While many look at this time of year as an opportunity to receive gifts, the folks here at Splinter Creative felt the need to dish out some goodies to our lovely clients and colleagues… And we couldn’t think of a better way to spread some of that holiday cheer, than with a gift set from Cruz Tequila. (See more pics of the Cruz Tequila gift sets here.)

In their first year of holiday promotions, the Cruz Crew put together quite the little gift set complete with a bottle of their new line, Cruz Silver, and some fancy margarita glasses as a nice accent. Needless to say, our colleagues were thrilled, and propositioned us to crack these bad boys open a few times during deliveries (we refrained of course as advocates of safe driving ).

In addition to dishing out some gifts this holiday season, the Splinter Creative team participated in the Holiday #buzzcation Bowling Tournament with a cause, benefiting the Crisis Nursery of Phoenix. The turnout was awesome as teams of news channel, public relations and advertising peeps filled nearly the entire bowling alley. Big props go out to @vettieroe for organizing this great event, and to team “Split Happens” (that’s us) for taking down the trophy. We’ll make sure to take good care of it until next year… To view more pictures from the event, check out HMA’s fan page here.

From our office to yours, Happy Holidays and we look forward to working/socializing with you in 2010!

Between client work and events it’s been a crazy couple months for Splinter Creative. So… I thought I’d check-in and give everyone an update on several things that are beginning or ending in the old project pipeline.

Twestival Local Phoenix turned out to be a huge success and a great time. With help from twitter nation and area businesses, the localized effort was able to raise $9,332 for St. Mary’s Food Bank. This is double what Twestival Phoenix achieved back in February and exceeded the preliminary goal of $7,000. Our hats off to @chrislee, @aussieheather, @jennycarnie, @amandablum and countless others for organizing the event and getting members of the Phoenix community involved. I don’t know what it is, but the fact that a couple hundred people came together and raised enough money to provide over 65,000 meals to the Phoenix community, kinda makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside As always, looking forward to helping out with the next one.

In addition to Twestival, we’ve had some pretty cool client work the past few months. While I don’t have quite enough room to show everything, here’s a few logos I hand picked from the “need to update portfolio” folder. From left to right: Up and coming skateboard company out of northern California (Ladera), a Scottsdale, AZ based law firm (Bar Urness) and a newly launched non-profit organization (Phoenix Innovation Foundation). It was a pleasure working with all three clients on their respective logos, and we look forward to furthering our relationships with them over the coming year.

And last but not least, Splinter has been working with a couple ladies over at Type A Events to help out with the production of event signage for Crave 2009. For those of you unfamiliar with Crave Arizona, it takes place in the heart of Old Town Scottsdale and treats the world’s culinary community to a celebration of food, wine and spirits. According to their site, the event highlights local chefs, artisans, and one-of-a-kind dining experiences found only in Arizona. Splinter Creative is excited to be a part of this great event, and even more excited to attend (wine and food is NEVER a bad thing). For all the juicy details, be sure to visit the website… And if you end up attending, make sure to track me down so we can share a few spirits and a laugh. Cheers!

With pre-season action coming to an end, and a hint of the NFL regular season in the air, Splinter decided it was time to take Agency Throwdown to a new level with a fantasy football challenge of epic proportions. The snag — We only have a few days to pull it off, but with the amount of awesome people scattered throughout agencies all over Phoenix, we’re not too worried about it.

As I write this post, I’m still working out all the details in my noggin, but here’s how I see the first ever Agency Fantasy Football league goin’ down…

1. We get 8-24 agencies to get involved, where each agency would represent their team collectively as a whole. Whether you have one person who’s interested or a group of people, make sure someone represents like this guy!  Any and all agencies are welcome, you just have to be within the wide scope that is Phoenix.
2. Fees would be $50 per team (get 5 people on board at your agency and it’s only a whopping $10 each. WOOT!).
3. What’s the $50 going towards? Great question… $40 will be donated to Twestival Local – Phoenix and their pursuit to support the St. Mary’s Food Bank. The remaining $10 will go towards food and drinks at the end of the season party (Location TBD. It will be an establishment with food, booze and wifi… Heck, maybe even Gangplank would work if they’re interested and could broadcast the games through the projector).
4. Amended: Tentative Draft Date: 6pm on Tuesday, September 8th or Wednesday, September 9th – and can be done remotely as we’ll be setting up the league on Yahoo’s free fantasy football site. Once more teams sign up, we’ll figure out a time that works best for most.
5. The draft will consist of 15 rounds to allow room for both starters and bench players.
6. Teams will consist of: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, R/W/T, K, DST and 6 bench players.
7. We’ll do a random draft order once everyone has signed up (I may or may not be accepting bribes for draft position )
8. Our regular season will consist of 13 games with the playoffs taking place during weeks 14, 15 and 16 of the NFL’s regular season.
9. Top 8 teams (assuming we get at least 12 to sign up) will make the playoffs.
10. Anyone who is interested, please get in touch with me by end of day on Thursday, September 3rd (I know, it’s short notice, but I just had an epiphany this morning) and we’ll work out the details from there.
11. Recommended you create a unique yahoo login so everyone who is part of the team in your agency has an opportunity to login and check updates as needed.
12. League scores, rankings, etc will be posted on the Agency Throwdown site every Tuesday as they change (Tentative. I still need to work this out).
13. The winner won’t receive any money (gambling is illegal in Arizona in case you didn’t know) but being the King of Fantasy Football amongst Phoenix agencies doesn’t seem like too bad of a consolation prize (or bragging right for that matter) if you ask me.

Sound like a plan? The way I see it, we’ll have about 4 months to “talk smack” and build relationships with our fellow creative/marketing/advertising/web peeps while enjoying the most popular sport in America. Competitors can feel free to meet up on a weekly basis to give each other the business in person, use the hashtag #phxffb to chat it up on Twitter, or wait for the end of the season when everyone convenes to watch the final game and enjoy food/libations at a local watering hole.

If you’re interested, feel free to drop a comment below, send an email to bhatfield at splintercreative dot com or hit me up on Twitter. Just don’t be that guy who drops a comment and leaves no way for me to track you down

I’m also directly calling out Phoenix Metro Area Agencies: McMurry, The Lavidge Company, Forty Agency, Sarkissian Mason, Keane Creative, Off Madison Ave, Moses Anshell, Cramer-Krasselt, E.B. Lane, Mullen Advertising, Reister, Martz Agency, Crosby Wright, Santy Integrated and Zion & Zion in hopes they have Google Alerts set that will get their attention. For the agencies I missed, my bad. Everyone is welcome to compete. You can take it out on me and the Splinter crew via the fantasy football field…  Bring it!

So let the games begin… And spread the word!  Here’s a short link to this post – http://bit.ly/eS8St

Confirmed Teams as of 4:03pm on Wenesday, September 9th

• Splinter Creative
• Sarkissian Mason
• Liquis Design
• Keane Creative
• Canyon Communications
• Amanda Vega Consulting
• Terralever
• @ousooner44

It seems like just yesterday I created my Twitter account and began an online journey to make connections and meet new people. Back in January of 2009, I had the pleasure of following Chris Lee who introduced me to Twestival Phoenix and their pursuit to provide clean drinking water to those less fortunate. After clicking a few links and learning more about it, I decided it was a great opportunity for Splinter to lend a helping hand. Little did I know, this event would spawn the introductions to some awesome people in the community, and be the catalyst for future relationships with the Phinest in Phoenix

Several months later, Chris contacted me to see if we’d be interested in helping out with other Phoenix events including Twestival Local. Without hesitation, we jumped on board and look forward to making a difference by providing support to Twestival Local and the St. Mary’s Food Bank. To get started, Chris wanted us to give the logo a little Phoenix love… So I fired it over to our lead designer, Patricia, and turned her loose.  Switching out the tree with some traditional Phoenix attire (cacti) and rearranging a few elements, our first mission was complete. As we get closer to the event and get more sponsors locked down, we’ll be providing design and printing for signage along with other materials that will be on display and distributed at the event.

Event Info – Save the Date!

Twestival Local (Phoenix) will be held the evening of Friday, September 11^th 2009.

According to the Twestival Phoenix website, the hosts of various Phoenix Friday Night events have graciously offered to combine efforts and make this event one to remember.

Twestival Phoenix Local will be a tweetup for everyone complete with food, drinks, raffle and silent auction. This will be a great opportunity to meet new people from all over the Phoenix valley and have some fun, all while supporting a local charity.

Sounds like a win-win situation if you ask me. If you agree, show your support by adding a “twibbon” to your avatar. You can do so here.

While the event location is still up in the air, you can follow Twestival Phoenix for updates, or check the website for more information as it becomes available.

Looking to get whisked away on a Friday night? Lucky for you, the Active 20-30 Club of Phoenix has just the ticket to start your weekend in style. They’ve hooked up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Arizona, and are set to host quite the little shindig this evening.

Friday, May 8^th will mark the 1^st Annual Phoenix Suitcase Party, and it’s going down at the Deer Valley Airport in north Phoenix. Beginning at 6:30pm, party-goers will eagerly await their chance to board a private jet and enjoy a fun-filled, luxurious weekend in Sonoma Valley.

How does it work you ask? Attendees will bring a packed suitcase, strut their way down the red carpet, and enjoy an evening of drinks, dancing and live entertainment while awaiting their chance to hit the big raffle. At around 9pm, a private jet will arrive at the Atlantic Aviation luxury hangar, and one lucky winner and a guest will be immediately swept away for an amazing weekend.

Sounds pretty killer, no? I’d never heard of this type of party before, and as a sponsor for the event, I’m pretty fired up to see how everything goes down. Plus, all proceeds from the raffle and silent auction go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Arizona as well as the Children in Need Foundation. I don’t know about you, but anytime I can support a good cause and have a good time doing it, I chalk it up as a victory in my book.

For complete details on the event, check out the Active 20-30 Club website by clicking here… And make sure to drop us a comment if you’ll be heading that way!