What started as a one-woman company in Berlin, has grown to into a global PR machine relaunching brands such as Buffalo London and increasing the popularity of Macklemore and G-Shock. At the epicentre of this company, is PR guru and image-building expert Alexandra Preusche. Combining her creativity with top-tier marketing skills, Preusche set out to reimagine fashion, music and the arts – with her unique combination of passion and creative instinct.

Quickly gaining attention from several global opinion leaders, Preusche and her company AP Studios have created sophisticated collaborations with Vivienne Westwood, Versace, Junya Watanabe and most notably, Buffalo London. AP Studios completely relaunched the iconic chunky shoe company from scratch, and increased their demand substantially with 40 new styles and iconic social media campaigns.

We caught up with Preusche and chatted lockdown, career highlights, and her 80% female workforce…

How are you, how are you coping with lockdown? 
I am doing ok due to the current circumstances. I try to see in every negativity some sort of positivity. Of course with corona everything changed from one second to the other but this also opens new paths and ways of thinking I believe.

How has it influenced your creativity?
It has influenced my creativity in many different ways. On one hand, all of our ongoing projects are on hold at the moment. This is of course hard and stopped the creative process when it comes to projects. On the other hand, it also opened up totally new approaches. Through to the media and channels like Instagram totally new brands and people appeared all of a sudden on the radar. This also leads to a bigger inspirational network and also opens the door for new clients and contacts.

What do you think you and your agency do differently?/what do you attribute your success to?
AP Studios is not a normal PR agency. We do so much more than the classic PR works. In a normal agency, you receive a final product and work with that. We are already on board when it comes to the product development and creating as well as developing the whole story around. With all collaborations we did, I am the one who brought the brands together and came up with the creative ideas. When we are doing collaborations, for example, we are the constant point of contact between the brand that we are taking care of for example Buffalo London and the collaboration brand like Vivienne Westwood. We also do everything in between from doing the PR reach out, meetings in our headquarters, day of show support, organising activations with influencers (such as Sophia Hadjipanteli and Clara Berry) doing a fitting with them, place them first row, organising BTS features with magazines and so on! For Buffalo London we are also in charge of all social media, all campaign shoots as well as all celebrity seedings.

What has been a career highlight for you?
The first super emotional moment, as well as a changing point in my career, was when I brought A$AP Rocky from America to the first-ever Bread&Butter (by Zalando) in Berlin where I also used to be the creative director of. A$AP Rocky did a performance at the trade show and we also signed him for being the face of the first Zalando campaign next to models like Julia Nobis and Kris Gottschalk right after. For Bread&Butter we also brought in Virgil Abloh and Lauryn Hill.

Another highlight was also the relaunch of Buffalo London and the first collaboration. After we cleared the whole market I brought the brand back to life with placing them in only selected high-end stores and also for the first time ever in America at Opening Ceremony. The first collaboration was with Junya Watanabe by CDG and it was an amazing moment for me to see the final product on the runway. Another milestone was also the first Snipes faces campaign with Macklemore which was showcased worldwide.

You have a clear dedication to ensuring that your workforce is over 80% female – can you explain how important this is to you?
It was always my goal to support women and give them a chance especially in these working field which is mainly male-dominated. I think its sad to see that are still so few women involved especially within the artist and music industry. I want to give every woman the opportunity to grow.

What career advice would you give to someone who is trying to do what you do?
I would definitely say do whatever you can to achieve your goals and always give 110%. If you want something talk about it. Give yourself a voice and be heard. Everything is possible and fight for what you want to become.

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