Third Degree Creative

We're Moving.

2012-01-23T17:43:00.012-06:00

That’s right. You heard correctly. After 14 years, Third Degree Advertising will be uprooting from our home in Bricktown and relocating our headquarters to new offices in Midtown Oklahoma City (corner of Fourth and Walker).

More information to come.

ABNB Federal Credit Union's "Holiday Regrets" Promotional Campaign

2011-11-30T10:02:00.006-06:00

The holiday season is right around the corner. Despite all of that festive bliss in the air, you can’t help but have some regrets.

ABNB Holiday Promotion Mood Board

Too much food, those things you probably shouldn’t have said to your in-laws after all that eggnog – and what were you thinking when you decided to get that new puppy?

ABNB Holiday Promotion Mood Board

Here’s one holiday decision that you won’t regret: ABNB Federal Credit Union’s low-rate credit card. And what better place to get the word out than where many Americans rack up their credit card debt: the mall?

Floor Clings

Our media planners will tell you that the mall is one of their favorite out-of-home advertising locations to utilize because it gives the audience more time to take in our message (and because media planners love the food court). It also gives us a chance to get creative with some really high-exposure spaces.

Wrapped Escalator

We use the mall to target very specific geographical neighborhoods as opposed to entire DMAs. It’s also a great place to reach GenY and GenX. That’s why we continue to utilize this untapped space for ABNB as well as many of our other clients.

And that's just one part of our whole approach. We still do TV donut spots and radio ads in English and Spanish! Props to our Spanish voice talent for speed-reading that disclaimer.

Radio Spot English

Radio Spot Spanish

Phew! Desserts, puppies, whatever! Bring it on. No regrets for us this holiday season!

Buck the Norm: We come from SPAAAACE!

2011-11-14T17:07:00.016-06:00

Beam Me Out of Debt was our Gen Y targeted message this year, as Buck the Norm invaded the Gazette's 5th Annual Halloween Parade.

The float was complete with a pulsating flying saucer beaming Bucky the spokes-thumb out of debt, reflective stars, and fog machines. Aliens marched along side the float handing out glow sticks to those brave enough for a close encounter.

We even spotted a few visitors from a neighboring galaxy in the crowd.

For more behind the scenes photos of our space oddity visit our Facebook page, or check out our past Tinker Federal Credit Union events, like corporate sharks and debt loving zombies. And keep watching the skies.

9 Ways Facebook's New Look Affects Your Brand

2011-11-01T11:44:00.014-05:00

You know the Third Degree Facebook page is always active. (We can't resist a good photo op.) So when Facebook changes its interface, we take notice. We’re particularly interested in how these changes impact businesses. Here are some important highlights and takeaways for you to remember:

Anyone can comment on Pages.
Any Facebook member can now comment on a brand’s page, regardless of whether or not they “Like” the page. Although there are concerns associated with this transition (like dealing with crises and spam, and reaching new customers) this will now open conversations to more users, which can in turn bring potential customers. The good news is that you can’t measure success by ‘likes’ alone, but instead by the engagement of your community. Less stress on ‘like’ forces brands to create great content that keeps people coming.

The News feed is more selective, streamlined.
The streamlined News Feed includes a ticker timeline for less crucial updates (like a friend commenting on another friend’s photo). Important events get better real estate on the bigger, traditional news feed. This is good news for business pages, since you’ll cut through a noisy feed by posting high-quality content (determined by EdgeRank).

The EdgeRank System decides what you see.
Facebook’s EdgeRank formula breaks down visibility into various categories: Affinity, Weight, and Time. Affinity increases each time you interact with a page, meaning that content will get more presence in your feed. Weight prioritizes the visibility of different content categories, like photos, videos, links and status updates, with comments getting the most priority. Time-relevant information stays closer to the top of a newsfeed. (via)

Friend activity is now public.
The Friend Activity tab shows you which of your friends visited a brand’s page, the “Likes” and comments on posts, and any mention of the page by friends. A more personalized page means more user interest in visiting and interacting with the business or brand. Users can now recommend your brands to their friends directly from your page. (Just remember to give them a reason to do so.)

Status update character limit increased over 1000%.
A status update was once limited to 420 characters. That limit is now 5,000. For users, that means a more blog-like experience with their profiles. For brands, it means you can get a little more in-depth when you share news or events with your community.

Admins have more metrics.
This one's for the real analytics geeks. Where once you could only see metrics and engagement per-post for your self-published items, now you now track broader measurements by exporting Insight reports into Excel. (via)

Insights tool is more granular.
Analytics options now include a page-fan’s friendcount (“Friends of Fans”) and weekly Total Reach. Facebook encourages word-of-mouth sharing among fans and their friends, as well as to allow businesses to measure the extent of that sharing. Now you can count the stories people share that show up in News Feeds. Likes, mentions, RSVPs, check-ins, wall posts, answered questions and other related metrics are all measured. (via and via)

New plugins share browsing activity on Facebook.
If you're finicky about your privacy settings, this new feature might be a bit squicky. A Facebook plugin on your website publishes a Facebook user's browsing activity and sentiment on their profile and wall. From there, it filters out into their friends news feed and ticker. (via)

Facebook dabbles in social listening.
Following in the footsteps of Spotify, last.fm, and Pandora, Facebook now has a music dashboard letting you see what your friends are listening. Look deeper and you'll see their top albums and singles. Whether this will drive more people to Facebook and, in turn, could boost traffic to pages remains to be seen. (via)

So that's the straight dope on Facebook's newest changes. Though still filtering out to most users, Facebook's history shows they won't be the last changes to Facebook's UI. Whatever comes, just keep your focus on quality, shareable content. Oh, and have fun!

Funds For Learning Moves Up a Grade

2011-10-04T13:33:00.004-05:00

Funds For Learning (FFL) helps schools and libraries wade through government paperwork and become compliant to be eligible to receive technology funding. Tricky stuff. It's one of those "hey-I-didn't-even-know-people-did-that" jobs that once you hear about, you're glad is around.

We've worked with FFL for a few years now, helping develop their early branding. We even won the prestigious Jef Fontana Humor award for their on-hold message a few years ago.

Oh my, how the years fly by. Now Funds For Learning is the nation's largest provider of these services. They've moved up to a swanky new office and their team of experts is way bigger. Their past brand fit a smaller organization carving out a new niche. Now, they're ready to brag about their expertise, their experience and their drive to help.

So we got to thinking: Who is Funds For Learning to its clients? They cut through complicated paperwork. They show a clear path to funding. They keep clients from making costly mistakes. They're like sherpas, the rugged mountaineers that escort adventurers to the peak of Mount Everest. They're like a sensei, a master of mysterious techniques. And they're like a guru, with deep knowledge of their craft. What do these all have in common? They're guides. So, that's how we positioned Funds For Learning.

Above is the first brand positioning board recently created. The strategy is to: Keep a streamlined appearance to stand out from the competition's cluttered ads. Incorporate the internal culture into the messaging: Collaborative, fun-loving, resourceful, with a strong belief in communication. Use a new color system revolves around reds, oranges and saturated cyans, with white as the accent. Funds For Learning didn't need a drastic change to their brand, just a natural next iteration. A graduation, if you will.

Humorous Venn diagrams show that Funds For Learning really understands the tough position most districts are in these days, without getting too dour about it. The graph background, handwriting, and hand-drawn circles all reflect elements of a school whiteboard and a workplace brainstorming session. Using strong visual metaphors from simple visual shapes make Funds For Learning's brand very approachable.

Funds For Learning liked these initial ideas so much they decided to do a full-on photoshoot to show off their sweet new space and their team of gurus, sherpas, anda senseis (a.k.a. guides).

After a long shooting day, we let off some steam with an epic paper fight. Hey, what's a graduation without a little fun?

Hey look, it's the future! Third Degree Webcam Huddles

2011-09-06T13:02:00.007-05:00

With the creative department growing across two cities, we're figuring out how to do our usual daily huddles across the distance.

We're using iChat as a temporary solution, but that only handles four people. We're also looking at Skype Premium, which is currently the leading candidate. Google Hangouts has a very nice pricepoint (Free!) and expands to lots of users, but we noticed a lot of lag. Our newcomer Kaylee suggested Talkbox, which we'll definitely investigate further.

Any recommendations for on-the-spot facetime?

New faces at the Third Degree Oklahoma City office!

2011-08-30T15:39:00.006-05:00

We're super-busy these days, so it's nice when we can get some extra help in and out of the creative department. Next time you come around to the Third Degree Oklahoma City office, say hello to the new kids!

We met Jennifer at a recent AIGA portfolio review. Among a wide array of talented students and young professionals, Jennifer stood out for her strong type foundations, precise handcraft and clever concepting. That's a lot of jargon that only means something to design nerds. Which we so are.

Kyle comes to us from OU's journalism department. He actually first looked for an internship in the creative department, but his strength in research made him an obvious choice for the account service side. Above, he describes the stack of work we gave him on his first day.

Ah, and here's Kaylee. She interned for us over two years ago, but graduated and went off to the land of web startups. Now she's back from a three-month visit to Japan, full of stories about giant robots and questionable seafood. She's jumping into the creative department as a production artist.

Welcome to Third Degree! You're gonna be great.

Group Photo Shoot Outtakes

2011-08-26T09:40:00.006-05:00

Because we're oversharers, we couldn't help showing off our outtakes from the impromptu group photoshoot this week. Here's the scene...

[INT: Third Degree Office. Early morning. No one's had coffee yet.]
Daniel: Hey, let's do the group shot before it gets too hot.
Liz: Yeah, this is your last chance before I fly back to Durham.
Brett: But who are we going to sucker into being our photographer?
All: Jared!

[EXT: Backdoor of Third Degree offices.]
Jared: Okay, just like the Bricktown engagement photoshoots.
Liz: You go here. You go here. You go here.
Adam: I'm having second thoughts, guys.

Daniel: Let's move out to the sidewalk a little.
Brett: Yes! Like an album cover. Everyone space out and look serious.
Jared: Okay, everyone. One, twooooo, three!

Liz: Did I blink?
Jared: No, but let's take another one to be safe.
Daniel: Places, everyone!
Jared: Okay, everyone. One, twooooo, three!

Jared: Got it!

They grow up so fast.

2011-08-22T14:04:00.012-05:00

While everyone else goes back to school, we do things a little different here at Third Degree. Get your cap and gown, it's time for graduation!

(Clockwise from top left: Brett Grimes, Adam Lenaire, Daniel Solis and Liz Fabry.)

Brett Grimes (on the team 5 years) always brings his top game to design and art direction. That's why he's being promoted to Senior Art Director. Epic win!

Liz Fabry (4 years) pioneers our creative team in Raleigh-Durham. For the past year, she's grown as a writer, concepter, and grown our RDU team's profile. So, she's being promoted to Senior Art Director, too!

Congrats Liz and Brett! Two cities, two senior art directors. We're keeping it hot with double the creative firepower.

Oh! More good news! Daniel Solis (7 years) is now associate creative director. He'll keep the engines burning with social branding and innovative strategy. You'll hear more from the whole creative team here on the blog.

A Major Salute

2011-07-21T14:13:00.008-05:00

Remember Megan? You should- she's pretty unforgettable.

Today we're saluting her continued bravery, general serve-it-up-titude and totally cute shoes with some kind words and silly pictures.

First, a bit of an explanation from CEO Roy:

"Well this week marked a first for me. For the first time in my fifteen year career as the CEO of Third Degree, I had to navigate the new reality of bidding a teammate good-bye – at least for one year. And I’ve learned more than I ever thought possible.

As leaders, we more often are required to be the teacher than the student. But not in this case. Megan, who I often endearingly refer to as “Major,” is indeed just that. Megan Miranda, account planner for Third Degree, is also a Major in the US Army Reserves. And last week our country called her to service for the third time in a decade.

Major Megan Miranda, as of today, will assume command of a PSYOPS company that will be deployed in Afghanistan in support of the US Marines. And while I hate to see her go, I know that our country needs her and that the Army picked a great commander.

I watched Megan embrace her responsibility. What struck me the most is that before assuming command of her company in the US Army, she made sure that her fellow troopers at Third Degree were well informed and that all duties were transitioned with as little disruption and stress as possible. (As if she didn’t have enough else to worry about.) She was committed through the final few minutes of her last day at Third Degree. Giving it all for the team until she walked out of her office.

Megan accepts her role, responsibility, and duty as a military officer. And while I know inside she would rather stay in her office in the renewed surroundings of the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, and her home with a vegetable garden, and a group of people at Third Degree who’ve become her family, she doesn’t have that choice. She has a high calling and duty to do her part in defense of our nation.

I will admit that while the War on Terror has raged on since 9/11, I never truly felt personally affected – until now.

So while Megan does her duty over there, it is up to me, Third Degree and all who read this post to continue to do our duty here. And that is to continue our individual contributions to advance commerce, be thankful for the freedoms we enjoy, work as hard as she will for the next year, and never lose sight of the sacrifice that so few make for the benefit and betterment of so many.

Thank you, Major Megan Miranda. I would have picked you too."

– Roy

And now, to soften the blow- here are some light-hearted anecdotes from Megan's 1-year anniversary book:

"I love that Megan can talk marketing savvy and SHOES, all at the same time."
- Holly, Media Director

"Megan serves it up daily with her can-do attitude and team spirit. She’s the force you want working with you through anything - one that does it right and does it on time. She’s a force to be reckoned with and keeps the bar high for all of Third Degree and its clients."
- Natalie, Account Executive

"Megan is on it. She catches on quick, and lives the Third Degree brand daily. And she now has a smart phone so she can check emails. Oh wait, that’s not good… What was she thinking there?"
- Jared, Account Coordinator

"With nerves of steel when presenting, Megan leads with a velvet voice and grace under pressure. The only time Megan seems the opposite of calm are when shoes or coffee are involved. Then, her eyes beam and footsteps quicken as her coveted treasures are within reach! A tip for newbies: do not to interfere with her acquiring said shoes or coffee or I’m sure she’ll utilize some of her psych ops training and she’ll torture you with mind control. At least, that’s
what I hear from Roy (which explains a lot)."
- Amanda, VP Strategic Communications

Our hats (and shoes) are off to you, Megan. See you in a year.

The Calm Moments. And Coffee.

2011-07-05T13:43:00.005-05:00

Every internal culture has them. Little pieces of, well... peace. Most of the stories coming out of Third Degree's walls are in full-blown technicolor. We tend to crank the dial all the way up to hot when it comes to expressing ourselves. But today I stumbled on some images that capture, dare I say, our more tranquil side?

Coffee Cup Eggs

Don't they just look like ideas about to hatch? This pic is from about a decade ago I'd say. Many of our ideas have hatched and grown to crowing roosters by now. Mostly the ones for clients. Some of our own ideas, like frying an egg on the sidewalk last summer? Didn't have as fabulous an outcome. And if it's the coffee aspect of this scene that makes you want to sigh, or just head out the door to a Starbucks, check out this video about the virtues of coffee I stumbled on the other day.

Roy On The Road

This is Roy in one of his Up In The Air reflective-while-traveling moments. Except his backpack is anything but empty (you've got to see the Clooney flick to get my meaning here). The point is that Roy shines when he's got a glass of... well, let's say a beverage that's on the other end of the indulgence spectrum from coffee and rhymes with "fine"... a quiet corner, and a head full of blazing ideas.

Notes

Oh, and if a laptop isn't handy to capture one of his epiphanies... one of these little fellas will do just wine. I mean fine... fine. This photo has been on my laptop background forever, but I don't think I've ever shared it until now. It's neat. When I myself use one to sketch out my ideas, I try to use more descriptive words than "neat."

This Old Elevator

This is a Shining-like photo of our building's elevator entrance before it was remodeled. I kind of miss the exposed circuit boxes and the seventies-trying-to-be-turn-of-the-century sign in powder blue. This "little elevator that could" may be a bit modernized today, but it still kind of creeps people out.

Hall Pass

Probably because Brett is creeping down the back hallway up on the second floor. All he needs is a twin, and then it really is The Shining. This is our coffee escape hall, bathroom escape hall, escaping to the bathroom because you've had too much coffee hall. But this particular stance Brett is displaying, really has no explanation.

Just a calm moment at Third Degree. Eerie calm. But calm all the same for now.

"Tricking Out" Traditional Print Advertising

2011-05-17T08:54:00.004-05:00

So we've really been rallying around this idea of creating non-traditional executions for our client Pioneer as of late, even if the medium is, well, just plain old print.

Facebook and flash mobs may be the latest frontier of advertising, but for some markets – particularly rural ones – a postcard in a county road mailbox or a full-page ad in a town's main newspaper are still some of the most steadfast ways of getting a substantial number of people the message.

Not to say that you can't get creative with how you engage within a market be it urban, suburban or off the beaten path. We've definitely forged into non-traditional media with Pioneer, too. Their Hook Me Up grassroots phone booth and microsite for teens is a prime example.

But it doesn't matter how reliable the delivery channel or how attractive the offer if nobody reads it. And so often boring newspaper ads and ho-hum direct mail end up flipped past, tossed aside and quickly forgotten.

People should at least ...

smell it first ...

touch it first ...

or just frankly be unable to avoid it. (That's a really big postcard.)

But beyond direct mail with a twist, we've had an especially big success creating print ads that really push the medium by contrasting or working within the classic newspaper backdrop.

Engaging viewer interaction by inviting action in order to get "the whole picture" – having fun with the classic game, of you're getting warm, warmer, warmer...

Once we got started, we just started growing into it and now it's hard for us to stop.

Good for Pioneer because more eyes are spending more time with their message, good for the papers because they can demonstrate a forward-thinking approach, and just good for all of us to remember to entertain and engage our viewers – be it in their mailbox or over their morning coffee – even when they don't expect it.

Buck The Norm Video Contest

2011-04-05T11:07:00.004-05:00

Well, today is the last day of voting for TFCU's Buck The Norm video contest. The prize is a $2,000 scholarship and a MacBook for the entrant whose video gets the most votes. It's amazing every year to see what people come up with in these homemade videos. They can range from the cute, to the bizarre, but are always fun to watch.

This year the video theme was a $10 Day Challenge, asking them to make a video about how they would spend a day with only $10 in their pocket. The rest is up to them...

and their socks...

their pbj-making skills...

and the friends they can get to hang out as extras in chick suits.

While it's hard to let go of creative control, we at least like to steer entrants in the right direction. As part of the contest promotion on the Buck The Norm site, we show a How To Video to tell them about the video theme, rules, and tips for making a buckin' great video.

We also require they use some of our downloadable "props."

But making the video is only half the journey to the prize. We want our entrants to get lots and lots of votes, because TFCU doesn't choose the winners, we don't choose the winners... their friends, family and, well, strangers do. So we also give them digital tools for getting the word out and getting people to click on their video!

Did I mention today's the last day to vote? Hey, I'm just spreading the word, man.

Still Sparkling From CUNA Conference

2011-03-21T20:39:00.010-05:00

We are back from the 2011 CUNA Marketing and Business Development Conference, where credit unions across the nation converge (this year in Las Vegas) to get innovative, get inspired, and get some sparkly sparkly Diamond Awards.

Photo collage courtesy of the only phone pics Amy sent me. Amy, aka our CU Cheerleader was too busy spreading the credit union spirit and pep to take me some decent pics! Left is Roy at the podium as he rallies the general session about the power of internal culture. Right is our sparkly sparkly Diamond Awards (more on those momentarily.)

Even though some of us could only be there in spirit, a handful got our cheesy mugs played for the general session crowd on what I imagine was a huge screen, to illustrate how we practice-what-we-preach at Third Degree by embracing the tools of internal communication, and empowering our credit union clients to do the same. Roy is passionate about this subject. The grainy collage pic doesn't do his enthusiasm justice (that's okay Amy, we know you were probably constructing a pyramid of credit union marketers in a cheer at the time). So just imagine lots of pounding on the podium as he presented this to the crowd, along with Evita-like hand gestures.

Pre-conference, Third Degree created this "Powerful People" ant-themed video for the CUNA Council to help generate buzz and boost conference registration in the months leading up to Las Vegas. It was one of the highest attended marketing and biz development conferences for CUNA in the past eighteen years!

But now for the (drum roll please) Diamond Awards!

The "10 Reasons To Switch in 2010" campaign we created for Delta Community Credit Union out of Atlanta, was a big winner for the night. In addition to some merits, it won a Diamond for Print Ad.

The "10 Reasons" TV Campaign also snagged a Diamond for TV Series! If you recall we had quite a time creating these larger-than-life number props.

The whimsy of Northwest Georgia Credit Union's new look and feel was not lost on the judges either. Along with merits, the commercial that first launched the credit unions branding makeover was awarded a Diamond for :30 TV Spot.

In fact, whimsy was a winner all around, as Tinker Federal Credit Union got a Diamond for The SaveAbles Youth Marketing campaign, including the irresistible SaveATron himself.

Photo by Zach Nash.

Photo by Zach Nash.

Shark victims and financially empowering thumb lifeguards were not anything to sneeze at either, as the Buck The Norm, Ghouls Gone Wild Parade Entry also brought home a bloody hard-earned Diamond for TFCU.

But we've got to give a hand to plain old fashioned emotional connection, people, as TFCU's "Get Back To You" Complete Campaign stole some hearts and at least one Diamond, too.

"Gabby Knows" Online Moms

2011-03-01T11:02:00.011-06:00

A gal named Gabby has been gracing the screens of many a computer around Third Degree lately, as many of us have been working on launching her new campaign. (While drinking V8, from a can that happens to perfectly color coordinate with Gabby's web site and the conveniently staged desktop gerbers. We think Gabby would approve.)

Gabby is the co-creation of Third Degree and Fort Worth Community Credit Union – "a gal with the gift of gab who knows what she's worth" and she's the digital spokesperson of the credit union's initiative to reach women 30-38 years old, and connect with this "savvy mom" audience (since apparently these women make 80% of all household decisions, and we don't just mean buying veggie drinks and daisies).

In addition to her web site, GetYourWorthOn.com, Gabby is spinning all the social media plates, sharing financial advice, happenings around the community, Fort Worth Community products and services, and online deals and coupons on Twitter, Facebook and her blog: GetYourWorthOn.blogspot.com

Fort Worth Community launched Gabby in phases.

1. First they started with their internal team to get all the employees excited about Gabby. They gave all the staff training guides with the strategic low-down behind the campaign that Third Degree helped them create, plus gave them some Gabby "goodies" they created themselves as well, including notepads, bottled water, magnet shopping lists, etc...

2. We soft-launched Facebook and Twitter and began gaining followers as well as those that Gabby follows. Facebook: Gabby Knows / Twitter: @GabbyKnows

3. Then we kicked off the big Valentine's Day hard launch with a Spa Day Giveaway, adding internal merchandising like teller counter posters, drive-thru banners, on-hold messaging and lobby standees and external mediums like the web site and outdoor. We also used direct mailers, HTML emails online advertisements with Google, Facebook and the Fort Worth Star Telegram to get Gabby going.

And really, Gabby is just getting going. The goal is to continue to build a relationship with the women of the community (current members and non-members alike) who are making real financial decisions every day. And as Third Degree continues to help guide Gabby along the way, the long-term vision for the initiative hinges on Fort Worth Community's commitment to keeping the dialogue going, and keeping their internal staff as excited and "in-the-know" as that gal Gabby.

Getting Animated

2011-02-15T11:11:00.003-06:00

I like a film shoot as much as the next gal. Hello? Craft service. Yum. And speaking of craft. I love crafting an emotional connection with the viewer by capturing "real life" meets "what-we-wish-life-really-were" moments that you get from shooting a true moving picture.

Film shoots are especially fun (fun meaning unpredictable) if there are dogs or babies involved. TFCU always includes at least one if not both. But they are so worth it in the end. Kleenex please.

But we've also created several animated videos for other credit unions like, Belvoir FCU, Amarillo FCU and Allegiance FCU

So why does this creative director think the animated approach is also a great alternative for credit unions?

1. You can stretch a television production budget (get more bang for your buck.. and yes, us creatives care about your budget)

2. Create an affordable (yes, we know that word, too) video for an internal launch or for branch multimedia and website play (even if you don't do TV placement)

3. Retain a high quality feel (your spot is playing right next to a national one and the viewer doesn't feel like yours is the "homegrown" commercial)

4. The visuals translate great online, where video is quickly becoming a must-have (smaller screens = me like pretty pictures)

5. Promote products with "pop" to get a short-term results boost as a balance to your overall long-term branding (rather than trying to clutter your awareness messaging with salesy offers)

And even though you might think animation equals childish. Think again. And ignore the sock monkey below for just a second because it sort of negates my point. But animation have to mean cartoon. Set into motion photos, type, colors, illustrations and combine them with that just-the-right voice and that I'll-know-it's-right-when-I-hear-it music, and you begin to emote a lively, or a stirring, or even quirky (now enter sock monkey) moving message.

So as just static images, you ask "what the heck does a sock monkey have to do with getting a credit card?"

But set it into motion, and this "un-strings" attached credit card spot drives home the point. This is the third of a series of videos we've created for Northwest Georgia Credit Union, from their initial brand launch to a summer auto loan promotion.

These objects alone might look like a study in yellow...

But they actually represent the three pillars "open," "honest" and "hardworking" of ABNB Federal Credit Union's new brand.

And who says an animated spot can't be warm, sincere – or rooted in something substantial?

Voice and music are the most compelling ways to bring a story to life, like we did for LaCapitol Federal Credit Union when they redefined their brand across the state of Louisiana.

And video doesn't just have to mean television. The ABNB and La Cap videos are also a great example of videos that were created for internal launches to employees and staff, that were later were more easily translated into shorter tv spots when they were ready to roll out their messaging to the greater community.

The "Snow" Must Go On!

2011-02-03T15:35:00.000-06:00

Just because almost half the country is covered in a big ol' blanket of snow and ice, doesn't mean we don't all have to eventually dig ourselves out of our driveways and make our way back to the nine-to-five.

For Third Degree-ers navigating snow drifted streets and icy intersections is pretty much a universally tricky but all-in-all doable feat. And our careful trek from the parking lot to the safety and warmth of our office is probably just like yours (translation: perhaps one out of five of us fall on our posteriors before making it to our front door).

Our attempts at making snowballs, perhaps a little on the pathetic side. And our outerwear apparel, er, well, let's just say orange knit U-Haul hats are probably a bit on the unique side.

But once we get inside staying as "hot" as our brand, is a little bit more of a challenge. That, my friends, is our state-of-the-art heating and air system. It has an on and off switch. But the "on" setting is debatable. When your agency is housed in a turn-of-the-century warehouse (which is cool to be sure) certain additional provisions must be made.

Fingerless gloves... a must for typing, designing, copywriting and not losing your digits to frostbite.

Hot drinks... in Daniel's case fancy tea in a fancy, fancy tea cup.

In Holly's case... a cup of joe in styrofoam. Note the scarf and puffy vest are an all-day indoor fashion statement. At least they match.

Having a space heater that close to your face just cannot be a good thing.

But, portable heaters are a staple under every desk. Some of us keep our rugged footwear on all day.

Some bring a change of shoes. Not forsaking fashion for function.

And some will just forsake all professionalism at this point for warm tootsies. (Even while they are drinking fancy, fancy tea out of a fancy tea cup... not to give away the anonymity of this socked creative).

Hey, it's just all in the spirit of serving it up hot. Or at least not frozen for today.

Got A Mall. Got You Covered.

2011-01-20T17:10:00.000-06:00

It's not because our media planners are mall rats. Although I'm sure they'd admit to eating an Auntie Anne's soft pretzel or slurping an Orange Julius with a Gap shopping sack (with its classic logo in tact) hanging from the crook of one arm. But malls are a great place to get where people are – with some unexpected messaging. And we don't just mean those rotating poster kiosks.

Our most recent mall attack is an ER campaign for a regional hospital, Unity Health Center. While we'd done our fair share of outdoor for this small-town-provider trying to keep their community close to home vs. trekking an hour to the big city – the mall had been an untapped territory for getting out the word.

It takes a lot of planning and clever use of space to get the best impact out of a wrap like this. You don't want it to look like a flying giant banner accidentally smacked into to the front of the building and just stuck there.

If you asked our media planners (after bribing them with soft pretzels or Gap gift cards of course) to tell you the top four reasons why they recommend mall placement for your messaging, they'd say:

1. It's a perfect example of taking your media message to where people are, as opposed to making them come to you.

2. Like outdoor, but people aren't whizzing past at 60 mph-- they have more time to take the message in.

3. A great medium to tackle that ever elusive tween/teen audience. Several recent studies have been done about the effectiveness of mall advertising against teens.

4. It is a great way to target geographically. If your market potential is several neighborhoods, as opposed to an entire DMA, seek out your local mall. For the most part, people shop, close to where they live or work.

It's why we've "gone to the mall" for clients like Planned Parenthood where we've wrapped unused storefronts strategically located next to family rest & play areas, Buck The Norm with a debt-wise message right around holiday shopping time, and ACOG Clean Air messaging with a giant suspended "square of clean air" over the atrium-style food court and square blue-sky floor clings leading up to all the escalators.

ACOG "Get Square" including mall installation.

Planned Parenthood mall storefront wraps.

Buck The Norm mall banners.

Ye Olde Company Christmas Party

2011-01-04T09:38:00.000-06:00

What did we do for our Christmas party this year?
Same thing we do every year.

Drag our significant others along.

Make sure that there's lots of food (...and drink).

Hang out by department.

Look decisively to the left.

Dance!

Play fight (no- really).

And generally serve up all kinds of Christmas cheer, Third Degree-style.

Now: onto 2011!

Open. Honest. Hardrocking: Credit Union Internal Rebrand Launch

2010-12-07T16:03:00.000-06:00

ABNB Federal Credit Union is a progressive, people-friendly credit union out of Virginia that prides itself on being open, honest, and hardworking – and they needed a platform that would reflect that.

And that's where Third Degree came in. Ta-da!

ABNB whole-heartedly embraced their new look, and wanted to make sure their employees felt the love before unveiling it to the rest of the world. Smart. They launched the brand internally first, and made a day of it!

We made these cool internal culture books for each of their employees. They tell the ABNB story and introduce everyone to all the upcoming awesomeness.

"Better than a bank" was ABNB's previous tagline. But we thought we could make it... well... better.

ABNB was actually considering a possible name change as part of the rebrand. But decided to embrace telling their story versus changing out the sign on the door.

"What ABNB Stands For Today: So while Amphibious Based Naval Base has come and gone, the acronym, ABNB, is here to stay. Why? Because it has come to stand for so much more. Our employees sometimes joke it stands for Apples Bananas Nuts and Berries. But when they wear that ABNB logo, or say they work at ABNB, they know it's special. Perhaps Able, Brilliant, Nice, Brave are words more fitting of our credit union. But when it comes down to it, we have more than words to tell our story. At ABNB, our actions speak volumes."

ABNB had their corporate headquarters wrapped and lightpole-banner-ed out to surprise the employees for the internal launch event. They've since wrapped all 13 of their branches as well.

The all-staff event included ABNB VPs leading skits, sharing stories and singing songs to get everyone excited about the new brand. Rock on.

When there's fake mustaches, you know it's serious.

And each employee left with a small gift (branded,of course ) as well as a homemade mixed CD from their CEO to help express... well, his feeling, naturally.

Of course, never underestimate the power of video to bring an idea to life. The brand video was played at the internal launch, as well, and has since become the platform for a series of spots, as the brand is now in the external phase of it's launch, with television, radio, in-branch signage, merchandising, video and web. So ABNB can let the rest of the world know exactly how open, honest and hardworking they really are.

We Creatived. We Forumed.

2010-11-18T09:21:00.000-06:00

Today wraps up the last day of the Creative World Forum 2010, which was held in Oklahoma City this year, and within walking distance of Third Degree.

This map was helpful, I almost made the wrong turn at the end of our street. Whew! I could have ended up in Catalonia.

And actually, helpful, was my first impression of the conference. As I was greeted at about every three feet by a friendly, smiley, shiny, happy, young student ready to help us creativity-seekers find our way. They were everywhere. And so were these...

These amazing, weird, cool balloon sculptures by artist Jason Hackenwerth. They were part of a "Branching Out" theme woven through the conference.

You can even get inside them. That is if you don't have a phobia of a.) small confined spaces b.) insect-like appendages or possibly even c.) cow udders. I thought these things were the bee's knees. Or should I say, the bee's fuzzy appendages.

The balloon sculptures were just a hint of how well produced the opening ceremonies would be (full orchestra, theatrics galore, and some stirring Native American performances) and what fantastic speakers would start the show.

Like the Toms Shoes founder and "chief shoe giver" Brandon Myoskie. And this guy, Blake Logan, an Oklahoman born boy, who just happens to be the president of Oprah! I mean Harpo! (Same thing. No, literally, same thing, just spelled backwards.)

From Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind (Roy loves this guy, FYI), to David Pogue who helps all us dummies, to Sir Ken Robinson who is a world speaker and thinker on finding your creativity and passion and how the education system doesn't help you do either, but should. Plus, he could have spoken all day in his lovely accent, with his dashing cane, and his salt-and-pepper hair and suave glasses... oops, I digress.

Other people could digress as well. In between sessions this labyrinth was among many interesting and entertaining diversions. I think there was a Thriller flash mob even at some point. I missed that one.

The Wishing Well, water for the world project was a big presence as the conference. Over a hundred students walked barefoot carrying jugs of dirty water across downtown and right up onto the arena stage. Then a gospel choir sang We Are The World.

It sounds hokey. It seemed hokey, honestly, when it was happening.

But tell that to the business man sitting next to me who was trying not to notice as I was trying to pretend I wasn't wiping the tears off my neck (you know it's bad when they have run past your face, but then you can usually just use your collar at that point).

I decided to send Daniel in my place the second day (with my pass). I know, shady behavior.

But I thought he could use a good inspirational cry. But the robot dude just got all uber-geeky-nerdy inspired by these bad-ass "agents of the future" speakers Pranav Mistry and Andrew Zolli as they debated whether people should have moments of disconnection from the flow of technology or if they should be constantly immersed. And that's my dumbed-down version of how he excitedly described it to me. I think most of the audience probably tuned out as those two guys started their super-cerebral debate. Daniel ate it up.

In fact, he had to wipe the drool off his neck. You know it's bad when it's gotten down past your face.

I recommend using the collar.

Buck The Norm: We're Going To Need A Bigger Boat

2010-11-04T11:42:00.000-05:00

Actually, we used the same float as last year, just transformed it into a boat of sorts for the drowning in debt theme of our Buck The Norm presence at the annual Ghouls Gone Wild parade this year.

Photo by Zach Nash.

Photo by Zach Nash.

Beware of the norm was our credit union Gen Y message to 30,000-plus spectators at this night-time city parade. Our surfer "victim" riled up the crowd at dusk, with our debt-hungry sharks hot on his trail.

Of course, the Third Degree behind the scenes prep is always entertainment in itself around the office. Getting the costumes just right. Perfecting our blood-spatter technique.

Photo by Zach Nash.

The Buck The Norm Gen Y financial empowerment initiative is powered, of course, by the always progressive, and not too blood-shy either, Tinker Federal Credit Union. In fact, I don't think I can say I often attend marketing meetings where the client actually says "the more fake blood the better as far as I'm concerned." Aww. TFCU, you're after our own ghoulish hearts.

So from last year's corporate zombies, to this year's blood thirsty sharks Buck The Norm just keeps raising the bucking (and bloodcurdling) bar.

Third Degree Monster Mash

2010-10-29T14:59:00.000-05:00

Never ones to shy away from drama, or costumes... or a theme, we Third Degree-ers had to come up with a dress-up theme that would meet the standard we set with our Mad Men Halloween from last year. So what to do? What to do?

When in doubt. Go classic Hollywood movie monsters.

Tara, Creative Director, Bride of Frankenstein (with $8 worth of hairspray holding up one hair-do)

Daniel, Senior Art Director, The Wolfman (during transformation)

Brett, Art Director, The Invisible Man

We didn't even see him coming.

Jared, Account Coordinator, Chef from Blood Feast (did we mention part of our Halloween tradition is a potluck lunch?)

Amanda, Director of Strategic Planning, (and Strategic Vamping) as Bride of Dracula

Amy, Director of Marketing, Cleopatra and her Mummies

Misty, Operations Coordinator and Mutant Spider

Bring on the atomic mutant bugs! Caroline, Admin Assistant, as an Atomic Ant

No wire hangers!!! Account Executive Natalie as everyone's favorite silver screen mom, Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest

Priceless. CEO Roy as Vincent Price. Squinty equals sexy, right?

The scream queen Janet Leigh as portrayed by Pam, our numbers queen and Director of Operations

Who let the birds out? Who else could play Tippi Hedren...

... but our own blonde with a dramatic streak to match, Accounts Director, Kande

Oh, there's more. You can see all our Halloween pics here.

Happy Haunting!

Our Bulletin Is Anything But Bored

2010-10-12T08:30:00.000-05:00

Someone once told us they felt like they already knew the people at Third Degree just by visiting our web site. It's true, we do post a lot of pictures of ourselves. Sometimes in costumes. We tweet. We blog. We post our key-lime-throwdown and our frying-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk results on Facebook. But there's also a good old fashioned way to get a peek into our agency culture.

Our break room (we call it the diner) bulletin board.

Fight On storyboard and diner sign we made as prop for end of video.

Sometimes it reminds of our favorite projects.

Tin cans for our Inside Voice video. Liz's idea day one-sheet about handcrafted elements in design.

We like to give props to our handmade props.

Idea day show-n-share, favorite outdoor boards.

Our office coordinator Misty handmade this billboard replica for idea day. I personally think it's better than the original.

Sometimes it's a place to find inspiration.

This is like a multi-tasking creative's version of a kitten hanging from a tree poster.

This looks like a harmless calendar. That's because we finally started covering up what's on the top half (which is not covered up at all).

Sometimes it just keeps us on schedule.

Like our idea day schedule.

Which is no laughing matter. We're hungry people. Now what's your freakin' idea!?

It's a place of thanks.

Our clients are nice. And have good manners. Like, they probably don't say freakin' as much as we do.

Roy's daughter Kendall's artistic contribution. Third Degree creative director 2030.

Our kids are nice, too. And, they probably do say freakin' as much as we do. Because we're bad influences that way. But at least the creativity is rubbing off. And the boastfulness. But, hey... what are bulletin boards for?

Getting Famous, People

2010-09-29T11:59:00.000-05:00

There's this exercise we do when we're digging deeper into an organization's brand. It sounds a little hokey at first, but it actually sparks a ton of conversation and really does give us (and them) a different way to view their organizational "personality" as a whole.

We ask them to answer this question: "if you're organization were a famous person, which famous person would they be?"

Hey, it's not like we're asking what kind of tree they would be.

This particular group represented above, had a very rugged, of-the-people, vibe. And they like hats (even though Reba wasn't wearing hers here).

This was actually a voting ballot we created after we got everyone's answers.

John Wayne won. Of course. Who can beat out the "King?" Wait, no, the "Duke?" Wait, no... that's right. I just Googled it.

Sometimes we'll go a step further and then compare how the organizational persona stands up to their customer's persona. So from Bill Gates on one end to Average Joe on the other, it can be a telling exercise.

How we work out the customer persona is a lot less about celebrities and more about focusing in on all the things that make up that real person: life stage, age, gender. Sometimes when we get a really enthusiastic group, we'll even talk about where they vacation and if they own a boat. It happened. See "Bill's" boat up there?

This is all done through group collaborative discussion (sometimes shouting, the good kind) and a whole lot of gettin' crazy with the markers.

Of course we always like to do these exercises on ourselves as well.

So when we asked Third Degree-ers what famous person our agency would be, we got some really interesting answers. Here are just a few:

Tina Fey actually got two entries.

"She is smart, quirky, hard-working and coming into her own."

"She is witty, edgy and respected. The first woman head writer for Saturday Night Live.
And like our CEO, Roy, she tests the boudaries of appropriateness :)"

Jean Chatzky, Money Magazine editor and Today Show guest contributor.

"She works to break down complex messaging into practical, useful and compelling information relevant to the target audience."

Wow. Very practical answer. One guess which Third Degree-er that came from.

Robert Downey Jr.

"We've been around the block, know what's up and are still a bit of an underdog...."

"... plus Iron Man's pretty much branded with our colors."

One guess what department the person who made that comment came from.

The Brat Pack

And speaking of the edge of inappropriateness. Guess who chose the entire Brat Pack as our Third Degree persona? Roy. A true eighties boy. And his words:

"They were hip for their time, slightly irreverent, but made one hell of a splash together. They had the look and the attitude to back up their popularity. Individually they all had their own accomplishments, some more than others. But almost everything they did as a team was a success. So that's us... just a pack of brats."

Well said.

Success On A Stick

2010-09-22T09:10:00.000-05:00

So, as in most parts of the country it's state fair time here. I'm not sure if we'll squeeze in an agency lunch outing like we have in years' past. Deadlines kind of trump deep fried twinkies. But since we are so food-centric, obviously the part of the fair that strikes a chord with us is the eatin' part.

Eatin' stuff on sticks, that is.

We like sticks.

Sometimes we feel like we're the ones on the stick. Did I mention those deadlines?

In fact, we even create whole concepts around sticks. Like this super-fun Northwest Georgia Credit Union summer car loan commercial. Wait. Whoa. What a set up, right? I prefer calling it a segue. I mean, come on, did you really think this whole blog post was going to be about deep fried delicacies and gator kabobs?

This animated approach, sticks and all, was really fun to create. And while it was definitely promotion-based (seriously, what credit union marketer doesn't want to increase loans right now?) it was also a perfect compliment to the new brand awareness campaign Northwest Georgia launched earlier this year.

Granted, cute doesn't cut the mustard without results (mmm... mustard, I forgot about state fair corn dogs... the classic predecessor of all food on a stick). My point is, I'm happy to report that Northwest Georgia has seen their biggest loan month in August in the past ten years.

Now, I can't give the sticks all the credit. The marketing team at Northwest really felt their loan growth was a result of a combo of things: the vehicle loan offer, the advertising and some recent sales training with their front-line staff to help boost their confidence in having "the loan conversation." Because we all know credit union marketing is only as good as the staff and cross-selling doesn't always come as naturally in the credit union culture as, let's say, being super-warm and friendly does.

Their marketing team's efforts are also a great example of launching a promotion internally with employees before taking it to the streets.

All in all, another satisfied credit union. Another great day. Now, who's interested in a deep fried twinkie themed campaign?

Pencil Pushers

2010-08-31T10:45:00.000-05:00

Urbandictionary.com defines a pencil pusher as: "someone who works in an incredibly boring job. Most likely the person themselves also exudes extreme boringness."

I think working at and/or with Third Degree is probably the most opposite to boring you can get.

Though we do seem to have an eerie attraction to pencils around here.

Especially jumbo pencils.

Notice the "KingRoy" inscription. This is mounted in our CEO's corner of the agency.

Or jumbo-jumbo ones.

Even pencils with mustaches.

Which is why after one of our Third Degree-ers tweeted about this pencil artist yesterday, I just had to share.

via telegraph.co.uk and kidrobot

His name is Dalton Ghetti and he makes these amazing miniature pencil sculptures.

via telegraph.co.uk and kidrobot

"These miniature masterpieces are a side project for the professional carpenter, who has been perfecting this art for the last 25 years. Dalton uses a razor blade, sewing needle, a sculpting knife, a steady hand and lots of patience to meticulously carve the graphite which can take anywhere between a few months to a few years. Over time he has broken many works in progress and keeps them in what he calls the cemetery collection. One of the most fascinating things about these tiny works of art is that he has never sold them, only given away to friends as gifts."

Now, how to make friends with him so he gifts us one of his creations? I wonder if he's on Twitter? #unboringpencilpusher

Bowling. (Or At Least Trying.)

2010-08-26T14:43:00.001-05:00

This time last week we were prepping for our mid-year annual planning retreat. That means everyone at Third Degree records their out-of-office voice mails, tries to tie up as many loose ends as possible, puts their phones on vibrate and head off to a predetermined locale for a half-and-half sort of day. One half planning and thinking and stewing real hard. The second half playing hard.

Last year we did the 80's murder mystery. This year... less costumes. But still just as sweaty and embarrassing.

Okay, I know bowling isn't exactly sweat-inducing, but it was like 103 degrees that day. And this photo has nothing to do with that statement. Unless Daniel is trying to ventilate his Third Degree t-shirt here.

Perhaps I should rephrase. Embarrassing for some. "In-your-face-I-rock" for others. Case in point, Roy on the left with the highest individual score. Daniel on the right with the lowest.

Pam wins for most competitive. Leave it to our newly titled Director of Operations to get freaking serious.

Amanda, not so much serious. But wins for cutest in bowling shoes.

Holly's team wins most adorable overall. I mean... come on??!!! She was a ringer for that award. If you couldn't guess, Holly's the one on the far right. With the two bowling balls.

Get Out of The Box. Get Square.

2010-08-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

I know "get outside the box" is about the most overused and un-outside-the-box statement you can make. But how could I resist? We literally hung a gigantic box above the two-story metro mall courtyard to promote GetSquare.org, the clean air awareness campaign.

Okay, it's a square to be exact. And it has not crushed or killed any shoppers yet.

Suspended Square

Food Court Railing Clings

But it has gotten their attention.

In fact, over the seven-plus years Third Degree has worked with ACOG on the Get Square initiative, public recognition of clean air habits and willingness to change those habits (i.e. carpooling, gassing up at night) are up to 70% awareness. And while Oklahoma's federally mandated air quality regulations have become even more stringent as of late, our state continues to see improvement.

Uh... and hello? It's just a great and noble endeavor, which always gets us inspired to create great work.

Newly redesigned GetSquare.org web site.

We've continued to evolve the look and feel over the years.

And the creative approach isn't the only way we've "mixed up" our delivery. We've always implemented non-traditional and grass roots outreach for Get Square – like the annual summer electric lawnmower giveaway. But most recently, we gave away kites. (That's what's in the bag.)

We were going to give them away July 4 weekend. That's us putting up banners for the outdoor event.

Fly That Kite, Jared! Fly It!

But severe storms and flash flooding meant a no-go for that day. What? Severe storms in Oklahoma? I don't believe it.

But all's well that ends well. We regrouped and planned for a giveaway on tax-free weekend, taking advantage of some major back-to-school crowds, plus a popular yearly Lego event taking place in... you guessed it... the mall!

We handed out reusable shopping bags as well as the kites under the shadow of our awesome square.

So I suppose you could say it all came full "square." You know, like full circle – but square. Heh. heh. Those square jokes never get old.

Thanks ACOG letting us go the extra mile. The extra mile with less fuel emissions. And we carpooled. Better yet, we walked there. Yeah... we walked there together.

Also check out our mall advertising for Planned Parenthood.

Frying Us Some Eggs

2010-08-13T16:20:00.000-05:00

Since it is a lovely 102 degrees today, we thought we'd truly embrace one of our Third Degree brand philosophies and serve it up hot...

... by seeing if we actually could fry an egg on the sidewalk.

Grade A

At 1:45 pm, we pushed back from our keyboards, proceeded single file down our back murder stairwell, and out into the afternoon sunshine (which in Bricktown seems even more sweltering, since we're surrounded by, well... bricks).

Cracked Up

Mmm. Yolky.

Kande (the instigator of the fried egg experiment) assured us that her sources indicate an egg will in fact fry on the sidewalk at 130 degrees (which the concrete apparently reaches when it's 100-plus degrees outside). We opted for a metal manhole cover for the first egg, figuring it was the most similar surface to a frying pan.

Like every good experiment you need other test subjects. So we also tried asphalt and tin foil.

Eggs-Eye Perspective

Taking Bets

As we stood there "egging" on our little embryos to fry, we realized we probably looked like we were shooting dice out in the alley.

AgriTourism

We even attracted some Wichita passersby, who asked if they could take a picture with their camera phone. We're going viral, baby!

Time & Temperature

Then our client from ACOG, Jerry stopped by. He had very specific views about the proper variables for "basting" an egg, as he put it.

He shared his scientific opinions.

And even though we went as far as attempting scrambling...

... Jerry remained skeptical.

We may not have concluded this day with egg on our face, but we did come to the conclusion that while an egg won't actually cook after being out in the heat for 20 minutes... the Third Degree-ers definitely got fried.

Sidenote: as we stood under a nearby shade tree waiting for some sizzle, we actually held an impromptu brainstorm meeting about the upcoming Ghouls Gone Wild parade, and actually came up with a fantastic theme on the spot. So we've decided to hold all our future brainstorms in 102 degree heat (you know, like how Gweneth Paltrow and Madonna take yoga classes in rooms where the temperature has been raised for optimal fat-burning). It's going to be this whole new thing. But we will definitely need to invest in sunscreen... and perhaps an agency shower.

Meet Megan.

2010-07-30T10:04:00.000-05:00

Meet Megan. We recently hired her as an account executive in our fancy new Raleigh-Durham office. She is one smart lady.

If you haven't noticed already, Third Degree is a pretty lady-centric company. And we're just as apt to talk about shoes in our morning huddles are we are to brag about our latest campaigns (ahem…).

So we knew Megan was going to fit in just fine when she started coming to work rocking these babies:

and these:

Shoes say a lot about a person, don't you think? Sometimes I like to imagine them fighting for my attention when I'm deciding what to wear in the mornings. Some pairs just don't get along.

But there's one pair of shoes Megan hasn't worn to work yet:

Though she does rock them from time to time outside of Third Degree. You see, when she's not serving it up to our east coast clients, Megan serves as a Major in the Army Reserves. That's right, Major Megan. Best nickname EVER?!

Not only has she valiantly served our great country by doing two tours of duty in the Middle East, she's also currently the Commander of a Psychological Operations Company (which is basically like integrated marketing supporting U.S. objectives in other countries, though with another cool nickname: PSYOP).

Megan's experience in the Reserves made her the right woman for the job at Third Degree. She's already brought a lot of insight and strategy to our new east coast ventures. She's fitting in great. Because like everyone else here, she'll be wearing lots of hats… and… wait for it… shoes.

Welcome, Megan!

Ah, I see she went with the strappy wedge sandals today:

(Yeah... I was trying to go for something conceptual here, like, a portrait of her many different identities as a modern, multi-faceted career woman. But the final product just looks like her shoes have gained zombie-like consciousness and are mindlessly attacking her feet. Not so successful. Though it kind of makes me want to re-watch The Birds. So. That's a plus.)

Tara. Two Days. Durham.

2010-07-22T07:55:00.000-05:00

Touchdown at Raleigh-Durham airport and am greeted by my escort with the shady shades...

... Liz. The adventure already seems full of danger and promise.

First step of the journey. Must cross a raging stream (okay, like a bubbling brook) to gain entrance to the highly anticipated North Carolina Third Degree office.

My guide leads the way unhindered.

I survey my surroundings. Red, orange and gold carpet squares, familiar, familiar... so I feel at home. But offices with walls?! I can't adapt! I must spread my crap... er, I mean... lay out the tools of my trade in the most open environment I can find, the glass-walled conference room.

My guide lets me know it's lunch time.

I'm hearing what she's laying down.

We decide to skip the smoke break.

The new office is located in Durham's American Tobacco District (hence the Lucky Strike water tower). Similar to our Bricktown home-base in Oklahoma City, it's a renovated industrial area from the turn of the century that now houses businesses, restaurants and crazy hot agencies like us, Third Degree.

And partake in what the locals call... toast. Strange, yet delicious.

All's well that ends well as the "shades" are drawn on this little adventure.

Strategic Creatives. Makin' The Moves.

2010-07-13T12:44:00.001-05:00

It's true, at Third Degree we spread the strategic thinking around. Every department has to flex their noggins beyond typical daily duties on a regular basis. But the creatives are thinking extra hard these days, formulating their next strategic...

... well, move.

They have gone game crazy. And not in a normal geeky online fantasy game sort of way. Like in a seriously old-school, "someone break out the chinese checkers" way.

These are literally four "active" games that reside on each of their desks. So anytime someone randomly walks by, they make a move. There's some sort of system involving flipping the Third Degree patch backwards or forwards to let them know who's turn it is.

Adam, one of our newest designers ("hi Adam"), has embraced this wholeheartedly, and allowed some considerable square footage of his desk to house the playing field. Yep, no room for personal items here. Pictures of his dog, or trophies from his school days will have to find another place to reside.

Though they do have their own trophy of sorts. The traveling totem for the player with the current highest wins is the coveted dice paperweight. Brett's the current champion. But Daniel's thinking working hard to dethrone him.

Actually, Daniel is more than a board game enthusiast, he actually just designed his own interactive game for kids (not online interactive, like face-to-face interactive). Happy Birthday Robot, was just officially published and distributed to elementary classrooms all over the place.

Go Daniel. (But Brett still has the dice... no, die... er... that's a weird word... I think perhaps I need to go flex my noggin some more.)

La Cap's New Look

2010-06-25T13:11:00.000-05:00

We've been busy launching a new brand in Louisiana lately. La Capitol (but all the cool people call them La Cap) is a statewide credit union that came to Third Degree for some branding love.

This credit union is so rooted in culture and community, that we created a look and feel for them that would organically tie them to not only the physical traits of their state but also the Louisiana state-of-mind.

Local, local, local... and credit union differentiation from banks are the main themes you'll find woven into all the messaging.

We created a brand video seen here, and a condensed version for television. Probably one of the more sincere and steeped-in-tradition animated videos we've done in a long time. Usually our animated videos (which are a great way to get a high-quality feel for a modest budget) tend to be bright and "poppy," with like toy cars or happy little wrenches. But this video for La Cap shows you can use the same execution to tap into a more heartfelt emotion as well.

Getting the employees on the bandwagon is so important it's not even funny. So part of the soft launch of the brand included a variable, specialty mailer sent to each employees home (that's right, their home), not just tacked to the break room wall. Not that break room walls aren't a very handy medium. But this kind of piece makes everyone feel "the love"... La Cap style.

Feel The Earn

2010-06-02T13:51:00.000-05:00

My six year old, Charlie, is a little young to understand earning power. But he does have a current fixation with taking his shirt off, grabbing my aerobic-style powder blue three pound weights, and flexing his muscle power.

I'm like, "can you feel it, can you feel the burn?" He's like "oh yeah, I can feel it."

And that's where our latest concept for ABNB Federal Credit Union's rewards checking came from.

Well, it wasn't that simple, but it sounds very creative doesn't it? To just be struck by some cool concept when you're in the shower, or doodling on a cocktail napkin, or watching your child develop an obsession with having action-hero-style biceps.

So biceps and barbells became the backdrop for ABNB's high-interest checking product – one of the first of its kind in the Norfolk, Virginia market – so we're anticipating a strong (pardon the pun) return on this summer campaign.

"Why settle for wimpy checking?" We even got a handlebar mustache in the mix. You know how we feel about mustaches around here. Perhaps growing a 'stache will be Charlie's next fixation.

Hot Lunch

2010-05-21T16:27:00.001-05:00

We decided to do a festive Friday lunch today. So we hiked over to The Wedge in our neighboring hood, Deep Deuce.

The flames are appropriate, because it was freakin' hot.

But we wanted to sit outside and soak up some sun (as well as some camaraderie) considering that just a few days ago the weather looked like this:

Freaky.

However the sun did get a bit intense.

It was then that we noticed Daniel's self made sun-beating-down-on-your-neck deflecting napkin accessory.

But our ridicule quickly turned into mimicry. That's Andrew at the end. Our newest art director (another pale-skin redhead... so you know he doesn't want to burn).

This is the moment he realizes what he's in for at Third Degree. Case in point, see our fearless leader Roy down there at the head of the table... his napkin styling choice... on his head.

Happy hot Friday!

Web Cookies

2010-05-07T10:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning Kande got a special delivery of custom-made cookies she commissioned for three, yep, three client web sites she launched last week.

These are actually a hodge-podge of unrelated projects, so it takes a little diagramming to show you which cookie is for what.

The pink ones with little frosting (a-hem) undergarments – are for Cosmetic Surgery Affiliates.

The CSA site redesign features a much cleaner navigation and a cool before-and-after photo gallery. While the TFCU Partners site update has more built-in interactivity, more regularly updated content, and a modern spiffed-up look.

Then there's the Save-A-Tron web site. Super cute... He blinks! He beeps! There's a pig with a hairbow! (Hence the cookie version.) This is TFCU's new youth account site, complete with games, tips for parents and teachers and crafts. And if you don't know about Save-A-Tron, check him out here.

So, needless to say, Kande was busy making special deliveries to lots of happy clients that day. Meanwhile, Jentry's "special delivery" still has a month to go... so it's best to keep her away from your cookies 'til then.

Getting The Hook Up

2010-04-29T08:57:00.001-05:00

How do you find thousands of teens to interact with your brand, when you're a local provider of a product that is spread over countless rural towns?

Free photo booth + 10,000 FFA kids.

Yes, it's that time of year again, where if you want to grab a quick sandwich downtown, you better be ready to stand in line for at least an hour. It's the Future Farmers of America convention (the cool kids just say FFA), where those blue-jacketed, black-panted (or skirted) guys and gals descend upon the city from every Oklahoma town you can imagine. Just reading their jackets is like a lesson in Oklahoma geography...

But for Pioneer Cellular, they're a walking, talking, texting microcosm of their geo-targeted teen market.

Okay, I could get in trouble for the texting comment. Apparently those FFA kids are a disciplined bunch, strict dress code, strict behavior code. I think they may not be allowed to chew gum in their uniform, so texting's probably a no-no too.

The national cellular players are courting the young'uns like crazy, so Hook Me Up Pioneer is the teen focused "spin-off" brand we created, to get more young people to engage with the hometown provider.

Not even the frozen pickle pop booth drew such a gaggle of teens as the Hook Me Up photo booth. (Yes, frozen pickle juice in a tube is a real thing and the FFA kids go bananas... or should I say, pickles... for it.)

Black shoes, black hose, knee length skirt: FFA required. Cute pose: Third Degree recommended.

The props made it all the more fun. And the kids walked out with an instant touch point with the Hook Me Up brand...

... a full color photo strip that they could share for instant gratification, with a call-to-action to go online to download and share their pics digitally.

Of course I had to try it out.

Ah, to be young.

Kim and Donna, from Pioneer marketing, herded those teens like pros (including capturing their emails, reminding them to visit the Hook Me Up web site, and entering them to win Tim McGraw tickets).

Then they took a time out to test it out themselves. And when Kim and Donna are happy... we're happy. Pickle pops for everyone!!!

Credit Union Takes A Branding "U" Turn

2010-04-21T13:40:00.000-05:00

I just have to share this recent branding we did for a bright and plucky credit union in Rome, Georgia. Northwest Georgia Credit Union is a little bit down-home and a little bit bold.

So our discovery workshop a few months back revealed that Northwest just really wanted their outsides to match their insides. Not a bad problem to have. They had some spirited ideas for sure, like the themeline: Un-banking. Unbelievable. But our tour of their offices revealed a softer, warmer, more cozy vibe (flowers, wooden framed artwork, family feel) than their new corporate looking logo and brassy tagline led us to believe.

So we meshed the two together, and voila came up with "a little bit country, a little bit rock n' roll" solution. Not really a u-turn at all, more like a bit of crafty mixology.

But of course we just had to have fun with the "u" words... I mean, how could we resist, right? We also gave them a visual platform based on these fun red objects and words that they could take and build on in the future...

... like updating their web site themselves (but still consistent, no?), basically giving them some building blocks to create everything from touchy-feely branding to zing-packed promotions.

Although I think the brand TV spot we created for them was pretty zingy and brandy (yes, that's the new hot advertising term for it.. brandy). The puppet-show-inspired animated approach ended up just right: un-corporate, un-stuffy, and a little bit unexpected.

Sound Booth Science

2010-04-15T16:53:00.000-05:00

So I'm trying a new experiment with our Third Degree on-hold phone message. First, I pick one of our core values, in this case, friendly.

Second, I spring it on three of our friendliest Third Degree-ers (in this case Liz, Jentry and Roy) that I need them in the recording studio, like, tomorrow please. Because everyone just LOVES the sound of their own voice, right?

Then once they get in the sound booth they realize the script I gave them has a bunch of blanks. As in, they have to fill in the blanks themselves on the spot.

Then to top that off I start taking their picture, per usual. As if they weren't uncomfortable or sweaty enough in that little padded room...

... a sweaty padded room that they couldn't get out of fast enough. Then I ask our sound producer, Randy at RK-1, to help me put together something that is actually cohesive from the chaos that ensued in above-mentioned padded booth.

And that, folks, is his stunned silence.

Well perhaps the experiment was just a little too behind-the-scenes, but it sure just got some attention after being on our phone system for just two hours. So, alas, we've pulled it and switched to music... that is until I concoct another scheme (insert evil laugh here).

But if you want to hear it you can go to the HOLD ON strip on our website to take a listen (be sure to pause that pesky video first or you won't be able to hear it.)

Spring. Wednesday. Donuts.

2010-03-31T16:06:00.000-05:00

Can't... make... complete.... sentences. Too. Beautiful. Outside.

Pretty tree flowers. But stinky.

People bringing donuts. Cheery day.

More people. More donuts. "Bester" donuts.

Culture of enablement. Candy. Everywhere. Not even Easter yet, people.

Escape. Sans donut. Sans skin pigment. Yikes winter legs! Yay spring!

TFCU Get Back To You

2010-03-26T08:22:00.000-05:00

I still get excited when I'm watching one of my favorite shows (The Office) or one of my guilty pleasures (American Idol), and then during the break I unexpectedly see one of the commercials we created. It's sort of like when you are out shopping or at a restaurant and you don't realize there's a mirror on the wall beside you, and then you accidentally see yourself, and for just a moment you thought it was another person, but then when you realize it's your reflection you feel sort of like... "hi me."

That's how I feel when I see these new TFCU television spots.

You can scroll to the end of this post to watch the video.

The theme is "get back to you." And that's literally what we did. We just set up these little scenarios where people did stuff that you just "do." Either back when you were a kid or still today.

The house we found to shoot in surprisingly had this piano, so we just decided to add in a Chopsticks scene, and it is one of my favorites. Maybe because I took piano lessons from age six up to highschool. Sometimes when we're feeling goofy at Christmas or on a random weekend at my parents' house, I'll start playing "Fame" on the front-room piano, and me and my sister scream-sing it.

These were our actor sisters. They probably would have scream-sung any 70's TV themesong we asked them to. They were so much fun and one of them even sent us like a pie or something to Third Degree as a thank you a few days after the shoot. Yes, bribery with food will get you everywhere.

Bribery with a baby on a set... could go either way. Our director, David Stepp, just loooooves it when we put babies in our spots, you know, because they are so predictable and all. But I can't help it, I just got to have them babies. This cute one is the tot of one of our interns. We finally got him hooked up with some Teddy Grahams and he gave us the good stuff on camera. See, food bribery, it transcends all ages.

All in all, it was a wonderful shoot. Everything was super-duper planned out and art directed (I couldn't function any other way) down to a strict wardrobe color palette and a tight all-in-one-day shoot schedule, but we didn't really have any traditional scripts. We just set up these home movie style scenarios and crossed our fingers and started rolling. Some of them turned out so much better than we ever dreamed, and some, not so much. And some, like getting this little guy to keep that spoon on his nose... just took some double stick tape.

Tinker Federal Credit Union is great about letting us continue to evolve their branding, but still keep it feeling unmistakably "them." I know when we're creating something they and their members are really going to love, because it always feels like a lot of hard work, a lot of "eek, we've never done this before" (i.e., going completely off script, choreographing zombies, featuring talking thumbs, or constructing home made robots) but then, it also feels... a lot like play.

What Did You Buy? What Do You Love?

2010-03-12T09:35:00.000-06:00

The deadline for the Buck The Norm video scholarship contest is near upon us. The theme this year: "What Did You Buy Today?"

This (PG-13) video we created for the contest explains the rules for creating your video. It's a pretty sweet prize if you win: a $2,000 scholarship and a MacBook from TFCU. And it's mostly promoted locally, so there's a good chance if you put in a good effort you might win.

So it made me start thinking. What do we buy around here?

Uh... well, mostly toys in the creative department. These Tokyo terrors are a new addition to Brett's desk. I guess the Hulk got bumped.

I have an obsession with totes. This one is doubling as my take-home copywriting briefcase right now. But I have many. Ridiculous many. Ranging in patterns from spoons, soupcans, and robots, to more traditional plaids, starbursts and glittery golds.

This guy's been sitting over by Roy's desk for a while now. I don't know where he bought it. I don't know what it is. But, it's cute.

So our purchasing habits of late may seem trifling. But they just help add a little flair to the place we love.

And speaking of love, love, love... our account executive Natalie has been a busy making a video of her own... all by herself. It's called "For The Love of The Game," and she debuted it at our Third Degree agency retreat (for internal purposes only, please no one sue us for using the song she downloaded). It was just a really neat reminder at the end of a long day (heck, a long year) why we all keep serving it up.

Thanks Natalie. You made me cry. I'm going to by you a tote.

Retreat Day. Addy Night.

2010-03-03T15:38:00.001-06:00

This weekend was a busy one for the Third Degree team. Friday was our all-day, off-site, annual agency planning retreat.

Which means break out your Third Degree t-shirt.

Okay, granted only the new guy broke out the Third Degree t-shirt. (Ah... youthful enthusiasm is so cute.)

It also means break out the brainstorming toys and warm up exercises.

Everyone had to draw a picture on their name placeholder of something that was going on in their lives at the moment. So that not just the coffee, but the conversation could get flowing at 9:00 am.

And I broke out my cheat notes for a presentation I had to help give to kick off the day.

It's strangely harder in some ways to give a big speech for your peers instead of clients or prospects. Maybe because I can't pretend I'm a character from an advertising TV show or movie when I'm presenting to them.

The day was full of information. But skipping ahead, the afternoon was all about... you got it... crafts. If you remember our retreat from last year, we are not people who are afraid of pipe cleaners or pom poms, oh no.

And neither is our president Roy.

The task given this year was to illustrate the one thing you were most proud of (professionally that is) from 2009. We each got to decide if our accomplishment should be themed "fresh," "hot," "friendly" or "right." We got thirty minutes to "make it happen," and the tissue paper and magazine clippings started flying, while the fights over scissors and scotch tape got heated.

Then we each presented our square and it's deeper meaning. Some were "fresh."

Others were "hot." (No surprises with this one.)

Some embraced their "friendly" side.

And whoa boy, a bunch of us were damn "right."

But the most entertaining surprise of the day was Roy's performance art moment.

You know, most CEOs would deliver a state-of-the-union style address with bulleted slides, the onlookers perhaps trying tactfully to stifle a yawn. Not Roy. He promptly cranked up Van Halen's anthem "Right Now," and started furiously drawing his vision on a row of flip charts right before our eyes.

When his multi-colored markers stopped flurrying and Eddie's electric guitar let out its final peal from the iPod station, Steve Jobs did not come walking out from behind the curtain, and Michael Scott did not jump out from under a table. (But we were kind of waiting for it, a little bit.)

There was a lot of laughter and cheers. The new guy realized, wow, this place is kind of different, huh?! Roy caught his breath and then... shared his bulleted slides. But no stifled yawns from the crowd.

No, we saved the stifled yawns for Addy night which was the next Saturday.

I joke. The Addy theme this year, "We Are The Storyteller's," was really cool. We had lots of great wins including Cosmetic Surgery Affiliates and our Fight On campaign. It was just a very late program this year, wrapping up past 11:00 pm. And anyone who knows me, knows my bedtime clocks in right around 9:30. So my theme for the night was, "I need to go to bed 'Right Now.'" Play it Eddie.

If you want to see photos of Tara actually out on the town for a change (or photos of any of our fabulous and festive team, click here).

Here We Come To Save The Day!

2010-02-26T07:48:00.000-06:00

Or at least here comes Save-A-Tron 5000! He's the new mascot for TFCU's kids program, and he finally arrived on our doorstep last week.

Of course we promptly unpacked him.

And tried him on.

Then proceeded to prance around the office and create a general ruckus. What?! We're excited!

Save-A-Tron has been a concept in the making for a while now. TFCU wanted a new character to teach kids about the importance of saving, and we were up to the task. Plus, it's kind of fun to sketch different character concepts. We felt like bad ass Pixar "imagineers."

We even did focus groups with children to see if they were feeling the Save-A-Tron vibe. They contributed their own interpretations of the friendly robot.

But eventually the true Save-A-Tron 5000 and his buddies, The Saveables, took their final shape. The idea is for Save-A-Tron to look like a robot a child would have made themselves at home out of found materials.

Our mascot maker started with a very rough pattern. Talk about homemade, doesn't the background kind of look like the house of a stalker or something like that?

No-mouth version of the Save-A-Tron head? Still feeling a stalker vibe here people.

Okay, there we go. We finally get more huggable less restraining-order Save-A-Tron here.

Save-A-Tron's not our first credit union character turned giant foam-head spokesperson. Remember Simon from Delta Community Credit Union?

Next stop, presenting Save-A-Tron and his youth program for the first time to everybody at a big internal Tinker Federal Credit Union event. Will and Thurman from TFCU got ready backstage.

Uh... turns out Thurman has freak-feet, coming in at a size 14, which was actually bigger than the oversized foam mascot feet. But no tripping allowed as they went out for the unveiling.

Kande sneaked one last shot from her phone backstage, and waited for the response from behind the curtain. Whew! Huge applause followed. No restraining orders filed. Save-A-Tron's a hit.

Thank you Hogtown Mascots for being so great to work with! (Sorry about the stalker house comment).

Meet Jared

2010-02-09T10:41:00.000-06:00

Our newest addition to the Third Degree team, account coordinator Jared Miller is busy, busy, busy these days. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't take a moment to get to know this all around good guy.

Like his favorite movie is Gladiator, his favorite breakfast food is bacon, and he's wearing navy socks today (a daring departure from black).

Kande has especially been showing Jared the ropes. She's a great mentor.

She makes Jared polish the replica of her Mini Cooper.

"Missed a spot."

She has him wind up all her desk critters.

"Wind faster."

Basically, we are all here supporting Jared as he embarks on a fast-paced and thrilling career in advertising.

All joking aside, Jared is really rockin' and rollin' over there in account service, as they've just been burning it up lately. Lots of discovery workshops, research initiatives and just serving it up for our clients.

So like Russel Crowe rising up to become more than just a gladiator but a champion of the empire (or whatever)... Jared is an intern no longer. The mini will just have to start collecting dust for a while.

Of course, nothing compares to what we made Brett do when he was an intern.

What Says "Longevity" Like Balloons?

2010-02-03T11:44:00.000-06:00

If you get to work early at Third Degree, most likely you will not be the first person here, because Liz will beat you nine times out of ten.

So to surprise her this morning with balloons we had to sneak them in the night before.

It's a new thing we're doing this year to celebrate the anniversaries of our team mates' start dates at Third Degree.

You will also find at your desk that day a little booklet that's all about you.

We all contribute entries about how that person "serves it up."

Plus you also get a nifty handmade nameplate for your desk that says how many years you've been serving it up, with a favorite quote pulled from the book.

Actually it's Roy, our CEO's, anniversary today, too. I don't know if that counts because he actually started the company on his start date. But, heck, that probably deserves a lot more than balloons.

Or at least balloons that don't look like they say he's been "serving it up for 75 years!" Nice handwriting Jared. Geez. But, Jared is sort of the sole member of the anniversary committee, so I shouldn't give him too much grief.

Also, I'd like to point out that Roy is not weirdly sitting on the floor behind his desk in a tux. That's a cardboard cutout we made him a while back. But, when you're apparently 75 years old, you tend to revel in the glory of those pictures (or lifesize standees) of younger days. So we shouldn't give him too much grief either.

Office Space (Delta Style)

2010-01-22T13:10:00.001-06:00

So I just got back from visiting Delta Community Credit Union in Atlanta last week.

They have really fantastic branches. The design is really modern, but the way the flow is set up is really welcoming and organic.

So I shouldn't have been surprised that their brand new internal offices (they just moved in a few weeks ago) would be equally pages-of-Dwell-magazine worthy.

All of their spaces reflect Delta Community's progressive but personable credit union vibe. But the marketing department especially had its own creative flair going on.

"My what a cool chair you have, Ollie."

"Why this old thing? Shucks."

"Do sit down. My file cabinet is disguised as a cushiony bench. I am mysterious and have secrets that way."

Look there's Simon. Aw. He found a new home.

Right next to Andy. How cute.

What's so cool about the marketing team's space (beside that fact that VP of Marketing, Mary Olsen practically designed it herself single-handedly!!?) is that it creates this sense that the marketing team really is a culture within a culture at Delta Community.

The national HOW Design Conference has whole sessions, heck, whole conferences, to help creatives who work inhouse find creative inspiration. So it's certainly unique to find such a fresh inhouse space.

Alas, now I am back in the OKC. I cannot complain, Third Degree has a fantastic lofty, warehouse style office space. But I bet Delta Community's elevator actually works.

It was like a welcome home sign really. Sigh.

Next time I'm in "Hot"lanta visiting the Delta crew, I'll be sure to ride the elevator up and down just a few more times for the luxury of it all.

Paint By Numbers

2010-01-13T21:55:00.000-06:00

I'm in Atlanta visiting our friends at Delta Community Credit Union. Great restaurants, good company... plus, I got to see one of their new number-themed commercials we just finished up for them on my TV at the hotel this morning!

I never get to see their commercials "for real" because, well, duh, I live in Oklahoma City, and it never seems quite real until you see one of your spots during Project Runway or Top Chef, or in this case, the news. Which I only ever seem to watch when I'm in hotels or airports.

Me. In my PJs. Watching the news (just because there aren't any reality shows on TV at 6:00 in the morning).

Director: David Stepp / Animator: Steve Jones / Audio: Lucky Dog / Photography: Simon Hurst

These TV spots were all about Ten Reasons to Switch in 2010 to Delta Community. These spots turned out so cool. We wanted to bring these numbers to life to create a memorable and optimistic new membership campaign for Delta Community for the new year (a fuzzy number five dog, a number three sonogram)...

Plus, it was as about as close as I could get to living out my lifelong dream to work for Sesame Street or Jim Henson. I mean, our big orange fuzzy number five was definitely muppet-worthy.

This is Doug. He's the bad ass who constructed all these props for us back at his shop at Eaton Quade. He doesn't even flinch when we say, "can you make a giant number eight shrubbery for us?" Which is good, because then his cigar might fall out of the corner of his mouth. We think he should have a reality show about his shop, like American Chopper.

American Chopper with giant Fruit Loop colored numbers everywhere, that is!

Actually color was a big deal when planning for this shoot. Kathleen was the master mind of all things fuzzy, paint sample chippy, paper leafy, etc...

Tons of planning went in to creating the props and the perfect color palette, from deciding to paint the studio "Decisive Yellow" as was named on the swatch, to buying lots of coordinating wardrobe for all the talent. And, of course, Kathleen also stood in as the model for the test shots.

I know Delta Community is excited to kick off the new campaign.

And I was excited to take home the fuzzy five (just for one night) to show my number one five-year old.

Why They Love Us Anyway

2010-01-05T11:00:00.000-06:00

Alas, the holidays are over. Which means dragging our significant others to agency social events is almost behind us. But the agency Christmas party is a perfect example of why our other halves probably cringe when we tell them a Third Degree event is afoot. Especially when there is, yep, a theme. This year it was "I'm Dreaming of a Black & White Christmas." Everyone had to come wearing black and white.

It's easy to see the second reason they love us, is we also make them take ridiculous pictures.

With like props and stuff.

Some of them were enthusiastic.

Truly good sports about it.

Others a bit more reserved.

Some of them still aren't talking to us.

Some of them were never talking to us in the first place.

See, if you haven't guessed yet. We're not too camera shy here at Third Degree.

We crave the limelight.

A little bit of drama.

Art directing our own shots.

And using blurry photo effects that make us look bad ass.

Then we post them for the world to see.

And hope our spouse's coworkers don't see them.

Because then they'd be so jealous, of course.

And wish they were a Third Degree wife-husband-boyfriend-pet-kid-parent-neighbor too.

So here's to the agency "others."

May you rest easy for a while.

That is until the Addy's.

Of course, there's a lot to be said for going stag.

Hats & High Tea

2009-12-18T14:18:00.000-06:00

Over the holidays Third Degree and some of our clients descended upon the decadent and historic downtown OKC Skirvin Hilton Hotel for their Holiday High Tea, which is like right around the block from our agency (okay like four or five blocks, whatever).

We've been promoting their holiday happenings like Breakfast With Santa and the High Tea with direct mail and radio liners on Magic 104, which has a huge ratings boost in December because it plays all Christmas music all the time. I think they especially play Michael Bolton renditions of Christmas songs because I hear those a lot. Not judging. Just saying.

How Many Hats Can You Fit in an Elevator?

So, the neatest part of the tea? Serious. Giant. Fabulous. Hats.

Can't fit all the hats in the elevator? Take the gorgeous marble staircase.

Our clients were good sports considering we totally sprung this hat thing on them once they got there.

Brett, one of our few guy guests, was a good sport, as always. He even spoke in a British accent for us. We commenced with an impromptu tea game: name your favorite British person and/or fictional character (leave it to me to make people wear hats and play a game). Answers included Mary Poppins, James Bond, Sherlock Holmes and, of course, Jude Law.

Mickie's tea was a little stronger than the rest of ours. She may have snuck in a flask, but will deny it if you ask her. She will probably also stop talking to me after seeing I post this pic.

Overall our tea etiquette was a little rusty. We kept spilling stuff. And we sort of devoured all the cute little scones and finger sandwiches. But you can't tell from these very proper pictures.

Very proper, right?

Pinkies up ladies!

This is before Mickie started "drinking."

This was either right before or right after I knocked over a vase of flowers in the lobby. Yep. Did I mention the Skirvin Hotel is a client of ours. You just can't take us anywhere.

Will we do high tea next year? Most definitely. But we'll have to up the stakes. I'm thinking white gloves required next time.

Haven't had your fill of high tea pictures? Of course not! See more here.

Vegging Out This Christmas

2009-12-15T11:04:00.000-06:00

'Tis the season...

... to get stuffed.

This year we took our general agency love of food, combined with my love of fake food (and my personal collection of hand sewn stuffed vegetables I picked up at a yard sale years ago) and constructed a handcrafted Third Degree holiday card for 2009.

For a retrospective of past Third Degree holiday cards (some more controversy-sparking than others) click here.

We were going to arrange real Christmas lights around the fabric beets and tomatoes and carrots, but were struck by inspiration to hand make those, too, out of yarn and tissue paper. Kathleen photo directed the eggplant. They can be such divas.

Next on the merry-making agenda? Packaging up our homemade salsa for everyone. Unlike our crafty little Christmas lights, we did not technically make the salsa with our own hands. We have a salsa lady for that. What? Don't you have a salsa lady? We highly recommend it.

But we did make like little elves all assembly line style during our Monday agency lunch to get our salsa all packaged, labeled and topped with bows.

For extra inspiration we made sure to have a classic Christmas movie playing in the background.

Christmas Vacation? No.
Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer? Nope.
Charlie Brown Chrismas? Uh. uh.

Love Actually. Actually.

Because choosing to address all our Christmas posts by hand (no laser printed labels for us, no way!) takes a little Hugh Grant, a lot of holiday cheer, and probably not as much vegging out as the title of this post might suggest.

Fire In The Breakroom

2009-12-07T13:39:00.000-06:00

We have a lot of stuff tacked on the bulletin boards in our agency diner. So it might take a double-take to notice our latest pinup.

The 2010 Oklahoma City Firefighters calendar.

Simon Hurst who did the photography asked us at Third Degree to help design the actual calendar. The proceeds go for a good cause, Shout OKC, which helps young women cancer survivors.

When the calendar was still in production (i.e., deciding who would be December, is March's pants perhaps inappropriately low, etc.), the calendar made a News9 story because of it's mission to support cancer survivors.

Of the fifteen or so women working at Third Degree, I thought it was ironic that we relied on our all-guy art director Brett to do the calendar layout justice (with the help of our intern at the time, Jason, who had no idea what he was getting into). And although the photo featured above is a closeup of one of the clever fire-related quotes, probably 80% of the time Brett was working on this project his computer screen was zoomed in on sweaty abs, bulging tattoos, and squinty-staring-into-the-sunset hazel eyes of heroes with names like Bart, Jesse and Gabe.

But this parting shot, is for Joey. So if you're grabbing a cup of coffee at your next agency visit, or heating up one of the forty-two Lean Cuisines we have in the freezer over lunch, you can take a moment and learn that Joey is six feet tall, loves helping people in their greatest time of need, and enjoys extreme sports.

Going To The Mall

2009-12-01T14:25:00.000-06:00

Maybe you grew up like me thinking the mall was a mecca for all things wonderful - everything you could ever want with an Orange Julius on top. Or maybe you aren't as keen on this particular shopping concept avoiding all things "mall" (mall stores, mall food, mall walkers, mall rats.)

But the reality is, especially with the holiday season upon us, that you are going to find yourself in the mall sooner - rather than later.

We recently got some seriously oversized, and seriously impactful, Planned Parenthood messaging in the Crossroads mall.

Jentry and Holly, who are always on the lookout for interesting media opportunities, scouted out some unoccupied storefronts in high foot traffic areas and negotiated some great placement for this not-for-profit client. Then we got busy putting together some larger than life designs, and our installers got cracking.

One location, which we thought was truly inspired, was across from what I like to call "the kid pit." You know the area where the moms and dads take a break with about fifty screaming corralled kids who are bouncing off big foam owls or lily pads or whatever.

Well directly in the line of vision of any young mom who might be zoning out in "the pit", is the "our family is just the right size" storefront banner. We thought it was appropriate. Right?

Our second location is a series of several panes along a major corridor with images of young, prepared and incredibly large-headed people with a positive message to share. You can't help but look at them. And, if you look closer, you can get a list of services that Planned Parenthood provides.

We think it's definitely space well used.

Scary Good: Buck The Norm Parade Part II

2009-10-29T08:28:00.000-05:00

Well, after Kathleen and I tag-teamed applying makeup to 24 zombies in our agency parking lot (a mix of Third Degree and TFCU staff volunteers)...

...(yes, Will, you have to put on that green lipstick)...

... our corporate zombies for the Buck The Norm float entry in the Ghouls Gone Wild Parade turned out fantastic.

We even had enough time (just barely) to do our own makeup.

Everyone really got into character while waiting for the parade to start. (Growing even more popular this year, with 80 float entries and close to 50,000 attendees!).

So much into character that we had to divert them from eating their props...

...eating other parade participants...

...and even stopping them from eating the mimes (we were on the fence about letting Thurman go through with that one).

Kathleen represented for the indebted and undead by giving an interview.

We quickly brushed up on our zombie choreography.

And then we were off.

It wasn't all ugly, though. We had our brightly colored, multilayered, spirited and sassy Buck The Norm revelers as well.

Their task was to march in the wake of the zombie troop, waving huge speech bubble Buck The Norm signs, shouting out "Buck It!" and passing out glow sticks and candy to the crowd...

... and to just generally look fabulous.

We were all completely hypnotized by our media buyer, Jentry's, fake eyelashes. We told her she should wear them to work every day because everyone was crushing on her.

Especially these guys.

Thanks everybody for all the hard work! Can't wait 'til next year. Buck the norm!

Want to see more pictures from the parade? You can see more here of our Buck The Norm pics and here of the Ghouls Gone Wild parade in action (including us) on Flickr!

Creating Corporate Zombies: Buck The Norm Parade Part I

2009-10-23T10:02:00.000-05:00

We're devilishly busy producing the second-year evolution of the Buck The Norm float for the Ghouls Gone Wild downtown parade this weekend. This year the float will be led by an undead horde of corporate zombies, who will represent "the norm."

So what does it take to create a ghoulish vision of the indebted and undead?

(My husband designed this year's Ghouls Gone Wild poster, tacked here in our Third Degree diner breakroom. He's lead art director at the Oklahoma Gazette who puts on the event.)

First: the perfect zombie hand. Lynn was quickly yanked out from behind his accounting desk, stuck under some dangerously exposed desk lamp bulbs, and forced to contort his hand into the perfect menacing claw.

We snapped the perfect shot.

And Lynn was a good sport.

And look at his hand (post Photoshop treatment, of course). It looks fake it looks so good!

These lightbox signs will be up on poles above the crowd, leading our zombies. This is Eaton Quade's warehouse, where get-it-done-Doug oversees all our float and large prop production.

Next step: creating costumes for our walking corpses.

These can't be just any old rag-tag, decomposing ghouls. These zombies are "the man." So matching corporate suits and ties for all, stuffed with money and complete with over sized coffee cups (also stuffed with bills.) Fake blood, green ooze, and all manners of clippings are now littering the back room of our agency. Yep, looks pretty much like any other day back there.

Last: the choreography. Teaching zombie steps like 1.) The Shuffle 2.) The Random Claw. How ironic that Kathleen is teaching TFCU volunteers how to walk like corporate zombies in their own boardroom. But, since it's a credit union boardroom, it's not quite so ironic.

Okay, that's not really the last step. There's so much more to do and share.

So wish us "buck!"

More to come after the parade. See last year's winning parade entry, here and here, awarded Beast In Show.

Lemons At The Boathouse

2009-10-16T09:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we held Pioneer's annual planning meeting at the Chesapeake Boathouse.

It's actually a really great space to have meetings.

The OU rowing team was practicing right outside...

...as the Third Degree and Pioneer teams got the meeting started on the inside. Presenting new creative platforms for 2010 was one of the big orders of business.

But first we took a moment to gawk at the rowers in awe and respect (which lasted for about five minutes, and then everyone started asking where the heck the coffee was).

We had a lemon theme for the day based on the basic marketing principals of a lemonade stand.

Jentry definitely had the right outfit for it. Always critical.

After tackling more serious stuff for the majority of the day, we spent the latter part doing... crafts.

Actually, the assignment was to make your own lemonade stand poster that reflected your accomplishments from the year, similar to Third Degree's heart project.

Roy, as always, found something inappropriate and hilarious to say. In this instance, having to do with putting that lemon somewhere. Hmmm.

But of course, his poster reflected his own ability to not take himself too seriously.

So, we'll hold off on sending him up the river (at least for this year).

Sick Day!

2009-10-08T12:20:00.000-05:00

Actually, it was Don't Get Sick Day! Our across the street neighbor and client, ACOG, is always having some sort of small event to promote general health and well being (like a fitness demonstration a couple days ago.. man I wish I had brought my legwarmers that day!)

Still Shots

But today they had a clinic come in and give flu shots to their staff and neighboring companies. They invited anyone at Third Degree who wanted to trek across the rainy street, shell out a bit of cash, and get stuck with a needle to come and get ready for sick season.

Hallie Hysteria

Some people were naysayers. But Daniel was pro flu shot, quoting that if 85% of people got vaccinated then it would ultimately prevent the rest of the population from getting sick, too (he always has some sort of sociological statistic like that rattling in his head).

Mob Mentality

People quickly divided into camps.

(Except for Lynn who said he was getting his flu shot "later." Uh huh.)

But Daniel stuck to his guns, and... got stuck in his guns. Get it! Get it? (Or does that sound lewd and I don't know it. That happens to me a lot.)

Roy, our fearless leader put on a brave face.

We quickly learned there is no shame in getting half undressed in front of your coworkers. Our clients especially love it when we whip out the camera to include them in the fun (specifically when they are in their undershirts, and don't give me consent to post their photos online.)

Amanda realized that her top would require some more serious removal, so she discreetly retired behind a screen as to avoid any wardrobe malfunctions.

We harassed her anyway.

Did I mention that Third Degree has no in house HR person. There's a reason for that.

Flight Delays and Free Drink Coupons

2009-10-05T10:47:00.000-05:00

So on my recent NYC trip I saw this photocopied flyer posted in the entryway of a greasy spoon breakfast place we were eating at:

It caught my attention because I recognized it as an ad for a new quirky HBO show. And I love the lead actor, Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore, Darjeeling Limited, etc...)

I immediately tore off one of the little slips and dialed the number. What I heard on the other end was a voice mail from Jason (I call him Jason), as this fictitious private investigator who spiraled into this really long winded apology to his fictitious ex-girlfriend and how he wasn't drinking as much any more, etc, etc.

I thought, what a clever low tech marketing tactic. I decided on my next business trip (which was only a few days after this one), that I would document some cool advertising on my travels.

Knowing that I would mostly be in airports on this trip I would focus my search for really engaging in-airport advertising.

But then I got distracted by our gate agent's skinny jeans.

Have you ever seen such a casual chic airline employee? P.J. (that's her name, P.J., but I think of her as Uma), had to help us find a new flight out of OKC, because we were seriously delayed.

So we made lemonade out of lemons, and made friends.

I told Roy he was looking sassy, too. It's his new jeans.

Notice the contrast stitching?

I, on the other hand, despite the efforts with the scarf, was not looking so hot. Alarm clock malfunction at 5:30am equals a mad dash to the airport minus shower, makeup and my dignity.

But, thanks to Uma (I mean P.J.), we were rescheduled on a later flight, sent home, and I arrived at the airport later that afternoon somewhat sassy-fied.

But Roy had already made a new friend, another super perky, super friendly ticketing agent who, thanks to his charms, got us.... wait for it...

...free drink coupons for the plane.

I had long since forgotten to be photographing any groundbreaking advertising, so I decided to draw my Bloody Mary.

Inspired by obsessiveconsumption.com.

Because Roy, per usual, was occupied reading his latest marketing guru book (with a highlighter in hand, of course). But forget that nerdy, compulsive behavior... and check out his stylish new reading glasses.

We landed in the Detroit airport, which I now call "The Airport of Tomorrow" because you have to go through this tunnel that is filled with all this moody, magical music and lights as you are transported down a conveyor belt.

It is especially nice after drinking Bloody Marys.

We both agree, the Detroit airport is really cool.

So I guess I realized the neatest brand interaction I had in transit was, A.) with the actual Delta airlines staff, and B.) an airport that has invested in creating an unexpected experience for weary travelers, plus...

...a rental car company (will go unnamed) that gave away our car because we arrived so late. So we just made the most out of what was left over:

Our awesome minivan.

We loaded up, turned up the radio and our adventure continued by road. (And I still have Roy singing Whitney Houston stuck in my head.)

My Mustache Muse

2009-09-24T12:34:00.000-05:00

Thanks Kathleen and Daniel for guest blogging for me. I just got back from a week long trip to New York City.

I was there for half business and half fun.

The fun part was seeing my brother who lives in Brooklyn. This is us being touristy on one of those red double-decker buses. But my brother, Donny, is never inconspicuous. It's the handlebar mustache.

photo by Laure Leber

Donny is actually the master of ceremonies at the Coney Island Sideshow By The Seashore. He does straightjacket escapes, breaths fire, juggles chainsaws, but he's best known for being "The Human Blockhead" which is hammering a six inch nail into his nose. There's even a Coney Island Lager beer label named after him.

He was featured in Rebel Ink this month, a popular tattoo magazine. I get it in the mail with my Good Housekeeping. Not really, he showed it to me in the hotel when we got into the city. Then I showed him how I used his story for a credit union presentation we gave earlier that day.

That was the business part of my trip. We gave a presentation to a group of credit union marketers. One of their questions to us, was "how do we break through?" So I drew inspiration from Donny's money-maker (that's what he calls it.) Basically making the point that his mustache gives him his confidence, his unique mark... his swagger. I called upon the group of executives at the table to stake their claim, shout out their difference from the banks, and embrace their own credit union swagger vs. insecurity.

We even made them these really cool framed plaques...

...with removable mustaches that they could try on if they needed reminding of their swagger.

Of course, per our usual goofiness, we had fun with them around the office before I packed them up for my trip.

What's kind of funny, is when we were investigating what style of mustache we wanted to create for the presentation, we found this site MoustacheMe.com.

It encourages people to download mustache templates, or order stickers...

...and adhere them to advertisements. This is their wall where people submit the ads they've defaced. I know, as an advertiser I think I should be offended, but hey, at least people are interacting with the brand. And of all the Disney Princesses, only Ariel could pull off that 'stache.

Living a Creatively Curious (and fabulous) Life

2009-09-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Tara is still out of town so this is part 2 of her guest blog posts.

Let me introduce myself. I'm Kathleen, an art director at Third Degree. I'm kind of the fabulous one in the creative department, so this is going to be a little more flippant and self-indulgent than Tara's usual posts.

I want to talk about Living a Creatively Curious Life. When Liz (you've met her), and I went to the HOW Design Conference this summer I saw a fantastic break-out session, by Von Glitschka, that focused on Living a Creatively Curious Life. He went into what that means and the tools to get there.

But more about me. I'm a blogger. My blog started as a project, with my husband, to document the remodel of our historical home. I wanted to have a common place for all of our friends and families to visit to see our progress. Eventually it morphed into a place where I share everything - from what is inspiring me, what I'm designing, what I'm cooking and what I wear. My blog has turned into a place where I can capture and document moments of inspiration. Every. Single. Day. Sometimes I feel narcissistic and irrelevant but then when I saw Von speak at HOW I realized I was onto something. I felt validated.

The key takeaways I went home with are:

1. Recognize, capture and archive moments of inspiration
The city I call home never fails to inspire me.

2. Anyone can be creative
Here I was inspired by driftwood I found on the beach of Lake Superior.

My husband, an electrical engineer with NO art degree created a face out of it.

3. Share and show your creative work
Don't mind if I do!

Wedding invitations (I find designing for myself to be just about impossible).

Illustration of what we wore

4. Elevate the mundane
I love finding beautiful, yet "undesigned" typography in unexpected places.

Airport luggage claim check tag

Parking meter typography

5. Personal creativity doesn't need to be appropriate or ever have to be applicable

For example, this photo of the vitamins I take has nothing to do with anything. But I thought it looked cool.

6. And finally, apply these methods to professional creativity, find the overlap
I would like to wrap up this (picture heavy and self-indulgent) guest blog by saying that tapping into my personal creativity, capturing and archiving moments of inspiration, have supplemented my professional growth as an art director and designer.

How does your personal creativity affect your professional work? And more importantly, do you like my outfit?

Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in the guest blog and/or commentaries are solely of the individuals and are not the views of Tara Street, Third Degree Advertising, affiliate, or subsidiary companies.

Trolling your Social Media Campaign

2009-09-15T13:05:00.000-05:00

Hey everybody! Tara's out of town this week so she's getting her minions to do guest blog posts. I'm Daniel, art director at Third Degree. I'm kind of the nerdy one in the creative department, so this is going to be a bit longer than Tara's usual posts. It's good stuff though!

Trolling your Social Media Campaign
You’re playing in your sandbox, building up this awesome castle with your friends. You spent lots of time and energy making a community for your toy cowboys and dinosaurs and robots to hang out together peacefully and productively.

Then some bully stomps all over the Pleasantville you worked so hard to cultivate.

You just got trolled.

When you open your social media campaign to public commentary and contribution by your community, you also run the risk of people abusing that generosity. These are “trolls,” and you gotta know how to deal with them.

Who are trolls?
There is always a risk on open-mic night that someone will use their stage time to shout profanities at the audience. You now have to make a decision:

Do you kick them off stage?
Do you respond at all?
Do you cut the mic for everyone?

It’s a tough call, but the first step is knowing who you’re dealing with. A troll is anyone who baits a community with disruptive and offensive content thereby causing people to become upset or to be insulted. In The Subtle Art of Trolling, the activity is explained with a bit of anarchist glee:

“The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll.
“If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it.”

It’s easy to dismiss a troll as a bully run amok in the world’s biggest playground, but it’s not so clear-cut when you have to be the judge. What you might consider a troll may be an honest critique or disappointment with your service, for example. You have to get at the heart of what drives someone to troll.

Is everyone a potential troll?
If you ask some trolls why they do it, they’ll say “For the lulz.” In other words, “because it’s funny,” or “because we can.”

But it’s never so clear-cut as all that. Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus at Stanford, constructed a psychological experiment in 1971. He created a prison simulation in the basement of the Stanford psych building and randomly assigned college students to be prisoners and guards. The students soon fell into their roles far more sincerely then had been predicted, with emotional trauma and sadistic tendencies soon developing in all the participants.

Zimbardo would go on to write about the experiment in his book “The Lucifer Effect.” As it turns out when most people are given anonymity and are not held accountable for their actions, they’ll pretty much turn into jerks.

These findings are further supported in 1991 research by Professor Mauri Collins’ “Flaming: The Relationship Between Social Context Cues and Uninhibited Verbal Behavior in Computer-mediated Communication.” In that paper, she proposes

“In the absence of social context cues, the level of uninhibited verbal behavior in computer-mediated communication rises…”

This is a couple years before the world wide web even gets mentioned in mainstream media, but trolls are still a problem. She goes on to site a paper by N.S. Baron:

“Baron postulates three explanations for this phenomenon: the lack of non-linguistic and visual cues puts added pressure upon the users to use any means possible (such as haranguing) to ensure they are being understood; the fact that [Computer-Mediated Communication] is a relatively new form of communication and lacks the established norms of face-to-face conversation; and the lack social context cues masks status differences.”

That citation is from a paper in 1984. Eighty-four! So, with the internet offering even more anonymity and less accountability than any other media, it’s no surprise that the occasional bad egg might stink up your community.

How to deal with a troll?
The nice thing about trolls being around since the days of breakdancing is that we have a lot more experience to draw from when dealing with this kind of behavior. Wikipedia probably has to deal with this problem more than any other online community, so let’s see what they use as best practices for their editors.

Don’t feed the troll. It’s what your mom always taught you to do when you had to deal with bullies. Just let whatever the troll says slide right on by, letting the natural flow of communication chart a course around the troll.

“While many seasoned veterans of online communities consider this advice useless, because in a community of any size, someone will react to the troll's posts, others still consider it to be the only effective method for dealing with trolls. Not fanning the fire will, at the very least, not make the situation worse. If the behavior escalates to abuse or vandalism, it is easy to deal with those things.”

Establish clear, public policies for how you deal with inappropriate content. Stick to those policies! Don’t make any special exceptions or act capriciously in your judgements. Anyone who joins a community should know there are level-headed, even-handed moderators standing by to quell abuse. This will also dissuade any potential trollish behavior on the part of community members.

“…[O]ne should keep every debate strictly factual. A heated deletion discussion, possibly fueled by inflammatory comments by the troll or his sockpuppets and allies, may increase the troll's motivation.”

Assume good faith. While you’re standing vigilant against trolls, you may end up squelching honest, genuine discussion of your services. If a comment or posting does not obviously break your terms of service in regards to profanity, vandalism or objectionable material, take a moment to consider your action. If you choose to engage with the suspected troll, ask him or her to rephrase their statements.

“Sometimes trolls live under bridges. But not everyone living under a bridge is a troll. […] Often one is accused of being a troll because one is phrasing one's views in a particularly hostile way. Consider: are you openly advocating trolling on your userpage? Are you cursing at people or engaging in personal attacks? Are you accusing those who oppose you of being in a cabal? If you stopped that, people would probably respond better to you.”

There is one additional suggestion not advocated by Wikipedia, but I’ll just toss it in:

Make everyone accountable by removing anonymity. As noted in the research by Philip Zimbardo, giving people anonymity and removing any accountability is just paving the way for flagrant, abusive behavior. Even superficial security measures like requesting full names, email addresses and recording IP addresses can help mitigate the potential to troll. Using login tools like OpenID or Facebook Connect can make your campaign easier to join and removes the temptation to troll.

Water (and trolls) under the bridge.
When you have open contribution from the general public, you open yourself up to the honest opinions of your audience. This can open up a fruitful, mutually beneficial line of communication between a service-provider and those who use that service.

Even if those comments and contributions don’t fall strictly in line with your brand message, don’t assume that those people are all trolls to be deleted and banned. Listen with an open mind and genuine interest.

When more malicious behaviors arise, deal with them fairly and consistently. Doing so will establish a common trust with your community and ensure your brand’s good standing in general opinion.

Citations
TED Talks: “Philip Zimbardo show show people become monsters… or heroes”

Wikimedia: “What is a Troll?: Dealing with Trolls”

ReadWriteWeb: “Are Trolls Ruining Social Media?”

Mauri Collins: “The Relationship Between Social Context Cues and Uninhibited Verbal Behavior in Computer-mediated Communication”

Michael Marshall: “New Scientist Technology Blog: “Don’t flame me, bro”

Key Lime Throwdown

2009-09-10T09:37:00.000-05:00

Pardon my delay in covering the contest of the century. I'm still reeling from the sheer calorie intake.

The first annual Third Degree Key Lime Pie Throwdown caused quite a lot of office-place trash talk and facebook chatter last Friday as we kicked off our United Way agency pace setting donations for the year with some friendly (tranlsate: cut throat) competition.

Ever since Kriste first interviewed for our media buyer position three years ago, Roy hasn't been able to shake her claim to making a kick ass key lime pie, and has been baiting her ever since to test it against his southern-boy-at-heart pie making skills.

The Contenders

No southern gentility here. This was a no holds barred, bare-knuckled culinary brawl.

(I don't know what that means, I've just been watching a lot of Top Chef on TV lately.)

The Moderator

Jentry needs to work on her Don King hair, but she put a stop to the sparring and got down to the formalities.

The Ring

Looks like an even match at first glance. Everyone chose both a slice A and a slice B for an anonymous taste test.

The Choices

At closer inspection there are definite differences. Tequila sauce? Intriguing. Nuts in the crust? Interesting.

The Chowdown

This is where the conversation dipped and the calorie intake spiked tenfold, but it was for a good cause, right?

The Live Tally

Then the voting began. Jentry started tallying the score before our very eyes.

The Lead?

Could the lead be the southern style Nutty Crust (B) choice?

Nope. The Clear Winner.

Ah... the Tequila Sauced (A) choice won hands down.

The Outrage.

"How could this happen!? Kriste won!? Recount!?"

(Actually I voted for Kriste... her pie is freaking unbelievable, hence the calorie whiplash)

The Excuses.

And so Roy's backpedaling began. He put the Redi-Whip on too early. (Ahem... Kriste had home made fresh whip cream). He couldn't compete with the alcoholic ingredient! (Whatever.. this is Third Degree buster.)

But in the end he stood by his pie, and had the quote of the day:
"I like nuts in my crust!"

Followed by the second best quote of the day, exclaimed as he opened the fridge and realized his canned whip cream substitute had "melted" on his pie:
"Oh, my pie is F'd!"

Good Things Come In Pairs

2009-08-31T09:23:00.001-05:00

I usually don't post on Mondays, because everyone's sort of just trying to clear the residual weekend fog from their heads. But Friday afternoon Brian brought a happening to my attention that I just cannot wait to share.

A little set up: we're doing a friend referral promotion for Cosmetic Surgery Affiliates. It's for breast augmentation, and it's themed Good Things Come In Pairs. Fun, right?

So last week Brian is recording the radio spot for this campaign with Lucky Dog audio in Little Rock. It's about two best friends bantering back and forth about getting "their pairs" done. Turns out one of the lead voice talents (aka Woman #1), has another extracurricular activity that is just too much of a coincidence not to share.

"Cherries" © breastpals.com

She paints with her breasts.

"BooBees" © breastpals.com

Yep.

"Breast Stroke" © breastpals.com

Angel Tolentino of BreastPals.com has been featured on The Today Show, E!, and Ripleys Believe It Or Not for this artistic endeavor. Actually, 100% of her profits from art sales go to breast cancer charities. So, then you think, ah... okay that's actually very clever, and it goes towards a good cause. Plus she obviously has a great sense of humor:

Q) What size are your paint brushes?
A) I was using 34As until our sons were born. Now I work with 34Bs!

Q) Your paintings are cute now, but what will you paint when you turn 65?
A) I'll probably do a whole theme on eggplants.

"Headlights" © breastpals.com

So I'm guessing that your Monday haze has now lifted, thanks to a pair of too funny to resist fog lights.

80s Murder Mystery Party

2009-08-25T09:27:00.000-05:00

So last Friday we had our internal Third Degree mid year planning meeting. We looked at where we've come, what the next six months might hold, and then we broke for lunch...

... and broke out the hairspray.

Because the afternoon team-building activity? A 1980's High School Reunion Murder Mystery party.

Meet the prom king and queen.

Note the matching corsage and boutineer. It's the little details which made Holly our media director the winner of the "Best Dressed" award, as Mallory Majesty the former prom queen.

Birds of a feather. The nosy school journalist and gossip columnist.

The class president and vice president. Now U.S. presidential and first lady hopefuls.

The band camp couple.

The math team captain and math team cheerleader. Check out his homemade paper calculator watch here.

The "real" cheer captain and her high school jock sweetheart.

And what 80's party would be complete without at least one punk rocker?

It was a cast John Hughes would be proud of.

With, of course, a custom Third Degree compilation soundtrack to match.

Totally.

Want to see more party pics, visit our Flickr page.
Want to hold your own murder mystery party? Go to NightOfMystery.com.

Don't Fake It. Make It.

2009-08-20T11:35:00.000-05:00

Usually I am a supporter of the typical turn of this phrase "fake it 'til you make it," but since the handcrafted design movement has found a following here at Third Degree, we've been making a real effort to include more handmade elements into our work.

Like the cut paper components of our Cosmetic Surgery Affiliates campaign.

Or the handwritten note style for this teen targeted sub-brand for Pioneer Communications that we've just started to develop.

We made the intern do the hand lettering for this one. We figured since he was technically still in school, it made him the perfect candidate.

These wooden hands had been residing on my living room shelf as treasured objects, until we posed and shot them inhouse with our little digital camera to create an big conceptual theme for a new higher education initiative. (Still pending launch, so I can't give away the actual client or show the finished creative).

We even edited a new variation of the TFCU "we get it" branding campaign, using the transparencies from the original shoot, for a behind the scenes cut-out, paste-up feel. With hands included, of course.

What's funny, is when you get used to making the "unfinished" into a purposeful finished product, it starts to become second nature.

Case in point. Last week I buy a fancy oversized wedding card for our designer Brett from the entire agency. It had one of those envelopes that plays music when you open it. I tested the flap like the little sticker on it told me too, heard the wedding march play in it's little electric fuzzy way, and said "that'll work." I didn't actually bother to look inside the envelope. So when I got back to the office to find out there was no actual card inside... no sweat.

We just recruited the intern, gave him a Sharpie...

... and created a handmade card that will probably have a lot more meaning in the long run.

Grocery Fun for MECU and You

2009-08-12T09:16:00.001-05:00

I think there is something so appealing about fake food. I like it when it's plastic, or miniature, or pretending to be something else like a hamburger phone, or like when you get your lemon juice in that fake plastic lemon squeeze bottle.

I realize that most people probably don't have this same obsession. But I think most people agree they love food... you know, the real kind. So it's for more than self-indulgent reasons that I can say I love the food themed promotion we recently launched for MECU (Motorola Employees Credit Union) who are based outside of Chicago, IL.

MECU exists to be the go-to financial institution for employees or family members of employees of Motorola. So they rely less on mass media and more on member-focused marketing. When they asked us to come up with a new take on a member referral program, we came up with a yummy solution: a chance for a lucky member to win $400 in groceries for themselves and the person they get to sign up to be a MECU-er just like them.

Since their service centers are one of the primary places we'd be reaching members, we wanted to make an instant impression. We created an oversized standee that could be further elaborated upon by service center managers who are encouraged to fill the three dimensional "sacks" with real groceries and arrange real paper bags also filled with groceries around the base of the standees.

We wanted to get really dynamic with all the components of the campaign, so the die cuts and three dimensional details just helped give everything that extra pop...

... like floor clings (actually heavy traffic removable carpet clings) made to look like toppled bags of groceries on branch floors...

... and a die cut direct mailer that carries out the paper sack theme.

But, our theme was more than just a food fixation. It was really based on the idea of MECU providing for their members like they've always had. Putting groceries on the table is something that is fundamentally family and financially oriented. With messaging positioning MECU as a not-for-profit alternative to big banks, we're helping them put their difference out there "on the table" for their members to remember and share.

And there's nothing fake about that.

Ten Things You Don't Know

2009-08-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

It's been a very rainy morning in August and there's a subdued vibe around the agency today. So I've taken a cue from our resident lifestyle blogger, Kathleen, and gotten introspective. Prompted by a chain blog topic, she recently posted "ten things you don't know about me."

So here's Ten Things You Don't Know About Third Degree:

1. This is the hole in my window. It lets the outside in. I put Playdoh in it, but it fell out.

2. These are the scary back exit murder stairs we all leave the building from everyday.

3. We also spray mount all our mock ups in the stairwell. Notice the silver box? (We didn't figure out what that was until a few months ago. It's like a rat trap from the forties or something. So we quit trying to use it as a door stop, but curiously did not throw it out either.)

4. We grow umbrellas on rainy days.

Okay, this photo is gratutiously cheery with no real purpose. But it does help counteract the murder stairwell and rat trap photos.

5. These are also our cute new pillows that mimic the design software icons on our Macs.

See?

6. There is a battle for ownership happening every day inside our agency fridge.

(Daniel is the number one enemy in that battle.)

7. Last month Kande turned on the space heater under Hallie's desk on one of the hottest days of the summer. And didn't tell her until three hours later.

8. So Hallie took everything off Kande's desk and hid it the next morning. That's a lot of chotchkies to hide.

9. Roy is always with us. Even when he is away.

10. And we still dress sharp. Even when it rains.

Mad About The Mall

2009-07-30T10:10:00.000-05:00

We've been getting excited about mall advertising lately at Third Degree. We've recently done floor clings and banners for the Square of Clean Air campaign and Buck The Norm. We've also got some new mall concepts for a few other clients brewing for the fall that will target shoppers when holiday traffic starts to gear up.

So earlier this week I was looking for some unusual advertising real-estate opportunities to shoot and mock up for a client proposal (if I happened to get some new shoes, too, so be it.)

As I was passing Banana Republic I did a serious double take.

Because Don Draper was looking right at me.

That's his lovely wife Betty giving me a frosty stare, as well. And if you don't watch Mad Men on AMC, a drama documenting the Madison Avenue advertising agency world of the sixties, these names might not mean a lot to you. But at Third Degree, they mean double-standards and scotch... secrets and stereotypes... and, mad, mad style.

After I caught my breath and started discreetly snapping away (mall security be damned), I saw how extensive this brilliant cross-promotion went. With signage throughout the stores, and early sixties office-inspired dresses and suits featured alongside profiles of favorite characters from the show. And this clever little collateral, which I quickly grabbed up...

a little mini Banana Republic Mad Men catalog.

It includes a free iTunes download of a Mad Men episode, a Banana Republic coupon, and a "casting call" contest, where you can enter to win a walk-on role in the actual show and a $1,000 Banana Republic gift card.

Third Degree might just have some entries among our employees. Not only do we have the season one DVD box set of Mad Men in our agency diner, we've also got a quiz at the bottom of our new web site home page where you can choose Donald Draper as your favorite ad guy among other fictional competitors, and we've had an employee win a costume contest dressed as Joan, the show's sexy office manager.

The little brochure also pairs characters from the show with a Banana Republic break-down of their style with corresponding outfits.

We also have another employee blogging about her own custom Mad Men character on AMC's web site where you can "Mad Men Yourself." AMC is hitting on all cylinders with environmental and online ways of getting fans excited, and hopefully getting non-fans interested enough to jump on board, for the fall season kickoff on August 16.

Obviously I am a target because I am already a fan. But this is just a great example of non-traditional advertising hitting the right person at the right time.

Oh... and it worked on my husband. Brilliant.

Un-Shy Alumni

2009-07-23T08:31:00.000-05:00

It's no secret, we've got a bucket-full (or should I say a seed-sower's-sack full) of OU Alumni here at Third Degree. Recently OU sent a crew to come interview some of us here at the agency for a series of alumni videos they are featuring on their newly-designed website.

(A website which, ahem-ahem, we may have had a role in designing).

You can watch all the videos on YouTube if you go here.

Jentry particularly charmed the crew (she has some sort of girl-next-door hoodoo that no one is immune from), and she also had some friendly advice for students who might not want to limit themselves to one field of study too quickly, as Jentry herself got a degree in interior design, but has developed her career a kick-ass media buyer.

Mostly everyone doled out words of wisdom of one form or another...

but enough alma mater mumbo jumbo. Because seriously, there's a much more important topic at hand:

Which person's desk do you think looks the most hideously messy in their video?

Mine? (That's me, Tara.)

Amanda's? (Okay, her's doesn't look too bad, but I think she cleaned it at the last second.)

Or Brian's?

Obviously none of us majored in interior design.

Third Degree: The Photo Shoot

2009-07-15T09:14:00.000-05:00

Today we launch the new Third Degree website. Yay! Which means Third Degree can share our most recent work, case studies, thoughts, hopes, dreams, etc...

It also means since we took some new staff photos for the site at David McNeese studio, I can now finally show you all the embarrassing behind the scenes photos. Like this one. Classic.

Has anyone seen a creative (and a copywriter to boot) ever smile so big?

That's more like it.

I tend to get carried away.

This was my favorite shot of the day. Holly our media director looks just like a shampoo commercial. So ethereal, angelic. I call it Holly-Campaign-For-Beauty-Dot-Com.

I call this one, Holly WTF?

Our executive vice president Mickie, had to bring her little boy to the shoot. It was only a matter of time before that situation spiraled.

Speaking of spiraling situations, Roy, our CEO made an impromptu appearance at the studio. So, while Amanda doesn't have a child in her shot... well, you finish that sentence.

Of course, having Roy show up equaled instant hilarity. Or maybe that was just because of the wine he brought with him.

All in all, a memorable day.

As for selective memory, this is when I promised everyone I wouldn't share their embarrassing photos.

Powerwash Equals Mural Makeover

2009-07-10T09:33:00.000-05:00

Our client Pioneer, is headquartered in the smalltown hub of Kingfisher, Oklahoma. The town's main street strip still holds the charm of days-gone-by combined with all the signs of a thriving rural community. So when a recent powerwashing of Pioneer's mural resulted in a little more paint removal than dirt removal, on the one hand it could have just passed as well, retro... really retro...

...or the slight mishap could present itself as an opportunity for a fresh coat of paint and a refresh of the Pioneer brand look.

We had just put out a new annual report for Pioneer, a telecommunications company that's been serving western Okahoma for over 50 years.

So we decided to draw some inspiration from the annual report cover as we designed the new mural.

And presto chango! Our muralist did it in like two days. We didn't want it to look too new, so we designed it to look pre-distressed. You know, like when you buy jeans with the holes already in them.

We convinced the Pioneer marketing ladies to trek out to the mural with us for a photo op. It was 104 degrees outside and the bleached out concrete parking lot really reflected a lot of sun during this afternoon shot. I photo-adjusted this one, but it still looks like we're posing for a party pic on the surface of Mars.

I wasn't even allowed in the group picture because my beyond white skin was creating too much glare. Maybe I should take a cue from the brick wall behind me and get a new coat of paint... spray-on-tan style.

When Art Directors Get To Go Outside

2009-07-08T10:49:00.000-05:00

They go to the HOW Design Conference! This year Third Degree sent Kathleen and Liz to see what's-what in the world of design at the national conference held in Austin, Texas this year.

Every professional creative person from inhouse designer to big bad agency art director drools to go to HOW. At Third Degree we try to budget for two creatives to get to attend every other year or so.

One thing that helps make it affordable is sharing a hotel room. What the budget does not cover is a hotel bill for trashing the room.

Kathleen and Liz kept me posted on their experience in real time with frequent texts. The first outing upon arrival was an agency tour of a quaint bungalow-style house that was home to Creative Suitcase a local Austin agency. The girls felt right at home.

A particularly inspirational session was one by Kate Bingaman-Burt of obsessiveconsumption.com, a blogger/illustrator/design influencer in her own right, and a big believer in handcrafted design, which is something both Liz and Kathleen feel passionate about, as well.

Craft + Activism = Craftivism by Kate Bingaman-Burt of www.obsessiveconsumption.com

A more serious session was all about staying organized and the importance of actionable steps in an "idea" world. It's not all troubled genius and late night brainstorms. It's actually a lot of being organized, consistent and just responsible with your energy and focused on the right things. Kathleen was a front-rower at this one – the kind that nods at everything the speaker is saying. This was presentation was given by Behance, and was so on the Third Degree train, Kathleen almost jumped up and yelled "testify!"

www.behance.com

Kathleen's notes from Living a Curiously Creative Life breakout session by Von Glitschka.

In fact, having been to HOW myself, I would compare the experience to something probably not unlike a revival. So we just started ending all our texts to and from the conference with "revival! testify! hallelujah!" This doodle-note is one of Kathleen's... hmmm, looks like she is already being inspired by that handcrafted session she attended earlier in the conference.

Now that they are back to the daily grind, we hope that a little of that inspiration lingers.

Liz at the agency tour of fd2s in Austin.

Not that it's ever too dull around here. Case in point: just a week after their return from HOW, and we see what really happens when art directors get to go outside – especially when they get their hands on a client's used outdoor vinyl, coat it with baby oil, stake it to a hill, and.. yes...

... turn it into a slip and slide.

TFCU's Get Going promotion may be over. But that didn't stop some of our more inventive minds from inventing another way to get going (and get grass burns).