July was another month of shuffling meetings to adjust for everyone’s busy schedules, but it helps when you work with a flexible team of professionals. While I didn’t make it up to New York myself, I was able to nail down meetings for Erika at Intermix and Purpose, and Meli and Stacy at Ann Taylor and Vox Media. Rounding out a successful month, Meli and Stacy also represented Wonderful Machine at an ASPP networking event.
At Intermix, Erika met with Director of Creative Production Elizabeth Leifer and Producer Sarena McDonald. The ever-increasing presence of social media and the short shelf life of visual content has forced creative teams like Elizabeth and Sarena to find ways to produce large quantities of quality imagery at affordable rates.
While looking over photographer portfolios, the fashionable duo mentioned they’re looking to ramp up social media for some of their individual stores. With locations all over the country and seasonal styles regularly bringing about new trends, Wonderful Machine could be a perfect resource for Intermix. Our photographer directory allows clients to search for photographers where the shoot’s happening, and our production team can organize the project remotely or on-set.
After Intermix and a quick lunch, Erika stopped at Purpose for a meeting with their Creative Video Producer, Savannah O’Leary. Motion photographers are becoming a larger part of Wonderful Machine’s network at a time when clients are increasingly making the decision to create both videos and stills on the same shoot.
For this meeting, we created a Youtube playlist to show off some of our photographers’ DP reels. Venture Visuals and Steve Utaski both drew some attention, and Savannah liked that she could contact Wonderful Machine’s photographers directly, as the bulk of their content is produced in-house. Erika also let Savannah know that Wonderful Machine provides complimentary photographer, crew, and DP recommendations for projects.
Only a handful of days later, it was Meli and Stacy’s turn to take on the Big Apple. Their first stop was at fashion giant Ann Taylor where they met with Producer Bonnie Osborn. Bonnie and her team handle some of their projects in-house but regularly work with production companies to coordinate non-local shoots, including international. While browsing portfolios, Bonnie was drawn to Melinda Dimauro and David Troyer‘s books, and she thought Ann-Sophie Fjellø-Jensen would be a terrific fit for their Loui + Grey line. She was also interested in our On The Move page, a great resource for keeping track of photographers who are traveling.
After a quick stop for lunch, Meli and Stacy headed out to meet with Executive Design Director Zachariah Mattheus at Vox Media. When we initially reached out to Zachariah, he conveyed that our email was well-timed, given an upcoming shoot his team was coordinating. In the meeting, he confirmed that he was starting a large project requiring photographers, crew, and some production help. The details were still being ironed out, but Wonderful Machine’s network and experience seemed to fall right in line with Vox Media’s needs. And with a variety of publications under his supervision, Zachariah mentioned that our stock tool could be a great resource for acquiring higher quality and more exclusive images.
After a day of successful portfolio meetings, Stacy and Meli headed out to ASPP and ASMP New York’s annual Summer Soiree party, where they had the opportunity to mingle with photographers, ASMP and ASPP directors, and industry photo editors. They discovered new photographers through their opening exhibition and reconnected with a few folks from ASMP’s Board of Directors to discuss upcoming opportunities for Wonderful Machine and ASMP to collaborate on. They even had some time to get goofy in the photo booth.
During the summer you have to make the meetings you can get count. With a team that’s good at working together (thanks again to Erika, Meli, and Stacy!), we were able to meet with some of New York’s top brands, agencies, and publications to promote Wonderful Machine’s photographers in July.
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