TCA brought in the Holiday Season with our annual Holiday Decorating Party. Of course, there were tons of Holiday cookies, creative crafting, and broken ornaments but this year we decided to take our Cyphers decorating one step further.

We each brought a print out to the Holiday Bash of a project that we worked on this past year. There was everything from budget spreadsheets and creative briefs to website mocks and Facebook profiles. We each made our very own Holiday ornament but cutting up the projects and putting the pieces inside of the ornament ball to make our very own Holiday Decorations, TCA style.

Now all of our wonderful accomplishments are decorating the office and transforming it into a true Cyphers Wonderland.

What accomplishments are you proud of this year?

Oh the crazy things we say,

throughout our Cyphers work day.

You may think we are not okay.

But to us, this is just normal TCA.

Enjoy…

• Every time I laugh it’s so juicy.

• I want to tell you something disgusting now

• I’m going to ninja every bug in the universe

• Don’t come at me with your arms

• You don’t know where a hug has already been

• Excuse me, what are you doing over there…that sure is crinkly water

• I just rolled my eyes at twitter

• My neck balls really hurt right now

• Stop making me laugh because it hurts my sty

• I’m addicted to sexy font

• Everyone can be an artist if they drink

• I hiccuped in the middle of my yawn

• Sensei is sitting there

• “They” call it a pimp stick

The holidays are here and the holiday ads are everywhere you look. Before Charlie Brown can say “Good grief!” you’ll probably see another ad. This year seems to be the year of the self-satisfied mom who one-ups Santa by getting the perfect gifts under the tree before he can. Check out the Game On Santa ad from Best Buy (featuring Apple products) and see the rest of this year’s best holiday ads on AdAge.

What are your favorites this year? Or are these ads making you say bah humbug?!

From our family to yours.

Are you ready for a fun example of creative marketing? No, it’s not from a big national agency, nor is from a young, spry two person shop either. It’s from a group of baristas at my local Starbucks.

I walked in for my usual iced grande cinnamon dolce latte (because it’s only the manliest drinks for me) and noticed that the baristas had their tip jars arranged next to each other in an unusual way. As you can see from the above picture, both jars were sporting Post-it notes. One read, “Batman vs.” and the other read “Ironman”. The tip jars, which are likely to be near invisible to the every day customer, were visually and mentally catching. Putting money in either jar was a way to not only tip your barista, but a way to voice your opinion (this is my vote of course). And who doesn’t love a little superhero humor? I think this is brilliant.

But being the marketer than I am, it got my wheels turning. The baristas had taken a tip plea and created a benefit for themselves AND their customers. It heightened the Starbucks experience for the coffee purchaser and was a way to get more tips than usual for people behind the counter. Each day there was a new matchup and the previous day’s winner was posted. It just shows how a little thinking and creativity can create lasting impressions and experiences for your customers, AND benefit your company in a real way.