The Peak Agency has moved fast in the past two years, going from the newest model and talent agency in the Des Moines market to become the largest in the state.

Agency director Jason Ramirez launched Peak in December 2002. Since then, he has seen half of his competitors close their doors leading up to last month, when he and his business partner, Steve Myers, acquired Corell Modeling and Talent, which had been Peak’s prime competitor. Ramirez said the purchase of Corell more than doubles Peak’s talent pool, which creates new business opportunities for the agency.

“We were competing very heavily with Mary (Corell),” Ramirez said. “She had a lot of good people signed on with her, along with clients who had been using her for 16 years and who had been happy with her. If they needed a new face that she didn’t have, then they would come to us, but not as often as we would have liked.”

Ramirez said Peak arrived at a “good financial position where we were able to work something out with Mary,” and “we caught her at the right time.”

“About a month before, Chrome had gone out of business, and the Laura Ashley Agency had dissolved a few months before that,” Ramirez said.

Peak had gained new models and clients out of those closures, and built on its momentum by approaching Corell about the buyout. Earlier this year, Peak represented about 70 people. That number had grown to about 300 leading up to the Oct. 13 acquisition of Corell, which brought its talent roster to about 700. Ramirez said Peak plans to move to a larger location and hire more staff to handle its growth.

“As we expand, we’re going to be bringing more people on with us,” Ramirez said. “Up until now, we’ve been doing the design work, the marketing, and hiring out people for some of our photography and training needs.”

Now, Peak and Copeland Creative Talent are the two remaining model and talent agencies in Des Moines. “It went from five agencies to two of us in the market very quickly,” Ramirez said.

Deb Copeland, whose agency represents about 450 people, says numbers alone don’t tell the story about an agency’s strength. Copeland, who has been in business for about nine years, says her agency’s reputation for having experienced actors and its ability to meet the needs of Des Moines clients will continue to keep the business strong.

“We’re very much known for the quality of our actors and our talent,” Copeland said. “We cover every age category, but the majority of our models and talent are in the 25-45 age group, which is what is most needed in this market for training videos, commercials and print.”

Ramirez said Peak, which does work in the same areas as Copeland, also does work in promotions, fashion shows and music videos, “anything where an attractive person needs to sell a product.” Many of its models and performers are women, and though it also represents people in the 25-35 age group, another big segment it represents is teens and young adults, some of whom are interested in working in larger markets as well.

“There are people who come to us who have the potential to do well in other markets, and we’re planning on doing more traveling soon to Los Angeles and New York City to introduce these faces outside of this market,” Ramirez said. “And we don’t require our models to be exclusive with us. If someone is interested in working for a company like Target [Corp.] in Minneapolis, we’ll partner them with an agency there.”

Ramirez said Peak needs to maintain a variety of faces and talent in Des Moines to serve its local clients, and then the company can look to open up additional offices in larger markets, such as Nashville or Chicago, which it hopes to do within the next few years.

“We definitely want a large model base with a lot of good faces for your client to choose from,” Ramirez said. “If you have an advertisement for Hy-Vee and you use a model, you don’t want to use that same model for Dahl’s. You have to supply that wide range of faces for your client.”

Myers, the director of operations for Peak, said it can be a challenge to find models and performers who have the proper charisma and personalities for the profession and are willing to provide the agency with marketable materials such as composite cards and photography to get started.

“That’s been a big hurdle we’ve had a tough time getting over, and you lose good people because of it,” Myers said. “The challenge is getting the good people and getting them involved, because those are the ones that we need.”

To help meet that challenge, Ramirez said, Peak is planning to add a photographer and training specialist to its staff. This is an area where Peak and competitor Copeland differ. Copeland does not offer on-site training or some of the other services that Peak provides, which Copeland says keeps her company operating solely on commissions, which is appreciated by people signing on to the company.

“We make our money from booking people in jobs, not from selling photo packages or what could be expensive classes,” Copeland said. “We recommend that kids get their start in acting through classes at the Des Moines Playhouse programs, and for kids, snapshots have worked fine time and time again to get work.”

Ramirez said though Peak can provide training classes and portraits, it doesn’t require anyone to use its services.

“We can help someone with those services, or they can get them done elsewhere,” Ramirez said. “We just want them to get involved.”