Flipside London PR is one of the most exciting beauty and lifestyle PR agencies in the UK. We’re proud to work with some of the most exciting emerging and established brands on the planet. Want to know a bit more about us? Here’s a Q&A with our founder Lynne Thomas.
What services do Flipside PR offer?
Q&A With Flipside PR’s Lynne Thomas
When did you launch Flipside, and how did you envision it at the beginning?
I launched Flipside in 2003. I had been working with some really interesting emerging beauty brands and trends that were very niche but are now mainstream. One was an aesthetic clinic offering Botox and dermal filler, skin peels, lasers etc. It was one of only a handful of these clinics in the UK and the media were hungry for information about these lunchtime non-surgical treatments that could make you look younger without going under the knife. The other was the emergence of “cosmeceutical” skincare including glycolic, retinol and antioxidants. I was fortunate to work with brands whose formulators were the creators of some of these ingredients and it was a very exciting time of discovery. Now, these ingredients are in literally every skincare product.
I was also introduced to a thing called “mineral” makeup, makeup so pure you could sleep in it. The brand was bareMinerals and I launched this in the UK before anyone had ever even heard of makeup as skincare. I was very passionate about these innovations, and I could see that they were the future of skincare in the UK and boy was I right. So, I set up Flipside as a specialist agency looking after these quasi-medical skincare brands, clinics, doctors and treatment. There were very few agencies at the time that specialised in this area and I was very well-connected and interested in developing these brands.
In PR at the time, there was lots of air kissing and prancing about with the right handbag. Arguably, not that much has changed… I called the company Flipside because I was offering an alternative to traditional PR, through hard work, where my clients, not me, were the centre of attention and the brilliance of the brands shone through. It’s an ethos that continues to guide me.
What have been the highlights in the last two decades?
There have been many highlights in the last 20 years, but I would say launching bareMinerals and watching it grow to the enormous brand it became was one, and knowing that without Flipside that would never have happened! Watching Courthouse Clinics grow from one aesthetic clinic in Brentwood to multiple locations across the UK, knowing that so much of that growth was generated by PR. Being introduced to a fabulous brand called RevitaLash 15 years ago and working with and growing it until it’s become a household name in the UK.
Working with small & innovative brands and being part of their growth is still the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. Also being appointed to handle the PR for the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons was a real honour.
Check out some of Flipside PR’s brand case studies
Which brands should we be looking out for this year?
Wellness brands are really offering some simple but innovative solutions to help improve the quality of people’s lives. DROWSY Sleep Co, a brand we launched during lockdown are just going from strength to strength on the back of their amazing sleep mask that is literally life changing. The brand has really risen to the challenge of improving sleep quality and it’s only going to grow. RevitaLash will be launching a sensitive version of their best-selling lash serum this summer, we have 2 events in Ireland and one in London to celebrate this. We’ve also recently launched a Just B, an innovative double ended, multi taking lip spectrum that has been specifically designed for South Asian skin, to fill a huge gap in the cosmetics market and I feel this will be one to watch in the coming months and years.
What makes Flipside special?
The fact they we specialise in the beauty and lifestyle sector makes us uniquely placed to service brands who are looking to build brand awareness in that sector. The team also makes Flipside special with our ability to go above and beyond to support our clients and to provide interesting, timely and relevant information that builds transparency and trust and fosters long term relationships.
What’s next for you and the team?
We have a super busy summer of launches for RevitaLash with our first media events in Ireland and an exclusive press launch for the new sensitive range at the Mandrake Hotel in London. We are also just getting started on the launch of a very cheeky and fun brand, Randy Cow who make sustainable swimwear for men. As an agency we want to expand our portfolio of lifestyle clients and this, along with Boody our sustainable underwear brand, is a project we are all very excited about.
