I am EVP, Executive Creative Director, at Barkley/OKRP, a 2023 Ad Age Agency Standout THAT WAS ALSO SHORTLISTED FOR Adweek’S 2022 Agency of the Year.
I lead two creative teams, one in KC and one in Denver. current Clients include Dairy Queen, Taco John’s, APPLEGATE FARMS, CARFAX, US Bank and Midas.
cAREER Client experience includes planet fitness, american airlines, nationwide insurance, microsoft XBOX, SUBARU, discovery channel, and THE MINNESOTA VIKINGS.
In 2023, I helped lead and win Barkley’s pitch for the CARFAX agency of record. We suggested to the CARFAX executive team that perhaps their anachronistic brand name has come full circle, thanks to the way Gen Z uses the word “fax” to state emphatic agreement that something is irrefutably true. My team just produced CARFAX’s latest campaign, the idea that won us the business.
In 2021, I helped launch and lead the Barkley Creative Accelerator, an experimental apprenticeship / portfolio school. The program won the AAF’s Mosaic Award in 2022, and Kim Chungong, a graduate of our inaugural class, just won a Clio.
Storytelling is in my blood. In 2014, I joined the Screen Actors Guild to become the voice of the Dairy Queen brand. Since then, I’ve done voiceover work for Marmot, H&R Block and I recently narrated a 60-minute ESPN documentary.
In 2014, I co-founded a video production company called Rockbox. I learned how to produce, direct, manage a P&L, you name it. We grew it from a team of 2 people to a team of 8, and took annual revenue from $0 to $1.3MM. A highlight was writing and co-directing a brand film for the Minnesota Vikings that went on permanent display in US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
As a copywriter, I helped rebrand Discovery Channel and American Airlines, helping earn a Gold Effie and a Cannes Lion for the same global American campaign. I wrote a Nielsen-ranked Top 3 Super Bowl spot for Nationwide Insurance, also named TBS’ Funniest Commercial of the Year, and one of The Wall Street Journal’s Best Ads of the Year.
I once rode a Harley Davidson Road King across the state of Wyoming. My brother and I went from Rapid City, South Dakota to Jackson, Wyoming and back. We got stuck on our bikes in the middle of a herd of buffalo in Yellowstone National Park. It was like bumper-to-bumper traffic. One night, we slept under a pine tree and the moon was so big and bright, it woke me up. I thought it was a cop with a flashlight.
I will always write for a living.
Words matter now more than ever.
tdemetriou@barkley.com