We never thought of ourselves as media, but then one day it became so … And now, we do media things. Since we always did brunch anyway, a media brunch sounded right up our alley. So, what is a media brunch? Picture a press conference on West Wing, but with omelets in lieu of microphones.
Today, the brand was Gilt City and the message was their L.A. guide. Gilt City is an offshoot of Gilt Groupe, the online members-only shopping site. Gilt City is under the same ownership but instead of selling clothes and shoes, they sell bargains. If you were to go to the Gilt City Los Angeles homepage right now, you will find they do know their market. Quite well. Bargains include early screenings to the new Kate Hudson movie, 40% off pilates at Winsor Pilates, and a walk-on role in the final episode of Entourage. Yeh. Not kidding.
Gilt City cherry picks what they term “city curators” to find the coolest offers for the site. Here is one now:
Matt Davis – City Curator for Gilt City Los Angeles
Matt Davis came over from Harry and David and Heineken before that. He is an L.A. Gilt City curator. He recently curated a list for L.A. Confidential that includes a few places worth sharing on the Truffle too: the Sweat Garage; 801 N. Fairfax Ave., LA; sweatgarage.com, Sunset Ranch Hollywood Stables; 3400 N. Beachwood Dr., LA, 323-469-5450; sunsetranchhollywood.com and the California Polo Club; 11035 Osbourne St., LA; californiapoloclub.com.
Gilt City Los Angeles has four curators total, so besides Matt, there is also Jaromy Pittario (formerly of LivingSocial and CitySearch) who held center stage, opening up the brunch with a round of introductions from the Gilt team and all the guests. Shannon Kelly, formerly of HauteLook and Bergine.com (which was acquired by Gilt Groupe), and Lina Barkhordarian, formerly of Angeleno Magazine, are the 3rd and 4th.
Behind every good brand is a good publicist (or many good publicist!) … here is PR & Events director Caitlyn Carpanzano (R) of Gilt City with Carol Bell (L) of BrandLink Communications, their outside PR firm.
Carol Bell (L) of BrandLink Communications and Caitlyn Carpanzano (R) of Gilt City
Gilt City Social Media Director – she’s the one who tweets at you!
Publicists Markie Price (who invited us!) & Leah-Vail Soloff of BrandLink Communications
Publicists Leah-Vail Soloff and Leah Sushelsky of BrandLink Communications
Here’s what was served: Omelets, pancakes, bacon, fruit, coffee and tea.
Gift bags included: Cupckake from Valerie, a canvas Gilt City tote bag, a press kit and a little black note book with Gilt City on the leather bound cover.
And of course it’s always a pleasure to see Kazu Namise, PR director of the Palihouse!
Palihouse breakfast
I sat next to Max Padilla of the Los Angeles Times and Leah-Vail Soloff, a publicist at BrandLink, and across from Jennifer Chan of Daily Front Row. Daily Front Row is the best fashion blog/website in the world because they speak like they are speaking to a friend, have fresh gossip and do cute things like the “Assistant Files” column … and more. Max regaled me of Alhambra Thai cuisine restaurants and the scene at the Burbank Oakwood apartments – a notorious corporate housing complex for fresh off the boat actors, often used by Nickelodeon for their pilot season.
Seated in forefront – Max Padilla of the L.A. Times (R) at the Palihouse in West Hollywood.
Here is style blogger Emily Schulman of Cupcakes and Cashmere, who tells us she is working on a book (also called Cupcakes & Cashmere) on the publishing label Abrams. Emily was formerly an ad sales person at Teen Vogue before starting her blog which is now a full time job. She works out of her apartment she shares with her finance, and does social media during the day and editorial at night.
Emily Schulman of Cupcakes and Cashmere
A media brunch is quite like camp, because everything is planned out for you and there is a sad feeling when you leave even though you only just met the people. Other media in attendance: Sari Tuschman & Kathryn Romeyn of L.A. Confidential, Hallie Anoff of Drink Eat Travel, Hellin Kay of Champagne & Heels, Erin Weinger of Style Section L.A. and Lesley McCave of The Daily Find.
Follow our new friends on Twitter:
Gilt City Los Angeles – @giltcity
BrandLink Communications *(who will also keep you abreast of Gilt City) – @BrandlinkCom
Jaromy Pittario / Gilt City curator – @jsuperstar1
Caitlyn Carpanzano / PR, + Events, Gilt City – @CCdip
Erin Weinger / Style Section L.A. - @eweinger
Jennifer Chan / West Coast Editor, Daily Front Row - @JenniferCChan and @ChicReport
Emily Schuman / Cupcakes & Cashmere - @byEmily
Lesley McCave / Founder, The Daily Find - @lesleymccave
Kathryn Romeyn / L.A. Confindential - @katromeyn and @lacmagazine
Hellin Kay / Champagne & Heels - @ChampagneNYLA
Sari Tuschman / Editor-in-Chief, L.A. Confidential - @sarituschmanla and @lacmagazine
Hallie Anoff / Drink Eat Travel - @drinkeattravel
Max Padilla / L.A. Times - @maxpadilla
Palihouse – @Palihouse
