Florence Orton has extensive experience in the PR world, having previously worked for such agencies as Torstar, Two Birds Talking, and Golightly PR. Now, the public relations expert is taking on a new in-house PR role at Deciem.
BD sits down with Orton to find out everything about the new role.
What appealed to you about working for Deciem?
Deciem’s founder Brandon Truaxe was recently dubbed the Steve Jobs of the beauty world, who wouldn’t want to work with someone holding that rep! Deciem is an umbrella for 10 different product ranges and although they have been around for two years, these products are doing pretty amazing things.
The Chemistry Brand’s Hand Chemistry, which is launching this week into Priceline, has been the number one selling hand cream at Boots every week since launching two years ago. Another brand Fountain, which is stocked with Net-A-Porter and in Selfridges in the UK, sells one bottle every 11 seconds. NIOD’s Photography Fluid, which will be another product soon to launch in Australia via Adore Beauty, was the most talked about product in UK beauty press in 2015.
Are you excited to be going back into in-house PR?
I am. It’s an incredible opportunity for me to be working so closely with a killer international team and on such amazing products. It’s going to be great to be able to bounce off our global PR experts based in London and continue to learn everything I can about Deciem and the beauty industry in general.
What are the key differences about working as an in-house PR compared to agency?
Working in-house allows you to be completely emerged in the brand and understand everything there is to know about the company. In this market we’re currently a small team of three - covering PR, partnerships, advertising, sales etc, so it’s going to give me the ability to learn about the brand as a whole and see how my results affect every aspect of our team.
Do you think you will miss working in an agency?
I will definitely miss being able to work across fashion and beauty, but for now fashion will take a backseat and become more of a hobby for me.
What are you most looking forward to in the role?
After working closely with Ultraceuticals, I became completely obsessed with cosmeceutical skincare and brands focusing on result-driven formulas, which is what Deciem are all about. As well as working with local stockists, we will be looking to open stand-alone stores starting with a location in Sydney in the next few months, which will be an incredible project for me.
What are you hoping to achieve with the Deciem brands?
In the UK, Deciem has made front page of The Daily Mail print and received huge industry recognition for their products, so I just want to do the brand justice here in Australia. We’re looking to take select media over to Canada to meet the team and see where and how the products are created, so that will be a great way to educate our market on the brand. Deciem have only been around for two years and in that time have managed to launch into 23 different markets, so I can’t wait to make Australia a stand-out.
