Q&A with Casey

Q:  Perhaps we start with a history lesson? Talk about your background, professionally.
A:  Okay, this will be a hundred-mile-an-hour, highlights-only tour.

In 1995, I cut my teeth at a small Oklahoma City agency called Fellers Marketing and Advertising. The focus of the company was client service, which I took to naturally and it helped me ascend to Associate Creative Director.

After almost seven years at Fellers, I moved to Barkley in Kansas City. Their impeccable reputation for award-winning work is what drew me to them and I spent four years leading a fantastic team.

From Barkley, I went to work at Hallmark (also headquartered in Kansas City). Despite being the biggest “creative” brand in the world, I had entered a realm where research and planning was every bit as important. The work from there is some of the best in my career.

Q:  Why Third Degree?
A:  I’ve kept an eye on Third Degree since I left Oklahoma. It’s a company that works as smart as it is creative. So, the opportunity to be a leader here was a no brainer... it's the kind of job you just don't pass up.

Q:  Now something not work related. You run, even when you’re not being chased. What’s that about?
A:  My running shoes are one of the first things packed when I travel for work.  I’ve found a healthy body makes a healthy mind. Since I ran cross-country in college, jogging is sort of the low-hanging fruit of working out. It's a "dance with the devil you know” kind of thing.

This year my goal is to do a half marathon in one hour and thirty minutes…right after I stop eating so much chocolate cake.

Q:  So goals are important to you?
A:  Yes, it’s a holdover from my competitive athletic days and something I’ve found to be very important in my creative success. Just like a brand, it’s important to have a clear vision of where you want to go and what you want to achieve.

Q:  Which is more important: Creativity or Strategy?
A:  I use a lot of sports analogies and here’s one now:   In football you can’t win without solid play on both sides of the ball. Weakness on defense hurts the offense and vice versa. Essentially, it is a recipe for failure. Creativity and strategy have the same symbiotic relationship.

No concept, no matter how inspired, can overcome a weak foundation. And no strategy can truly come to life if the message isn’t well delivered and received. So to say one is more important to the other, in my opinion, couldn't be more short sighted.

Q:  Quick. Name your favorite movie, album and book.
A.  Cool Hand Luke. The Smiths – Meat is Murder. Watership Down.

Buck the Norm: We come from SPAAAACE!

Looking for our Buck the Norm parade case study? Find it on our new site!

New faces at the Third Degree Oklahoma City office!

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.

Ye Olde Company Christmas Party

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!

Bowling. (Or At Least Trying.)

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.

Frying Us Some Eggs

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.

Strategic Creatives. Makin' The Moves.

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.)

Retreat Day. Addy Night.

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).