Philadelphia Style: Kerry Washington Cover Party
In 2010, actress Kerry Washington graced the cover of Philadelphia Style’s Fall Fashion Issue. Washington has become a household name of late, due to her many roles in well-recognized films, including Save the Last Dance, Ray, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Last King of Scotland. Her most recent film, Night Catches Us, partially filmed in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, is said to be her best performance yet. To honor Washington and her success, Philadelphia Style hosted a private celebration in October that followed the Philadelphia Film Festival’s special screening of Night Catches Us presented by Magnolia Pictures at the Prince Theater in Philadelphia. Held at The Chestnut Club, the party included select cast members of Night Catches Us, including Kerry Washington, Amari Cheatom, Jamara Griffin, director and writer Tanya Hamilton, and producer Ron Simons. Guests enjoyed complimentary hors d’oeuvres created by 12th Street Catering, signature cocktails provided by Diageo, and entertainment by CTO.
Cashman & Associates is the Public Relations agency for Philadelphia Style and has designed and executed many events for the magazine, including the Night Catches Us party with Kerry Washington. The Public Relations teams were an instrumental part of this event, from the initial planning stages to creating post-press documents for multiple media outlets. Cashman & Associates created a media alert for the Kerry Washington after-party that was distributed to a list of local, regional, and national media contacts inviting them to attend and cover the event. The confirmed media attendees included:
- HughE Dillon, PhillyChitChat.com
- Gilbert Carrasquillo and Katerina Ouzounova, Razor Media
- William T. Wade, Jr., WTWJR Productions
- Ricky Fitchett, ZUMA Press Wire Service
- Esther Lee and Litty Samuel, Philly.com
- Paul Froggatt, Famous Pictures & Features Agency
- Christopher Santaniello, AYC Media
- SusanScovill.com
- Earl Harvey, Black Professionals News
Cashman & Associates also secured over fifteen media hits for Philadelphia Style’s after-party featuring Kerry Washington. The event was mentioned several times in Dan Gross’s popular gossip column in the Philadelphia Daily News and on Philly.com. Additionally, Cashman & Associates secured mentions of the Kerry Washington event with multiple photos included on WireImage.com, GettyImages.com, NSCFashionNetwork.com, INFEvents.com, Kerry-Washington.net (Celebbuzz.com), Exposay.com, and ConcreteLoop.com, to name a few. The event was also featured in a two-minute online video posted to the homepage of Philly.com, in which Esther Lee conducted an interview with Kerry Washington on the Philadelphia Style red carpet. The video also featured footage of guests at the step and repeat and mentioned Kerry Washington on the cover of Philadelphia Style magazine.
Finally, Cashman secured placement of the Philadelphia Style Fall Fashion Issue with Kerry Washington as the cover star at the Sofitel Hotel in Philadelphia. The magazines were placed in the rooms where Washington had media interviews during her stay in Philadelphia.
Before the event, Cashman & Associates coordinated the red carpet. Members of the media could photograph the red carpet arrivals while Cashman & Associates guided Kerry Washington, Night Catches Us stars, celebrities, and VIPs to the red carpet to have their photograph taken. For the red carpet, the Public Relations account executive created a Night Catches Us cast member cheat sheet to be used as reference for check-in, photographers, and the step and repeat. Cashman & Associates also provided copies of this cheat sheet at the event to ensure that everything went smoothly. Furthermore, four members of the Cashman & Associates team were provided for night-of-event assistance, helping with the red carpet, step and repeat, guest check-in, and the photographers. Afterwards, Cashman & Associates created a post-press document and chose post-press pictures to be sent to Philly.com/Snapglow.tv and The Philadelphia Inquirer, “Social Circuit” to secure post-press placement.
Along with conceptualizing, planning, and executing Philadelphia Style’s after-party featuring Kerry Washington, Cashman & Associates generated an extraordinary amount of media exposure for the event, amassing nearly $20,000 in ad value and nearly $60,000 in publicity value. The public relations team guaranteed the event’s success and continued a long tradition of Philadelphia Style magazine events.
