Hasta La Creative!

Last year, Floyd Hayes launched the self-proclaimed “Fastest Agency in the World,” which sends out a creative pitch within 24 hours of briefing.  Well, now it seems someone has one-upped that idea, with the One Hour Agency.

That’s right, One Hour Agency, created by a couple of Hyper Island creatives, actually claims to “generate quality ideas” within the hour. More specifically, they “kick-off every briefing with one hour ideation sessions with [their] clients. This keeps energy high and injects some moxie into the process before going straight into a less energetic research phase.”

So what goes into that hour? After ten minutes of greetings and receiving the brief, One Hour Agency spends 10 minutes on evaluation, a half hour on ideation, and then 10 minutes on presentation. That’s pretty damn fast.

When asked if he thought his “Fastest Agency in the World” was the inspiration behind One Hour Agency, Floyd Hayes responded, “Ha. Perhaps.That makes me feel like a doddering old man.” He may need to think up a new name for the “Fastest Agency in the World” now, as it seems we have a new champion. Whether or not trying to deliver a creative pitch in an hour is a good idea, however, is an entirely different discussion, and one I’ll turn over to our readers.

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Self-proclaimed “ideas man” Floyd Hayes had a big 2013, between founding World’s Fastest Agency and the Guerilla Marketing School, and there’s no reason to expect that 2014 will be any different.

Midtown-Manhattan hotel YOTEL called in Floyd Hayes to dress up the place during renovation. So Hayes designed an interactive LEGO wall, functioning simultaneously as a disguise for the in-transition room behind it and a cool place for guests to have fun playing around with LEGOs. That sure beats a ‘Pardon our appearance…” sign. The LEGO wall stretches across “the space age lounge area on FOUR…covers thirty feet, with a base layer of deep blue bricks.” On top of the blue base are “hundreds of LEGO bricks in an array of colors and sizes.” Guests can challenge their imagination, adding their own creations to the wall, or they can sit on one of the bright purple cushions in the room and appreciate the LEGO installation, as well as the other art in the room. That sounds like a lot of fun. Even better, visitors who choose to participate in the interactive exhibit can snap photos of their creations, tag it with the hashtag #MyLegoMasterpiece on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, and enter for a chance to win free stays at YOTEL. The LEGO wall will remain at YOTEL until March, at which time the new Club Lounge behind it will be revealed, which almost seems too bad.

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For $4, you can buy Brooklyn. Well, you can buy a tiny piece of it, at least, which costs almost as much as Jay-Z’s old ownership share of the Nets. That’s the shtick of the latest project from Floyd Hayes, the creator of “The World’s Fastest Agency” among many other ideas. Hayes also used to be ECD at Cunning, and his “Piece of Brooklyn Project” is not just a quirky gambit of guerilla enterprise. $1 of every purchase will be donated to the Brooklyn Arts Council. We can always get behind a good cause.

In case you are worried about ending up with a fraudulent chunk of BK, every item comes with a rubber stamp of authenticity, for whatever that’s worth. Check out the items here.

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Just in case you missed some coverage on Floyd Hayes, the “ideas man” has announced the first client for his Twitter-based “World’s Fastest Agency” project, that being U.S. online coupon site, RetailMeNot. According to WFA, which launched just two weeks ago, RetailMeNot sent a 140-character direct mail brief within six hours of the former’s launch (WFA responded in kind less than 24 hours later).

Here’s a statement from the coupon brand’s CEO, Cotter Cunningham: “A good marketing idea is worth its weight in gold, and I’ve paid a lot more in my day for  less than worthy ideas from other ad agencies. We like the return on our small investment in the World’s Fastest Agency on what turned out to be fun, creative thinking.” Cunningham adds, “RetailMeNot has always been on the cutting edge of sourcing content. Their business  model is somewhat reminiscent of how we have used the power of the Internet to  encourage our community of users to post coupons to our website. The World’s Fastest  Agency is an example of how the Internet is creating new business models that disrupt the  status quo.”

No update yet, though, on the client status of “Worst Fast Agency.”

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Floyd Hayes, former ECD at guerrilla-marketing agency Cunning is back with yet another attention-grabbing stunt that will (perhaps) net him upward of $1000 per day.

Hayes latest project, World’s Fastest Agency, serves as a pleasant reminder to all marketers that, yes, you can make any unsubstantiated claim you want, so long as no one else has made the claim before you. Hayes’ business model works thusly:

1. Send him $999 via PayPal.
2. Direct message your short creative brief to @fastestagency on Twitter
3. Receive a creative pitch within 24 hours via Twitter direct message
4. Consider whether or not steps 1-3 were a wise use of your time and money

On the website for his new agency, which he also proclaims to be “the world’s first 100% Twitter based ad agency,”  Hayes has already a glowing review from Neil Davies (pitch judge and former partner at Naked Communications) who says, “Very fast, very good.” I mean, what else do you need to know?

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