04 January 2014 (released)
04 January 2014
Originally hailing from Toronto, Canada, and currently residing in Los Angeles, Zack Teperman studied marketing and broadcasting at Seneca College.
Today, he holds a position as a top executive at Lexicon Public Relations, and is one of the most sought after publicists in the business.
Zack has represented some big name in the business, including the likes of DJ Ashba (Guns N’ Roses), Richard Grieco (21 Jump Street / Night At The Roxbury) and Marina Sirtis (Star Trek).
He has guided clients from obscurity and secured them cover appearances on publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine. Furthermore, he has been instrumental in protecting the images of some of your favorite stars.
Film-News recently had a chat with Zack and received a candid behind-the-scenes glimpse at the life of a publicist, which includes a scandal resulting in one of Zack's clients punching a stripper in the face.
He is the “Ari Gold” of the PR world, and aspires in time to take over the world.
Film News - What’s a typical day in the life of a publicist?
I always say that public relations and being a publicist is a 28-hour job, 8 days a week (figure that out!). There is no sleeping in the PR world, as we always have to be on-call for our clients in case something happens in their lives that needs our attention or advice with. Plus, there is always breaking news somewhere, and it’s our job to help monitor the news/gossip and at times see if we can fit our clients into a headline making news cycle for exposure. People think publicists just walk their clients on red carpets and that’s it, but the truth is, there is A LOT more that goes on behind the scenes with media pitching, branding, strategic planning, etc. that is involved with each and every client. On a typical day I speak to every one of my clients (they are like a second family) and always am emailing media outlets for placements, planning next steps for each client, and being alert to the news breaking around me / meeting up with agents, reporters and others in between it all. Oh, and I find time for a cold beer and some food sometimes!
Film News - What does a public relations agent actually do?
To sum up what we do briefly, we pretty much look at a person or company’s goals and we help them get there, whether it be getting them on red carpets, getting them magazine covers, helping to arrange radio/TV interviews, or helping to create a media savvy pitch and biography so that their story or product gets placed in a headline news cycle. Our job is to shape the public's perspective of our client by using all means possible to create that overall image and keep it long lasting!
Film News - How did you get started?
Before I got into public relations here in Los Angeles I was working as a radio host across Canada on various stations such as KISS 92.5, Z103.5, Mix100, and for a little bit at Y100 in Miami, Florida.
As a radio host I had always been in touch with celebrities who would come on our shows, and whenever the celebs were in town, I would help them get other interviews, take them out and/or get them endorsement deals with various brands in my city. That was my first real taste of personal public relations.
After helping different companies and celebs grow their brands through my connections, I realized my true passion wasn’t entertaining and being on-air anymore in radio, but the public relations side of things and helping to build and shape careers – both in the celebrity, technology and corporate world.
So, with this new passion in mind, the opportunity came to change careers as I was helping with the Toronto International Film Festival’s gifting suite one year and met Steve Rohr, the owner of Lexicon Public Relations, as his client Martin Sheen was in town for the festival. Steve and I got talking and eventually came up with a strategy to expand his boutique firm both in the United States and Canada… a year later, I quit radio in Toronto and moved to Los Angeles where I was hired as Lexicon’s Management Consultant, which grew into a position as their Operations Manager / Senior Account Executive. It's been a trip!
Film News - What inspired you to be a publicist?
I always loved the corporate and entertainment world, coming from a background as an actual media person when I was a radio disc jockey. Nothing is more fulfilling than seeing a client who started with myself as pretty much a “no-namer”, who the media didn’t really care to chat about, and seeing them with my help and guidance grow over the months into an “in-demand” name… It’s such a rewarding process to watch and experience first-hand.
Film News - Your best Hollywood memory in general?
As cheesy as it sounds, just waking up each day with the sun shining and looking out at the palm trees, mountains and Hollywood sign (I can see it from my patio) are the best moments. It really gives you the energy to get your day/work started and going on a positive note. But other than that, my best Hollywood moments are the times when everything comes together with a client and your strategic plans for them and they pick up the phone to say a simple, "Thank-you" to you... It really is a humbling and satisfying moment.
Film News - What qualities do you look for in perspective clients?
It all comes down to 'passion' and 'trust'. Those two traits really do make or break a relationship with a client or in this sense make them a "good" perspective client. The client needs to be 100% passionate about their career in order for it to succeed, as with each client I give them 100% of my passion and attention in order to help them succeed. And then, they need to be able to trust us with our firm’s process of how we conduct our strategic marketing plans, and we need to trust them to help carry out some of the items we put forth that will help their career. Also, for acting or musician clients, it's always an added bonus if they have something to promote (a new song, album, show, etc.) which always gives us an added story to pitch to media outlets, however, we always find a way to get our clients into the news.
Film News - Who have been your favorite clients to work with? Give us some names!
To answer your question piece by piece / shamelessly name-drop some clients since that's what you want.....
For acting/music: I had always been a fan of Richard Grieco (21 Jump Street / Night At The Roxbury) growing up and now I have the privilege of calling him a client and friend. The same goes for some of our other celebrity clients such as Walter Jones (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers), Carolyn Hennesy (HBO's True Blood), Marina Sirtis (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Taylor Hicks (American Idol), Dj Ashba (Guns N' Roses), Valery Ortiz (VH1's Hit The Floor), Martin Sheen and some of our older Glee clients like Naya Rivera and Becca Tobin. 100% though I'm going to get yelled at now for not mentioning the others... extra emails coming my way tomorrow!
Behind-the-scenes: No client of ours compares to the likes of Marina Toybina. She is a two-time Emmy Award winning costume designer who has created such amazing wardrobe performance items for Carrie Underwood, Selena Gomez, Avril Lavigne, Usher, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and so forth, while working each year on So You Think You Can Dance and The X Factor. Each and every time I speak with Marina I get inspired. You can just feel the love and passion she has for her craft, and it makes me want to do more and more to help everyone else notice the hard work and long hours that she puts into turning your favorite celebs into what you see on stage. I love working and representing the "behind-the-scenes" people because those are most of the time the ones who don't care for fame… it's all passion.
Film News - If a scandal breaks with one of your clients, what is your immediate course of action?
Publicists (or at least myself) tend to know all their client’s deepest and darkest secrets, and so 99.99% of the time we are aware of any scandals that may break and we are already pre-prepared to handle them / properly protect all situation that may arise. With that said, the immediate course of action is to usually get on the phone or drive over to a client's home (depending on what the scandal is) and going over options and then responding (or not responding) to the media story about the scandal in the proper manner that best protects both our short and long term strategic plans for the client with minimal damage.
Film News - Any scandals you wish to share with us?
Besides the occasional naked photo scandal (seems there are plenty of those these days anyways) there was one time (without saying any names) where I accompanied a client to a strip club while traveling in another state where the client got wasted and ended up punching a stripper in the face... Talk about total chaos! Long story short, I had to calm down the client, the stripper, the bouncers, and the strip club owner and pay the owner / lovely stripper off a large sum (lots of $1 dollar bills) to keep everything hush hush so that no media outlets would find out. Luckily everything got resolved, no charges were ever pressed, and no media outlets ever found out. And no, I won't tell you names!
Film News - What motto do you live by?
In terms of PR… "If I hear the word no, it means maybe, and thus I take maybe as a yes; I believe that you can make anything happen if you really want it and therefore there is no no, only maybes waiting to turn into a yes." -Jerry Weintraub
Film News - What's next for you?
Taking over the world! Or at least convincing people that not all Canadians are like Mayor Rob Ford, even though I'd love to do his PR and get him a reality show!
Zack LOVES social media so add him on Instagram or Twitter @ZackTeperman
