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).

Meet Jared

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?

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)

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

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.