Natasha Koifman brings the era of cool to TIFF with the IT Lounge

Like many high-profile festivals, the art form being celebrated is never the sole highlight.

For another year, The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) envelops the city, bringing with it, celebrities, films and lavish parties. But that’s not all people are talking about during the weeklong festival.

TIFF presents one of the biggest opportunities of the year for brands to garner international attention. For NKPR president, Natasha Koifman, the celebrity-gifting lounge is her PR strategy du jour — but she makes a point to raise awareness for more than just brands.

“What makes our gifting lounge unique is the fact that we’ve always had a charitable component,” says Koifman. “In the early days, we partnered with Big Brothers Big Sister. As the concept grew, we partnered with different charities like Artists for Peace and Justice and Best Buddies. It’s a great opportunity for causes to increase awareness and raise funds and it can put them on the radar with a lot of celebrities as well, which we love.”

As celebrity-gifting lounges rise in popularity, we have to wonder if they’re actually an effective branding strategy. In other words, does it work? Koifman thinks so. She cleverly points out that we’re talking about it right this moment: “Aren’t we?”

“It’s effective because of the strategic alliances and the experience we create within the lounge for celebrities to try products they might normally not have access too.” She also points to past partnerships with renowned photographer, Partrick Demarchelier and this year’s partnership with Caitlin Cronenberg and W Magazine.

The celebrity-gifting lounge in question is the always star-studded NKPR IT Lounge, visited last year by Jared Leto, Olivia Wilde and Mila Kunis, among others. If you want in, you better make sure you’re a tastemaker in some way, shape or form.

After much debate, Koifman and her team settled on this year’s IT Lounge theme: “The Era of Cool.”

“Think of Sandy from Grease, when she was a little uncool, then became super cool in her leather and great hair,” says Koifman. “We curated products we think are cool and that celebrities will love.”

Since Canadians are obviously some of the coolest people around (if we do say so ourselves), we weren’t entirely surprised to find several Canadian-based companies supplying products.

Saje Natural Wellness, Rudsak and Barilla Pasta are amongst the Canadian brands participating in the IT Lounge this year. Celebrities will also be taking home items from international brands like Christian Rex, Goody and Tweezerman.

“When I think of cool, personally I think of pasta,” she laughs. “Barilla is doing a Casa Burle pasta bar this year at IT Lounge because we’re all going to be very hungry this year at TIFF.”

We couldn’t agree more Natasha. We couldn’t agree more.