{"id":86157,"date":"2016-03-02T15:58:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T15:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk?p=86157&preview_id=86157"},"modified":"2016-03-03T09:28:07","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T09:28:07","slug":"blogger-spotlight-darren-kennedy-help-my-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/blogger-spotlight-darren-kennedy-help-my-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogger Spotlight: Darren Kennedy, Help My Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Darren Kennedy is presenter of\u00a0RTE’s #Trending and founder of HelpMyStyle.ie<\/a>. Help My Style\u00a0is where he can set his own agenda and discuss all things fashion and celebrity style, without the constraints of television. Darren talks to us about what he did for London Fashion Week this year, keeping it real on social media and why his relationships with PRs should always be fun!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what made you start writing your blog, Help My Style.\u00a0<\/strong>Well, I started off working as a runner on breakfast TV aged 17 while I was at Uni (studying International Business with French & Spanish). So naturally a couple of years were spent, ehem, studying and working in France. When it came time to return home and get (somewhat) serious, I needed a job, any job, and ended up working at this company called Google. Back then, they were relatively unknown and had just opened their European HQ in Dublin, at that time it was a small rented space, and I ended up being employee number 40. I worked there for just under two years, setting up Google TV during my time, having fun but it just wasn\u2019t for me. It never was, I always had my heart set on working in television and broadcasting. So I handed in my notice and managed to wrangle a job as a researcher on a new travel series that had just been commissioned. Over the next few years I worked my way up to produce, present and develop on a raft of entertainment programmes including the Emmy award-winning Amazing Race. Along the way working as a freelance, I realised television, as exciting as it is, is a thankless beast that would eventually bleed me dry and give me nothing in return. So I wanted to set something up for me, as a creative outlet that\u2019s not at the mercy of a TV exec. I\u2019d always had a keen interest in style growing up, so HelpMyStyle.ie was born. That was in 2008 and it\u2019s been thriving ever since. I now also have www.darrenkennedyofficial.com<\/a> which has more of a men\u2019s lifestyle focus.<\/p>\n

How do you measure the success of your website?\u00a0<\/strong>For me it\u2019s always been, first and foremost, a creative outlet where I can share whatever I\u2019m into without constraints, and that for me is success. Everything else that comes as a result of it is a bonus.<\/p>\n

You have worked as a presenter and journalist for some major media outlets such as ITV and Hello! How is\u00a0blogging different and when do you have time to keep it updated?\u00a0<\/strong>My blog is very much my personal space online, where I set the agenda. As a presenter that\u2019s not always the case. However, I\u2019ve been lucky to maintain creative input in many of my TV projects. For instance, I co-devised and presented my series \u2018The Unemployables\u2019 (think Benefits Street meets The Undatables) which went on to be nominated for best new TV format at the European Broadcasting Union Awards. For me, taking an idea from its very conception to being broadcast as a series is very rewarding. Similarly with my documentaries\u00a0–\u00a0 \u2018Gay Daddy\u2019 was developed & hosted by me. When you\u2019re so involved there\u2019s also a greater risk but the satisfaction and sense of achievement is wonderful. Gay Daddy was broadcast to critical acclaim and trended worldwide on Twitter.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a blog?\u00a0<\/strong>Only do it for the right reasons. If it\u2019s overnight success you\u2019re after, probably best not to bother. The beauty of a blog is the platform it gives you to express yourself and your voice. Passion is key and you\u2019ve got to be prepared to commit.<\/p>\n

How do you work with marketers and PRs?\u00a0<\/strong>Every aspect of my job revolves around relationships, meeting people face-to-face, engaging and building a rapport. Getting to know the people you\u2019re emailing and what it is they\u2019re trying to achieve for their clients is vital. I like to understand the strategy and have a clear understanding of the practical application.<\/p>\n

How do you use social media to promote\/share content? What are the challenges?\u00a0<\/strong>Ultimately content is king and this applies to social media. Again it\u2019s important to keep it real and just be yourself. Never post anything to social media that you wouldn\u2019t happily say in a room full of strangers. \u00a0I think the challenges for marketeers especially is finding the balance of relevance over reach. I feel there\u2019s a lack of understanding sometimes and it\u2019s like throwing paint at a wall. That type of work does not interest me.<\/p>\n

What can PRs do in working better with you?\u00a0<\/strong>Get to know me. Don\u2019t just email me when you want something. Every relationship has to be mutual\u2026and fun!<\/p>\n

You attended LFW, how was it and what\u00a0was your favourite show and designer?\u00a0<\/strong>London Fashion Week is always a bit crazy and this year I took it super easy. Purely because I\u2019d so much on with work but it\u2019s always nice to pop along to a couple of the shows and events to catch up with some friendly faces. Julien MacDonald hosted one of the grandest LFW events in what I think is a former church at One Mayfair. Also, the Mr Porter fifth birthday celebrations with BMWi3 were\u00a0held at The Savile Club. Afterwards, I hot-footed it across town to the old Billingsgate Market for Natalia Vodianova and\u00a0Karlie Kloss\u2019 second annual Fund Fair, raising money for the Naked Heart Foundation. The old Market was transformed with carnival lights, bumper cars and all the fun things you\u2019d associate with a fun fair\u2026except the prizes were more bottles of Bollinger and Louis Vuitton than gold in a jar.<\/p>\n

Featured image courtesy of Jack Alexander Photography.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sensing a gap in the market, David Evans decided to create Grey Fox, a blog that caters to the more mature man interested in fashion, style and menswear. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":86163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3729,4038,5572,1449],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}