Challenge: MOT Models, one of the UK’s major, commercial modelling agencies, used to use heavy catalogues to communicate the breadth of models available to potential clients; many of the world’s top fashion brands. Although luxurious, these books are expensive to produce and inconvenient to deliver. MOT wanted to create a new, easy and mobile-friendly way to connect clients with the models on its books.

Mike Illes, director at MOT Models, says, “In the past, we used to do a very thick model book, it ran to about 450-odd pages. You’d see people carrying them around London, which was quite nice for us, but we wanted to have an app that clients could use in almost the same way that they used the model book.”

The Portfolio App is intended to provide a fast and efficient alternative to the paper books and the motmodel.com website. Illes says, “Our aim with the app was to reach out to our clients and to our models, and tie them in tighter to our business.”

However, despite appearances, the fashion industry can be traditional with regards to the way that it operates. While many fashion retailers embrace digital and its opportunities, high-end designers and fashion houses in particular, tend to be more traditional in the way that they do business, both at the point of sale and in their communications. Although the app would have the potential to simplify the process of booking models, some fashion brands might initially be resistant to the app and the digitisation of a traditional method.

Strategy: The new MOT Models app was developed in-house by the agency’s long-standing, US-based, independent website developer, David Mold, and by Mike Illes, whose own background is in IT. Illes says that he believes his background gives MOT Models an advantage over other agencies in terms of its attitude towards digital innovation.

While there is already booking software available, a system called cDs, there are few European agencies who use it, and the models are required to pay for the service. The MOT Models Portofolio App is provided to the models for free. MOT is the first model agency worldwide to use an app to enable the finding and sharing of models.

The models were already accessing their portfolios on the MOT website from their phones and tablets, and the app simplifies this process. The MOT Portfolio App, which can be used on both IOS and Android, contains the models’ portfolios; which are easily and frequently updated. Before, the models would have had to go into the agency to make copies and add them to their portfolios, the app eliminates all of that leg-work, while providing the models with easy access to the most up-to-date version of their portfolios. Illes says, “It’s more efficient and it’s more effective, that’s the whole idea behind it. We are in effect giving people a virtual lightbox in their pockets, on their mobiles, or on their tablets.”

Since those in the fast-paced music and fashion industries are almost always on their mobiles, the app is designed to deliver the information they need when and where they need it. The clients also have free access to the app and can use it to browse and select their favourite models and download their portfolios, which they can then show to their own clients. Once downloaded, those model portfolios can be viewed offline.

Illes says, “You’d be surprised how many clients have meetings on flights or in clubs that totally lack internet access. By using the app, creative agencies can show their clients the prospective models without fear of technical failure.”

Results: Well over half of MOT’s models are already using the app and response has been good from both models and clients. Libby Robok, online brand and shoot coordinator at Liberty, a department store on Regent Street, said of the app, “I am finding it very useful!”

However, the more traditional, paper option remains available for the clients who prefer it, as Illes explains, “Some clients like to see a paper book. That’s the only downside with the digital. Digital is more efficient and more effective, but some conservative types just don’t like it and we have to provide both.

He says, “It’s just a lot easier for us to maintain the digital side than it is the hard-copy side. The fashion industry can be very, very conservative. It’s sort of pretending to be way out there but it’s the most conservative industry I think I’ve ever come across.”

In this way the fashion industry is not so different from the corporate world where, despite the ease and improved sustainability of making annual reports and the like accessible online, many continue to dig their heels in and resist this change by requesting their preferred paper copies.

While the MOT Models app has received a high level of take-up from models and clients, there are some in the fashion industry who aren’t willing to move on from paper just yet. The perceived element of luxury is no doubt a least partly attributable to its impracticality. MOT Models allows for that by providing clients with a choice between both the digitally-savvy and the traditional methods.