Vogue Models a New Reality Series
By Rachel Dodes
July 17, 2008
Television advertising is so last season.
In a new effort to attract a younger audience and capture marketing dollars that are increasingly going to the Web, Vogue magazine has teamed with the fashion and media divisions of IMG to produce an elaborate Web-based reality series about the fashion industry.
The show, called Model.Live, tracks three models as they navigate casting calls, catwalks and airports for fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris. The first of 12 eight-minute episodes will debut Aug. 19 on-demand on Vogue.tv, a site that runs advertiser-sponsored videos and allows consumers to buy the featured products.
The shows will also be syndicated on sites such as Veoh.com and hulu.com. From Vogue.tv, viewers can connect to Bebo.com, a video-based social-networking hub, to watch updates and interact with the show's stars.
Express LLC, a clothing retailer that is trying to court young fashionistas, paid in the "low seven figures" to be the show's lead sponsor, according to people familiar with the contract. As part of the deal, the European and American offices of IMG Models will be furnished with closets of Express clothes. (In the interest of authenticity, the models won't be required to wear them, executives say.) During the shows, consumers will be able to click a link to buy the ensembles the models are wearing -- or to see how to get a similar look from Express.com.
The Model.Live series cost $3 million -- about $31,000 a minute -- to produce. That puts it among the biggest-budget Web-TV projects to date. By contrast, marketers spent an average of $4,500 for an online video in 2007, according to Forrester Research.
It is a big bet for Express, which is testing a medium that is difficult to measure and far from proven. Vogue guaranteed Express 83.4 million "impressions," or ad views, on Bebo.com during the three months the series is airing, but the number of people who actually watch the on-demand episodes is impossible to track. "This is new to all of us, so to some degree we are building it together," says Lisa Gavales, chief marketing officer of privately held Express.
Express tried Web videos last season, working with Ford Models to produce how-to segments on looking chic. While the project had a smaller audience, Ms. Gavales says, the results were encouraging. Express got two million hits on its own Web site and Ford Models' site during the videos' run on the Ford site.
The new show is Express's biggest marketing investment in more than a decade, Ms. Gavales says. "We saw this as the perfect opportunity to get the Express name out there with impressive partners," she adds.
Model.Live is the latest example of interactive entertainment tailor-made for the Web by marketers trying to reach younger, tech-savvy audiences. Advertisers in the U.S. are expected to spend $1.35 billion on video Web ads this year, almost double the amount spent in 2007, according to research firm eMarketer. Videos are the fastest-growing online-ad format, though the growth comes from a small base.
The series itself will be advertised in Vogue's August issue and on the sides of Manhattan buses. It could also be promoted by bloggers, some of whom will be sent preview episodes.
Model.Live reflects the interest in the fashion industry fueled by reality shows such as "Project Runway" and "America's Next Top Model." A division of IMG Media produces one such show -- Bravo's "Make Me a Supermodel".
IMG Models says it picked three young models with different looks for the show. Madeline Kragh, a 20-year-old American with cropped black hair, is "kooky" and "a little out there," says David Cunningham, vice president of development, who will have a supporting role in the series. Cato Van Ee, a 19-year-old blond from the Netherlands, is "polished and sophisticated," says Mr. Cunningham; she modeled for Prada and Miu Miu last season. Austria Alcantara, 16, from the Dominican Republic, with a coffee complexion and long, dark hair, will be walking the runways for the first time this season. "She's the sweet, new kid," Mr. Cunningham says.
IMG and Vogue, which is owned by Condé Nast Publications, have been approached to participate in reality shows in the past, but both believed the shows were "not reality at all, just amateurs live," says Vogue Publishing Director Tom Florio. Mr. Florio says Vogue may develop the platform for other reality shows in the future.
Model.Live plans to chronicle whatever happens to the models, even if they are rejected for jobs. If designers ban video cameras from casting calls, the producers say, the models still can blog about their experiences. "The door closing on the camera sometimes creates as much drama as the camera going through the door," says IMG Media Executive Producer Russell Quy.
But the "realness" of the episodes could pose risks for the producers and the advertisers if the young models were to engage in controversial behavior like smoking or drinking while being taped.
"Obviously we are going to censor stuff," says Mr. Quy. "We don't want to embarrass anybody."
The darker side of the modeling business has made headlines recently. Issues such as the prevalence of eating disorders and a lack of ethnic diversity on the runway continue to plague the industry.
Mr. Cunningham says creating an ethnically diverse cast was "definitely something that was thought about." Should issues like depression or unhealthy eating habits come up during filming, "I think we should meet them head-on," he says. "We want this to be a real show."
I hope it doesn't affect her career negatively.
