Giveon and Alana Haim at The Vanities Party
In anticipation of the upcoming 2022 Oscars, we celebrated young Hollywood in style with BACARDÍ and Vanity Fair at The Vanities Party. VIP guests across the entertainment industry sipped on signature BACARDÍ Premium rum cocktails including the BACARDÍ Oscars Punch and BACARDÍ Ocho Old Fashioned. Notable attendees included Giveon, Olivia Culpo, Alana Haim, plus many more familiar fresh faces.
Let Awards Season begin!
H&S team members at a BACARDI event in Miami
Members of the H&S team spent a rum-tastic week in Miami with the BACARDÍ familia! From making piña coladas together to enjoying a Miami Heat game at the BACARDÍ Ocho Lounge to living it up on a private boat cruise, this week was an unforgettable bonding experience!
Last Friday, Wilson opened their second permanent retail space in the heart of SoHo, NY. The 6,400-square-foot store offers a multisport assortment of goods as well as Wilson Sportswear (the brand’s newest athleisure collection) and even has an indoor park — the Thomas E. Wilson park to inspire all-day game play. So run over to 594 Broadway for the ultimate sports-inspired shopping experience.
Rum’s out, sun’s out New York City! Bacardi treated the big apple to a warm and sunny “Winter Summerland” in the heart of Times Square infusing the holiday season with island flair via 27 digital billboards featuring BACARDÍ, a Stop-and-Shop Merch Truck, a fleet of decked out pedicabs, and a flash-mob of break-dancers and roller-skaters. The pedicabs picked up some notable passengers like West Side Story’s Ana Isabelle and Broadway performer Tristan Mack Wilds, who both rocked some BACARDÍ swag of course!
H&S recently celebrated the opening of the OMEGA San Francisco Boutique with notable ambassadors and friends in attendance. Models and OMEGA Global Ambassadors, Cindy Crawford and her daughter Kaia Gerber; and Olympic-winning athletes Noah Lyles, Dalilah Muhammad and Mondo Duplantis all gathered to celebrate the brand’s iconic watchmaking. Following the opening, OMEGA hosted a star-studded gala with appearances from TV stars Justin Hartley and Antoni Porowski; musician Nick Jonas and more to mark the brand’s arrival in the Golden Gate City.
H&S celebrated the return of James Bond with OMEGA in Los Angeles! Daniel Craig, James Bond himself, surprised VIP guests during a private screening of No Time To Die, followed by an intimate cocktail party to commemorate the long-standing partnership between the Bond film series and OMEGA. The cocktail soiree was a star-studded affair with OMEGA President and CEO Raynald Aeschlimann, US Brand President, Arnaud Michon, Global Ambassador, Alessandra Ambrosio and Friends of the Brand, Justin Hartley and Julia Michaels cheers-ing with Bond’s signature martini.
H&S ended Fashion Week with an Unexpected Surprise with the Teletubbies and Tinky Winky! From meetings with VFILES and shopping in Soho to chatting backstage with his mentor Christian Cowan and ending the night with an iconic dinner at GITANO - Tinky Winky could not have had a more fun and fabulous filled Teletubbies NYFW adventure.
H&S client OMEGA was featured on the Outer Banks star Chase Stokes in V Man this past month! He looks stunning donning OMEGA’s classic timepieces. Read the entire story here!
Wilson Sporting Goods Co. celebrates the grand opening of its first-ever retail location in its hometown of Chicago. Located in the Gold Coast neighborhood, the new Wilson store “kicked off” at 932 N. Rush Street with executives, Wilson Advisory Staff members and influential Chicagoans present. H&S is proud to help Wilson launch into their first step with brick-and-mortar locations.
The store celebrates 108 years of history in Chicago and follows the launch of Wilson’s first ever Sportswear line earlier this summer. The store offers a curated assortment of sporting goods, inclusive of Wilson’s high-performance equipment across various sport categories such as tennis, baseball, football, basketball, and golf. The new athletic-lifestyle sportswear collection for both men and women will also be available.
This physical expression of the brand will also feature Wilson heritage catalog content and historical relics to top the list of unique store features creating a museum-like in-store environment, and features a distinct, leather-inspired Wilson signature scent along with technological elements to further provide an elevated shopping experience for guests.
Last night, Volkswagen and alice + olivia hosted a prom-themed Pride party in the Hamptons at the Parrish Art Museum in support of the Ali Forney Center and the LGBTQ+ community. Decked out in their best “over the rainbow” ensembles, guests danced the night away, enjoying music by Ty Sunderland, sweet treats from Dylan’s Candy Bar and glittering make-up looks by Stila Cosmetics. Custom wrapped in alice + olivia’s rainbow Stace Face print, Volkswagen’s first-ever all-electric SUV, the ID.4, served as the perfect backdrop for fabulous photos at the event. Attendees included Lea Michele, AnnaLynne McCord, Tayshia Adams and Huma Abedin, all of whom were chauffeured to the event in style in the Volkswagen ID.4!
Wilson Sporting Goods Co., in partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA), today unveiled the league’s new official game ball in advance of the NBA’s 75th anniversary season. The reveal tips off a multiyear partnership, welcoming the NBA’s first official basketball manufacturer – Wilson – back to the game.
The Wilson NBA official game ball is comprised of the same materials, eight-panel configuration and performance specifications as the league’s current game balls and sources the same leather currently used in the NBA. Over the past year, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) worked jointly with Wilson to develop and approve the new game ball through team evaluation sessions. The game ball features the iconic NBA and Wilson logos in full grain pebbling, with the Wilson logo also including an anthracite inline.
“Wilson is excited to unlock our history and heritage with the NBA to grow the game of basketball on the global stage,” said Kevin Murphy, General Manager, Wilson Team Sports. “On the heels of launching our WNBA and BAL partnerships, we will continue building for the future of the sport. Wilson will focus first on supporting the league and its players with its high-performance game balls, then extending our basketball family to reach fans, coaches and players at all levels, around the world.”
For PRIDE month, Booking.com spotlighted four travel destinations around the world and their “PRIDE legacy.” The locations are New Orleans, the Netherlands, Buenos Aires, and Taipei. You can read more within the links on why each country is celebrated as an LGBTQ+ friendly destination.
To help Americans reunite with their friends through travel after a year of being apart, Booking.com partnered with Superfly X to turn The FRIENDS Experience in NYC into a once-in-a-lifetime bookable overnight stay. StudioHS created the unique accommodation inside the recreation of Monica and Rachel’s apartment, and H&S amplified the activation through earned media and an owned social media strategy. The campaign objective was to highlight Booking.com’s breadth of alternative accommodations by creating the ultimate sleepover dedicated to the iconic, beloved 90s sitcom.
“OH. MY. GAWD! Creating the ultimate sleepover at The FRIENDS Experience, bookable exclusively on Booking.com, was a dream come true. From the iconic doomed sofa pivot to the Vegas wedding chapel and all the iconic props and outfits in between, H&S and Booking.com truly created a once-in-a-lifetime experience for superfans and travel lovers alike at the New York City exhibition. Earned consumer and broadcast press responded very positively and we were thrilled with the national coverage we secured in top-tier lifestyle and entertainment publications like BuzzFeed, E! Online, Page Six, PopSugar, PureWow, Southern Living and even a segment on Late Night with Seth Meyers that also appeared on The Ellen Show! The Booking.com sleepovers at The FRIENDS Experience are definitely a personal career high for me.”
Big news! H&S is thrilled to welcome Wilson Sporting Goods and Wilson Sportswear to the H&S roster. We will be representing them alongside BZA PR, supporting brand communications across the leading sporting goods manufacturer’s high-performance equipment business, and its new-to-market athletic apparel collection, Wilson Sportswear.
As May is Mental Health Awareness month, we are extra excited to announce our partnership with Brightside! Brightside is an industry leader in the mental health space, and we’ll be working with them to find the right community of talent partners that will help shift perception and normalize the conversation and experience around mental health, including how one seeks care for themselves. We’re looking forward to brighter days ahead with our newest client.
“Showing up for yourself, IMPERFECTLY, is better than not showing up at all.”
via Brightside
With a storied history since 1907, Fairmont is a key part of parent company Accor’s Luxury portfolio while dazzling the senses and imaginations of guests for more than a century. H&S will be the global brand communications agency and we can’t wait to show you what we have in the works!
We are honored to be recognized by PRoVoke Media as one of the “Best Agencies to Work For.”
As the world welcomed a new decade, 2020 turned out to be a year like no other. From the COVID-19 pandemic and intensifying political division, the widening social and tech inequalities to the growing economic and climate crisis – life’s pivots from this past year have become the “new normal.”
At H&S we believe a healthy company culture is as important as a healthy balance sheet. Over the past six years we have focused on building a culture of resilience. Our scrappy, adaptable and agile approach – coupled with a talented and diverse community of employees, represented by varied ethnicities, races, genders, abilities, educational backgrounds, beliefs and perspectives – enabled us to not only retain and unify employees, but concept and execute award-winning programs for clients. By putting diversity and inclusion at the top of the list of priorities, H&S is committed to showing up differently.
Aside from a flexible work environment, generous benefits package, 401K match and employee assistance programs; here are some key elements that have helped to build our resilient workplace culture:
Open and Diverse Leadership: comprised of 70% senior diverse staff (directors and above) we have honest, open floor discussions with all employees and take meaningful action.
Modernizing DE&I and Cultural Transformation: partnered with Reframe, a People Leaders enterprise software company, to help organizations build the most inclusive employee and customer experiences.
Culture Council: in response to the new iteration of racial and social justice movements that rose across the country, H&S developed a platform and safe space for employees to voice their opinions, concerns , share personal stories and resources in an effort to build allyship, strengthen our community and help drive systemic change.
Coffee Break Series: a monthly culture and trends discussion, hosted by H&S employees, featuring some of the nation’s notable thought leaders across lifestyle, fashion, travel, consumer and spirits industries.
PENCIL Partnership: with 1.1 million students enrolled in NYC public schools, home to the largest school system in the country, H&S transitioned its mentorship partnership online moderating leadership and work-readiness workshops; and helping to raise funds during its annual “Giving Tuesday Now” initiative.]
Employee Well Being: Honoring Mental Health Awareness Month by implanting small actions to help strike a better work-life balance, including a company sponsored holiday, “H&S Mental Health Day”, observed the fourth Friday of May, encouraging all employees to unplug and recharge.
Emancipation Day: in commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States, H&S has made Juneteeth an official company holiday.
Work from Home Stipend: provide all full-time employees a monthly stipend to help offset the rising technology costs incurred while working from home.
Celebrating “Agency Off Duty”: Our Culture Club, a volunteer committee comprised of staff members from across the agency who regularly plan and execute cultural activations, both live and remote, that include seasonal happy hours, holiday events (Ugly Christmas Sweater Competition anyone?), smart acts of gratitude – monthly Kudos celebrations, promoting exchanges of ideas and passion for literature via our monthly Book Club, and a CEO-appointed agency MVP who receives the coveted H&S “Varsity Jacket”.
Year End Bonuses: despite the economic downturn faced by the COVID-19 pandemic, H&S gifted each of its full-time employees, a year-end bonus as a token of gratitude for all their hard work and perseverance during an unsettling year.
The agency’s thoughtful investment in time, resources, money and efforts outlined in the areas above, enabled H&S to forge stronger relationships with its employees, express its gratitude and appreciation, improve employee experiences and continue building a healthy and resilient company culture.
We are proud to celebrate these and many other aspects of our culture. We are thrilled that PRovoke has recognized the work we put into making H&S a great place to work!
Today is Earth Day! Our client VW is celebrating a big win with their new Volkswagon ID.4 which just drove over 6,700 miles from California to New York, proving that electric vehicles CAN go the distance just like their regular counterparts. H&S secured some top tech and innovation outlets for coverage on this exciting moment, sharing that electric can be the future of travel.
We are so honored to be nominated for PRovoke’s 2021 Agencies of the Year! Out of over 150 submissions, we are among four agencies in North America to reach the finals for the 2021 Consumer PR Agencies of the Year category. Read below to view the finalist report on H&S and why we were selected.
Launched 24 years ago as a luxury, fashion and lifestyle PR firm by Elizabeth Harrison and Lara Shriftman, H&S had evolved into something quite different by 2021. At least part of that is down to ownership. After selling to Omnicom in 2003, the firm completed an MBO in 2020, buying back its independence but continuing to maintain key relationships with Omnicom agencies, notably Ketchum and BBDO.
New York (HQ) and Miami.
H&S retains a core focus on consumer, hospitality and lifestyle, but stands apart from many of its rivals by bringing an elevated level of cultural intelligence, particularly as it pertains to diversity and inclusion. For example, H&S partnered with SaaS player Reframe to improve corporate America’s urgently required ability to create a more inclusive and equitable workplace culture. That cross-cultural mindset permeates much of the firm’s offering, across fashion, technology, hospitality, entertainment, spirits, and food & beverage.
Unsurprisingly, 2020 proved a challenging year for H&S, not least because so many of its consumer-focused clients were adversely impacted by the pandemic, resulting in retainer and project cuts. The firm focused on its profit margin, kept its top clients, retained all of its senior leaders and, by the end of the year, had reached its revenue goals and reinstated bonuses. New business reflected H&S’ agility, including such names as Amazon, American Express, Capital Brands, Central Park Tower and Kering, which joined an existing client roster that features Bacardi Rum, Belvedere Vodka, Booking.com, Omega, Steinway & Sons, Volkswagen and Wacoal.
Elizabeth Harrison serves as CEO and the driving force at H&S, supported by chief brand officer Veronica Rodriguez. Of note, 70% of the firm’s leadership team are people of color, while the firm as a whole is 50% diverse, reflecting H&S’ commitment to DE&I. Employees are encouraged to join extracurricular activities that include Book Club and CSR programs. In the wake of #BLM, a group of diverse employees created Culture Club to offer their services to clients struggling to make sense of the new order in the wake of recent social injustice issues. Prior to Covid-19, the agency participated in an in-depth diversity training, sharing personal and professional challenges, while also bringing the agency together with words of support and commitment to do better. H&S also works with PENCIL to support project-based experiences for high school aged students that have expressed interest in working in the PR industry.
The firm’s thought leadership work includes its work with Reframe, which aims to transform corporate America culturally to reflect today’s diversity, and featured white papers and panel discussions. H&S’ marketing team relaunched its digital assets alongside the MBO, including an Instagram Live series called Coffee Break, which pairs H&S specialists with journalists, influencers and clients to share insights around their areas of expertise. Campaign highlights included Booking.com’s ‘Love Letters to America’; the extraordinary Color of Change Pedestal Project, which used A&R to transform Confederate statues; Bacardi Conga; and, ‘Book Your Resolution’ for Booking.com.
—Arun Sudhaman
Taste of Travel
To make some noise around the launch of Booking.com’s Taste of Travel data, which recognized the hottest food destinations across the globe, Booking.com partnered with celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson for a curated food truck. The food truck, where consumers could get a “taste” of local culinary offerings, was parked in front of the Taste of Taste of Travel Townhouse, a six-story luxury townhouse on the Upper West Side in New York City. The food truck was then transformed into the exclusive amenity for the lucky guest who booked the stay at the Townhouse.
Book Your Resolution
To help consumers kick start their New Year's resolutions in 2020, Booking.com launched a campaign around the narrative that “there’s a booking for every New Year’s resolution” showcasing how the travel company makes it easier to book a trip for any occasion. H&S brought to life The Resolution Resort, 20 incredible experiences available for guest bookings, with each “Resolution Suite” themed to align with 20 of the most popular New Year’s resolutions for 2020. Two of the suites, Cook Up a Storm” and “Be the Best Host”, were dedicated to the ever-popular goals of enhancing one’s culinary skills and becoming a better entertainer. At the “Cook Up a Storm” suite, guests learned to cook and serve a four-course meal and attended a pasta-making class. For “Be the Best Host”, guests attended a table decor and etiquette session and then a mixology course.
