Last night in the US, Fred & Farid was recognized twice by Ad Age at Small Agency Awards 2020 with 2 Gold: Fred & Farid Los Angeles won ‘Best Newcomer of the Year” and Fred & Farid New York won ‘Integrated Campaign of the Year.’
Hello. We are French via China. And now, the US.
We started in Paris. Unconventionally moved from East to West, and landed in Shanghai. After 5 years of success in China, we were off again — this time to set up shop in Los Angeles, just 18- months ago.
Unlike other agencies, at Fred & Farid, every office is personally opened by the founders. We’ve moved our lives and families to each new city, to begin again. Together, we’ve created an international boutique group of 100 people total, with just 10 people in Los Angeles, but from all over the world.
We nurture our rhythm and culture, and we work hard to keep Fred & Farid weird. Our weirdness is what makes our people proud and happy to work with us every day. It binds us together.
Our culture is a peculiar mix of the French sense of craft and taste, the Chinese sense of tactic and digital, and the American sense of vision and strategy. The element that strings all of these things together is emotion. It’s our compass. Fittingly, our tagline is: “Think With Your Heart.”
And speaking of heart, we’ve always had a ton of it for Los Angeles. LA is the most influential city in the world; LA ideas are sculpting human brains around the planet; the city’s impact upon people is so powerful that it should be forbidden. But the beauty of this city is that, as soon as you land at LAX, you’re a part of it. You are an Angeleno. Whoever you are, wherever you come from. If you’re a dreamer, you belong here. It’s the most inclusive city.
The point isn’t to impose anything on Los Angeles. No one can. Here, you just go with the flow, sync with the rhythm. It feels like a slow rhythm, but it’s a powerful tsunami… with a strong, mystical “End of the World” flavor, and the “Big One” maybe coming soon. LA is a religion.
So our plan for Fred & Farid Los Angeles was “no plan.” Be humble, sit down. Shut up. Be a good listener of what works, and what doesn’t. Don’t question it. Embrace it. Embrace everything about it, the LA way. Kiss it. Love it. Worship it. For real. We came here with zero strategy — only with an attraction for this magnetic, tectonic plate. And the strong will to become Angelenos.
At Fred & Farid, we’re good at adapting. We pride ourselves on not being “influencers,” but instead being “influenced.” Our super power is to be influenced. We have no style, no funny logo, no color (just black and white), no font (we just use Arial). We’re liquid, with liquid intelligence. Fred & Farid Paris stinks of Paris, Fred & Farid Shanghai stinks of Shanghai, Fred & Farid New York stinks of New York… and hopefully Fred & Farid Los Angeles will stink of Los Angeles. That’s our long term goal.
Leadership:
Already, the world is observing the impact of artificial intelligence on culture and creative industries, including art, design, music, movies, journalism, gaming, and even advertising. Human creativity might be the last rampart against the rise of machines, but one day, that too will be threatened. And machines will rule.
As AI becomes more powerful, we at Fred & Farid are focused on preserving the untouchable specialness of what humans can offer — to advertising, and the world at large. We’re fighting back, and finding new ways for humans to remain relevant. We’re proving the value of humans, and taking this value to the next level.
What we mean is, at Fred & Farid, we’re all about human innovation — ultimately achieved by coming together, and connecting human spirits.
Our leadership is about connecting human spirits on every level, in every single way. We connect about projects, and life. In person, in WeChat groups, WhatsApp chains, and now on Zoom. We constantly think together. We don’t think in a silo. We think in a group. At Fred & Farid, leaders are obsessed with encouraging people to “Share. Out in the open. Don’t keep it to yourself. By sharing, you have power.” Meaning, we build upon the idea, to see where it can go — to ultimately reach the most unexpected output.
A human brain is on average 79 cubic inches of flesh and electricity. That’s not enough to crack a brand platform, and land a killer tagline. The only competitive way is to connect spirits, and create an inter- brain network, with flawless electricity moving through. Which means bypassing the logical paths, and accepting other people’s stimuli, as if they were coming from you.
At Fred & Farid, we believe in “thinking with our hearts”. It’s our Mantra. We truly believe our heart has a brain. You can literally think with your heart, if you try. For that, you must transfer your energy, from your brain to your heart, and allow yourself to be an emotional thinker. Emotion is the best sensor. And it’s the best creative director. No emotion, no idea. We humans, live for emotion. The day we die, we remember the good emotions, and the bad ones too. Mastering emotion is our main gift.
At the end of the day, we at Fred & Farid do not want to be cool. Cool is obedience, submission. It’s a feel- good zone for weak minds. At Fred & Farid, we believe in developing anything that the machine is not, or not yet: intuition, channeling, flashes, senses of taste, emotional intelligence, liquid thinking, disobedience, a mixture of genres, visceral joy, honesty, rawness, excess, empathy, absurdity, enchantment, ridiculousness, confusion, a storm in our brains, gut feelings, mistakes, synthesis, weirdness, human electricity, incoherences, contradictions. We attract people who are bored with machines, and obsessed with humans.
Agency Culture:
On agencies’ websites, you can read what agencies qualify as “BS for clients,” and what clients qualify as “BS from agencies.” But in reality, agency cultures are more interesting than their websites.
Here’s what you can’t read on our website…
At Fred & Farid, we are very serious about building creative environments. Physical spaces, in real life. We mean it. And we spend time doing it tastefully.
We don’t believe in in- house agencies. They defeat the purpose of agencies. If you keep working in one industry, one brand… you shrink, creatively. It’s inevitable. The two talents of agencies are structural talents: 1) cross- thinkingand 2) synthesis. What you learn on skin care helps you on cars, and what you learn on cars helps you on hospitality, and what you learn on hospitality helps you in tech…etc. And because you don’t have enough time to analyze every industry, you naturally simplify and develop the opposite talent, synthesis. Cross- thinking and synthesis are the two main advertising talents. And they come from being outside of the system.
In reality, building a creative agency is way more complicated than what some brands believe. Everything is fragile. It’s an artform. It takes time, and talent. Money is not the answer. At Fred & Farid, we build slowly, inch by inch. Slow is the new fast.
Everything counts.
First is the meaning. It starts with the neighborhood. When visiting the traditional LA advertising neighborhoods of Playa Vista and Venice, we didn’t feel a connection. We fell in love with DTLA instead. It had a vibrancy, a rawness, a soul and history. It touched our nerves. The crowd was the right crowd for us. East LA felt like the place for people who haven’t succeeded yet. People who want to make it. And we’ve always fit better with challengers.
Second is the light. Our world is dark. We need light. Creative minds need light for inspiration. An agency is a field of talents. Talents need light to blossom. We found a space surrounded by tainted windows with beautiful colors from artist choreographer Emily Mast. The light changes all day long with different reflections on the walls, reinventing our spaceship every hour.
Third is emptiness. Nature hates empty spaces, but creative minds are craving it. Our space is 1500 square feet, with high ceilings for 10 people only. With rare, carefully- chosen furniture. There are no individual offices. You can breathe and walk. It puts you in a state of contemplation. It develops your sense of beauty. And in today’s world, taste is what makes the difference.
Fourth is human electricity. Chi in China. Electromagnetism in modern science. For that, you need human tension. Syncretism is the key. Addiction to syncretism. The ability to match what doesn’t. An agency is alchemy. It is a place where water meets fire, money meets emotion, marketing meets art, business meets inspiration, neighborhood meets the planet… and these enemies flirt together. Enhancing tensions is key. It is a vital element of a thrilling day.
