Being a promotional model is a harsh job saved for young, beautiful women who are willing to work long days and have short nights to rest before going on the next day.

Many people say it is easy to work as a promotional model, for the job is in demand now.

Both views are correct. But it still depends.

Promotional models turn up at most public and business events and most enterprises need them to promote their products.

They always attract the attention of visitors at a certain event.

Event-organizing companies admit that they do not have a sufficient supply of promotional models, and thus have to visit universities to search for students to work part-time.

Communications company Vietlink, based in Ho Chi Minh City, organizes an average of 40-50 events a month for clients, meaning that it needs hundreds of trade show models. The southern city has dozens of companies like that one.

Vietlink has to hire promotional models from professional modeling firms such as Jollie Siam, Sao Vang Dat Viet, A Dong, and PL.

“We need trade show hostesses for every of our events,” said Le Quynh Thu, managing director of Vietlink.

“For luxury and upper-class events, we hire professional models to act as ones.

“For middle-class events, we use those promotional models who have gone through training courses.

“And for the remaining, we can employ students, part-time office workers, or any young and good-looking lady.”

Thu added that all medium-sized enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City regularly need promotional models to introduce their products.

Demand is great and the supply is not small at all, except for professional trade show models, as normal ones can be found at universities or part-time office workers can take on their role, according to Thu.

Le Thu Thao, a senior at Saigon University, is now working as a promotional model for Saigon Beverages Company. She said this job does not require much specific knowledge.

It takes little time to train for it, she added.

A professional trade show model must go through a training course similar to that of a fashion model, said Nguyen Thu Hien, a professional promotional model in the city.

A ‘booth babe’ must learn how to do make-up, smile, walk, stand, talk, and even how to pose oneself with products, Hien added.

Tran Hoai Phong, the manager of promotional model supply company A Dong located on Bui Vien Street in the city’s District 1, said he sources such ladies from tourism schools or via advertisements in newspapers.

Well-trained promotional models who can speak foreign languages are always a rarity, and they are the most-hunted by event-organizing firms, Phong noted.

Large income gap

The pay for a trade show model varies widely, from VND150,000 (US$7) to VND50 million ($2,300) per working shift, depending on the difference in training.

Tran Thuy Hang, a 25 year-old promotional model, said she had to stand for twelve hours a day, from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, at the VietBuild real estate fair that took place in Ho Chi Minh City from June 18 to 22 to earn VND800,000 ($37) a day.

But she had to pay for cosmetics herself.

“The pay was rather lavish because the VietBuild was a prestigious and big event.

“At other events, I would have gotten VND500,000 [$23] for a similar working day,” Hang said.

On average, Hang earns a monthly wage of VND5-7 million ($230-322) for working as a promotional model.

The highest pay is for those who are top class models, around VND50 million ($2,300) a working shift.

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters have found that fashion models who are not well known to the media are paid VND10-20 million ($460-920) for a shift of presenting as a promotional lady, while a promotional girl having completed a training class is paid VND500,000 ($23) to VND1 million ($46) a shift.

Long days and short nights

Most promotional ladies admit that the biggest challenge of their job is to stand most of the time during an event to pose with advertised products and to talk to visitors.

A lady often stands for 10-12 hours a day and has little time to recover at night to prepare for the following working day.

Hang, who worked at the VietBuild, said, “I had to stand until no more visitors passed my stall.

“During the past events, I stood like that for five days. Just recalling it makes me feel exhausted.”

Another promotional model, Nguyen Thu Hien, said she felt that her facial muscles were extended at night after smiling the whole day before.

“Some days, my legs couldn’t recover from the pain of standing all day even though I rubbed medicated oil on them at night,” Hien said.

Another challenge is the short-lived age, as a trained lady often works this job for five to seven years and then has to find another, she added.

Even worse, trade show models are sometimes duped into presenting themselves for unregistered or illegal products.

Some were cheated into taking photographs for advertising products, but their images were later posted on prostitutes’ websites.