With all this sports talk, I thought I’d dig deep into a more female frame of mind, discussing the promotion of designer duds. It’s that time of year again — red carpet season, where the biggest PR coup you can achieve is getting a starlet to wear your design, strut her stuff on the carpet and drop your name hundreds of times to news outlets across the world! If only it were that easy….

Here are some fun facts about award season PR, courtesy of Ad Age.com:

• Designers no longer just count on one star, but target different celebrities or groups for different events to maximize their exposure during awards season, which lasts from January to March.

• In 2006, advertisers paid $1.7 million for 30 seconds of airtime during the Academy Awards broadcast. Designers shell out similar expenses in order to get stars to wear just one of their designs.

• It pays off: People magazine’s verified rate base of 3.4 million jumped by 300,000 for its annual Oscar Style issue in 2006. On Jan. 16, the day after the Golden Globes, People.com drew 39.6 million page views, the highest single-day page view record in the site’s history, according to a People spokeswoman.

• Designers rely heavily on establishing relationships with stars. Because there is no guarantee a celebrity will show up in your dress, designers start profiling award nominees to woo as early as November.