PUBLICS

Your #1 source for learning from the top Public Relations

professionals in the Entertainment Industry

Vol. 1 Issue 12
ES 5.50
IT 5.00
FR 8.00
GB 5.00
USA $10.99

FEATURING CRYSTAL WILLIS-BLOUNT

26

Issue 12

PUBLICS
All About Crystal
33

Name:

Crystal Willis-Blount

Job Title
Publicity Coordinator

Age
32

Location
Hollywood Records
in

41
56

Burbank, California

STAPLES
03 How She Got Started
04 Highlights and Lowlights
05 Typical Day
06 What Is PR to you?

63

INTERVIEW

PAGE 3

THE QUEEN OF DISNEY'S

POP PRINCES AND
PRINCESSES
AN INTERVIEW WITH CRYSTAL WILLIS-BLOUNT
BY
MACKIE SWOGER

Author, public speaker, and publicist Crystal WillisBlount has been working her way up in the
entertainment industry as the publicity coordinator
for Hollywood Records and Disney Music Group. At
the age of 27, she began at Hollywood Records in
Burbank, California as a temp filling a position in the
sales department when she noticed Lillian Matulic,
the VP of Publicity, had just lost her assistant in the
week prior. Determined, Willis-Blount reached out to
Lillian Matulic in hopes of filling the vacated
position. The aspiring publicist shared her internship
experience under the watchful eye of Richie Abbott
at Warner Brothers with Lillian Matulic and sent over
her resume and thus began building her career at
Hollywood Records.
Right out of high school, Crystal went to the Berklee
College of Music in Boston where she spent two
years as a voice principle instrument with a major in
Music Business Management. After the 2 years, she
decided to move to Los Angeles and transferred to
the community college and received her AA degree
in Liberal Arts. In her free time, she did event
planning and booking work with promoters for
THE INSPIRATION SECTION

music showcases featuring independent artists. She

also had an internship with publicity for Warner
Music, worked in film distribution for Code Black
Entertainment and worked in mobile marketing as a
digital marketing coordinator for Universal Music
Group.
As the publicity coordinator, Crystal Willis- Blount
handles all responsibilities concerning PR
campaigns for all artists, tour publicity for the band
Breaking Benjamin, targeting media, and media
assets under the management of Lillian Matulic. A
typical day in the office may begin with a press
release to distribute in which case, Willis-Blount
would have organized the release as well as
proofread it before loading up the email list of
journalists for it to be sent out to. She then would
move on to finding and archiving all press clippings
written about their artists, responding to tour press
who want to review the show and interview the
artist, managing payments for makeup and
hairstyling for the artists or television production
budgets, sending out media assets such as bios and
music videos to people who have requested them
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such as a booker at a television

show, and arranging plans for an
artist who has to travel for a
performance or an appearance.
reliability of his source.
As a Public Relations professional,
the highlights of Willis-Blounts job
are the writing, creative aspect of
building a campaign and strategies
to connect the artists with the fans.
Of connecting the fans and the
artists, she says I think that the
reason Ive stayed in the
entertainment business so long is
just my pure love for musicians and
music. Of the least favorite parts,
she says updating the database
containing notes and contact
information of all journalists and
press they have worked with and
the mundane work of updating
sheets.
Clear and to-the-point, Crystals
definition of public relations is how
you relate to the public because she
believes that is the easiest
explanation to helping people
understand what Public Relation
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professionals do. She believes PR is

how you take the artist, music, or
whatever product you are
representing and manipulate the
image in a truthful way to bring out
the best in the person or story to
help that product connect with the
audience and customer. She gave an
example of taking a new up-andcoming artist and learning what they
like, dont like, and their story. Then
finding a way to tell that story to
help emotionally connect with the
fansit is a marketing tactic. Once
you fill an emotion or void, you have
a new customer. She also describes
internal PR in terms of relating to
your staff, dealing with crises, and
protecting your brand image. Also,
how the company maintains the
relationship with journalists and
bookers to keep them up to date
with the artists.
The biggest struggle with the world
of Public Relations today, in
Crystals opinion, is the shutting
down of magazines due to the move
of everything from paper to digital.

"I think that the

reason I've stayed
in the
entertainment
business so long is
just my pure love
for musicians and
music."
CRYSTAL WILLIS-BLOUNT

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Peoplearenowreceivingnewsfromsocialmedia
andwordofmouthsowenolongerseesomeone
sayingtheyhavetobuyacopyofamagazine
anymore,ratherconsumersarejustgoingonline
andfindingwhatevertheycanfindtoreadfromthe
article.Figuringouthowreachanaudiencewithout
magazinesandfindawaytoworkwithdigital
marketingisthebiggestfocusrightnow.Awayof
workingwiththis,shedescribedanappcalled
LivePortraitAppwhereyouhoveryourphone
aboveacoverandthephotowillcometolifesowe
canplaywithvideotogiveamessagetotheusers.
Ofwhatshewishesshehadknownbefore
becomingapublicist,Crystalsaysshewishesshe
couldhaveknownhowterritorialpublicistscanbe
withtheirartistsandproducts.Alotoftimes,she
feels,thatyoumayhavegoodideasbutnot
everyonewantstohearitbecausetheywantitto
betheirideaortheiraccomplishmentanddont
wantanyonesteppingontheirtoes.Also,sheis
constantlyremindedofhowmuchofthisworkin
thisindustryisnotglamorousandissomuch
researchanddoingyourhomeworkfortargeting
audiences,whichshebelievesisthemostunder
appreciatedpartofpublicrelations,andworking
databasestodoyourbestworkforyourclients.

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Publics
Editor-in-chief Mackie Swoger

Creative Director
Executive Producer
Photo Director
Production Director
Senior Editor
Design Editor
Design Director
Digital Director
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Editorial Assistant
Art Director
Deputy Photo Editor
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Senior Designer
Junior Designers
Researchers
Staff Writers
Contributing Writer
Contributing Photographer
Contributing Illustrator

Dominic Guerrero
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Terrell Parker, Don Silva
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Marguerite Parsons
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Santiago Holmes

EDITORIAL OFFICE
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+1-555-5555-0070 | contact@publics.com
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