The business of importing & exporting talents

For claustrophobic superstars, the local entertainment scene is not the best place to be. We’re familiar with the cycle of show business life entertainers inevitably go through. An actress (or actor, singer, whatever) is billed as the "next big thing." Her name is bannered by tabloids and billboards in screaming fonts. She gets mucked in obligatory brouhaha or intrigues that go with the territory. She appears in a major concert or movie. She plateaus, burns out or fades away. Enter the new "next big thing" into the fray. This happens ad infinitum.

It’s the German Moreno-edition of The Golden Bough: the old god making way for the new god in an unbreakable cycle, in a pageant that takes place not in the croplands of Frazer’s Mexico but in the ordinanced "city of the stars."

"We don’t believe that careers should be short-lived," says Jack Madrid.

"We have a very limited market in the Philippines, and it’s unfortunate that our local artists go through a certain pattern," says Girlie Rodis.

Madrid and Rodis are the CEO and president, respectively, of TalentWorks Asia, the talents-and-events management firm of the Ayala Group of Companies that is all set to shake things up and catalyze change in the entertainment industry.

Rodis, a Philippine STAR columnist, also laments the fact that work stays the same. How many variety shows can artistas do? After they do the rounds, they get married, run for public office or let the undertakers of obscurity take them away. Sometimes, they get exiled into the land of staid TV talk shows or infomercials. Unlike abroad where actors and actresses still get work as they get older because that’s when they get better.

"Our goal," shares Madrid, "is not just to be the leading talents-and-events management company in the country, but also to create opportunities for our local artists abroad. We want them to develop and grow professionally."

TalentWorks was built from the ashes of MusicManila, an online portal for the music company. Two years ago, Ayala Corporation felt there was a potential for building a portal for music practitioners and fans. The Ayala Group stopped the project and decided to initialize a project that wasn’t solely reliant on the Internet. The thrust this time is to build a community and create opportunities for the Filipino artist abroad. Not just for the frontliners – meaning, the stars – but also for photographers, scriptwriters, directors, etc. A year later, TalentWorks Asia has made inroads in the industry.

"We’re currently the exclusive casting agent of McCann-Erickson," says Madrid.

This is not the first time the two are working together.

"Girlie was our consultant at MusicManila We were able to convince her to fork her business over to TalentWorks. When it comes to the entertainment side, that’s where we rely on Girlie’s network which she has built over the past 20 years..."

"And," Rodis interjects, "Jack is in charge of the corporate side. We do a lot of business within the Ayala Group itself, and Jack’s our conduit. We complement each other very well."

Rodis brought to TalentWorks Asia her roster of talents – the Cojuangco sisters (Mikee, Mai Mai and China), Cris Villonco, Rachel Alejandro, Geneva Cruz, Janet Basco, Jinky Llamanzares and Benjie Paras.

"We also represent foreign celebrities, not in terms of management but in terms of casting them for local projects as performers or endorsers," she adds. TalentWorks was able to bring the young, limber Chinese Acrobats to Glorietta just recently. The company was also instrumental in signing up foreign teenpop star "MM" as celebrity endorser of a local clothing brand.

Uhm, MM? I ask. Marilyn Manson?

Laughter from both Madrid and Rodis.

"We would like to be known as a company that can provide any talent required," says Rodis. "They don’t have to go through usual channels, and it doesn’t take us that long." A case in point: the MM project took a couple of weeks to complete.

But more importantly for TalentWorks is the reverse: To introduce stellar local talents to the overseas scene. "That’s why we chose the name ‘TalentWorks Asia,’" Rodis explains. "We’d like to expand the artists’ working base to include the Asian as well as the global entertainment scene. If a corporation like Ayala puts its support behind our local talents, there’s no telling what we could achieve."

According to Madrid, Jaime Zobel de Ayala instinctively knew there was tremendous potential in creating the TalentWorks community.

"The equation is, we’ll develop our local talents and at the same time generate revenues, because at the end of the day, we’re still running a business. And we want to be the partner of choice in this industry. We want to work with everyone. We feel that the competition is really outside this market," shares Madrid.

Rodis agrees. "And we feel that talent is the untapped resource of this country."