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Pictured: Steve Le Vine and Stephen Lucin
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Windy City Times: How did this company start?
Steven Le Vine: Stephen and I had each started our own companies within the past two years. His was called SJL Public Relations, and he was doing civic service and focusing more on the gay community; mine was grapeVine Promotions, and I was focused on entertainment.
We ultimately put our companies on hiatus, and we decided to join forces and take the entertainment and LGBT aspects and put them together. There are a couple of similar companies, but they’re strictly PR while we focus on PR and also want to put on events and raise awareness. (We’re having our clients perform at a Sept. 28 event, ‘One Night Only: Code Red,’ in Manhattan.) So, I see us branching out into an LGBT entertainment firm.
Right now, it’s just Stephen and [me]. We would like to grow, but we’d like to keep it as a boutique firm.
WCT: How do you go about luring a client from another firm?
SLV: Our clients were not being represented. We sent out business letters; some people will respond and others won’t. However, you also connect through your clients, by recommendations. It’s almost like a relationship.
WCT: Is there any client you’re dying to get?
SLV: Ooh—good question. Stephen and I agree that, while we target the LGBT media and clients, we also want to take on straight clients who are gay-friendly.
I don’t know if she’d go for it, but I’d love to get [singer] Tori Amos. I know people who are connected with her and I’ve tried to [do] PR; however, she’s mostly based in England so I think [working with her] would be kind of hard.
WCT: Are you ever concerned about client discrimination? For example, are you worried about a movie producer considering one of your clients for a role and saying, ‘Oh, he’s with the gay firm?’
SLV: It’s always going to be an issue. One of the things we want to do is make it easier for our clients and [eventually] actors who are in the closet would not have to be afraid of being only given gay roles—or no roles at all.
WCT: You hinted at this a minute ago, but where do you see your firm in five years?
SLV: I’d like to eventually open an office in Manhattan, but we’re in New Jersey because that’s where I was raised. Also, it’s not too far from New York City and Philadelphia.
I’d also like to open a bigger office in L.A.—and have 20-30 people in each office.
WCT: So you don’t want to be Oprah.
SLV: [Laughs] Do I want it to be an empire? I don’t know. In PR, you don’t need that many employees; I like a more personal touch with my clients.
See www.theprgrapevine.com for more info.