So that's super, super exciting for us.
[Voiceover]: What are you learning in the US has there been anything that's surprised you so far?
Gabby Howard: So our, our strategy for going into the US was to work with people on the ground and that has become probably even more important in this kind of COVID era, where it's just less feasible, obviously, for us to physically be in the places that we're going to be launching into. So we've partnered with experts and agencies and people who we've brought into the Flaunter team and the Flaunt family on the ground in those regions. And that has worked really well for us. So we've been able to actually learn from them in terms of what the market's asking for, what we need to do to represent ourselves best in market and to get cut through. So we've really leaned into those resources in terms of what we're doing in each specific kind of region.
[Voiceover]: Very cool. All right, so if people have heard our conversation today and either they want to get just started with PR or they want to sign up to Flaunter, what's the best way for them to get in touch with yourself or the team?
Gabby Howard: They can access us via our many channels or flaunter.com my personal email is gabby g a b yaunter.com feel free to reach out anytime. The rest of the team is hello flaunter.com you can check out our social channels if you'd like. Or Flaunter. Yeah, that's our details.
[Voiceover]: Brilliant. Thank you very much for sharing everything you've had. Really exciting to hear the Flaunter story and how you're disrupting that PR space and also appreciate you sharing all your knowledge on PR and how that can apply to E commerce.
Gabby Howard: Thank you Nathan. Thanks for having me.
[Voiceover]: Despite being a marketplace that helps organize and automate PR for ecommerce brands, I loved how Gabby talked about storytelling and relationships for really successful pr. Even if you use Flaunter and access the amazing network there, a pink jumper will still be a pink jumper if you don't tell a good story around it. It's never been more important to craft a story around your products not only to attract PR but to actually attract and inspire your customers as well. The power of stories retelling, if done well, will pay off over multiple channels and in multiple ways. To finish up, I have three resources for you. Firstly, if you're a first time listener of Add to Cart and you want to stay up to date with new episodes, head over to addtocart.com and you can sign up for our weekly newsletter. We'll let you know every time a new episode drops as well as giving you more. My three takeaways from each episode and a link to the transcripts so you can know that this is an episode that you want to dive straight into. Secondly, if you want a weekly roundup of the best e commerce case studies, tools and research, sign up to the High Five Friday newsletter which is delivered to inboxes at 8am every Friday morning. I read all the e commerce news and send you the bits that I think you can take action from. Sign up at 12high12h I g h.com au forward/high5 and the last thing if you are looking to explore your next e commerce opportunity, head over to esweettalent.com we are a dedicated e commerce talent agency connecting the best e commerce talent with the fastest growing brands. Check it out. Sign up to the E. Email and get in touch with me if you want to discuss your next move. Until next time, thanks for listening and keep those customers adding to cartoon.
