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).

After the Addys

So we've started getting congrats (and gourmet cupcakes) coming our way from well wishers on our Addy wins.

Let Us Eat Cake

These are from Sara Sara a new local cupcake shop that is getting a lot of buzz.  These were swarmed the minute they came in the door.  Kristin and David McNeese brought them by. David did all the great photography for Buck The Norm.

Roy Gets Creative

These ridiculously splashy but no less fabulous flowers came from Shannon and the gals at Cox Media. Roy decided to spontaneously fashion a makeshift Addy shrine around the flowers, sort of MacGyver meets Martha Stewart.  The giant-headed Roy to the right is the cardboard cutout we made of Roy to act as is stand-in the time he couldn't come to the Addy's a couple years ago. It's never the same without you, Roy!

Speech Time

Roy had us all come up on stage for the Best Of Show award at the end of the evening.  It was so much fun.  Kriste our media buyer said to the person next to her "I feel like the cast of Grey's Anatomy."  

Party People

Okay so here's our "party pics."  We get so huggy when there's complimentary bottles of wine the Third Degree tables (... and other people's tables when they're not looking).

Halliewood

Speaking of when people aren't looking.  This is the Addy revolution-themed directional sign that Hallie swiped as a souvenir at the end of the night.  Hallie also wore an Addy medal around her neck as she danced barefooted through the entire afterparty.  She deserved to celebrate. Hallie was one of the main drivers of the Buck The Norm campaign.

Kudos, Too

Our partner in developing the Buck The Norm site, Trabian, was also excited about the win. They posted about it on their credit union blog site, Open Source CU.  Thanks guys, now you just need to get someone to send you gourmet cupcakes.

The Buckin' Best Addys Ever

Why was the 43rd Annual Oklahoma City Addy Awards so wonderful? 

Three words:



"Buck"



"The"



"Norm." 



With three (three!) special judges awards: Best Interactive, Best Broadcast and freakin' Best In Show!!!



Needless to say we were very, very loud that evening, and very giddy when Roy asked the entire agency to come up on stage to accept the Best In Show award. There are so many funny quotes and moments from that evening that it's impossible to share them all, but one sentiment that's definitely worth repeating, is thanks TFCU for letting us do the kind of work we can all be so proud of.

Addy Entry Time

Today is the deadline to submit our work from the previous year in the Addy competition.

That means lots of people around here scrambling to gather samples, print out artwork and burn CDs and DVDs. Plus a ton of entry forms to fill out, cut, sort, and affix properly (there are a lot of rules in this arena). The fun part comes later in February at the Addy Gala where they announce and show off the winning entries.



So this is the not-so-fun part of the Addy awards. We've got to beat the clock (deadline is at 6:00 pm) so we can load up a cardboard box full of our entries in the back of someone's car so they rush it to Addy entry headquarters by 6:00 p.m.

For good luck we often will either wave like the pope over the box, or kiss the box as it goes out the door, or sometimes we have Roy rub his booty on the box. We usually don't kiss it after that.


We're going gold medals come gala time. (But after a few bottles of complimentary wine at the tables, we'll shout ourselves hoarse just as loudly for the bronze). Speaking of shouting and general over-enthusiasm, last year was an eventful Addy awards evening. We had fun to say the least.

Here are a few of our winning entries from the 2008 awards.



Phillip art directed this exterior signage for Red Pin a bowling alley concept restaurant and bar that's one of our neighbors here in Bricktown. It won an Addy gold for site exterior. This year we don't have a site exterior entry, but we have a site interior entry for the Buck The Norm oversized mall banners that went up all over Penn Square Mall at Christmas shopping time, thanks to some awesome media planning and placement by Holly and Kriste.



This in-branch standee for a Liberty Loan campaign won a gold Addy in the point of purchase free standing category last year. It was art directed by Kathleen and was for a fun constitutional-inspired promotion for Delta Community Credit Union. This particular standee of Patrick Henry resides by my desk and serves to block the intense 4 o' clock sun that blinds me through my window at the end of the day. He's my boyfriend.



Patrick was also accompanied by a series of standees including Harriett Tubman, Abe Lincoln and that cherry-tree-chopper, George Washington. This year we're entering some HD TV football-themed standees we did for Pioneer in this same category.



We always do well in at least one of the self-promotion categories. Our Third Degree brand book won us a gold last year. We've started doing brand books for lots of our clients since then.

Some self-promotional stuff we're entering this year includes our Christmas Card (those always medal for us), some of our direct mailers sent out to credit unions and, of course, our agency on-hold messages.

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Speaking of on hold messages. The on hold message we submitted last year for Funds For Learning, not only won us the gold, but won us the coveted Jef Fontana Humor Award. I think it was our third or fourth agency win of the shiny, blingy star-shaped trophy, and like our second or third win for Brian!! We like our funny.



And this is kind of meta. The campaign we actually created for the previous year Addy's won a special judges award at last years Addy's, which was cool.

Here's the video that was at the center of that campaign, which I created with the help of Simon Hurst's photography and Kathleen's photo direction assistance, Phillip's graphic assistance, Lucky Dog audio, and Digital DK's awesome animation.

Our hopes for a video win this year? Buck The Norm, baby!!! But we'll see. You just never know. The only certain thing about the Addy's are they're gonna be long, and there's gonna be some serious trading going on for unused extra drink tickets from our designated driver spouses.