Shop Behind Viral Hello Flo Spot on the Agency/Production Company Model

By Patrick Coffee 

Hello Flo

You’ve probably seen the Hello Flo ‘First Moon Party’ spot this week; it’s already gotten 7.2 million views in four days.

You probably also noticed that there was no major agency behind the campaign, which followed an earlier, equally popular campaign released a year ago.

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Today we spoke to Todd Wiseman Jr.–co-founder of Hayden 5, the production company behind the viral hit–about the way his shop works and how it’s different from traditional agencies.

What is Hayden 5?

We’re a creative production company doing the work of an ad agency.

Hayden 5 started as a production company, but we’ve always done work for brands directly on a smaller scale.  Today, we’re approached directly by brands, even the big boys like McDonald’s, to create original content.  We’re starting to see this happen again and again.  With both creative and production capabilities, we’re set up to work without an ad agency for video content, which alone, can launch a brand like Hello Flo or Dollar Shave Club.

How does the way you approach the work differ from traditional agencies?

There is an old school mentality at many ad agencies.  They have massive overhead, too much bureaucracy, and they’re very good at wasting time and money.  For nimble, effective, and affordable efforts in online video, people are starting to turn to small, soup-to-nuts shops like us. We love it.

Does your success represent the new model for the industry?

The agency model is never going away, and for good reason, but the landscape is changing quickly.  I think we’ll see many more successes from brands, new and old, who work directly with small creative shops for their à la carte needs, namely web content.

Do we agree with Wiseman?

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