Casting the Beautiful: Matchbook Advertising
Have you ever wondered where all those beautiful faces come from in your favorite ads? Or how John Frieda found that girl with the shiniest hair that you’ve ever seen? Us too. We caught up with Kristi McCormick, the creator of Matchbook Advertising and the lady who can put a face to any brand.
McCormick created Matchbook Company in 2009 as a talent buying and consulting firm with six former magazine editors.Theagency has booked everything from magazine covers to beauty packaging and there is no end in sight for these multi-talented ladies.
What inspired/prompted you to move away from magazinebookings and create Matchbook?
I found the creative process for an ad campaign very interesting. Advertising often works from magazine trends, while magazines createthe trends. With my editorial background and connections, I am ableto feed advertisers talent ideas very early – months before they arefeatured in the magazines and months before any other advertiserknows about them. Magazines work on 24-hour deadlines whileadvertisers work within a 30 60 day time frame. That was also a bigplus in my decision to work on the ad side!
How does having a group of women who were all formermagazine editors make Matchbook different from all the rest?
Magazine editors have a trained eye for talent (and trends in general) whether they are well known or not. The staff here has an uncannyability to see a model, actor, or real woman on the street and instantlyknow which brand this person could work for. We were all trained towork in such a tight time frame, so we often feel there’s always “onemore idea” that could be presented last minute for a job. In mostcases, that “last minute” face we found the night before books the job!
What were some of your favorite beauty ads that you worked onthis year?
I worked on a brilliant fragrance campaign (to be announced in 6months) that had more to do with the kind of person the model wasthan their career highlights. I love bookings where the personality andpersonal story of the talent matters what they like, their charities,their home lives. For me, this is so much more interesting and reallyadds to the “brand story.”
I also cast for the Latisse campaign. The reason I am noting thiscasting is because I had to find women to not only use the productbefore the shoot, but who actually WANTED to use the product andgrow their eyelashes. They didn’t want to just come in to cast for apaid job.
You mentioned that a lot of the time you know exactly what modelwill work for each campaign. How do you know?
This goes back to having the “editorial” eye in terms of talent choice forads. Clients (especially beauty) are very specific in what/who they arelooking for. The hair/eyes/skin color are very specific, so when youmeet a model, you immediately say “great for Biore, or perfect hairfor John Frieda, or this girl with the freckles is an adorable “Roxy girl”. Then you send them off to the marketing/creative departments of thosebrands, and most of the time, the model is put on hold immediately foran upcoming job.
What is the process like when casting models for ads or othermarketing initiatives?
The longer time you are a casting agent, the LESS time it should takeyou to cast a job. I have an open door policy at my studio. I will seereal women, actors, and models at ANY time. I don’t “wait for a job” tostart casting faces. Since I started Matchbook, my library of people wecast is approaching 10,000. This way, when a client sits down withme, I scan my brain (which is a catalog of every model and actor I’vemet since 1995) for the best ideas to present. Then I will do a”traditional” casting which is to call in models and actors, one at a time,to photograph and interview them on camera. I will present who I metwith in person for the traditional casting as well as ideas of people whomay not be in New York.
Nowadays with video communications tools, the best candidate for thejob may not live on the East Coast. For a Verizon national TV spot, Itracked down a male model/actor who lives full time in Shanghai,China. For a recent Revlon casting, I was given a photograph with noname on it, and I tracked the model down in Perth, Australia! If theclient permits me, I will cast all over the world in order to find theperfect face for their upcoming job.
