How Roster works: from brand brief to talent payout
A walkthrough of Roster, AI talent management in beta for creator, actor and model agencies: profiles, AI shortlists, bookings, contracts and payouts.
Roster is AI talent management for agencies that represent creators, actors and models. It is in beta, onboarding agencies from a waitlist a few at a time, with a Thinkiyo team setting each one up. The four parts below are what Roster does today.
1. Talent profiles
Every person on your books has a profile with:
- Rates, for example per Reel and per story set.
- Availability: free, on hold or booked, by date.
- Past work.
Rates, availability and past work for everyone sit in one place instead of a spreadsheet and a booker's memory.
2. AI matching: describe the brief, get a shortlist
Paste the brief as the brand sent it. Roster:
- Pulls out the details, such as deliverables, dates, location and budget.
- Checks your roster against them, including rates, availability and past work.
- Returns a shortlist from your own books, with a note on why each person fits and their availability.
A booker chooses who goes to the client. Roster suggests; your team decides.
3. Bookings and contracts in one pipeline
Each booking runs from enquiry to signed in one pipeline: enquiry, hold, contract out, signed. The contract sits on the booking until it comes back signed. When a brand picks one person, the other holds can be released.
4. Payments: invoices, splits and payouts
Roster invoices the brand, splits the fee between talent and agency, and records payouts, so everyone is paid from the same record.
One booking, start to payout
An example from a small Sydney creator agency:
- Monday 9:10. A brand's brief lands. It goes into Roster and the details are pulled out.
- Monday 9:12. A shortlist. Four people fit, and the booker sends three to the brand.
- Tuesday 15:00. Holds, then a yes. The brand picks two creators, and the other hold is released.
- Wednesday 11:30. Contracts go out and sit on the booking until they come back signed.
- Payday. The brand is invoiced, the fee is split and payouts go to talent.
What it replaces
- Briefs spread across five places.
- Asking around to find out who is free that week.
- Rates from memory.
- Contracts in a folder.
- Payouts by hand.
Control and data
- Nothing sends itself. A person on your team approves anything that goes to a brand or to talent.
- Runs in your cloud. Your own cloud account or your own servers.
- Data your agency owns. Profiles, rates, contracts and payouts in your own database.
- Set up with you. A Thinkiyo team sets it up and stays on through the beta.
What beta means
Roster is in beta. Agencies join from the waitlist a few at a time, and a Thinkiyo team sets up each roster with the agency.
Works with other Thinkiyo products
- Rapport, a sales CRM for brand deals, next to the bookings they become.
- Mosaic, brand contacts and talent records from every source in one view.
- Momentum, agents that answer every brand enquiry fast, so no brief goes cold.
Questions bookers ask
Does Roster send anything to brands or talent on its own? No. A person on your team approves anything that goes to a brand or to talent.
How does matching work? You describe the brief in plain words, and Roster reads it against your talent profiles, including rates, availability and past work, to return a shortlist. A booker chooses who goes to the client.
Is it available now? Roster is in beta, onboarding agencies from a waitlist a few at a time.