Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

You're right that there isn't much online about this agency. Odd for a company not to have a profile or any kind of crunch base. That in itself is alarming enough.

Found a lot of fluff. A handful of little blogs only written by the people they've worked with. See below to see why that might not be a convincing enough reason to hire either of them.

There is a sour review of Bruce Heart posted by someone who preferred to keep their company name private (reposted below). This person says they had an introductory experience with the owners of Bruce Heart and from that experience and her own research, chose not to go ahead with working with them.

Hope it helps, and points for the timely response are appreciated.

Good luck to your girlfriend in her endeavors.

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REVIEW OF BRUCE HEART & ELLE HOWARD AND RYLEE BREEN MAVER

Overall experience: Very poor
Rating: 3 of 10 stars
Pros: Large following on Instagram
Cons: No following on any other social media platform outside Instagram
Unprofessional conduct
No marketing campaign offered as part of their service/s
Very poor reputations with alarming conflict with charities documented online by said charities
Wholesome brands do not reflect well in their online presences (the women curse, offer suggestive poses, stick up middle fingers, and so on…)

The purpose for writing this blog is to share my experience with the so-called “advertising agency” that is Bruce Heart, owned by Instagrammers Elle Howard and Rylee Breen Maver. Although thankfully, I never committed to working with the girls in the end, I worry about the impact this carefully crafted ploy may have on other young designers, business owners and the like.

I first contacted Elle Howard through her Bruce Heart email in September in response to a Facebook post on her “company” page for Bruce Heart. Claiming they were able to “drive sales” and other such great benefits through their “social profiles” (see: plural), I jumped at the chance to have my backyard brand seen by a few hundred thousand people collectively. It makes quite a great deal of sense, especially to a young, burgeoning designer or business owner, to work with companies or individuals offering public relation services in advertising and production and fashion endorsement —- I get that, and I was onto that.

Wanting my designs – label withheld – to be seen, I attached a few PDF files with a low-budget look book to my email. Within a couple of days, I got an email back from Bruce Heart with a price list and a media-kit of sorts – mostly studio pictures of Elle and Rylee and the names of a few labels they’ve promoted via what they refer to as their agency.

The media kit was poorly constructed, horribly vain, and it became clear that there was very little on offer besides the attractive idea of their Instagram following. I didn’t see much in the way of advertising strategies, nothing to suggest they had a social media campaign strategy or any cohesive and fluid ideas for an effective marketing campaign, as you would expect from a professional advertising agency. There was no trace of knowledge in communications or marketing besides a basic understanding of what it means to advertise a product: all in all, the process of Bruce Heart is as follows :- send free items or samples to Elle and Rylee, they will photograph themselves with it and or using it and post it to Instagram with a short endorsement, and for an additional price (product permitting, I guess), they will write a blog or review of the product or label.

That’s it.

No mention of a return policy for the goods or products sent, either. Meaning I would be out of pocket, and out of an item I could have sold.

As for the price list provided… absolutely absurd. Elle and Rylee are charing up to and sometimes more than $200 to promote a product or label on their profiles, which, as it became obvious, was only valid for a posting on Instagram. There was no mention of Twitter, no Facebook, no YouTube. Quickly taking to Google, I learned that neither Elle or Rylee have any sort of following outside Instagram. Nothing. Nothing whatsoever! Explaining the absence of other social profiles in their services, I fast realised the women do not have an established following as claimed in their kit. The thought of paying near $200 to have my product lazily posted to an Instagram account made my spine curl.

Speaking of reputations, the next thing I would learn from Google of Elle and Rylee is theirs is not a favourable one. I am not one for hot gossip, but the abundance of information pertaining to a conflict with a marine charity called Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was worrying. Blogs and posts, all originating from a post from the charities founder Paul Watson, detailed a circumstance dating back to 2012 in which Elle and Rylee allegedly, according to Watson, dishonestly claimed to be working for Sea Shepherd to promote what he described as “disingenuous activities.” As it stands, neither Elle nor Rylee had ever worked for Sea Shepherd upon making their mysterious claim. More information available online suggested the “disingenuous activities” spoken of by the founder were accessing wealthy donors to Sea Shepherd and attempts at making contact with the production executives of Sea Shepherd’s series Whale Wars in order to get their own reality show.

Further digging on the internet shows similar claims as early as 2011 where a free Wix website called “Rylee & Elle – our LA story” was created by the women for purposes of promoting themselves and a reality show they again claimed was in development… in 2011. Cut to 2013 and the same mystifying claim is being made with no hint of truth even two years later.

Next, I examined the labels and companies currently or previously working with Bruce Heart. Facebook was extremely helpful in viewing the profiles of the label owners and it did not take a long time to see the labels were similarly backyard as mine is, and more often than not, owned by people who were already in friendships with the women. With some exceptions, the clientele of Bruce Heart is not independent of their social circle. They’ve been hired by their friends. Hardly professional. Hardly established. Hardly an advertising agency.

To summarise, my experience with Bruce Heart was not a positive one. I am thankful that I have, in retrospect, dodged a bullet.

And saved $200 in the process.

Appealing it might be to harness the alleged power of a popular Instagrammer, but do your very dearest to research the people and the company you’re hiring. There are, in fact, many reputable agencies who represent “influencers” from Twitter, Instagram and other social platforms (some are genuinely, bonafide celebrities!), all with a board of experienced executives who along with your influencer, meticulously plan marketing campaigns for your product or label or company.

Avoid thrown-together money making schemes such as Bruce Heart.

Furthermore, be diligent in your research and comparisons of advertising agencies who, although registered through ASIC, may not be the best value for your money and who may only be offering a singular and streamlined service such as one post or two posts over several days to only one account, or only one type of account.

From a marketing standpoint, this is not helpful to your brand.

- Name withheld
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If you're hiring an agency or a consultant, there's one thing that marks the genuine ones out. They'll tell you something you don't want to hear, and I don't mean their endless sales patter. That's the mark of a poor agency - a genuine agency will want to offer good advice more than it wants your custom.

Darrel Griffin lives in Perth, get in touch with him, he'll know someone for sure that he'd trust. I trust him, so those he trusts will be trustable.

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