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Showing posts with label TFCU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TFCU. Show all posts
Monday, November 14, 2011
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
TFCU Get Back To You
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.
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.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Here We Come To Save The Day!
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).
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).
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Scary Good: Buck The Norm Parade Part II
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!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
When Art Directors Get To Go Outside
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).
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).
Friday, June 19, 2009
Facetime With Bucky
BuckTheNorm.com is back with a new contest. TFCU is asking young people to submit their own photo of Bucky over the summer, and the best one chosen gets to be Bucky's facebook profile pic, and the winning entrant gets a free digital camera.
We've worked so much on buck the norm around here, and had gotten so used to calling the "spokesthumb" of the campaign, Bucky, that we thought it might be a good idea to formally introduce him to the buck the norm audience as well. So we decided to do a video about him.
First step, get his face right. We'd gotten a little rusty drawing the perfect Bucky face, so we had to practice... a lot.
Fortunately we had a lot of volunteers around the agency (if you consider forcing people to let us draw faces on their thumbs with permanent marker volunteering).
Finally, it was perfect. Good match, don't you think? This is actually my thumb, which plays Bucky Number One in the video.
Daniel has more experience starring in buck the norm videos.
His thumb is Bucky Number Two.
(That sounds kind of gross...if you're five years old I suppose... but I have one of those, too... so I went there.)
We decided that my desk area had the most natural light, so we set up our little makeshift studio there: easels, foam core, poster board, and dangerously hot desk lamps and shop lights rigged up at precarious angles.
We were too lazy to move my desk. Or clean it.
Brett was our official stage hand-slash-camera man. He's about to go union.
We actually had a guest star Bucky. Here I am holding her hand up so it shows up in the frame.
And here I am going all stage mom on her. Her real mom, Kriste, our media buyer, is in the background. She's about to come throw me down. I'm pretty sure she could take me.
But at the end of the day it was worth it.
Presenting our handmade video.
We've worked so much on buck the norm around here, and had gotten so used to calling the "spokesthumb" of the campaign, Bucky, that we thought it might be a good idea to formally introduce him to the buck the norm audience as well. So we decided to do a video about him.
First step, get his face right. We'd gotten a little rusty drawing the perfect Bucky face, so we had to practice... a lot.
Fortunately we had a lot of volunteers around the agency (if you consider forcing people to let us draw faces on their thumbs with permanent marker volunteering).
Finally, it was perfect. Good match, don't you think? This is actually my thumb, which plays Bucky Number One in the video.
Daniel has more experience starring in buck the norm videos.
His thumb is Bucky Number Two.
(That sounds kind of gross...if you're five years old I suppose... but I have one of those, too... so I went there.)
We decided that my desk area had the most natural light, so we set up our little makeshift studio there: easels, foam core, poster board, and dangerously hot desk lamps and shop lights rigged up at precarious angles.
We were too lazy to move my desk. Or clean it.
Brett was our official stage hand-slash-camera man. He's about to go union.
We actually had a guest star Bucky. Here I am holding her hand up so it shows up in the frame.
And here I am going all stage mom on her. Her real mom, Kriste, our media buyer, is in the background. She's about to come throw me down. I'm pretty sure she could take me.
But at the end of the day it was worth it.
Presenting our handmade video.
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