The power of good Marketing

episode: 30 title: "Ep. 30 - The power of good Marketing, with Daria and Alina from Wedvibes.Media" pub_date: "Mon, 21 Apr 2025 05:00:00 +0000" original_language: english source_audio: "a1894ab0.mp3"

Hello, welcome. I'm Rui and this is the The WAG Podcast. Let's start by asking this. How did you two meet? Such a good question. Hello, hello, and yeah, we're happy to be here. We've met, actually, I will start and I will pass over to Alina. We are both from the same country, we're both Russians, but we didn't know each other until we both moved kind of like at the same time five years ago in Los Angeles to attend UCLA, University of California, and we met like on the second or the third day of us being here in Los Angeles and pretty quickly we established a connection and decided to create something together. That's correct. Nothing to add here. So, did you have any common interests? How was the idea to create something like WAG Vibes? Alina, do you want to continue? I can see her smile. Discussion. All right. Hi, everyone who is listening. I hope it will be fun and we will cover some exciting and interesting topics for you. Yeah, so Daria actually is the person who should take this question because it was she who started this media company back in the days when she lived in Europe and she did pretty well in growing it very fast. I think that it was a tremendous success when she started that. She was young, like in her early 20s. She did wedding planning and she wanted to change the way wedding talents find their way and become seen and connected with right couples. So she quit her wedding career to make a bigger input in the wedding industry and to help wedding talents to connect to the couple. So she started this media company and by the time when she moved it was already a pretty successful boutique media in Europe. However, when we met in the US and we did some projects together and we did a great job opening our door as two very different people with different backgrounds, but with the very same idea of like disrupting everything and making everything big and, you know, making input. We just decided to grow Wed Vibes from European boutique style to the worldwide media project that can change and influence the global wedding scene for both professionals and couples. Because it's like two big audiences. So Zara, you did have something that connects you to the wedding industry. Yeah, that's correct. I used to be exactly like in every talent's shoes. 15 years ago, I used to be the wedding planner, actually. And I did organize weddings, like multi-million dollar weddings, even like all around the world in France, Italy, even in India one time. And yeah, that's how basically the idea was born. Because there are so many resources. Of course, on the storefront, our main target audience, of course, are couples. But there are many resources there, especially today. You can find information about everything, basically, how to choose the wedding dress, how to choose the menu, should you invite kids or not. However, it's not that easy in terms of the talent, in terms of the creative people in this industry. There are so many resources still worldwide that help them to basically promote themselves, to help them put themselves out there. Because it's an entrepreneurial industry and it's a service industry, so you have to put yourself out there to be noticed by your couples, by your clients. That's just becoming really hard these days, is it not? Becoming just a global market where everyone goes everywhere to have their weddings. So how do you see that? It's true, I would say. For every expert, I would say, in every industry, it's the same thing. Everyone will tell you, oh, this was the time. Before Instagram, oh, this was the time. During Instagram, oh, this was the time. Before COVID, oh, this was a completely different time. It's true and it's not. I would say, however you look at this situation right now. Because yes, it's much harder because we have no borders anymore, especially for photographers. You can travel anywhere in the world. You're not limited by just your country. You have Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest. You have to juggle all of those social media and websites. At the same time, it's a great opportunity to put yourself out there, if you understand who you are and who are your clients. Yeah, that's a great statement, if you understand who you are. How does one do that at this time when every trend lasts for two minutes? And what was really cool one year ago or two years ago, now it kind of feels dated. How do you see that? How fast things go? How fast? Time flies. It's not a secret, right? But if you want to be successful, you'd better keep up. That's the thing. And it is always, again, understanding who you are, what's your style, what are your values, what you put on the table and what value you deliver to clients. It changes, but not as fast as digital trends. And there are some fundamentals. Once you have them, the way of communication, your persona, your values, your style can be different. And it can be adjusted on what's going on in digital trends, what kind of reels are getting viral, what is Pinterest right now and how to utilize Pinterest as a source of traffic. But there is no other industry which is stagnating. The world is moving. I don't believe that it's a good idea to sit in the podcast and discuss how hard life is. So maybe we can switch into sharing some value because, yes, we're moving fast in every industry. And to be successful means that you are present and you try a lot of things and you're kind of not living in the little bubble of the wedding industry. The world is bigger and you try to catch a lot of trends and apply whatever is working the best for you. What do you think has become one or two of the most important characteristics you think vendors have to have on these times? Is it adaptability, connection, fast response? What do you think are two or three characteristics we must have? I would say it's like all the things above everything you just said. Adaptability, it's a constant thing we have to consider. Because once again, I've been in this industry for 15 years, I know that before Instagram, there were like different directories and different blocks, you had to be there. The next one, the Instagram jumped in the play. The next one is TikTok and we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Adaptability for every profession, for every industry is really important if you want to be on the wave, not under it. And in regards of networking, it's like, once again, it's a service industry, it's very personal. So we see, and I'm sure you will agree with us, there are hundreds and hundreds of small circles of vendors, of talents who just recommend each other. And it's going to be like this all the time until the end of our days. And the better you keep connections, you don't have to be liked by everyone. You don't have to be in every circle. You have to find yours. If you feel like you found your people with whom you have the same aesthetics, you work in the same, let's call it price range, right? And maybe consider destinations as well. So basically, aesthetic price range destinations. If you found those people, and I'm sure, once again, you will agree with me, you don't have to have like 20 planners in your circle. Having like five planners with whom you have established connections, and not only planners, makeup artists, floral designers, photographers, if you are like videographer, for example, it's enough for you to have your season booked. So establishing and, let's say, nurturing those connections constantly. And if you feel like you have to move on from the circle right now to the next one, that's a completely different thing. But once you found it, you have to be there and you have to be present. And people will recommend you if you will be always on top of their mind. That's what we always say. Probably a few months ago, I heard a word that I think describes what you were saying. We used to talk about networking, and now we're talking about kin working. It's almost like nurture the connections you have, not always just going for more, but just create real connections. And with people, as you said, whom you like and with whom you share things, aesthetics. I completely agree, because it's really easy now to have a relation with a lot of people, but sometimes you just lose the real connection with some. And I think that is the best way to stay on top of mind. It's easy and it's hard at the same time, because there are so many people right now in the market. You have FOMO, you constantly have FOMO. You feel like, oh, there's this great creative, this is great creative, I want to work with everyone. But first of all, you can't do it. You have to be a super outgoing person to be in connection with everyone. And no one has time today for that. So it's better to concentrate just on a small circle, but nurture those relationships. And please stop hunting only planners. You have to remember that everyone in this market can recommend you. And those poor planners, not like leave them alone, but kind of keep it down a little. Because I feel like, yeah, most planners, they're overwhelmed with the amount of attention they get. And it's really hard, honestly, to break into the circle. So maybe it's better to create your own circle and figure out how you can basically catch the attention. Yeah, and really optimize the circle. So I think Alina kind of touched there on the beginning. But I wanted to ask you this. Was there a mission to add vibes from the beginning? Or maybe the mission, as Alina said, to disrupt everything and just go big came later? Did you have a mission when you started? Yes, definitely. The mission never changed. We always wanted to help creatives basically to earn money, to make a living. And not only to make a living, to become successful. Because you probably know this, that so many creatives still to this day, they consider this job to be like a second job. So they have something to like, yeah, to pay the bills. And on the side, they're like the artistic creative people. And it always was our mission to change that and to help them by doing what they do the best. But basically make the great money out of that. And then Alina came in. It completely changed. It was a game changer in understanding that she knows, because she came from the great corporate experience. And she's a marketing expert. And she knows how to basically create, we call it convert this talent into profit. I think I saw that outdoor description. You are the strategist and you sense the way you talk about the pragmatism. But Alina, I think to us creatives, not particularly me, because I have a background in economics. I like money. I always loved and I love talking about money. But that is not the standard in our industry. Most of us start this as artists and always try to improve our craft. But how do you feel and how do you sense that creatives are working on that part, on making money? And not just making a living, but trying to really create strategies and make way for a great living. How do you sense the people that you are close and the experiences you have with them? I'm not sure that I follow what the question here. How do you think people and creatives are working that part? Do you think it's still really hard or you think they are kind of getting into it? From what we observe now, having these calls with all our members and other wedding talents, they certainly understand the importance of marketing and promotion. And it's not an easy task for them because they normally don't come from a marketing background or it's just some extra job that they don't want to do. No one wants to work hard. Everyone wants to come to shoot the beautiful multi-billion dollar wedding and enjoy. But there is some price to pay or some journey to go to get this wedding. And usually it's two components. It's not only the talent and portfolio, but also the way you put yourself out there and how you work on your marketing. To your point, I believe in our community people realize their business goals. They pretty much realize that their ideal balance is to work less and earn more, meaning working on high-budget weddings. However, not everyone loves the journey, meaning that you have to work on your marketing. Only polishing your portfolio is not enough. First, because honestly, almost in every profession in wedding, there is a high competition. And judging only by the product, it's impossible to choose. Like when you do the grocery shopping, you have a lot of brands and they all provide good quality products, but you as a consumer have to make a choice. And usually they choose the brand because you like the package, you like the values, maybe you love the advertisement campaign, maybe you like the founder, especially now when there are so many influencers start their brands. So you as a consumer are totally biased. You're not choosing the most delicious products because you even cannot try all the products. You're not aware of some of the products, even though they're most delicious, but you buy like all the whatever media that comes with it and it's any industry. So if we, let's say, and more and more wedding professionals understand that we are the product that meets someone's needs and we have to pack ourselves the way it's likable, appealing and speaks well. So I don't think honestly, maybe it was in past that creative should starve. I think wedding photography is very, not photography, wedding industry for many people, it's still the place where you can make your living and thrive. If you don't, you can just choose another angle of art. You know, weddings is pretty lucrative industry and everyone aware of that because there is not much creativity like this is always the same scenario and they are fine with it because they can make a better living. But then, yeah, the question is if you're ready or if you know, if we committed to do this work on marketing. Yeah, you have the saying that you shouldn't judge a book by the cover, but every day and every year we should all try to improve our cover because people will judge the book by the cover because you have to. Only then, only after buying you can read. Because there are a lot of great wedding planners who do a good job and being a couple is hard to choose, really hard. A lot of professionals do a good job. Speaking marketing language, they're delivering good product. So if everyone delivers a good product, what shall couple do? How you can help couple to choose you? This is the question now. Well, it is what you just said. We have to sell ourselves. We have to just try to convey what we are here to do. Not only create a connection, they have to, as a wedding photographer, I have to make sure that the couple feels comfortable with me because I'm going to follow them for 12 hours. So for my brand, we have to show that. Other photographers in other brands, you probably have to show different things, but that is a difficult question to answer because you truly have to go inside and think what you think are your strengths and what are the things that you want people to know you for. And even to your point earlier, everything is changing and always. It's not just now. I'm a photographer for 15 years and I probably changed my business the last year more than the previous 14. So you go to some place and you arrive in some phase in your life and you just feel, OK, that's not for me anymore. I used to do 25, 30 weddings and now I'm striving for 12 and I'm making the same money. But I have to deliver a better product. But my images, I believe they were always as best as I can make them. So you have a lot of things to work around that for every vendor and for every part of the industry. You always have to do that. It's difficult, but it's kind of the interesting part, I think. So much suffering in this conversation. That's all right. This is what we do. I mean, that's life. It depends on how you look at it. What you want it to be. What you want it to be. Yeah. I mean, you cannot escape it. I mean, maybe 1% of the whole 4 million vendors in the industry and maybe 1% can be lucky to consider themselves successful just because they just put the content out there, put the portfolio out there. People, they're not so lucky. They have to work on the marketing strategy, on PR strategy. Because product, to Alina's point, is not enough. And like you said, you want your couples to know that they're going to be comfortable with you. But to be honest, that's the point I've heard from any photographer I've met in my life. Everyone wants to show they're going to be comfortable with them. Okay, you're going to spend 12 hours. But the question is here, comfortable for different people could mean different things. Yeah, that's the problem. Someone wants to be left alone. Someone wants guidance. Someone wants the firework person. Like, oh, they're just everywhere at the same time. Someone wants, I don't know, someone charming and just, I don't know, who will understand the older generation better. So it's a different, like, if you look at this as a color palette, it's like so many different tones. And you have to understand yourself and to understand your couples. Because once again, the word safe, the word comfortable, the word, I don't know, I will guide you. I'm super professional. It could mean so, so many things. Yeah, completely. Every, each one of us. Yeah, so it is that you have to look inside, see what you want to be and then try to make, write a good book and then make a cover that can sell the book you are trying to be, someone like this. So I just wanted to ask you a couple of things. I know you have been in Portugal before, I believe one time. Yeah. So what do you think about the country as a whole, as much as you know it? And then do you know any vendors and do you know something or are you aware of the industry here? What are your thoughts? So Portugal is a beautiful country and I believe what we love about Portugal that it stays authentic. It's European, modern, but also authentic. So yeah, that's Portuguese, not Italian, not Spanish, something different. And being comparably small in size, it has such a great culture, heritage, architecture, food. It's amazing and it made a huge impact into the world, you know, cultural heritage, I would say. And that also the nature is gorgeous. So like going to Portugal, it's very different from going to any other European country. It's just unique. And we love, I believe Daria will build on, but that is what everyone who comes to discover Portugal loves about this country. Speaking of the market, it's a, let's say, growing wedding destination and there are multiple reasons. Of course, it's hard to compete with Italy and France, the two countries that are unbeatable, having like unbeatable positions in the weddings because of the venues. They're pretty much the PR and marketing that has been done through decades, right? And also the amount of world-class professionals that work there, not leave sometimes, but work there. And Portugal has some way to go because it's mutual. It is the interest from the couples to go and to have wedding there and also the quality of the professionals who can deliver the product, right? And also the big part of that is generating demand. Again, we do marketing and you always, when something is like growing, there is a certain effort should be taken to generate demand. It can be a viral reel that just, I don't know, for some reason picked up and everyone decided to go to Portugal. It can be some celebrity or influencer who had wedding in specific location and thanks to the power of Instagram or TikTok, just like all eyes on like move to this place. Or it can be very strategic move or let's say very strategic, certain steps from the local market to drive demand instead of competing for the small piece of pie. There is a word in marketing, grow the pie, grow the category. So mutually create the content about venues, about nature, about food, about experience to attract more traffic, to attract more couples and this is how to grow a building. So it can happen. It will begin accelerated and expedited, understanding that this is the goal or it can come accidentally, but then no one has any control of that and everyone will just enjoy the result that some celebrity got married there and just the images went viral. It has happened, but I don't think it turned viral yet, but sometimes they just keep it private and it kind of, I understand, but it's a lot, it's a bit worse for us as a marketing standpoint, but and you, Daria, do you have a perspective on the vendors and the industry and you have done a editorial here, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. In Sintra, I believe. In Sintra, yeah, Arthur Conan Doyle property, I believe. Yes, we've done one editorial and we would love to come back one time. It just, we follow the demand on the market and that's easier right now to this point because with our editorials, we create portfolio for photographers, for everyone basically in the industry and the demand right now, it's of course, it's going to Italy and France, let's be honest. Yeah, Portugal is going to be like in top five, definitely, but I would say everything comes with the venues. If we have like, if you have famous venues and like for somehow, like Alina said, they could be viral on Instagram or the TV show, like White Lotus, it just drastically changed, right? The demand and like people went to, what was it? The Hawaii, the first one, the first season or? Italy right now is going to be Thailand and we see, so it's kind of like you have to catch the momentum. Before it was like Game of Thrones and I believe, I remember this time, everyone went to Montenegro and Croatia. You have to catch the moment and once you have this moment and you know that it's happening right now, you have to build on it. So I totally agree with Alina. I know Portugal has many, many beautiful venues. It's just, if you will, collectively promote it and collectively showcase it. It all starts, for many couples, it starts with a venue. If they like it and it's somewhere like in Europe, they don't care if it's like Portugal, Spain, Greece or whatever. They will follow the beauty of this particular property and like as a media, we see it every day, like couples are asking us, oh, where this wedding took place? Like what's that? And yeah, this is it. And from the other workshops you did, the editorials, what is the feedback from those who participate? What's the common thing that everyone tells about the editorials you organize? That it's a game changer for the career because photographers join our editorials with a very specific marketing goal to build a profitable portfolio. Yeah, also have fun, connect, entertain, but the biggest idea is to create a profitable portfolio that attracts couples they want to work with. And especially for those photographers who start taking advantage from the very moment they kind of leave the set and they start posting it actively, not just one post and that's it. No, we have like now photographers who post like 10 posts out of one editorial showcasing the couple, the venue, the decor, some moments. And also push this content into other media outlets, do collab posts when it appears on everyone's feed. And that all mutual effort changes the career because let's say if you build a portfolio in the country you want to get more projects at, this is what happens. People reach out to you and you get more inquiries for the weddings which looks in a very similar style and budget in the locations where you worked. So that's pretty much it. You showcase what you want to attract and this is what happens. They start attracting what they wanted. It's probably the thing that everyone most repeats. You showcase what you want to do and when you showcase what you do you will get more of that. But it's really funny how a lot of people doesn't do that and you post every same old same old and hope for different things. Well, do the things and then probably you get more of the same things. No, it's a trap. If you don't have this certain style of your weddings, a certain budget and they're like attractive people in real weddings, it's a trap. It's hard to change it and it makes sense to invest. It can be editorial, it can be some investments you make in the wedding you do if you feel like the couple can be attractive so you can just invest into the experience, into some props. But yeah, build a portfolio. I worked in the corporate, so for me it was important what I put out on LinkedIn. I worked in Nestle and Ferrero Rocher and when I moved to the US I didn't have problem to find a job because Nestle and Ferrero Rocher, no matter which country you work, it is known. Recruiters reached out to me and they have several interviews a day. So for me it was my portfolio. It's the same for photographer, planner. You build your portfolio. If you do small projects, like if I worked in some small company in Russia, no one will bother me in the US because this is a small company in the middle of nowhere. It's very similar if you put some weddings that don't speak to what you want to get, you never get. So that's why it is as simple as it sounds. You build your resume and you want it to speak to yourself or even bigger. Again, speaking about the cover and the book, it should be maybe even bigger and better than the full gallery. So that's why there comes into game our favorite topic, portfolio curation. Put out there 10 pictures, not 100. No one will spend time looking in that. But 10 that make a huge difference. Yeah, no doubt. So I know you're almost on your next appointment. So I just wanted to let you in a last question. That is what's your vision for the future of WebVibes? Where are you going? Let us speak from our hearts. Let us speak from our hearts. Yeah, we have so many things we are working on right now. And like one of the recent initiatives we've worked on, it's matchmaking. It's where we kind of try to dig deeper than a direct. So right now we have directory on our website where you can find basically every professional you want to. But here we want to dig deeper and to understand more couples who get married and the professionals and match them based on the location, on the date, on the budget, which is really important. And like we discussed it with you today, basically the approach. Do you want someone more outgoing or do you want someone like with more approach fly on the wall? And like even like this simple steps, we want to create this like experience for couples to basically found that perfect or we hope so the perfect match. And we're going to start with photographers and hopefully to the end of this year, we're going to expand it to every professional in our database. This is just one of the, I would say, 10 initiatives we're working on right now, right Alina? Yeah, that's true. It really sounds great. It really sounds great. Alina, you want to add something up? We just keep growing and we plan to be top three wedding media in the world. Not to be like just top three and that's it, but to make an impact and elevate the industry and showcase all kinds of stylish weddings to inspire couples. Weddings can be different. They're still the same. It's a wedding day, right? Nothing crazy, but it can be different. It can better express who you are and the way you can enjoy this day. You and your guests. Thank you so much. It has really been a pleasure. We wait for this a few months. And finally it happened. Yeah, it happened. It happened. Almost did not because of platforms and technicalities, but it did happen. It was awesome. So thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. That was a great talk. Thanks everyone. Thanks. So bye-bye Daria. Bye-bye Alina. Bye. See you. Bye.