Wonderful Machine recently decided to take our Portfolio Events to a whole new level and we’re already starting to see results. Over the course of four days throughout May, five different Wonderful Machine producers met with nine separate agencies in New York City. Those are a lot of numbers to break down, but here is how it panned out. Toting her purple suitcase packed with portfolios, Meli braved the Big Apple, meeting with Webber Shandwick and VML. Julia and Claire met with the big guns at Sony Music Entertainment and Droga5. Craig managed to squeeze in a last second meeting with Apostrophe to round out our day with Translation and Ogilvy & Mather. Yours truly met with some great creative minds at BBDO and MCD Partners.
Meli had recently passed the coordination of our Portfolio Events on to me, but she was back at it for the day, attacking the city solo. At Weber and Shandwick, she was greeted by their lovely Production Coordinator, Gabrielle Korn who escorted her to a conference room to meet with her team of seven producers. They spoke about production case studies, the genres of photographers they look for and even mentioned their interest in Patrick McDermott, Lisa Tichané, Bobbi Lin, and Kyle Dreier. Her next meeting was with VML’s Senior Integrated Producer, Tamara Lund. Having a one-on-one meeting with Tamara really gave Meli the opportunity to have an intimate conversation about the projects VML is working on and what their current needs are for each. It was also great to hear that Tamara uses Wonderful Machine as her first source when finding photographers and she’d be interested in more opportunities to work closely with our executive producers.
Craig and I had meetings with Translation, Apostrophe, and Ogilvy & Mather. Miriam Franklin and her team at Translation work on a lot of event coverage for their client’s product releases. They were interested in our ability to coordinate local photographers with their events around the country.
Our meeting at Apostrophe was a little out of the ordinary because they represent photographers and we’ve found reps occasionally see us as competition. However, Wonderful Machine is designed to collaborate with reps, providing supplemental marketing for photographers who already have representation. We had a nice conversation with Julia Heckler MacGuire and Nathalie Cordoba about how we can provide this auxiliary marketing for their photographers and also help their agency and photographers with production, estimating, and web/portfolio design support through consulting. Our last meeting at Ogilvy & Mather was a great opportunity to get our photographers books in front of a lot of industry professionals. With clients like NASCAR, it’s no surprise that Clint Davis’s portfolio drew a large amount of attention. Kevin York’s gritty style also had people raving as they turned the pages.
Executive Producer Craig Oppenheimer lays out our photographers portfolios at Ogilvy & Mather.
My first solo trip included stops at BBDO and MCD Partners. Lizzy Lehn and her team at BBDO were great. They work mostly in motion which is becoming an increasingly substantial part of Wonderful Machine’s network. Their team was excited that we currently have one-hundred-twenty-six people who shoot video on our directory. I met with Ron Wessels and his team of designers at MCD Partners. The designers liked that our stock request tool gave them access to our photographer’s personal archives and that thousands of other companies aren’t scavenging through the same images. In general, we find clients like the idea of having more exclusive and higher quality stock options.
Left: Outside of Radio City Music Hall! Right: An office space inside BBDO from my meeting with Lizzy.
Julia and Claire headed to New York via the Holland Tunnel (thanks to construction on the turnpike) to conclude the month of May with meetings at Sony Music Entertainment and Droga5. Their morning began with the amazing Christopher Austopchuk, Sr. VP of Design Creative Group and his team. They set up shop in one of the conference rooms and showed a variety of photographer portfolios along with a few production case studies highlighting both our photographer network and production capabilities. Two fan favorites at the meeting were Evaan Kheraj and Melinda DiMauro with their distinct styles and exquisitely printed images.
Left: Producer Julia Hanley outside of Sony. Right: The team at Sony taking a look at our photographer’s books!
Giacomo Fortunato’s stylized images were quite the conversation starter including his series, Fight Night and a project he shot for Men’s Health titled Train, Suffer, Conquer. The day ended with an intimate meeting with Emily Heller, Sr. Art Producer at Droga5. Prior to the meeting, Emily expressed interest in Wonderful Machine’s international network so Julia and Claire made sure to bring a variety of portfolios to showcase our geographically-diverse photographers. Anyā’s portfolio was described as “fierce” and Emmanuel Fradin impressed with his unconventional smaller-sized book. Felix Reed and Javier Pierini also made waves with their elegant portfolios and refined photographic approach.
We certainly ended May on a high note and already have a few meetings set for June!
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