In June, our team engaged with clients in a variety of ways. The Client Outreach department, consisting of Laura Derežanin, Iva Mikulandra Barkiđija, Hanna Quevedo, Josip Portner, Lana Jergović, Laura Wontor, Denise Florendo, Sara Maričević, Craig Oppenheimer, Bryan Sheffield, and Andrew Souders produced some noteworthy updates.
We added 203 companies and 246 people to our database this past month. Additionally, we updated 1,388 companies, and 1,529 people, and sent out over 550 emails to producers, art directors, creative directors, marketing managers, and photo editors. Below are some examples of the projects our team has been diligently working on.
This month, I focused on updating Clients and Publications, evaluating new
Companies for inclusion on our website, researching Parent Companies, gathering
information on the number of employees, and exploring Association Magazines (one of our Publication types). Additionally, I conducted research on individuals working for the Companies we collaborate with.
One of the key tasks was evaluating new Companies for potential inclusion on our website. I carefully assessed each Company’s relevance and credibility to determine whether they would be a valuable addition to our platform. This evaluation process involved analyzing their website, Instagram, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and overall fit as a prospective prospect for Wonderful Machine.
To enhance our understanding of the Companies we feature, I conducted research on their Parent Companies. This involved investigating their ownership structure, affiliations, and any relevant connections. I made sure to document this information in our database system.
I had the opportunity this month to update various well-known and unknown brands. Starting with the Companies with blank employee fields, to the ones with *Evaluate keywords in our database, I delved into a diverse range of industries, each fascinating in its own unique way. What stands out the most from this experience is witnessing the growth of certain companies since their last update. While it is unfortunate to come across records of companies facing setbacks or declining in key parameters, what truly captivates me is the resilience displayed by numerous companies amidst the challenging COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past two years, many of these companies have experienced steady growth or even doubled in size. As some expanded their operations globally, it became necessary to create new profiles for each location. Additionally, I discovered several intriguing companies outside of the United States, which particularly piqued my interest as a European.
My new role is to make sure that the People we have are still working at the Publications (and then most recently, the Agencies) to which we have them linked, and then to approach these People with an exciting email that promotes one of our Photographers – the one that will fit them best. We include our Photographer’s name, specialization, and link to their website. I am really enjoying this part because the main reason to do everything we do is to help our Photographers to find new opportunities and Clients, and putting our Photographers’ names and portfolios out there is really exciting.
I had a very cool response from one of our Clients when I recommended our Houston Photographer, Nathan Lindstrom. The owner of Croxson Designs told me that they just had a photo shoot with Nathan and that they loved his work!
I’m now updating the People in our database that are working for the Client type, “Brands.” I’m also contacting them to see if they need any assistance with creative or marketing projects that they may have. Additionally, if they have time for a quick call, we let them know about our company and our capabilities.
To me, it was exciting discovering new viable Brands and Agencies that we still don’t have in our database. Expanding Wonderful Machine’s reach in the world helps our users, and it always leaves me happy.
In June 2023, I managed the OOO Replies in our Emailers inbox whilst holding a handful of Office Hours calls with colleagues Sara, Iva, Lana, and Bridget (who I just virtually met for the first time last June!). Our Office Hours meetings are for our coworkers to ask and answer each others’ questions and to work through any tricky edge cases they’ve come across.
Focusing on OOO Replies, I am able to glean another round of new, relevant contacts for our database, which will greatly benefit our member photographers.
Among the newest batch of Client prospects that I added to our records (to name only a few) are:
During the month of June, I continued working in the “Industries” role. I concentrated my efforts on enhancing our database, and ensuring that we include the largest Companies in each industry. The primary focus was on updating the employee count and improving the overall quality and comprehensiveness of our records. Since the inclusion of the largest Companies in each industry is significant, I dedicated considerable effort to identifying and adding new records that were previously missing from our database. This involved an extensive review of the existing entries and researching potential candidates for inclusion. I want to make sure that our records accurately represent the major companies across more than 100 industries. This is going to take some time, but it will make the Client Outreach process a lot easier, and the information in our database more up-to-date. While reviewing the database, I also identified any gaps or missing information regarding the major Companies in each industry that I’ve gone through.
My primary role changed to “Categories” in the month of June. We often get requests from Photographers for listbuilds of brands in specific markets. Some examples include: hospitality, outdoor/adventure gear, and car manufactures (I’m currently working on “beer brands”). In this role, I compile, sort, and update information for our most often requested brand types. Sometimes these brands are owned by other companies that handle the advertising, and it’s important to have this figured out before we start creating a list. In the long-run, this will save us time when creating lists for Photographers because the extensive research will already have been done – we’ll just need to find a current contact.
This month, I was in the role of Oldest Promoted. My main focus has been on identifying Member Photographers who have not been promoted yet, or have not received a promotion in a significant amount of time. Once identified, I seek out potential Clients who would be interested in their work. For instance, if we have a photographer who is excellent in architecture and home photography, I target architecture brands and home magazines as potential future employers for them. I have been mindful of the importance of location, aiming for Clients and Photographers to be geographically close to each other, preferably within the same state, county, or city. This role is important because it enables every Member Photographer to be promoted throughout the month.
So far, this has been my favorite role because it allows me to combine my knowledge in photography with my understanding of Clients’ needs. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to see a lot of high-quality photos.
Here are a few highlights:
June was a busy month! We worked on coordinating a multi-day documentary shoot in Paris for client Kenvue with Photographer Benjamin Norman. Ben was shadowing the Kenvue key leadership team for a few days capturing documentary images for a few upcoming client projects. More on this soon!
We produced 2 shoots for our friends at the agency Edelman and their client, eBay. The first production was a 1 day architecture shoot in NYC with Emily Andrews as photographer. The second shoot was in-studio portraits of an NBA player with Member Photographer, Mo Daoud in NYC! We should have more info on these awesome projects once the client work is in use hopefully this month.
We also kicked off a large project for a travel client, to photograph 10 sports celebrities over 10 days in various cities around the country. More info on this project soon as well!
In addition to the above, June was quite busy with photographer consulting and estimate creations. It’s great to see so many clients reaching out for cost estimates!
At the end of June, Bill, Marianne, Brandi, and I had a call with the US Educational Program & Community Product Specialist at Capture One (a photography software company) to discuss Capture One’s new iPhone app, and to coordinate an upcoming Member Open House that will feature a demo and discussion about it’s features and how it will be helpful to photographers.
Additional items from June included a steady stream of pricing & negotiating consulting work with a wide range of member and non-member photographers for various upcoming projects.
We also produced a project in New York with Member Photographer, Mo Daoud for eBay through the agency Edelman featuring an NBA player promoting a new brand campaign. I was on-set producer for the shoot in NYC to make sure the project went smoothly.
We partnered with another production company to lend production coordination services for a multi-city pharmaceutical project with the agency Broth. I coordinated and was on-set for the shoots taking place in Philadelphia and Washington DC, and am slated to coordinate a third upcoming shoot in Boston this August.
Have questions about how we promote our photographers? Check out our Membership page. Want to know how you can get the most out of your Wonderful Machine membership? Check out our Jumpstart page or just reach out!