The past year has been a period of fantastic growth and consolidation for TalentFinders. With over 1,500 clients now listed on the site, we have grown at an amazing rate, not only in types of talent we have on board but also in the breadth of the representation.
The ever increasing levels of support and use by industry have been a huge encouragement. We have enjoyed over 386,000 hits from 7,700 different users over the past year and these numbers are increasing every month. TalentFinders now gets - 80,000 hits a month from not only South Africa but the UK, US, Australia and even as far a field as Morocco! With the average number of hits per person increasing daily we remain committed to ensuring significant exposure for all of our clients.
In response to a multitude of requests from within the industry to source talent in other areas, TalentFinders has expanded the original acting and modelling database to include musicians, sports personalities and speakers.
Watershed, Danny K, Anke, Xolisani, Flash Republic, Tamara Dey, Miriam Makeba, Lebo Matosa and newcomers Chix with Stix are all examples of the celebrity music listings featured on TalentFinders. They are represented by the likes of J23 Management, JSK Music, Patrick Masse Music, Siyandiza Music and Intertalent. There is a growing need to provide a forum for musicians to gain exposure to a wider audience, and TalentFinders provides the industry with a vital contact point.
Sports personalities have discovered the value of capitalizing on their talent and the commercial possibilities offered. Television has made stars of the likes of Ryk Neethling (represented on TalentFinders by Prosport International) and their representation is now big business. Swimmer Alain Tardin and the entire men's South African Rowing Team (managed by Bruce Turvey) are also featured. Francois Brink Sports Marketing represents disabled sports personalities Natalie du Toit, Ernst van Dyk and Thea-Mari du Rand and Forwardzone Sports Agency is one of our latest sports agency listings.
The new category for public and motivational speakers is filling a growing need with speakers represented by TomorrowToday.biz, and Speakers Inc. A visit to www.talentfinders.com will find Michael Mol, Patricia Glyn, Graeme Codrington and Bhule Dlamini.
Enormously encouraging is the number of advertising agencies and production houses that are accessing the site searching for suitable talent. Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT, McCann-Erickson and Network BBDO have all used the site, as well as production houses Red Cube Productions, Egg Films, Miros Films, Red Cherry Productions and Kagiso Television.
Craving Novity quotes: "TalentFinders has been an invaluable tool over the last two months. Thank you for top service from top people."
Casting agents are finding the site a useful way of extending the scope of the search for talent beyond the limits of their normal agent base, and it provides the agents with exposure to a far greater audience for their clients.
The number of agencies represented has risen rapidly as more and more of them are seeing the advantages of listing their clients on the site. Quirky House, Talent International, Trinity Entertainment, Owen S Management, Ripchord and Xtreme Attraction are new additions to our growing list. Agencies are fast realizing the value of utilizing the site as a useful facility to help manage their businesses. Being user friendly as well as easy to update, search and sort makes TalentFinders a simple and cost-effective tool to replace the unwieldy manual systems often used by agents. Add secure off-site data storage with automated backups that requires no specialized software or training and TalentFinders is streets ahead of competitive systems! In addition, the service is only charged to the clients listed on the site, effectively allowing the agent to manage the business on-line at no cost other than that of an Internet connection.
Clients often don't see or appreciate the efforts made by the agent on their behalf and agents are finding that offering the TalentFinders service as a value add demonstrates their commitment to marketing their client. Nothing boosts confidence like personal advertising and being able to see how many hits you have had!
Talent Finders is continuing to grow and improve, adding features continuously. Technical developments now include the ability to search for talent by name. Talent Finders has had numerous requests for the contact details for various artists and the updated site is now capable of delivering this service at the touch of a button!
All in all, Talent Finders is fast becoming the definitive database for the entertainment industry!
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Posted on Friday 11 Aug 2006
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