Jackie Lapin has been a leader in the public relations field for nearly 25 years. She was President and CEO of a $2 million bi-coastal agency, Lapin East/West for l5 years before becoming a consultant.

Biography

Jackie Lapin was one of the pioneer women sportswriters in America, including serving on the staffs of the Washington Post, Detroit Free Press and Associated Press, as well as freelancing for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Sports Illustrated and Los Angeles Magazine. Lapin also authored two books during her writing career.

She began her public relations career at Edelman Worldwide in the Los Angeles office, servicing such clients as Yoplait Yogurt, Mirassou Vineyards and  Mattel Electronics.

She launched Lapin East/West in 1981, an agency that gained a highly regarded national reputation for sports, entertainment, cable television, product and event media relations.  The firm, with offices in New York and Los Angeles grew to a staff of 18 with $2 million in annual billings. After 15 years of agency administration, Lapin longed to return to the part of the business that was her first love--media relations. She closed Lapin East/West  and agreed to open Ruder Finn’s Los Angeles office in 1996, bringing in a number of media relations clients. Two years later she elected to become a consultant, servicing clients in all fields.

A recipient of numerous awards, Lapin has won the Los Angeles PRSA Chapter’s PRISM award on several occasions and been honored with Inside PR’s Creativity in PR Award, PRSA/New York’s Big Apple, Publicity Club of Los Angeles’s PRo Award, Los Angeles Advertising Women’s Lulu Awards and the IABC Bronze Medal.

A magna cum laude graduate in journalism from the University of Southern California, Lapin has previously been an active member of the Southern California Chapter of the PRSA Counselors and served on the Women's Sports Foundation's Board of Trustees. She is a current member of the National Sports Marketing Network.

Consumer Marketing

 During the time she operated Lapin East/West, her corporate clients included Toyota, Upper Deck, Avon, Caesars World, LA Gear, Philip Morris, Seagram, Heineken, Borden, Old Spice and many others. A sub-specialty has also been retail multi-location clients, including the Chart House Restaurants, Great Earth Vitamins, Great Expectations Video Dating Service and Supercuts.

Lapin’s product/service introductions have include NutriMil, whey milk substitute; Gold Circle Farms Eggs, a product which was featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, and Milton’s Bread and Baking Co., rapidly gaining a foothold on the nation’s grocery shelves.  She also managed the regional introductions of Yoplait Yogurt, Chicago Bros. Pizza, Chipwich Ice Cream Sandwiches, Piper Sonoma Sparkling Wine and Tommy Lasorda Pasta Sauce.  Lapin participated in the West Coast segment of Volkswagen's launch of the New Beetle and the unveiling of the Discovery Channel Stores in the West.

In addition, her client base as consultant has included Star Trac Fitness, Buena Vista Home Video (a division of the Walt Disney Co.), TECHTV, StairMaster, Baker Book House, Lifetime Television,  Norwegian Beta Glucan nutritional supplement, the OmniGift Card and AutoOz Signature Edition versions of factory vehicles designed by celebrities and sports stars.

Sports Expertise

 Lapin has previously managed publicity programs for such sports clients as Toyota Motorsports, NHL, Major League Soccer, PGA of America, Marlboro, Upper Deck, ATP, the Golf Channel, NBC, Showtime, Top Rank Boxing, Avon, Caesars World, Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers, Heineken, Seagrams, the Los Angeles Marathon, Ice Capades and Harlem Globetrotters, among others.

Her major product/service introductions include GolfWatch, a PGA-licensed golf hospitality  package, for which she won the Los Angeles PRSA Chapter’s PRISM award in 1997, and such previous national launches as The Golf Channel; Ted Williams Trading Cards; Upper Decks’ Wall Stars and Football Trading Card Lines,  Enginewear, a line of clothing for women autoracing enthusiasts, and ESPN Videos.

For several years, she also handled publicity for the Paralysis Project's Great Sports Legends Awards dinner in Los Angeles.

Entertainment Expertise

In entertainment, Lapin has experience with such diverse publicity campaigns as cable channels, live touring shows, radio networks, home videos, pay-per-view television specials and film production companies. Her cable clientele has made her one of the leading practitioners in that specialized industry: American Movie Classics, Bravo, HBO, Playboy TV, Outdoor Channel, Showtime, The Golf Channel, Independent Film Channel, Court TV and Viewer’s Choice to name a few. She is currently introducing a new video-on-demand technology to the television industry.

Technology and Business to Business

Most recently, Lapin helped to launch Studio City New York, the first building located in the heart of Manhattan, that will include offices, studios and pre/post production facilities. Other b-to-b clients have been Cardservice International, the nation’s leading provider of secured credit card processing to Internet merchants; Liquid Seats, BtoB and consumer ticket marketplace;  direct response specialist Inter/Media Advertising  and Grey Advertising.

Her technology client base has included Buena Vista Home Video (a division of the Walt Disney Co.) for DVD marketing; the trade launch of TiVo personal video recorder and TECH TV for in-market media relations.