karen maze photoblog

Creative Director, Tito Melega's, team was behind this Toyota Prius campaign

On Thursday, June 10, 2010 I attended a seminar entitled Debra Weiss Presents: How To Get Work from Ad Agencies. Debra Weiss , who has an extensive background in photography as an agent, curator, and more, moderated the discussion between three advertising industry experts.

The panelists were:

• Andrea Kaye, VP, Art Production Manager, McCann Worldwide, New York
• Tito Melega, Multi-Award Winning Creative Director (3rd Generation 2010 Prius)
• Tricia Burlingham, Tricia Burlingham Artist Representative Inc.

Each brought something unique to the conversation. I took copious notes, but here is a very shortened version what I came away with.

• Printed portfolios are NOT obsolete.
• There are more places (aka platforms) than ever for photography. But budgets continue to be tight.
• Post cards seem to be the best form of promo for Art Buyers because they can easily pin them up in their cubes or save them in a drawer. A case may be made for occasionally doing something more splashy, but it’s not necessary to make it a regular thing.
• Be consistent in your branding and your communication. Art Buyers and Creative Directors will wait years for the right project to come along for someone they want to work with.
• The phone call is extremely important.
• Websites: no flash; BIG PHOTOS; easy navigation; fast load times.
• Be nice, pleasant, and professional.
• No plastic sleeves in your portfolio (this one is going to take a little time for me to adjust to, as you’ll see in a blog post coming soon…)

It was a lot to take in. But it was also inspiring and reassuring. These were three successful industry experts who clearly want to hear from photographers, and love working with us. They want us to get the jobs. I know it’s not all sunshine and roses, but I have to say that listening to them talk demystified some what I had assumed to be a very adversarial process all around. It all seems even more possible now.

-km

PS: Thanks to Tito Melega for permitting me to use an image of his Toyota creative as the photo of the day.

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