AP Studios founder Alexandra Preusche talks collaboration, creativity and how the world of PR can pivot post-pandemic

The fashion industry is an ever-changing landscape where competition for relevancy is fiercer than ever. As new and existing brands vie for visibility, many acknowledge the need to outsource their marketing in order to execute it with the high level of finesse required to keep consumers coming back. That’s where AP Studios founder, Alexandra Preusche comes in. Preusche began her Berlin-based PR agency as its sole employee and after nurturing organic relationships and running numerous successful campaigns, she is now at the helm of a  global PR powerhouse. AP Studios has a slew of high profile collaborators under its belt, working with the likes of Vivienne Westwood, Versace, Junya Watanabe as well as heading up Buffalo London’s relaunch.

Below, SLEEK spoke to Preusche about the Spice Girls, A$AP Mob and everything in between.

How has the pandemic changed your outlook and approach to your work?

The pandemic totally changed my daily work situation. Normally, I spent about 200 days-a-year abroad due to business travel. Nowadays, I stay home and do most of my meetings virtually via Zoom. This also shows that it’s not really necessary to travel so much and it opens brand new communications as well as bringing up brand new partnerships.

Who or what has been keeping you creatively inspired during this time? 

My team and I really stuck together during these times and that inspired me a lot. The pandemic also opened new perspectives because everything was just more relaxed and there was more time for self reflection, reading and coming around. This led to a whole new level of creativity.

In what ways do you think the crisis will impact upon the future of PR? What difficulties will it pose and what challenges have already arisen? 

I think it will change the PR Industry immensely. People will be much more willing to stick together and do projects hand-in-hand. Before, it was always really self-centred working, but I think these times also show how much you can achieve when you encounter somebody in the same boat as you. I believe that in the future, PR agencies will be more careful with hiring new people now they’ve had to let go of so many. The same is with contracts and run times in general. It also showed that many agencies weren’t prepared, or miscalculated their budgets and have now vanished because they couldn’t afford to stay open. This led to an immense reduction within the industry.

You describe AP Studios as not being a “normal” PR agency. Why is this? 

We as an agency are much more than a normal agency because a classic PR agency always works with the final product that they are receiving but we are already involved in the process of creating the product and the whole story around it. We also come up with potential collaboration ideas and possible artist and team proposals. This happened, for example, when we collaborated with Jerome Boateng and 032c x Zalando and again with Uglyworldwide and Jägermeister which was presented exclusively at Bread & Butter where I took care of artist collaborations and bookings. I also managed to bring Lauryn Hill who hadn’t been to Germany for over a decade to perform. Beyond music, I also organised various panel talks with the likes of Jerome Boateng and Virgil Abloh. We are coming up with ideas for worldwide campaigns and are connecting the dots between brands and artists. One of our strengths is also on the consulting side—we consult with many brands like Buffalo London, Snipes, Deichmann, Onygo, Fila Europe, Zalando and many more with internationally known artists like Rita Ora, A$AP Rocky and DJ Khaled. We are also working closely with the team at 032c when it comes to all kinds of collaborations.

When you started AP Studios what were some goals that you had in mind for the company? 

The goal of AP Studios is to generate a big, global colorful network. I want to connect between different cultures, be individual and also give women a voice. That’s why 80% of my employees are women. 

My biggest goal was always to connect creatives especially from America and Germany – creating a bridge between both worlds. 

With this in mind, I have already accomplished some amazing projects. I brought together G-Shock and A$AP Ferg in New York for the launch party of the G-Shock x A$AP Ferg collaboration which was unveiled at Dover Street Market NYC. Through us, A$AP Ferg also attended the 35th Anniversary event for G-shock at Madison Square Garden together with A$AP Nast and the rest of A$AP Mob. When A$AP Rocky was in Berlin I connected the dots with Kanye West and got him to perform at the opening of The Reed by Rainer Schaller.

Buffalo London had never been available in America so I changed this as well with doing a launch event in collaboration with Ruth Gruca and her Agency CALA, during New York Fashion Week. High-profile influencers and artists like Khalid, The Clermont twins, Asian Doll, Denzel Dion, Salem Mitchell, Shaun Ross and IDK all attended this event. I will also never forget the iconic after-party show hosted by Vic Mensa. Afterwards, Buffalo London was sold in the US in various stores such as Opening Ceremony. 

Nevertheless, Berlin is my favorite base as its a melting pot and always brings together many creatives from all over the world.

Due to my wide international network, I am also now friends with many stylists, models, athletes and celebrities which allows me to always connect new people and creatives from all over the world I am really happy about that as well. All in all, we want to be louder and more polarising than every other agency.

AP Studios recently reinvented Buffalo London’s brand. How do you go about a project like this? How does the process of “reinvention” for a brand begin? What are some success stories? 

I would describe it as having a blank piece of paper. You start from scratch and try to approach the brand in a totally different way without losing the heritage. Most people link Buffalo London to the Spice Girls but when I relaunched Buffalo most of the younger girls didn’t even know who the Spice Girls were anymore. This is why I had to find another way. After the market was cleared, I tried to gift the shoes to all top players in the world such as Rita Ora, Ariane Grande, Taylor Swift, and so on. I also tried to use a different visual language to make Buffalos even more attractive to a larger target group. That’s why I chose Sita Abellan to model the first campaign and placed her at nostalgic spots where once the Spice Girls appeared.

While being the creative director and collaboration manager of Buffalo London I reinterpreted the brand. I took care of the Instagram channel and generated 258k followers in only two years. I came up with global campaigns as well as arranging cover shoots for magazines with worldwide influence. I managed to put the shoes on nearly every relevant celebrity and influencer from Taylor Swift and Erykah Badu, to Rosalia and Lil Miquela, without any budget behind it. I literally travelled the world with the support of my great network to bring the shoes to the right people. In the end, everyone fell in love with them and every post came organically.

Collaboration is a big part of the work you do. How does that process come about? Are there any collaborations you’ve been particularly proud of?

There are various collaborations that I am really proud of such as our latest collaboration with Buffalo London and Vivienne Westwood. In this collaboration, we created the first ever recycled Buffalo Boot which is really exciting. This collaboration led to more Buffalo collaborations with the likes of Versace, Junya Watanabe, Opening Ceremony, 032c and more. I also collaborated with the rapper A$AP Rocky and the retailer Zalando. Rocky modelled for their first ever women’s fashion campaign, which also opened opportunities up to new target groups. I also brought together the football player Jerome Boateng and 032c before connecting the two with Zalando. On top of that, I also took care of four Snipes ‘Faces’ campaigns with Macklemore, Dj Khaled who incidentally is the Chief Creative Officer of Snipes, Meek Mill and the German rappers Capital Bra and Samra.

What clothing are you wearing in the pictures and who did you collaborate with for the shoot?

For the photoshoot team, I also used my network and chose Emil Levy as the photographer he’s a long time friend of mine. The amazing stylist Fabio Pace was brought to me through Pia Eiling and Lisa Rolfsmeier who are the girls behind the artist management agency Collectiveinterest. The hair and make-up was done by my friend Sarah Bleszynski.

I am wearing clothing from two of our clients: Neige—an upcoming polish designer and Les Benjamins—a Turkish-based brand which has German heritage. I am always building strong relationships with my clients at the base of which is always trust and loyalty.

What’s next in the pipeline for AP Studios? Any personal aims or hopes? 

Personally, my goal is to always surround myself with creative people as well as staying fit and focused. I want to concentrate on the important and real things in life as well as having a healthy work-life balance. With AP Studios, we want to create new ways of communicating as well as work constructions. In the near future, we want to offer clients the whole package: from talent, photography, production and everything in between. Our credo is that we want to be heard and seen, be louder and polarize whilst always paying attention to the current affairs and topics worldwide. There are also several hot collaborations in the pipeline this year that we are just thrilled to announce.

You can follow AP Studios on their Instagram here.

CREDITS

Model Alexandra Preusche
Photographer Emil Levy
Hair & Makeup Sarah Bleszynski
Stylist: Fabio Pace
Via  Collectiveinterest