How awards show beauty partnerships between artists, brands and celebs come together, with PRTNRS’ Marissa Alfe and Lauren FitzGerald

0:07Lexy Lebsack: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Glossy Beauty Podcast, a show about the business of beauty and wellness. I'm your host, Glossy's West Coast correspondent, Lexi Lebsack. Have you ever wondered how award show beauty partnerships come together to create those big, splashy, red carpet moments that seem to reverberate across social media for weeks? I'm talking about how a brand gets its products into the hands of a celebrity or a celebrity makeup artist to leverage the entertainment industry's biggest award shows into a stage for brand messaging. Award season partnerships are big business for everyone involved.

0:44Lexy Lebsack: The celebrity who may be fulfilling or courting a spokesperson deal, beauty and lifestyle brands, which are often promoting a new product or simply seeking brand awareness, and professional artists, which can be the glue that holds it all together. Awards season kicks off in September with the Primetime Emmy Awards and will run until the Oscars in March, leaving brands and artists plenty of opportunities to get their message out there to consumers. But how does it work? To find out, my guests today are Marisa Alfay and Lauren Fitzgerald, founders of full-service talent agency, The Partners. Marisa and Lauren are industry veterans who represent some of the biggest names in beauty, like Patrick Ta, Ariel Tejado, and Laura Polko, plus many more.

1:31Lexy Lebsack: Their artists work with Gigi Hadid, Rosalia, Kylie Jenner, Olivia Munn, Alex Earl, Hailey Steinfeld, Emma Chamberlain, the list goes on and on. So let's hear how they do it.

1:49Lexy Lebsack: Lauren and Marisa, welcome to the podcast. I'm so happy to have you both here. Oh, Lexi. So fun. Thank you, Lexi. Oh my gosh. It's truly my pleasure. We've been talking about this episode for a hot minute now, and it is finally almost award season. We have so much good stuff to get into. I know. I know. We just need to, there's one for September and then we take a little moment and then we brace ourselves for what is to come. Yeah. Well, okay. I want to sort of start by acknowledging that some of our listeners might not fully understand your role in the larger beauty industry. So I'm going to start with a real basic question here.

2:30Lexy Lebsack: Maybe you both or one of you can walk me through it of what is an artist talent agent and what do you do? Similar to the way, you know, actors and writers and producers and obviously content creators, makeup artists, celebrity makeup artists and celebrity hairstylists, nail artists, wardrobe stylists, anyone in the sort of glam world, they all have representation. So we are their agents and effectively their management as well. So on the agent side, you know, as the representative, our job is to get them new clients, obviously exist, you know, with their existing client roster and we can get more into that and what we look for.

3:14But we work with celebrity publicists who are the representatives of those actors typically, or, you know, managers or agents as well to, you know, negotiate bookings. And bookings can be anything that can mean like a do and go for a party to, you know, the Met or the Oscars. It could also be a brand photo shoot or commercial where the talent is, or the celebrity talent is in that commercial. On the flip side, we also work with, you know, are the representative with beauty brand PR and publicists and owners because most of our clients are also creator, content creators and beauty experts in the space where people look to them, brands look to them.

4:04They have their own audience that is looking to them to learn how to use, you know, a brand launches a new product. What is the best way to use this? How do you educate the consumer? And so we work with them. We work with our clients. We work with brands and find, you know, what are really, what is sort of the approach and strategy there. And on the management side, it's really, yeah, it's like, what is the long-term vision goal and plan for our client? And how do we keep them in the mix and relevant? And so it's, yeah, working with the right celebrity, but also ensuring that their profile, whether what they're doing on social or from a PR perspective is visible.

4:46And so that just gives them the best foot forward.

4:49Lexy Lebsack: When I think about what both of you do, it feels a lot like the glue that holds together all of these like big, fun award show partnerships. I mean, you really hold the keys to the artist. You mentioned some of the artists that you work with. You've also broker deals with La Mer, Chanel, Morphe, Kerastase, Redken, Sephora, like all of these amazing brands. What is your sort of size and scope of your roster now? Who can you kind of call out and how many artists are you working with? So we represent 18 individuals or talent. Like Marisa mentioned, Patrick Ta, Ariel Tejada, Glenn Coco, Laura Poco, Carly Fisher, Olivia Madorma.

5:33Dave Stanwell. Yeah, Dave Stanwell. I don't want to, there's so many, Bradley Lee. There's so many. It's like, I don't want to miss anyone, but I think something that's really important to us and when we sign somebody is, of course, there's artistry and talent and there's an existing celebrity clientele that they have, that they've, you know, worked and had that relationship with a core, whether it's several people or, you know, just a few celebrity clients that we really feel that we can like leverage that in order to get them more clients. And then separate to that is, are they, are they, are they able to create content?

6:19Are they comfortable, you know, capturing behind the scenes content if they're, you talents involved or just with themselves and speaking to camera and educating and entertaining to a degree and just feel comfortable in that way. And whether their audience is, you know, macro like a Patrick or even if it's more micro, like that's okay as long as there's some sort of engagement there and an effort made and the ability for us to pitch that person to a brand, And whether it's one-offs all the way up to now, you know, most of our clients are ambassadors to multiple brands, which I think is, you know, for our size of roster, I think the ratio of individuals that are actual ambassadors or long-term partners to brands is, you know, pretty significant.

7:10Yeah, the on-camera part, Lexi, is the part that I'm like, super crucial. Because again, it circles back to those pivot moments. You know, if you don't have that kind of variety, when the, pardon me to say it, when the shit hits the fan, we're trying to find ways to keep this going. Like, you know, the world is a crazy place and like we need to, you know, as long as we're on the same page on that. I think that that's where, you know, when we're looking for new talent, we're always like, you know, that's why we're very selective on who we take on because we want to make sure that we're really aligned on the goals and aspirations and what, you know, think to the future of how to kind of pivot if we need to.

8:01Yeah.

8:02Lexy Lebsack: Do you think that an artist nowadays has to be a creator as well? Is that sort of like a table stakes non-negotiable at this point? No, no, because if you are in high demand for your editorial, your education, you know, you have your own lane. I think that's the beauty of artistry. for for my agency agency specifically i personally do the best when those individuals hit all those brackets for me personally but there are very successful people in the industry that are brought in for editorial for campaigns only you know it definitely poses a problem when the you're not allowed to go to set again i don't know you know i can't believe i'm going through ptsd but i really find it important to have a variety of you know things in your back pocket to back you know it's just like any kind of freelancer to have a backup you know my husband's a tattoo artist but he also does ceramics and other things that you know bring in different kinds of variety of conversation.

9:14I don't know. I just think that we're in a place of, for me personally, that's what I'm attracted to is the individual that embraces the social media really loves to, you know, go on set and say, how can we maximize this opportunity, but in a tasteful, you know, beautiful way.

9:35Lexy Lebsack: Yeah. I mean, Patrick taught us that really, really well i think so it wasn't it wasn't welcomed in the beginning it was not welcome in the beginning i mean i was i was really put through the ringer for signing him and embracing and really maximizing that conversation back in i don't know when that was i mean he was really he was kind of yeah it was not good but in the end he created a style he created a you know a foundation for those to really go in the room and have conversations with the celebrities. And that segues into the sponsorship conversation we'll get into. But he created a safe place where it's like, I'm going to take your photo.

10:15It's going to look beautiful. I'm going to make sure the lighting is fabulous. I'm going to make sure that you look fabulous. If you want to repost the photo yourself, you have the ability to, I'm going to give you the content. It became a relationship.

10:29Lexy Lebsack: You were very forward thinking with how, you know you managed patrick and of course now he's been so successful but i remember the backlash very very well when he first came onto the scene and you know everyone said like oh he's too junior he shouldn't be getting these jobs yet oh like he's all about social that's not what we do as artists and now it's you know really it's really become what it is truly um i've always wondered you know when you have someone like patrick or you have an artist at his or sort of like social media standing in caliber. And you see a consumer sees that beautiful image on social media and it's, you know, the celebrity by the artist with the brands and how much negotiation goes into that or is it organic?

11:17Depends on the situation. I've had it for both ways. Okay.

11:22Lexy Lebsack: Can you give us like a little breakdown of what it looks like when it's organic and what it looks like when it's all sort of due to pre-decided. In an ideal world, it looks the same because the consumer now, I make sure now in our brand deals, and Laura can speak to this, we make sure that we're positioning our talent in regards to the celebrity in the most organic and natural way. Are we not going to place the product so, you know, in conversations with the brands, I'm like, hey this needs to look and feel natural because it is we really do our best to streamline partnerships that the artist would really use on their client you know their brand values are the same meaning like if the individual only uses vegan products we're making sure that you know we bring it to the team hey this is a vegan brand we're aligned on the core values and um I think that being able to converse you know back when this all kind of started it was like I'll give an example product photo you know like celebrity and we've really graduated into a new conversation of how do we look make it look and feel less advertorial energy you know like does you agree Lauren it's yeah we really push that narrative with the brands like hey this needs to look more now this needs to feel because we get a brief no you're getting a brief and it's our job to go through the brief talk to the talk to the makeup artist or the hairstylist and be like hey what are you thinking for this what's do you have any feedback on this before we move forward lauren do you want to cover any points with that yeah i mean i think on the the original sorry original question was like organic versus non yeah it's like you know when you see a celebrity you know, when you see a celebrity's glam, probably in a hotel room, probably before they hit the red carpet and there's a brand tag, there's an artist on it.

13:25Lexy Lebsack: The celebrity is looking beautiful. Sort of how does that come together organically? And then when does it come together when it's sort of more prescriptive? Well, organically, I would say in those bigger moments is tough, right? So if it's a bigger red carpet, I would say like an Oscars or a Met or SAG or Golden Globes, let's say, or Grammys. It is a bit more planned out because those moments, especially for the celebrity, it's a very intense time. I mean, hopefully they're in a very relaxed state and they have amazing people around them. But of course, it's about them ultimately. And so we have to be very sensitive to that.

14:03So those are planned out. And typically what will happen is, well, in a dream scenario, the celebrity is already an ambassador or a partner of said beauty brand or hair care brand at that time. So that is ideal scenario because the celebrity is familiar with the brand. They've obviously used the brand. They can speak to the brand. The audience is already used to kind of seeing them pair together. So it feels really natural and good. And then our client can come in and use the products, take photos behind the scenes. Either the brand will send a photographer. But a lot of times it's really, you know, I think something that people don't recognize is that the celebrity artist really is often taking actual photos that you see on Birdie or in People Magazine.

14:57and it's on their iPhone because they just know their clients, whether it's the hair and makeup, they know the best angles and lighting that really, okay, and it's like a lip product or it's oil for the hair. Like what is really going to show it in a way that's going to be the, everyone's going to be happy with this photo. So in those moments, yeah, they're, you know, leading up to that, there's conversations obviously with the brand, there's conversations with our clients and then the celebrity publicists to make sure everyone's aligned on what's happening and that we're gonna work with this brand and everyone's winning at the end of the day and everyone's aware of what's happening.

15:37I'd say there are moments where maybe for a smaller red carpet or smaller event, a celebrity might just love a brand. Like really, this is my go-to product and this may be said it publicly up there, Especially if a celebrity is more active on social and they're just like, oh, I love this foundation. Might not work with the brand per se in a formal way, but then our artists can come in and they have a relationship with the brand and be using it on them. And we'll send that to brands afterwards and be like, look, look at this content they made together. you know not to say and marisa has actually brokered deals with the celebrity talent has been involved and compensated through us but um you know we love when that happens like that to us is like oh wow this is like natural this is truly organic where everyone's really excited and it's you know can start a new relationship not only for our client but potentially the celebrity so that can definitely happen in those conversations.

16:41You know, we always, we are always in touch with our clients after bookings, like, oh, it's like, is there anything you're using on him or her that you feel like that they're really excited about, that they wouldn't mind, you know, being aligned with. And so, yeah, we're always having those types of conversations to think forward and not just be so, you know, necessarily reactive or just rely on the celebrity and what, you know, know, if they happen to be an ambassador or a partner to a brand.

17:10Lexy Lebsack: Can you walk me through a sort of deal or partnership from a prior award season year that is sort of emblematic of like a really good deal where it's all parties, it's the celebrity, it's the brand, and it's the artists all coming together for like this big moment. So I think a really great example would be our client, hairstylist Glenn Coco or Pezza, who is the hairstylist to Sydney Sweeney. And Sydney had just been named the ambassador to Kera Stoss, which is obviously when something like that happens. It's very exciting, I think. Glenn had already been working with her for some time. And right before the Met, they approached Glenn and said, hey, we would love you to be our, you know, year long ambassador for Kerastase, which is amazing because it's an incredible brand.

18:05Like every hair, I mean, most hairstylists love Kerastase. It's in their kit. Certainly he's been using on her and all of her clients. So when it's a great like legacy brand, like a Kerastase, you're just like, this is incredible. And this is right before Met one year. And yeah, so when that happens, it's just so much more fluid between the brand and like what they have launching and sort of what their goals are around that timing with obviously the conversation, the creative process between Cindy and Glenn. And of course, who's ever dressing her and her stylist and makeup. It's all, you know, one giant conversation.

18:43And so, you know, on that day or leading up to that, everyone knows what's going on, what the look and the vibe and feel is, and everyone can provide feedback and kind of give their input. But, you know, at the end of the day, obviously it's the magic always happens. There's always last minute changes and things happen. That meant, yeah, Karisos was super happy. Everyone, they created a beautiful look together. And that's, I think, those scenarios and setups, I think, are always the best because there's just, you know, a whole hands on deck and a lot of moving parts. And there was some tricky things that come up, you know, and not necessarily in this scenario, but what happens, I mean, just like things that come up are, you know, day of or the week before, all of a sudden somebody's wanting to wear a wig or somebody is going to wear a veil over their head.

19:38And here we are needing to promote a new, you know hairspray or you know oil that's coming out or for a makeup artist that's being you know contracted for their brand to promote a new blush or foundation and the celebrities decided to wear a mask we've been in all those or or no foundation or no makeup yeah yeah you know

20:01Lexy Lebsack: and the whole thing was no it's gonna be glam it's gonna be this and then they're like no well, actually I want no makeup. And you're like, oh, okay. How am I going to convey this to a brand that's really looking forward to highlighting, you know, several different products within their range? Yeah. That is the tricky part about this whole thing. Yeah. But I think, yeah. And the best thing is, I mean, for us, you know, we're kind of always, and then what we are is we're effectively like the middleman between the brand and, you know, the client. But I think for us, it's always a win too. and we've been very lucky is when, you know, certainly with Karastas, shout out to them, is for them to really be flexible, you know, the brand have flexibility to really trust the artist and what they are wanting to do and accomplish for that big, you know, red carpet moment.

20:54And although, you know, a brand might have a brief and again, have their, what they're trying to execute, execute. I think when a brand really hears an artist and is able to, you know, compromise on certain things and then at the end of the day, I think, yeah, everyone ends up happy and ends up winning and feels just more organic and authentic to the moment.

21:17Lexy Lebsack: So speaking specifically to the brand leaders out there, how can they sort of better work with agents like yourself to get their products into the hands of artists to potentially get onto the face of celebrities. What do you wish that brands knew more about how you work?

21:37I mean, I think firstly, that's why we're going to them a lot of the time. You know, I take, we take a lot of meetings. We're pitching our talent. We're flying to New York. I was about to say drive, but we're flying to New York. We're flying to international locations to take in-person meetings so that we can really understand what the brand's goals and needs are. find the right talent to partner with them. But the core conversation really comes down to how are we going to present your product in a natural way? The consumer is not wanting to see what the past provided. Meaning, like I said before, the product in the shot, does it translate?

22:20Does a swipe up while you're doing the lay flat, does it work anymore? And I think that, you know, I would rather see the person speaking afterwards to best application tips than seeing a live lab. You know, I'm like, hey, instead of doing that, why don't we have the artist afterwards speak to why that person loves this best practices on how to, you know, why this works with so many different skin tones or whatever, you know, the artist feels is the best points on that product. But really can they, you know, my suggestion to brands is, especially during award season or, you know, major events is being open to listening to what the artist actually say about what performs on their page and what works within the room.

23:12We're not in the room. We don't know. They know the client. even if it's you know when their first couple times working with them and you know just so happens to be you know an opportunity where we can partner because a lot of the times with the individuals being brand ambassadors they also switch around you know the celebrities switch around to different brands they go from product to valentino beauty and then they bring in their makeup artist to have that offer you know that the the conversation begins they go hey i'm doing this event for Valentino? Have your team reach out to Valentino? And instead of just having them do the do and go, I say, hey, how do we maximize this?

23:50How do we really get some legs on this opportunity? Hey, let's have her, are you guys open to having that, the makeup artist do a, besides the breakdown, a get the look real the next day? It's not just, how do we bulk this? How do we get some legs on it? Like I said, it's not just because the one-off situations, That's nice. But how do we maximize the, yeah, how do we maximize opportunity? And then that's when we say, Hey, let's, you know what, let's get on a call. Let's talk about what the brand is looking to accomplish this year and how we can really kind of integrate that into award season.

24:30How often are you looking to, you know, activate with the celebrity so we can understand how we can, you know, intertwine things a little bit more seamlessly. You know, I think that a lot of times, a lot of the times there are conversations happening that take three months, six months to work on an ambassadorship, but it doesn't need to be that serious. If you're, you know, maximizing a one-off opportunity to leverage turning into multiple posts on an artist page, you know, it doesn't always need to be the ambassadorship. It can just be more opportunities within, you know, the social space. And that could potentially grow into a longer term partnership.

25:13But if you just do the glam for the one-off thing and your agent doesn't think ahead of time and say, Hey, like, why don't we, why don't we try doing a little bit more and see where it goes? You guys might see some different reactions. Yeah.

25:27Lexy Lebsack: Yeah. You, you mentioned three to six months, is that sort of like a normal timeline? And is it too late for brands to get involved in this upcoming award season? No, not for this upcoming award season. Now's the time. Okay, great. Meaning we don't know who's nominated yet, but you see the movies, you kind of get the vibe as to what's happening. And we do our due diligence as to kind of pre-gaming. Okay. You know, that's why we have this whiteboard here. Let's list out. Let's list it out. Let's figure it out. Let's go to the whiteboard. And I think it's like, okay, who's going to be nominated?

26:01Who usually attends? You know, we pull a Paris fashion week lists, really being proactive as to who's attending. How can we fill in? How can we maximize? And I think part of the conversation is we have the Emmys coming up. There's still opportunities. There's a lot of people that are not confirmed. There's a lot of people that are not confirmed yet to go then it's we take a little break during christmas time but before christmas we get the nominations for golden globes which are always convenient right when you're at the end of christmas break so your mind is still on the grind to make sure that your client if they're working they have a sponsorship they know their times everything's very seamless and then you're thinking ahead you go okay well when is you know BAFTAs all the all award season is not just it goes until Met but then my mind goes until the film festival in France and then we get a little break again so it's usually from December December is our like okay we have to finish strong like make sure everybody's solid and then even I mean I remember the joke was it's like what's your funniest experience.

27:11And the funniest experience was I was on a boat with Lauren during Christmas time this year in Thailand. And I saw an email come through because I knew that my client was going to be doing the golden globes. And he only got confirmed, you know, three days before the globes. And I'm like, do you guys want this? And they're like, yes, we want. Yes, we want this. But, and then all I saw was, but I was hanging off the side of a boat, trying to get wifi to, you know, close the deal because every day, you know, you need to get it done. You need to get it done. So like, that's the joke of it all is like, you know, it needs to make sense.

27:47It needs to be organized. And then, you know, just the, um, the trials and tribulations to get to the finish line. And then when it pops and it's up and it's beautiful and everything goes so seamlessly. And even when it's challenging, and then we get to the finish line and it hits, you're like okay only like 25 more events to go before you know summer but it's a thrill it's yeah i just say with red carpet season and sponsorship and just that whole timeline it is a lot of work obviously but i think the thing that's exciting about it is it's never the same like you've been you can do this 20 years and where you're on like 10 years and every year, like something comes up that you've never experienced or thought that that could happen.

28:38Or, you know, cause just things, you know, things change, award season changes, technology changes, but there's just some situation that always comes up and you're like, I could not have, could I have like plan better to avoid this and navigate better? But you really just have to be really nimble and, you know, think quickly on your feet. But that makes it fun and exciting.

29:04Lexy Lebsack: It sounds exciting. Okay, one more question for you two. Do you have any big predictions for this award season? Any big winners, any big trends, any, you know, changing landscape stuff? What will we see this award season? Hmm. You know, I thought about this question because I really took a moment to kind of think about it. And I feel like I look forward to seeing new faces attending because it's a lot of the same people going to the same events. And I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing a new, fresh talent being embraced. It makes our job more exciting. It makes the brand conversations more exciting.

29:53It gives our clients the opportunity to have, you know, to be pitched to new talent. And I can't predict who's going to be nominated, but I hope we bring more opportunities back to California where there's more events, more, you know, for a while there where they're really toning down on the events because of budgetary reasons. reasons. And I feel like I'm excited to hopefully they, hopefully they ramp it up a bit so that everyone benefits from the work. And I still continue to think that BTS photos are the, you know, they want, everyone wants to see the behind the scenes kind of visual on what's going on.

30:36I, that won't stop. That won't stop. I think that's why reality TV is so strong. You know, we want to see inside people's home. We want to see inside the hotel room. what are they snacking on you know i think that that's why a lot of people like kylie do a vlog usually it's so strong you know it's she's not doing in the moment kind of like giving it to the feed right away it's she she really is calculated in how she puts out you know certain things to her audience and i just always think it's so smart and um i guess i'm just excited to see what kind of movies are going to be nominated

31:14Lexy Lebsack: yeah so true yeah so true lauren what do you what do you think we can expect from uh this award season um well i think just from like an artistry perspective i just want more glam i want i'm i'm over the flush although i love i mean look i'm i'm i like you know my everyday makeup a certain way but i want i want glam i know like that trend like imaxing and you know so huge right now but i want that. I want like more eye looks. I want darker color of, you know, lips and just more fun and just more like glam and whatever interpretation of that is. I just, I love that. Like, that's why I fell in love with this business in the first place.

32:00And so I hope to see just more risk-taking and more of that. And then, you know, I don't have any major predictions for carpets, But I think that the interest, you know, whatever happens, you know, there's so much talk with award shows and, you know, viewership and a lot of them moving, obviously, to go to streaming. You know, I think the one thing that's maintained is people's interest, audience interest in the glam and seeing what celebrity, they do still care, like what the looks are, what the hair is, the makeup is, the dresses. because I think it really is a place where trends are started and where, you know, you see things maybe from the runway, from, you know, the previous season, kind of what that looks on red carpet and then that's translated to like the consumer.

32:45So I think that's fun and I hope just, you know, I think that will be continued to be the future and I just think red carpet season now is, with these larger movie premieres and the way that, you know, some of these actors and actresses have taken it to the next level, whether it's like Zendaya with Odyssey. I mean, just really taking it and treating every red carpet like it's the Oscars. I think that's really cool. And I think we'll just see more of that. And as agents, we just have to be more on top of that. And it's just, it's really never ending, right? Summer, it's winter, it's fall. No weekends off.

33:20There's no weekends off. I'm picking up on that. Yeah. I hope to see more of that as well.

33:27Lexy Lebsack: Amazing. Well, Lauren, thank you so much. Marisa, thank you so much. This has been so enlightening. Yeah. And good luck on a busy award season. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you.

33:43Lexy Lebsack: And thank you for listening to this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast. If you enjoyed it, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening. And for even more coverage on the beauty industry and more, please visit glossy.co slash beauty.