The giblet is quite a polarizing force when it comes to Thanksgiving Day meals. Some find these bits of offal (fancy term for organ meat) quite delicious, while others view these shards floating in their otherwise delicious gravy (fancy term for liquid fat) off putting. You’ll find me squarely in the anti-giblet camp. There are also internal squabbles over the merits of cranberry sauce, the usefulness of the yam and the protocol for deciding who gets the turkey leg.
Fortunately, despite our seasonal dietary differences, we can all usually find common ground on the many things in our life, in the case of Thoma Thoma our work life, that are worthy of giving thanks for. In honor of Thanksgiving, here is a far from comprehensive list of things, people and places we appreciated in the year 2014.
1. Old Relationships
Our business relies on our ability to create meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships with our clients. We said goodbye to one of our favorite clients, Allyson Twiggs Dyer, Executive Director of Visit Rogers, as she moved on to start a business of her own. We look forward our continued work with Visit Rogers and her replacement, but she will be missed. Other long time partners we are grateful for include Bank of Little Rock Mortgage, Hutchinson Financial and the Capital Hotel, among others.
2. New Relationships
We love our existing clients but we also love things like food, shelter and electricity, which means we work extremely hard each year to forge new partnerships that will help grow our company. We embarked on some pretty cool endeavors this past year, including helping launch a transcendent dining establishment, Cache, working to help re-brand a central Arkansas icon, the Little Rock Athletic Clubs, jumping in with both feet to help FNBC Bank in a rebranding effort of their own and a huge new marketing push for Southern Bancorp.
3. Getting The Heck Out Of Here
For the most part, we love our gigs here at Thoma — with plenty of challenges, coffee, cocktails, and snacks to keep us occupied and engaged. But, when the opportunity presents, we also like to put our jobs in the rearview to recharge and explore destinations near and far. We had TT staffers go as far as Korea, as nearby as down the street (thinking of John Mark’s epic staycation), and all points in between, including Delaware, Oregon, Colorado, Florida, Washington and more. And the best part is, everyone came back, and all without any hard-to-pronounce, exotic illnesses.
4. Making Great Stuff
At our core, we are idea generators and problem solvers. It’s why people hire us and what makes us get out of bed in the morning. From creative to account services, nothing makes us prouder than putting something on the table and having the client say, “damn, I never would have thought of that.” Some of the coolest things we thought of in 2014 include new creative for One Eleven at the Capital, a dynamic and very pink campaign for Race for the Cure, and a poster series for ASO’s Beethoven and Blue Jeans made out of actual denim.
5. Adoration
Being staffed by sensitive creative types, we are always in search of validation and we got that in many ways this year. We took home the second most total awards at this year’s ADDYs, which was nice. Our client Tipton Hurst was recognized by Google (yes, that Google) as having the best digital marketing presence in the state of Arkansas — something we had more than a little to do with. But perhaps the best recognition of all was the numerous calls, emails and pats on the back we received throughout the year, including one particularly glowing missive from our pal Molly at FNBC, in which the word “love” may have been used more than once.
Thanks to all of our clients, friends and the Thoma Thoma staff members who continue give us plenty of reasons to give thanks each and every day.