Fortune Favors the Brave: Andy Nathan, Fortnight Collective

da Dasha Ovsyannikova
Fortnight Collective
Advertising/Full Service/Integrata
Colorado, Stati Uniti
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How and when was your agency founded?

Fortnight Collective was founded in November 2016. I was working for someone else and was increasingly wanting to control my own destiny. And I had a vision for an agency that played to my strength, passions & likeness. I was talking to my leadership coach about it, and he said the following words to me: Fortune Favors the Brave. I gave my notice the next day and started working on my business plan. Here we are four years later. Twenty employees. A collective of 150 creatives, strategists, developers, digital ninjas, producers, etc. Offices in both Boulder & London. A stellar client list that consists of both of AORs and project-based clients of all sizes. Fortune favors the brave.

 

What is your agency’s superpower?

We help brands be better, faster. Full stop. All centered around our proprietary ‘hack’ and ‘sprint’ processes. We work collaboratively with our clients to develop the brand strategy and creative development in as little as three days and up to 2-3 weeks. Our thinking is this: if you are a brand (or a person for that matter), why wouldn’t you want to be the best version of yourself as quickly as possible. We pride ourselves on being a brand marketing accelerator that moves at the speed of the market. We bulldoze obstacles and eradicate the overthink to ensure you get to market quickly and effectively. We often say: if you want to change the world, all you need is the right people and not enough time—somewhat tongue & cheek but a lot of truth to it.

 

Why would a client choose your agency over a large network? 

We are the antithesis of a large network agency. We believe we provide services that are better, faster, cheaper. We are not for everyone, and that’s okay. We focus on our super fan clients. Typically, it starts as a project and leads to several more projects and, for some, morphs into AOR relationships. And most of our new business leads come directly from our existing clients who refer us to their peers. For those who buy into our philosophy and approach, we are for them.

 

What is your view of the current climate in terms of new business opportunities?

It’s a very difficult time for many brands, and there are a lot of choices that need to be made around cost-cutting. I see a lot of opportunities to help brands who need to help clients affordably & efficiently. Our agency model was built for times like this. In fact, I had an e-mail exchange recently with a friend & mentor (Jay Haines, CEO of Grace Blue), and he said: ‘What you did was groundbreaking and brave, and you were three years ahead of the industry.’ We just want to help brands in any way we can. And we do it in a collaborative spirit with a sense of urgency.

 

Tell us about the latest work you've released. 

The beauty of our model is that we are always releasing work. Sometimes we produce assets and hand off to our partners, and other times we produce the work. In the last couple of months, we have been fortunate to work with an array of partners that truly span the spectrum of offerings. For Odell Brewing Co, we collaborated with our client to help brand, name, and introduce their first-ever canned wine. For CrossFit, we helped our partners by creating a closer look at their athletes through custom created social toolkits. For Noodles & Co, we turned to Facebook live and partnered with several improv groups to demonstrate the multitude of ways you can Mac & Cheese. We are always moving and making and are proud of all the elements we put into the market.

 

How have you been able to nurture your culture during the pandemic?

We’ve kept culture at the center of all of our decisions since we closed the office in March. Our approach has been two-fold: focus on supporting our people at an individual level and focus on staying connected, not only for collaboration and to keep the creativity flowing, but also for our mental health.

In terms of individual support, we’ve created a flexible schedule policy, allowing each employee to set the schedule that works best for them and their family, and we do 1-1 check-ins with all employees every few weeks to ensure everyone feels supported.

From a connection standpoint, we have a team check-in every morning for:15, we hold all of our meetings on Zoom, we either meet up for a socially distanced hike before work or a happy hour once a month, and we do virtual Friday team drinks to unwind, bond and celebrate another week.