In today's digital age, brands need a constant stream of visual brand assets to engage with their audiences. Visual content is essential to any brand's marketing strategy, from print campaigns to social media ads. And as the demand for diverse representation grows, brands seek to cast models that accurately reflect their customers' diverse backgrounds and experiences. But finding the right talent to create brand assets can feel gruelling, from high fees to lack of transparency.

Fortunately, there are tools you can add to your brand marketing arsenal to make your life easier. Read on to learn more.

Having the right talent recruitment strategy to plan for your visual assets ensures your brand's message resonates with your target market. So it's essential to find models that authentically represent your brand's values and target demographic.

And inclusivity goes beyond picking diverse models: it extends to who you hire for your creative team on set. Fostering a collaborative, inclusive team dynamic by hiring photographers and hair & makeup artists from diverse backgrounds has become even more crucial nowadays to get the best results.

But finding the right models and building a diverse and collaborative creative team can be challenging. Budget, time and availability are often big blockers. The abundance of options across different networks (model networks, agencies and social media platforms) can make it hard to shortlist creative talent that fits your project requirements.

Lack of transparency is also prevalent. Who to trust? What are their rates? Are they available for my dates? Do they really have the experience they claim? Project managers often need to go back to back with multiple creatives and agencies before finding the right fit, making the shooting planning process tiring and prone to delays.

We can separate the talent booking process into 3 phases:

Brands face complex challenges at each step of the journey, starting with finding the right models.

Brands have many options when casting models for their campaigns. If you'd like to know how to find models for your brand, read our guide.

You'll need to search through multiple platforms to find models that fit your project brief. Young brands will often turn to social media, but it's one of the least effective ways to find reliable models. You'll find thousands of options and have to go back and forth between models to send the brief, negotiate rates and see their availability before confirming them for your shoot.

Agencies can help you find vetted models you can trust. But they'll only provide models from their talent pool, so they may have one model that fits your brief but not another, adding to the complexity of the process. They also have high commission fees, which may not suit up-and-coming brands with smaller marketing budgets. 

Project managers must stay organised and patient during the model search phase. They must frequently adapt to last-minute changes, as availability can quickly change from one day to another.

Brands today want to represent a more inclusive and diverse range of people in their brand marketing campaigns. But finding models from diverse backgrounds - especially disabled, plus-size and mature male models - isn't as easy as mainstream media and agencies claim, leading to a limited pool of options.

When searching for diverse models, look for "diverse" or "alternative" modelling agencies like Revolt, uns* and Zebedee Talent. You'll quickly see they have a much more inclusive talent pool than some of the more prominent, established agencies. You'll find a list of inclusive modelling agencies here.

In addition to finding the right models, brands also need to hire their creative team for the shoot. This may include photographers, hair and makeup artists and stylists. The process can be time-consuming, as brands have to search for talent on multiple platforms. They must send the brief numerous times to various people, and handle emails and Dm's from different places, making it tough to stay organised.

Lack of transparency on talent availability and rates can also make planning a shoot on a tight deadline nearly impossible. Brands often have to engage in back-and-forth communication with multiple stakeholders, leading to delays in the booking process, so they need to plan for extended deadlines and stay flexible. There's also a risk of unreliable talent, leading to last-minute cancellations or delays, further complicating the process.

Finally, paying your team can present its own set of challenges. For example, if you hire people from different platforms, you'll need to keep track of separate invoices, all with their specific payment terms. Brands also face limited payment options and hard-to-understand rates. 

Additionally, if a brand has to hire creatives from multiple agencies, it can lead to high commission rates, further increasing the cost.

Overall, traditional booking processes can be time-consuming, complex, and frustrating. As a result, brands need a more efficient and streamlined solution to find, hire, and pay creative talent. That's where Contact comes in - an all-in-one platform that simplifies and centralises the entire booking process.

Contact is an all-in-one platform that streamlines the process of finding, hiring, and paying models, photographers, and hair & makeup artists for your projects. With Contact, you can plan for all your visual brand asset needs: content shoots, lookbooks, billboards, social media collaborations, marketing campaigns, videos, and more, with the help of a single, essential tool.

Over 40% of our talent pool are POC, and we work with ground-breaking modelling agencies. With Contact, you can easily browse a vast database of diverse models (1000+) and filter results based on your needs. You'll find detailed profiles for each model, including their experience, bio, daily rates, measurements, and a portfolio of their previous work. 

This makes it easy for brands to find freelance and agency-represented models that match their requirements and budget. No need to switch from agency to agency to find models anymore: find vetted models from 50+ world-class agencies in one place.

Similarly, you can find vetted photographers and hair & makeup artists and explore their portfolios on the platform.

When you've spotted a few talents you'd love to meet, add them to your shortlist. You can access them at any time via your shortlisting basket. You can create a free account to save your shortlist and bookmark your favourite profiles. Come back to them when you're ready to book!

You can even create collections to sort your bookmarks into different categories. So, for example, if you frequently plan e-commerce shoots and video campaigns, you can save your favourite creatives that suit each project type.

Contact simplifies the hiring process by allowing brands to communicate directly with models and creatives, and sending the brief to all your shortlisted creatives simultaneously. 

You can request availability, negotiate rates, and schedule shoots within the platform - all with the help of our expert casting team. This streamlined process saves time and eliminates the need for endless email exchanges or phone calls.

Once you've confirmed your shortlist, you can send personalised briefs to each creative in one click. You'll get their responses fast, by email and via your dashboard. You'll get looped in with your team to plan your shoot easily.

Paying creatives is straightforward (and fair) on Contact. All payments are handled securely and quickly through the platform. We take care of invoicing and transactions, ensuring that all parties receive fair compensation for their work.

Brands have access to flexible payment methods - a rare find in an industry where invoicing is still the rule. Pay by card, bank transfer, or spread your payment over multiple months to get access to all the talent you need (available soon!).

When you hire multiple creatives, you can pay them all in one click post-shoot—no need to file different invoices and make multiple transfers. 

Depending on your chosen payment method, you can unlock Bloom, our early payment solution for creatives, helping them thrive and build financial freedom and stability.

Brands need diverse models to create visual assets that authentically reflect their audience. Contact provides an all-in-one solution to finding, hiring, and paying models, photographers, and hair & makeup artists to craft inclusive and influential campaigns for your brand.

Cover Image:

Malachi Muzoora (Blue Agency) for Kickers