I started Cass Creative on April 1st, 1997.  I thought if it failed, then I could play it off as an April Fools joke.  By the time I closed the doors fourteen years later, the “joke” had turned into a successful boutique, full-service agency with local, regional and national clients.  We worked with a diverse range of companies, many of them for many years, and always stayed on the edge of up and coming ideas and technology.   

 

Cass Creative provided creative, media planning and buying, production and consulting services.  The offices were always open floor plans so that everyone on staff could interact with each other and collaborate freely across disciplines.  

 

And we always had fun. 

 

That was the only hard rule. My goal was to create an environment that nurtured ideas, where praise was given freely and hard work was recognized and rewarded.  Most of all I told everyone to not take things too seriously and have fun with your job.  Own your successes and your mistakes.   

 

And it worked.

 

You can measure your success in terms of awards and money, or you can measure it with how many lives you’ve changed and enriched.  My team and I changed not only our lives but also many others through our work and message delivery.  Sure, not all products change people’s lives, but we were fortunate enough to have clients whose services and products did just that.  And helping our clients grow and be successful was my measure of success. Awards are nice, and we had plenty, but growing a client’s business and helping them succeed their goals is the best way to measure your success.  

 

And that’s the story.

 

(I didn't put logos from all our clients, because this thing would go on for a while and who has that kind of scroll time?)