Stephanie Weber
Account Executive at SnL Communications

Interview by Jennifer Kalban

Your name and official title

Stephanie Weber, Account Executive at SnL Communications

Tell us a little bit about yourself

I grew up in Portland, Oregon. I learned to surf on the OR coast and started going to the Paskowitz surf camp in San Onofre every summer – I was hooked and my friend and I stayed longer and longer every summer so eventually they started letting us start working there. I wanted to move down here as soon as I was done with school and work in action sports and try to make surfing and skateboarding, which I was obsessed with, part of my job. I went to University of Oregon in Eugene and graduated from the journalism school with a major in journalism and public relations and minors in communications and business.

Before SNL Communications what other companies and projects were you involved in?

I worked at Nike in the PR department during my senior year of college and for a bit right out of school. It was a hard decision to leave an amazing company with an insane campus like that to move down to Southern California and try to work within the action sports industry. I ended up just moving down here and with some helpful advice from Chad from Malakye and from the Communications director at Quiksilver found out that SnL was the go-to PR agency in the industry. I started working there with lots of fun events and companies and it ended up being a great fit – I work with some super fun and creative clients right now.

What sports and activities are you actively involved in?

I bike to work as often as I can. I also help with Stoked mentoring as a volunteer with teaching the kids to surf and skate. The kids are really funny and rad. A lot of companies within the industry have also really gotten involved which is cool to see especially when you get to witness how psyched these kids get on a free pair of shoes or just to go to the beach for some of them for literally the first time in their lives.

What type of music do you listen to?

I’m not someone that “likes everything” – I like west coast & bay area rap, techno/house and classic rock.

Tell us what your role is at SNL Communications.

I’m an account executive and I work on both the fashion and action sports sides of the agency. I work with Fire, a junior sportswear line, little dresses and rompers and stuff. So last week I was in New York for media appointments out of their NY showroom, meeting with the Glamour fashion editor and previewing the newest collections to her… and with Teen Vogue, In Style, Lucky - those fashion magazines and editors. Then 3 days later, I shift and I’m headed down to TransWorld for group Y and working on behalf of relevant clients to that industry like Lightning Bolt and ERGO. I work on six different clients right now: Fire, adidas Accessories, adidas Swimwear, ERGO, Lightning Bolt and K. Bell – thankfully Allie, the junior AE on these accounts, is super smart and on it.

What does your daily routine look like? Take us through it.

Sometimes I ride my bike to work, it wakes me up trying to dodge LA traffic. Everyone’s always like “oh no day is ever the same, blah blah blah” and I hate listening to people answer this question. There’s tons of emailing, so many phone calls, clients having things they need done urgently and editors needing things urgently… and basically trying to make it all happen on time. But yeah, no day is ever the same and I don’t know how it could be working here and in this industry. It depends on what time of year it is, whether there are tradeshows coming up or other events. We’ll either be pitching or putting together strategies, researching new fun marketing ideas and social media (our agency has been good about keeping up on social media as are most of our clients), planning events, trips to New York or other media trips, or any other number of endless possibilities.

Which brings me to my next question, with your current position, do you travel much? If so, where?

We go to New York a few times a year for clients for editor meetings and launch parties on behalf of various clients. We used to work with Mavericks Surf Contest, so I had the opportunity to work that and see the actual contest, which is an unbelievable thing to see. It’s nuts because they call the contest and everyone needs to be ready to go and up there in 24 hours so you have to be ready to send a press release and hop on a plane. We’ve worked with a lot of contests so I have been able to go up to Tahoe for snowboarding contests and a bunch of other places.

Tell us a bit about SNL Communications

As an agency we work with lots of start up companies and companies that don’t have in-house PR, so we are able to get involved with a lot of their marketing and social media too – the fun things that aren’t just straight PR and securing print editorial. For a lot of the action sports companies it isn’t hard for them to get their product in endemic magazines – living in Southern California and working in that industry it seems everyone has a friend who works at Surfer or Surfing and are aware of your brand and will place your product. That’s where our agency is valuable, though, because we have the whole fashion side of the agency and relationships with all those magazines that others don’t have. We talk to editors from GQ and Lucky on a daily basis and can pitch a surf or skate brand that they wouldn’t have normally requested or have heard about.

What projects are you currently working on and what do you have coming up in the near future?

ERGO has this really cool collaboration with Kris Markovich – he’s an amazing artist and designed a signature collection for them. It’s also going to be his 20th anniversary as a pro skateboarder so they may do something with him that should be rad – but I can’t really say anything else… teaser.

You’ve talked about social media, how has SNL Communications been using social media? How has it impacted the company and how you do public relations?

It’s changing everything. Anyone can be considered media now. Print media is dying; magazines are folding right and left, which is so sad because there’s nothing better than flipping through a brand-new magazine or newspaper. Everyone is online now and it’s difficult sometimes to tell the difference between a legitimate news site and someone’s blog. People have become so tech savvy that the line has kind of blurred about who’s a professional and who’s not. The internet, social media, and all that stuff has changed PR a lot because now we pitch to online bloggers and style websites in addition to magazine – some of the websites are really heavily trafficked and they constantly need content so they’re actually great to pitch to. SnL uses twitter, has a facebook page and a blog – they’re all on our website.

How has the economy affected your part of the industry?

When companies have to make budget cuts a lot of times the first thing to be cut are PR departments/agencies, even though it’s cheaper than advertising. Another value PR holds over advertising is that third-person credibility. Anyone can place an advertisement for a certain amount of money but not everyone can have an editor say that their product is cool, and a lot of our clients have recognized how valuable that is.

What do you like and not like about working within the action sports industry?

I like pretty much everything about it. Most of my friends here I’ve worked with one way or another or met at trade shows or events. We’re so lucky to work in an industry where everyone has a young mindset, are on top of style trends and are tech savvy. I feel like the industry has grown up and there are all these really well-established companies run by incredibly smart and business-savvy individuals who come from skateboarding and surfing and will maintain that rebel, bad-ass, “I don’t give a sh*t attitude” and will apply all of that to their marketing campaigns and business initiatives to come up with something super creative, cool and edgy – something smart that will grab attention and push envelopes.

What do you think about group Y and it’s events?

I love group Y – it’s helped me to meet a lot of people. The first event I went to was at Red Bull and it’s cool to see where everyone else works – their offices are awesome. I like the Innovator Series the best. The music panel they did was really cool too because the music industry and action sports industries cross over so much and I liked seeing how various companies like Vans and Vestal have made those connect.

Suggested Reading:

1. Matt McClain
   Marketing & Communications Director - Surfrider Foundation
2. Nikki Scoggins
   New Media/Online Consumer Communications for Vans