Shiseido Otaku event

Shiseido invited me to attend their Otaku event in Ponsonby last week. It has been a long time since my last PR event and I’ve got some thoughts to share…

Shiseido – Beauty Otaku

I researched online on the term “Otaku” and it means an intense obsession in Japanese. Shiseido used this term to express their obsession and passion for beauty as they have been dedicated for many years to skincare innovations and technology, bringing us high-tech skincare formulations and delivery systems. Shiseido has just celebrated its 150th birthday last year and they have been in the New Zealand market for over 50 years. It is safe to say you must have seen Shiseido somewhere or tried their products.

Personally, my first experience with Shiseido was with my sister. We used to go to this small local pharmacy and there was a little Shiseido stand with that rotating shelf of products. We saved up money to purchase our first skincare product from the Pureness range (I loved that range). That’s where our obsession with skincare started.

The event

The event was an after-work event at Studio 230 in Ponsonby. The dress code was cocktail with a touch of red or black. The PR team did so well with the event with Japanese-inspired cocktails, entertaining bartenders creating amazing drinks, sushi, and sashimi by Asabu were endlessly served. There were areas where you could get hand massages, innovative technology to get your skin analyzed and recommend products from Shiseido, and areas where you could try their products. There is also a 3D camera area to take some fun videos!

I have my tummy filled with yummy food and some really nice matcha seedlip cocktail and yuzu cocktail (don’t worry, I made sure I was under the limit and I drove home safely). We all leave with a little goodie bag with a limited edition set of travel-sized skincare products from Shiseido and their amazing cotton pads.

The experience is open to the public on the following Saturday and the first 500 visitors will receive non-alcoholic mocktails, and free samples and there are prizes up for grabs.

PR event

This part isn’t focused on Shiseido or the PR team whatsoever, it is just some of my thoughts on going to PR events for someone who doesn’t have a large following or is commonly in the spotlight in the social media realm.

First of all, I’d like to say I’m not a very influential person and I’m very much an introvert. However, I do love to be creative – in the form of photos and videos to share my love for skincare, cosmetics, and fashion. I like to share this on social media (mainly IG and my blog), it is mostly an outlet for me to be creative and document my journey so I can look back on the past. I’d be lying if I said I don’t care about followers or likes or engagement, but at the same time, I really don’t have the time and emotional capacity to worry about keeping up with the numbers. I have a part-time job, family, and other community responsibilities be always glued to my phone. I take blogging and IG for fun and what makes me happy, is not my job. Not saying people who are popular on social media don’t have a life or a job, I’m really impressed with people who can juggle things and be happy and successful. However, I am unable to do that.

Long story short, I did not know anyone there at the event except for the PR team who invited me. Even so, I only communicated once or twice for the purpose of this event. I was there by myself without someone to stick around or talk to. It is a little awkward and it’s always been awkward at events (for me) even a couple of years back. People who get invited on a regular basis to these PR events are mostly media (magazines, websites, etc.) and high-engagement influencers or content creators. I felt a little out of place at the event, even though I kept myself busy by walking around, eating, drinking taking photos, etc. However, I could not stay over an hour just hanging around with nothing to do.

I feel kind of bad to attend events like this, not for myself, but for the PR team who invited me. Of course, I get to choose whether to go or not and I was expecting to feel this way at the event anyway. But I feel like I didn’t add much value for the PR team to have me there. So I am not expecting another invite to their event or be on top of their next PR send-out in the near future. This is not a pity party for myself or me putting myself down to gain some empathy. But I feel like I’m at a stage where I won’t feel like I’m missing out if I’m not invited to events. I used to feel like I had to be invited because I was trying to “influence” my viewers and be on top of all the latest news and launches. But now I’m at ease with whenever information comes to me, I’m at ease with just sharing what I love without thinking I have to influence someone else to buy something. I’m at ease with not receiving PR gifts. I hope what I’m saying makes sense.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, I don’t often share things like this. But again, my blog is sort of like my diary. In the future when I look back, I will be able to see what I was going through, what my emotions were, etc. If you are going through something similar or something entirely different, please share with me over on my IG (no one leaves messages on blogs nowadays), I would love to hear about them.