Discover the most relevant industry news and insights for fashion PR & communications professionals, updated each month to enable you to excel in job interviews, promotion conversations or perform better in the workplace by increasing your market awareness and emulating market leaders.

BoF Careers distils business intelligence from across the breadth of our content — editorial briefings, newsletters, case studies, podcasts and events — to deliver key takeaways and learnings tailored to your job function, listed alongside a selection of the most exciting live jobs advertised by BoF Careers partners.

Key articles and need-to-know insights for PR & communications professionals today:

1. How TikTok Changed PR

As consumers get wise to the best tricks, the layer of privacy and protection that traditional PR has long provided has begun to fade. Brands and influencers are rethinking how they market their products and respond to scandals. “Spin” is out, “transparency” is in.

“The average consumer definitely knows more about how products are being placed in front of them, so it’s harder now for brands to reach their consumer or in an organic way,” said Janie Karas, the co-founder and managing director of Gen-Z-focussed influencer agency 28 Row. “This generation of social media users can smell an ad from a mile away.”

Related Jobs:

Communications Manager, Emilia Wickstead — London, United Kingdom

Social Media Coordinator & Content Producer, The Bicester Collection — Barcelona, Spain

Communications Intern, Hugo Boss — United States

2. The Evolution of the CMO

Once primarily responsible for overseeing the creation and placement of ads, chief marketing officers are now tasked with everything from maintaining their brand’s digital presence to stage managing live events. They’re often the first to get credit for growing sales – and the first to take the blame (the average CMO tenure at the top 100 advertisers is just 3.3 years, shorter than other C-suite roles, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart).

“It’s no longer enough to just be good at the craft of marketing,” said Chris Ross, VP analyst at research and consulting firm Gartner. “At the CMO level, you have to understand all of it: the product, your channel strategies, even supply chain. You have to have a much deeper holistic knowledge of the business, because things are so closely integrated.”

Related Jobs:

Marketing & Social Media Executive, By Dr. Vali — London, United Kingdom

Associate Manager, Social Media, Coach — New York, United States

Brand Communications Manager, Smithe Studios — Los Angeles, United States

3. Checking In on Instagram’s Threads

After launching in July, the social media platform, pitched as a friendly, troll-free alternative to Twitter (now X), attracted 100 million users in under a week. Many of those early adopters soon drifted away. But Instagram has kept plugging Threads, featuring posts from the app on Instagram users’ feeds and introducing a desktop version in August. Those efforts appear to be working: According to Sensor Tower data, monthly active users rose 3 percent to 81 million globally in October.

Still missing are many of the biggest fashion and beauty brands and influencers, however. “There is a very keen interest in Threads. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s come through all the way to execution,” said Christopher Douglas, the senior manager of strategy at influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy. “It’s more like they’re dogs sniffing around a bit, seeing what the environment is actually like for brands.”

Related Jobs:

Press Manager, Métier — London, United Kingdom

Specialist, Public Relations, Gap — New York, United States

Digital Media Executive, Tiffany & Co. — Shanghai, China

4. How Danielle Bernstein’s WeWoreWhat Broke the Influencer Brand Curse

Danielle Bernstein has been to the brink and back. The influencer, known for her outfit photos and candid Instagram Story posts, was an early fashion blogger who translated her fame to Instagram, and later, product, with a 2015 collaboration with swimwear brand Onia that turned into an ongoing partnership and a 2019 team-up with Joe’s Jeans. But her attempt to parlay that moment into a fashion empire seemed to hit a roadblock in 2020, when, shortly after releasing a collection with Macy’s, Bernstein was hit with accusations that her brand’s skirts, dresses, and even face masks copied smaller designers’ work.

Three years on, Bernstein is no longer working with Macy’s (her partnership ended in early 2021). But her other brand, WeWoreWhat, is still going strong. [...] “Not all influencer-founded brands are that resilient,” said Sinead Norenius-Raniere, vice president of product and creator marketing strategy at media software company Cision. “[Bernstein’s] followers clearly feel deeply, deeply connected to her.”

Related Jobs:

PR & Influencer Marketing Intern, Hugo Boss — Netherlands

Director of Marketing Operations, Alexander Wang — New York, United States

Sr. Associate, Public Relations, Tory Burch — New York, United States

5. Why Luxury Brands Are Pivoting to Athletes

Tiffany & Co. announced that it will for the first time serve as an official partner of the Shanghai Marathon. At the end of the month, the top three finishers of the race in both the men’s and women’s categories will all receive medals designed by the luxury brand. That same day, Chanel held its cruise show in Shenzhen, creating its own version of a basketball court for the runway.

“Nowadays, luxury brands choose to work with more… athletes [through] endorsement marketing with two main purposes: firstly, to enhance the brand’s positive image; the second is to transform the followers of sports stars into potential fans of the brand,” said Stella Song, founder of Socialight, a Shanghai-based communications and digital marketing agency that works with companies like Net-a-Porter and JW Anderson.

Related Jobs:

Press Office Coordinator, Silvia Tcherassi — Miami, United States

Manager, Athleta Communications, Athleta — San Francisco, United States

Brand PR & Influence Lead, On — Shanghai, China

6. How I Became... Chief Brand Officer at Ganni

From working across creative agencies like Spring Studios to publishers like i-D and Dazed before moving in-house, Priya Matadeen identifies thematic ‘red threads’ to facilitate each career move. She shares her career advice, including how to leverage transferable skills into new creative disciplines.

“I’ve worked to create a red thread with all my experience — if it’s people and behaviour, marketing, fashion marketing or media — trying to work out what those red threads are is helpful,” Matadeen told BoF.

Related Jobs:

Social Media Specialist, Ermenegildo Zegna Group — Milan, Italy

Director, Global Influencer and Creator Marketing, Coach — New York, United States

Manager, Digital Marketing, Calvin Klein — Chiyoda-ku, Japan

7. The App Betting Influencers Are the Future of E-Commerce

The influencer business is booming: In the past 12 months, LTK drove $4 billion in retail purchases between its affiliate links and its app, which allows creators to share e-commerce-enabled photo and video posts. The app, launched in 2017, today has 30 million monthly unique shoppers. The company raised $300 million in investment from SoftBank in 2021 at a $2 billion valuation.

“Social media as we knew it is dead. It used to be where we built community, it doesn’t want that job anymore,” said LTK president and co-founder Amber Venz Box. “It’s now an entertainment platform.”

Related Jobs:

Senior Communications Manager, Reference Studios — Milan, Italy

Digital and Social Media Coordinator, Icicle — Paris, France

Public Relations Assistant, Ralph Lauren — New York, United States

8. Condé Nast Set to Lay Off 5 Percent of Workforce

The publisher of titles like Vogue and Vanity Fair announced in a note sent to employees on Tuesday that it would lay off 5 percent of its workforce — around 270 employees, primarily in its video division, Condé Nast Entertainment — following a restructuring.

“While we can’t control platform algorithms or how AI may change search traffic, we believe our long-term success will be determined by growing the many areas that we can control, including subscriptions and e-commerce, where we directly own the relationship with our audience,” Roger Lynch, Conde Nast’s chief executive, said in statement.