PRSSA Hosts Sarah Castellvi
- JMU PRSSA
- Mar 6, 2022
- 2 min read
By: Lorena Best, PRSSA Director of Media Relations
Sarah Castellvi, a JMU alumna and publicist at ABC Entertainment, spoke to our chapter on insight and advice into the entertainment industry.
What Does Your Job Entail?
Sarah’s job involves series publicity for shows like American Idol, Station 19, and The Wonder Years. A lot of her work centers around premiere campaigns by building awareness and making sure viewers tune into shows. These campaigns start three months ahead of a show’s premiere which includes booking talent for interviews, gathering press materials, reading scripts from the show, actively pitching, and finding new ways to make shows stand out.
One of the most challenging aspects of generating publicity is negotiating talents’ schedules. Making sure talent is in front of the camera is one of her main priorities. The process behind booking talent is having to go through an actor(s) or actresses publicist to schedule appearances. Sarah said it was also challenging when actors or actresses do not want to do press or are unavailable to do press due to other commitments.
In addition, another challenge is generating publicity for a series without a big name, meaning a well known actor or actress. In return, this makes some series hard to sell.
Helpful Tips in the Entertainment Industry
Sarah said there are a lot of people who learn from skills in public relations, especially entrepreneurs who don’t understand the industry as well as professionals in the field. Another important aspect of public relations is deeply understanding brands. Sarah said, “you must live and breathe it.”
When working on a show campaign, she said “I try to approach a campaign as if I’m the audience. What causes me to look at or watch something? What are people into?”
Sarah also said that a lot of her position has to do with social media and how everything is becoming more digital. One tip she shared was “influencer marketing was becoming huge and a great return on investment.”
Lastly, she said to always be ready for crisis communication. She said it is always crucial to find out all of the details first before talking to any reporters or media looking for a comment on what happened.
Thank you for all of your insight, Sarah!
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