June 28, 2024
Marketing firm Fresh Produce became Fast Produce on Thursday.
The concept involved soliciting clients interested in radio ads and then producing 20 of them in less than 24 hours for clients.
It’s part of a yearlong effort to celebrate 20 years in business and is seen “as a throwback to the earliest days of Fresh Produce when Mike and Ted started pitching radio ads out of Mike’s basement,” operations director Katrina Lehr-McKinney said of founders Mike Hart and Ted Heeren.
“As with most ideas at Fresh Produce, Fast Produce was conceptualized and kicked around by a number of different employees over many years. Our 20th anniversary celebration felt like the right time for it to make its debut.”
The firm already practices a creative technique or participates in a creative excursion once a month, “so Fast Produce is just another in a long line of delightful creative challenges for our team. Except this time, it’s very public, and the challenge is cranked to 11,” she said.
“We did a couple trial runs over the past month, and our team had a blast.”
How did they do it? The firm’s 22-person team was divided into three creative teams, which researched, wrote and produced the spots for the entire day, sending them to clients by midnight.
“Our internship team, Famous, has been at the center of the promotion, creating all of the art and promotional materials,” Lehr-McKinney said. “They even hired a window painter to legitimize the sales promotion. They’ve really brought their own flavor to the project.”
The organizations that reached out to take advantage of the offer were a mix of familiar names and new businesses to Fresh Produce, she said. While the firm produced the ads, it’s up to the clients to place their spots on media platforms of their choosing or hire an agency to help with it.