Tubular Talent

Agency takes models off the paper and onto the screen

From hospitals to television stations, most industries are vying to stay at the forefront of Internet technology for their services and products. Now, you can add models to that list.

The Neal Hamil Agency is using services offered by the popular online video source YouTube.com to better market its models and talent to agency clients. The service is free, easy to manage and a great tool for the agency.

“Many times I am already at a client event like a Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s or Nordstrom fashion show, so why not bring a video camera and record our models on the runway while I’m there?” asks Jeff Shell, director of Neal Hamil Agency.

After the show, Shell edits the footage and uploads the newly created video to YouTube. For every model in that video, the YouTube link can be included in the model’s profile on the agency’s website.

“Once a video is created, we paste the link in the admin section of the agency website and the video shows up on the model’s page.”

Shell says he does not like to make long videos. “They must be kept short since the videos are geared toward clients who don’t have a lot of time,” he says. “Plus, YouTube is a very user-friendly web application that clients have no problem using from their sometimes-slow office computers.”

On the screen, the Neal Hamil Agency’s models can be seen in new ways. Whereas before, clients could only see still shots of prospective models, now they literally come to life. The models become more than headshots on a page or screen, which is great for clients, Shell says.

In addition to fashion show videos, the agency shoots the models individually. “We use one of our hallways as the runway in which to record the models walking,” Shell says. “This makes a very clean backdrop in which to showcase the models walk and [it shows their] personality!

Models love it too. They include the links of their Neal Hamil YouTube videos in their Myspace and Facebook accounts, giving the agency free, extra marketing,” continues Shell.

The idea of putting models’ videos online isn’t new. However, with the implementation of YouTube and their websites, NealHamilAgency.com and NealHamil.tv, accessibility of their models is now at an all-time high.

“NealHamil.tv is the agency’s new site where we are collecting our favorite YouTube videos and eventually we are creating our own,” he says. “Videos are a great way to communicate to the younger generations since they grew up with television and the Internet.”