The We Love Your Genes Campaign, by IMG Models Worldwide, was created to find fresh faces no matter your heritage, parentage, or background. The aim is to meet aspiring models, and to spark awareness of the We Love Your Genes digital scouting platform through the hashtag #WLYG for girls or #thelookout for guys. IMG Models for the first time ever, live streamed open castings on YouNow via a split screen. The audition team who started with IMG's own #WLYG teen model and host, Joely Live, wanted to let more individuals know about how you can be anyplace in the country, even if you are far from a big city with IMG offices, and still be seen by IMG scouts live on the YouNow.
The goals are to find new talent nationwide to become IMG models and give aspiring models opportunities to showcase their personalities. Beneath the persona of what makes a model is presently changing. Photographers, casting directors, designers, brands and a models' fans on social media want to meet and work with individuals that have a story and enthusiasm, it's not just how you look. Instagram combined with the guesting in on YouNow lets the scouts see potential models in their everyday lives. It's all interactive so people can ask advice on hashtagging their own photos so not to miss their chance to be noticed by IMG Scouts. Joely lets the fans know that they can send likes, applause, and confetti, during the show to encourage inspiring models.
Sometime in the middle of Spring, girls and guys from around the world started asking our host, 17 year old Joely Live, how to become an IMG model, like she did from the heart of farm country in upstate, New York, just by hashtagging her photos #WLYG on the @WeLoveYourGenes Instagram page. She went live daily on YouNow's split screen to talk face to face and answer questions from all over the world and to say this could be you too! IMG Models and YouNow took notice and got behind this new young model and together made it into a 45 minute live show series.
Joely makes sure the show is fun and inspiring to give hopefuls a feeling of ease in auditioning. People often get nervous casting in front of real model scouts, so to help make sure their personality can shine Joely and the scouts are giving immediate interaction with viewers and saying they too are super excited to have people come on the show. Asking easy going questions like what's your name and where are you from? When did you know you wanted to be a model? Do you have a hobby? Have you hashtagged your photos? Joely explains how those not making it into the YouNow broadcast that day can hashtag their photos and still be noticed. As part of the show, Joely joins in other models, like Lameka Fox, who signed through the hashtag #WLYG and became a Victoria Secret model two years later. The WLYG girls tell their stories and dreams while viewers are given more opportunities to ask their questions in the chat.
The live streams were promoted across IMG Models, We Love Your Genes, YouNow, and @Joelylive social media platforms.
Over JoelyLive's new YouNow channel, the IMG Models/We Love Your Genes live stream auditions in just 5 episodes in 6 weeks reached over a half a million views (737,840). From a 45 minute casting broadcast the viewership ranges over 60,000 views, moves to number one in the hashtag #girls and is trending worldwide on YouNow. More people were waiting in the guest que than could be fit into the broadcast schedule. So the team made sure to direct the viewers to the @WeLoveYourGenes Instagram page and to tag their pics with #WLYG, #younow, and @joelylive for a chance to get scouted and to let the scouts know they are coming from YouNow.
We Love Your Genes has signed over 5 dozen girls and we are loving the YouNow platform, just as we hit the shopping malls or rock concerts to reach our demographic, YouNow allows us to reach people who might not have had the chance for us to see them anywhere else. We are extremely pleased with the natural talent we are welcoming to the IMG family.
