“This was one of the most successful Web3 marketing campaigns of all time, connecting far beyond our community.” - Cool Cats

Background

Cool Cats are NFT stars, chief amongst them, the cat character ‘Blue’ and his companion ‘Chugs’ - an adorable milk carton.

Despite being hugely successful NFTs, the brand were savvy enough to move their characters into other media and channels just as the NFT bubble burst in 2023.

To make this transition loud and clear, Blue became the first NFT character to feature as a balloon in the Macy’s Day Parade.

Brief

Generate buzz and engagement around the Macy’s appearance and elevate the brand beyond the NFT niche.

Idea

The campaign idea I developed was called “Blue York”. Using AR tech, the brand transformed NYC into a giant cat playground complete with an AR scratching post as tall as the Empire State Building.

Sadly, amongst this, Blue and Chugs became separated! Oh no! Not to worry, the team went out and posted “Missing Cat” posters across New York and invited Cool Cats fans to print and post the signs in the most interesting places possible. The most creative postings won prizes and the ultimate prize of $10,000 went to the coolest picture of Blue once he was “found” floating though the Macy’s Day Parade.

Results

300k Engagements over 3.5 million accounts

300% Increase in online store sessions

8,000% spike in traffic

Cool Cats Merch sold out day one at Macy’s

https://youtu.be/OBNHSScFTeICASE STUDY VIDEO HERE

Lets see what we can do together: Ideas@FloydHayes.com

The Brief: Brighten a 30ft construction wall on their 4th floor with something guests could enjoy.

The Idea: Install a 30ft-long Lego wall that will allow guests to enjoy some construction of their own.

Guests create doodles and art with the Lego Wall, snap a pic for Instagram/Twitter/Facebook using #MyLegoMasterpiece.  Hotel nights are on offer for the most creative efforts.  

"Awesome" - Conde Nast.

"A perfect blend of on and offline engagement.  The guests love it, the media love it and we love it." Jo Berrington, Marketing Director, Yotel.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: FHC.

Click here to read the Inhabitat article

Click here to read the CNN Travel article, "8 Seriously Playful Hotels"

Click here to read the New York Times blog feature.

Click here to read the feature in Conde Nast here.

Click here to read the PSFK article

Click here to see the full article from Hotel Chatter.

Follow on twitter.

Click here to read the News.com.au article. 

The Brief: Devise a party theme and online content strategy to put the new $300 million hotel on the New York Map

The Concept: "Festival 100 Under 2" saw 100 hundred live acts perform in 100 rooms, showcasing the fun, creative spirit of the hotel to a capacity crowd made up of the cream of New York's creative class, hotel guests and investors.  An unforgettable night.

Watch the video.

"...Unlike any other NYC party we've ever been to...utterly and completely creative and equal parts cool kids and conservative suits.  It was interactive and wham-bam FUN."" - Jaunted

"Amazing...You all encapsulated the chaos of New York into a very entertaining and engaging presentation.  Big, huge, gargantuan props." - Henry Melcher, Parlor, New York.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning NY

Click here to watch the launch video.

Click here to read the Jaunted article.

As Creative Director at Cunning London, I was instrumental in pitching, winning and developing a multi-year creative campaign from the launch of MINI Cooper One through to the Open Top.

We broke the car marketing mold, producing a campaign that helped MINI become the best-selling small car of all time.

Watch the case study video.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning London

Click Here to Watch the Case Study video.

As we built up to the launch we wanted to show the car off, whilst still keeping it a little out of reach.  We also wanted to make a point about how easy it is to park MINI in busy city centers.  Guerrilla Parking was the answer.  We created 20 replica cars and "parked" them in unexpected places in fashionable districts.

This generated millions of pounds in free media, stopped people in their tracks and helped build the brand's new personality.

No one wants a multi-national car company advertising to them at a 4 day music festival. For MINI the Glastonbury audience was a the right mix of youth, energy and "cool".  So, how do we get involved without spending a fortune on corporate (and off brand) sponsorship?

Simple.  We added "playful utility" to the Festival by sneaking in deflated MINI branded car inner tubes.  Once inside, we pumped them up and handed them out.  Glastonbury is famed for its mud, so giving away handy seats was a welcome move.

A pleasing side effect was seeing dozens of the tires being thrown about at the front of the main stage with the world's camera's recording.  Guerrilla marketing at its most effective.

During my time as CD at Cunning London we created pieces of Guerrilla street theater to show off the open top version of the car and continue to build the adventure-loving brand.

We created 10 different pieces of MINI theater and "toured" them around the social hotspots across 10 UK cities. 

The work was honored with a coveted "Silver Circle" award from the MINI team.

Click here to watch the video.

With Christmas coming up in London, it was time to celebrate.  A dozen MINI's took the shape of a headlight-sparkling 80ft festive tree.  Sailing majestically down the Thames, witnessed by London crowds and media as the historic London Bridge raises in salut.  

Role: Creative Director, Agency: Cunning London.

Before the launch we wanted to tease a few aspects of the car without resorting to the usual cliches of muscle-shots of the car and beatific swiss mountain roads etc. 

Instead, we took disposable camera shots of various shenanigans with aspects of MINI in shot.  

The photo packs were then left as if mislaid in cabs, bars, changing rooms, well-curated social spaces across ten UK cities.  

I fondly recall the affect MINI had when first seen on the streets of London, people would literally point and stare.  Fun times.

Our approach with MINI was to attend all the main summer events and parties of the year.  We never bought media space and we refused to stick the logo on banners and flyers.  That had all been done before and felt like old-school interruptive advertising.

Our strategy was simple, if MINI was attending a party, it would bring something to the party.   For the Nottinghill Carnival we rented someones driveway and placed our ridiculously loud sound system MINI there.  We attached turntables and partied.  

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning London.

We received word that Ford and out rival car, 'Ka' were sponsoring the London Gay Pride.  

Sticking to our formula of 'being part of the party' and avoiding traditional sponsorship, we partnered withHeaven nightclub to create the 'Fetish MINI.'  The car looked amazing and also had an extremely loud sound system in the back.

The organizers adored it and allowed us to lead the entire parade. Zero fee, maximum impact.

The PitiCure™ concept was developed and implemented to educate people about the new deodorant’s ability to “minimize the look and feel of underarm hair over time.”

Campaign included banner ads, Interactive video/FEP advertising, retail partnerships, sampling, sponsorships and the PitiCure™ Experience tour.

Unilever trademarked, "PitiCure" worldwide.

Watch the case study video here.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning NY

Watch the case study video.

The Dove PitiCure Experience was a beautiful pop-up mobile spa that offered women a free PitiCure and Dove deo sample.

The PitiCure consisted of three stages:

1.  Upper body massage 

2. Exfoliating the underarms

3. Applying the product

Millions of women interacted with the PitiCure with 2 million sticks being distributed in L.A., Philadelphia and NYC.

The PitiCure spa was fully booked each day.

A woman enjoys her first PitiCure.

Pre-launch, we sent PitiCure packs to the media featuring: the product, a USB key with Ogilvy's TV ad, instructions on how to do your own PItiCure and a letter of introduction from our celebrity dermatologist, Dr. Luftman.

Devised an interactive Full Episode Player for NBC.  The most successful FEP the online channel had run that year,.

All elements of the PitiCure campaign drove traffic to the microsite which gave details on how to enjoy a PitiCure at home and provided a money of coupon to download.

Read the Examiner article.

Read the Teen Vogue article.

Read the TrendHunter article.

Read the Glamour article.

To bolster the “Your Point of View” campaign we developed and produced live theater in the windows of the flagship 5th Avenue store, NYC.  I devised this idea as Creative Director at Cunning NYC and worked alongside HSBC and JWT.

Bank account openings at the branch more than doubled.

Watch the video of this multi-award winning work.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning NY.

Click Here To Watch 

Click here to read the ADWEEK article.

To promote Syfy Channel’s new mini-series, The Triangle, we turned to the tag line for inspiration:

“Nothing Stays Lost Forever.”

With a sly nod to the eternal mystery of always losing one sock at the laundry, Cunning NYC printed 300,000 single socks with the  tag line and web address before placing them in wash and folds across 10 States.

“The centerpiece of a $10 million campaign”  - WSJ full page article.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning NY

Lost Sock signs appeared in neighborhoods across the US.  A pull off tab invited people to check out the website for details and get a chance to win a home cinema and XBOX for finding a lost sock.  The website built on the theme of loss and showcased trailers and further show details.

Click here to watch the video.

"Centerpiece of a $10 million campaign." - WSJ

London’s first and only real sand beach was created to drive awareness for BA’s Caribbean Holidays.

Situated in Covent Garden, the public were invited  to play beach games, enter sweepstakes and drink at the beach bar

Media coverage value: $2 million+.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning London.

Sweepstakes and games helped entertain the crowds over a 3-day installation period.

Click here to watch the TV news clip.

Click here to read the NY Daily News feature.

Click here to read the Gothamist article.

Click here to visit the Etsy store.  $1 is donated to the Brooklyn Arts Council.

My brief was simple: gain PR and new clients for my consulting business on a budget of $100.

I’ve been fascinated with 3D printing since reading ‘Idoru’ by William Gibson some years ago.  When MakerBot opened its first consumer store the idea of the ‘World’s First 3D Printed Resume’ was born.

I sent 3D printed heads of myself along with my email and copy, “Tiny Head. Big Ideas” to the media and clients.

The result was millions of dollars of media coverage inc:

Yahoo Finance’s ‘10 Resumes that got worldwide attention’ piece

PSFK (most socially shared story of the week)

Ubergizmo

DVICE

Geek.com

More importantly, the media coverage gained four new clients for my creative consulting business.  

One client remarked, “If our agents can’t walk the walk, why should we invest in their services?”  

Good point!

Click here to read the PSFK article.

Click here to read: Resumes that got the world's attention - Yahoo! Finance / Business Insider

Click here to read the Ubergizmo piece.

Click here to read the DVICE article.

Click to read the Geek.com piece.

Click here to read more articles.

100% twitter based agency delivering 24-hour turnaround for tag lines, top line marketing concepts, product and service naming .  

Think of it as a 'think-Ferrari not a 'think-tank.'

Don't hang about, visit us:  www.WorldsFastestAgency.com

"Very fast, very good." - Neal Davies, Pitch Judge & Former Partner, Naked Communications.

"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."  - Cotter Cunningham, CEO, RetailMeNot, Inc.

Logo Credit: Nathan "Quick on the draw" Simpson.

Click here to read the Business Insider article.

Click here to read the PSFK article.

Click here to read the Agency Spy article.

Click here to read the AdAge article.

Click here to read the ADWEEK article.

Search 3+ million returns on Google.

The Guerrilla Marketing School is an interactive workshop exploring Guerrilla Marketing.  

From Ladies of the night in Ancient Greece to the world's most successful small car launch, students will find the course enjoyable, inspirational and useful.

Students will complete the course gaining  immediately useable creative thinking techniques, actionable ingredients for a successful Guerrilla Marketing idea and hands-on experience.

Instructor Floyd Hayes has 15 years experience as a global pioneer in Guerrilla Marketing, and with a 5-star student approval rating, you couldn't be in better hands. 

The course can be taken at the Student's pace - where and when they like.

The course includes video, two (optional) hands-on briefings, one-on-one critique, ongoing Q&A and a 13-page PDF Rough Guide to Brainstorms.  

Click here to visit the school for details, enrollment info and a free "9 Step to Successful Brainstorming" PDF Guide

Logo Credit: Chelsea Jade Campbell.

When I set up my consulting business I wanted to create a new identity for myself.  I wanted to quickly convey to clients what I would offer them: original creative communication ideas and great execution. Something remarkable in the literal sense of the word.

I feel the cards achieve this.  They also explain what I do, how to contact me and where I live online.

The secondary function was unexpected.  On the days when I have a dip in confidence or just can't get the mojo working, I look at these cards and they inspire me to get on with it.  They boost my moral and I always feel good giving them out.

Working with friend and collaborator, Mr McElwaine, the cards took shape over many enjoyable brainstorming sessions and various pro to-types.

The Dave Clark 5 poster going under the laser cutter.  I liked the orange tones on the poster and faces always look good on the cards.  They come off this machine and are pressed onto more laser cut card to achieve the right thickness and "feel."

I get them made at East Side Copy in Manhattan.   Finding the posters is part of the fun, it's like going on a treasure hunt.

The cards are laser cut from old movie and comic posters. I love getting them back from the printers as I never know how they will look.

First run of cards hot off the laser machine at East Side Copy, Manhattan.

It took many sessions to nail the final version.  

I wanted the card to contain "easter eggs" (*as they say in gaming). This card has a few secrets tucked away.

I'm drawn to the idea of creating products that are quirky, profitable and socially aware.  Seksi Spam Buttons came from a desire to create something useful from one of society's modern ills: spam.  More pointedly, porn spam.

I was cleaning out my old hotmail spam folder and noticed a ton of tacky porn spam. The subject lines had been altered to convey a sense of titillation but still sneak through the filters. The result is a sort of mangled, darkly comic "come hither", pathetically trying to lure you to click.

I was laughing at this and thought of an old expression from the North of England, "Where there's muck, there's brass." No doubt alluding to the mining and scrap metal heritage of the area.

It struck me that if I could "monazite" this infinite stream of badly-spelled smut, I'd be rich!  Thinking further, I thought it would be sweetly ironic if I could also create something to raise awareness and money for a sexual health charity.  

The cheapest and fastest product I could think to make were buttons (badges to the Brits).  Working with Busy Beaver Buttons I made a limited series of buttons.  

The launch received a fair amount of online attention and we sold some buttons raising money and awareness for SEICUS.org.  Ultimately, it failed to meet my objectives but as with all experiments, I learned new tricks and met some fantastic people.

Read the PSFK article here.

Click here to read the Buzzfeed article.

Click here to read the CoolBusinessIdeas.com article.

Read the not cot.org article here.

Click here to watch the news segment.

The co-founder of Cunning London had developed "ForeheADS" in 2002 which kick-started a whole industry mini-craze for advertising on body parts: permanent tattoos, pregnant women's bellies, you name it.

To push the idea further, I placed my voice on eBay, claiming I would shout a brand name every hour on the hour for for a week, regardless of where I happened to be,

Cadbury's placed the highest bid and won the "VoiceVertising"" for their Hall's Fruit Breezers brand.

I spend a day with a camera crew in NYC yelling next to landmarks. The story ran on Fox news across the States as well as Yahoo! News, CNN and countless blogs and newspapers around the world.

In the US alone, 115 million people saw the activity. 

Click here to read the full piece.

Read the full article here.

After VoiceVertising I wondered where to go next....instead of shouting a brand every hour, why not think of a brand every hour?

The idea of ThoughtVertising came out of a brainstorm for SyFy Channel and an idea of putting ads in dreams (voluntarily I hasten to add).  

I got quite close to selling it to Trojan Condoms - after all men think about sex every six seconds, or so they say....

In the end, I put out a press release.  ADWEEK ran the story, along with newspapers in the UK, Germany and Canada.

As I hadn't actually sold the idea, the story was essentially, "Man thinks about thinking about a brand."

@twipple was the first Random Acts of Kindness feed on twitter.

The name is a combination of "twitter" and "ripple" - as in ripples of good will.

The feed shares Random Acts of Kindness ideas.

"The most thoughtful use of twitter we've seen." - Huffington Post.

Click here to follow @twipple on twitter.

Click here to see @twipple in action.

Click here to read the Huffngton Post article.

Click here to read the Brand Twist article.

Click here to read the article on TrendHunter.

Click here to check out the @twipple book.  Illustrated by Peter Bonnin.

50% of proceeds are donated to NYCares.org

The last time footy was played on the Thames was over 300 years ago when the river froze.

For Dockers clothing, grabbing media attention and creating word of mouth was the name of the game with our floating football field.

Radio competitions, promo staff and an online “spot the ball” competition supported the stunt.

National media coverage and millions of eye-witness sparked invaluable word of mouth and interest for the brands spring campaign.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning London

We used to just call them "promo staff" in the Old Days :)

Our team, splendidly dressed in astro turf dresses visited all the major radio and news offices on the day of the Football Field stunt.  They delivered the press release on the back of a square of astro turf.

Sure, we could have sent an email but this had a little more impact.

Live ads on the London Underground to promote BA's Sleeper Service  Club World.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning London.

BA team stood outside of Virgin's departure gates to promote Club World.  Cheeky.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning London.

City tours aren't complete without a branded vehicle.  When you combine a brave client and an imaginative agency, you can end up with a show-stopping piece of work like this.  We took a cement mixer and replaced the mixer with a transparent one, filled it with Apple Tango and threw in a human diver.

The Big Drench mixer was the centerpiece of the sampling tour, drawing crowds, grabbing headlines and getting a few strange looks from traffic wardens.

Players entered the space, pulled a cord above them and either a) won a games console or b) got completely soaked in Apple Tango.  The event drew thousands of onlookers and hundreds of brave players.

Radio station tie-ins provided promotion and music.  Sampling teams distribute Apple Tango soda to the crowds.

Tango Soda in the UK are famed for their bizarre, funny and effective TV ads. Perhaps their strangest ads were for the launch of Apple Tango.

Cunning London were tasked to play off the "drenched in apple flavor" theme of the ads to devise and produce a UK sampling tour and experience.

We created "he Big Drench Tour: 10 cities, 20,000 samples and numerous local media partnerships and media buying.

Role: Creative Director.  Agency: Cunning London.

Despite being something like 14 years old, this is still one of my favorite case studies. An early exploration in bridging the gap between the digital and analog world.  It was a potent mix of Guerrilla tactics, online advertising, PR stunts, cutting edge tech and off-beat humor.  At the time it felt like radical advertising.

Tubehell.com was the first online community/social media site I knew about - geocities/angelfire aside - and was the brainchild of a true visionary, Samir Satchu.

Samir had the idea while sitting on a sweltering, late London Underground train.  

Tubehell would become the first online consumer advocacy community and Tube information service.  A true voice of the beleaguered London commuter.  Site members would receive travel alerts, along with sponsored, relevant local business information.  Years ahead of its time.

We launched by sending the media a re-branded sardine tin carrying the URL and the rallying cry, "We are not sardines, we are human beings!"  A tag line unashamedly inspired by The Prisoner.

Following this we create the "Commuters from Hell" (pictured here in the Guardian).  A band of up-for-it-actors and promo staff dressed in devil-red City Gent business suits and devil-horned bowler hats.  The Commuters would protest outside of Parliament, flyer commuters,  behave as brand ambassadors and act the Sprit of Commuter Revenge.

Cunnning' London's stable mate, Harry Monk produced the banner ads and other branding elements.

A ton of fun and an early dot com start-up success with media coverage on the Channel 4 news, the broadsheets, online and local news in London.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning London.

Full page in the Guardian featuring The Commuters from Hell.

Lost in the mists of time is a hard drive with all the other media and TV coverage. You'll just have to trust me on this one,

“Stunt of the Century” - BBC

The first major project I was involved with.  Stood freezing cold on the edge of the Thames, wondering what I'd got myself into...

It was great to be part of the most notorious and successful PR Stunt in UK advertising history.

Role: Creative Director. Agency: Cunning London.

The Times full page feature.

Business Week feature.

This is another old favorite.  Boxman were Europe's first music CD eTailer (way before the days of broadband and streaming).

The idea was to have a presence at the Glastonbury Festival, Europe's largest festival which attracted something like 150,000 people.  We wanted to do something more than just slap a logo on the festival program.  Corporate branding was about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit at this festival.  Tone and approach had to be perfect.

We took a Lodond red double decker bus, kitted the upstairs with PCs and Internet connection and the downstairs transformed into a "chill out" space.  Buses are a bit of a marketing cliche these days, but back then, it really stood out and drew crowds.

At the time, this was also the first Internet cafe at the festival, getting a connection in a middle of field was no mean feat.  

We teamed up with Oxfam who had volunteer stewards around the festival, they would send people to the bus and in return we would donate $1 to Oxfam for every CD bought online.

An effective combination of technology, online and offline experiences, marketing, PR stunt, utility and  social causes, themes I've returned to again and again over the years.  

Role: Creative Director/Producer Agency: Cunning London.