What Works in Internet Marketing -- Models Speak Out

By Anne Holland, President

Yup that's right. Models.

In our never-ending quest to scope out all the research being done in the field of what works in marketing, Sherpa's research team discovered a study conducted by REVEAL World Wide.

These are folks who hire models for street teams to work NASCAR and Kentucky Derby events on behalf of brands such as Heineken and Slim Fast. This June, 53 models took their questionnaire on online marketing. Key results:

One Model Place (62%) and Craig's List (55%) were the top two most used sites for self-promotion.

MySpace came in much lower at 20.8%, even though 75% of the models had a MySpace account. Plus, it tied with Craig's List for first place in the "easy to use" rankings.

Why so low on the good-for-marketing scale then? As you might guess, although gazillions of people visit MySpace, they don't tend to be would-be employers. Models land far more positions from Craig's List (92%) and One Model Place (86%) than MySpace.

Success in marketing online generally is not about masses and masses of eyeballs. It's about the right eyeballs at the right time (i.e. targeted niche media wins vs broad reach media.) That's why as one respondent said, "The best modeling Web site is Craig's List."

By the way, what do models really want online? Less hype and more "real information" as one put it. Better screening of wanna-be employers, links to reputable local agencies and profiles of competing models for a start.

So, if you want to start a content site or email newsletter, I smell a target marketplace that's looking for good stuff. That said, they don't want to pay for it. You'd have to be ad supported ... if your brand is targeting the model (or aspiring model) marketplace, this is an opportunity to grab their allegiance.

Useful links related to this article

REVEAL World Wide:
http://www.revealworldwide.com