Casting Networks: Lynne Vacnin, Founder of The Lynne Experience, Shines a Light on the World of Experiential Casting
In a world where experiential marketing has become the secret sauce for brand connection, the problem isn’t whether you should “do it”—it’s how you can do it better, faster, and smarter without losing the human spark that makes it work in the first place.
October 15, 2024 | Rebecca Lehmann
Lynne Vacnin got her start as a model thanks to a summer radio station contest and her mother’s marketing savvy. The modeling career that followed opened doors to the trade show niche and lit an entrepreneurial spark in Vacnin that never faded.
Today, Vacnin owns The Lynne Experience, a boutique experiential marketing and casting agency in New York City, focusing on live events — many of them powered by Casting Networks talent.
Vacnin took time out of her day to share her journey and give us a peek inside The Lynne Experience and the world of experiential casting.
Insights: What to Know About Experiential Marketing
- Experiential marketing involves creating unique and engaging live branding events.
- In experiential marketing, actors can use their improv skills and enthusiasm to build and enhance these experiences.
- Experiential marketing is not about looks. An engaging personality can often outweigh physical attributes.
- Opportunities in experiential marketing often enable networking and can lead to talent getting scouted for larger roles or spokesperson positions with brands.
- Actors interested in experiential marketing should look for reputable companies to work with, pay attention to payment terms, and be open to new ways to supplement their careers while pursuing acting.
Tell me about the Lynne Experience. What do you do and how did you get started?
I grew up in Chicago, always wanted to be a model and that was back in the day when they had Shirley Hamilton and Emelia Lawrence agencies. The Loop FM 98 was a big radio station back then with Jonathan Brandmeier. They were having a “Girls of Summer” contest. I entered and became one of the participants. I didn’t win it, but it was great.
My mother was my PR back in the day. She took the one modeling picture I had taken and mentioned to the local newspaper that I was in the Girls of Summer contest. They ran it in the paper, and then she took that clipping and sent it out to every modeling agency in Chicago. Everyone called me. Elite, David & Lee, all the top ones.
I wasn’t tall enough, I wasn’t perfect enough, but I was enough of something and with the proper PR and getting in front of people, I walked into every one of those doors and met with all the agents. In the end, Playboy signed me. Now, I always have to explain: I’m not in the magazine. They owned a lot of things. I was doing United Airlines billboards and AAA Motor Club along with other print work and commercials.
My niche at the time seemed to fall into the trade show world. I was becoming the trade show model of the year in Chicago. I was at Mccormick Place convention center all the time, and I loved it.
I realized I liked speaking to people, I felt comfortable representing a brand and they paid a nice amount of money to do that. I was in my twenties at that point and I decided I needed more stability for myself. I wanted to stay in the business so I reached out to all the agents that I worked with and I was lucky enough that one agency said to me, “I’d like to hire you.”
I was booking talent and I learned all about live events and I already knew about print and commercial work along with runway shows.
Eventually, I ended up moving to New York and I got a job at another agency. I worked there for a couple of years, and as life went on, I decided to open up my own agency.
I had subcontracted to book a trade show for Borden Foods up in the Catskills and I ended up calling Barbizon, who had an office in White Plains. [It turned out] they were looking for an agent to run their New York City office and offered me a job with them and I accepted.
Sixteen years into it, I had some life changes and I said, “It’s time for me to go off on my own,” and I opened up my own agency. At that time, I thought it was a modeling agency, which parlayed into the live event business, and it ultimately became a casting agency.
Visit lynnexp.com or reach out directly at info@lynnexp.com — let’s make your brand’s story impossible to ignore.
Yours truly,
