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Acne is the most prevalent skin disease in the United States, yet most of us don’t see the struggle that happens beneath the surface. For Acne Awareness month, our client – a major global pharmaceutical manufacturer –  wanted to educate the public and healthcare providers about the unseen emotional realities of acne.

We created an unbranded educational campaign with the goal of combining the data and the human element to show people with acne that they are not alone and empower them through a sense of community. Beyond educating the general public, it was important to connect healthcare providers to the patient experience. By showing them the daily struggles of people with acne, healthcare providers can begin treating acne beyond the surface and focus on healing the individual in full.

The result is a powerful campaign that brings a silent battle to the surface and shows people struggling with acne that they are not isolated with their feelings.

Let’s start by getting to know you a little better. Tell us about yourself.

Hi! I am a mother, wife, sister, daughter, and friend to many. I like to think that I’m an open book and game to always be there for others and listen. I’m totally into the Enneagram – I’m a NINE! Because I am a nine, it was always hard for me to express my opinions, but I find that the older I get, the more I’m expressing those opinions. But don’t make me choose where to go for lunch – I won’t decide for anyone.

As I said, I’m a mom. I have three awesome, smart, funny and beautiful daughters. All three with completely different personalities and looks and are always going to live in different stages of their lives from each other (they are quite spread apart in ages). I’m also a dog-mom. I have two chocolate labs – Miss Mocha and Mister Boudreaux. I went to TCU (Riff Ram!) and post-graduation I went straight into the world of advertising in Dallas.

I had a four-year stint in the non-profit development world but have been in advertising ever since. Production is the coolest part. Come find me and I’ll tell you why. Fun fact – I can’t cook. Maybe I could, but my husband is the BEST at cooking, and he does it all. He is also the WORST at using every dish, so I am now the BEST at washing dishes.

What’s something you love to do?

For fun – I LOVE going to see live music in small venues, attending shows (ballets, musicals, etc.), being with friends and going to sleep watching Great British Bake-Off reruns.

What’s your favorite place?

Creede, CO. I have gone there just about every summer of my life. It’s the best.

What do you love about the job?

I love being creative without being the creative. I get to work with awesome creative people and help bring their ideas to life for the benefit of our clients. Each day is different and my workday can change in extraordinary ways with a single email, text or phone call. I really enjoy the rush of someone bringing me a crazy idea, crazy timeline or crazy budget and trying to figure out how to get it produced.

What is the last thing you binge-watched?

Schitt’s Creek. It took me a couple of years to get into and join that bandwagon, but I’m all in for the Rose family now. 

What’s your favorite book?

I can never choose just one, but here are some good ones I’ve read recently:

The Light of the World
Homegoing
Educated
Just Mercy

Are you a listener or a talker?

Total listener.

If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

So hard. Why the limit? I’d like to say, in general, it would be Italian food.  But if I had to pick one “dish,” I’ll say TACOS! I can’t limit myself to one type of taco, though. That’s impossible.

Why Schaefer?

I love Schaefer so much that I had to come back – this is my second stint here. Schaefer is a mighty agency doing big things. Our strategy and killer design work sing for our clients. It is filled with awesome and different people who are passionate about what they do and are here to support one another. I also appreciate how Schaefer has woven itself into the core of the city of Fort Worth through our clients, community support, etc.

Any words of advice?

Life’s too short to be mean. Think of others, but know you can take care of yourself as well.

We’d like to formally congratulate Matt Gibson, Product Director for Dry Eye Products at Sight Sciences for being named a Brand Champion Award Winner by PM 360 for his work in Ophthalmology and Optometry. In addition to his award, Matt was also nominated for Marketer of the Year among some very prestigious peers.

In addition to Matt’s success, Sight Sciences was also nominated for Company of the Year: Medical Devices / Diagnostics. 

The entire team at Schaefer is so proud to work together with Matt and Sight Sciences on multiple projects and truly believes that their success is a win for patients everywhere.

In addition to Sight Sciences’ nominations, the myForte app – a Schaefer and Galderma product – was nominated in the Best App / Digital Solution or Suite. We couldn’t be more proud of the teamwork and collaboration that went into creating the myForte App.

The winners will be announced and honored during a virtual celebration on Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 6 pm EST. Tickets for the virtual Trailblazer Awards Event can be purchased by visiting www.pm360online.com/trailblazer-info. Profiles of the winners will be included in PM360’s October issue.

BRAND CHAMPION AWARD WINNER

Ophthalmology/Optometry: Matt Gibson, Product Director, Dry Eye, Sight Sciences

MARKETER OF THE YEAR

Matt Gibson, Product Director, Dry Eye, Sight Sciences
Dan Donovan, Vice President, Creative + Digital, PRECISIONscientia
Claire Loran, Senior Manager, MCM/SFMC, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
Rob Stephen, VP, Marketing, Verywell
Karen Sullivan, Associate Director, U.S. Hematology Marketing, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

COMPANY OF THE YEAR: MEDICAL DEVICE/DIAGNOSTICS

Sight Sciences
Cerapedics
LabCorp
Medtronic
Premier Dental Products

APP/DIGITAL SOLUTION OR SUITE

The myForte App (Galderma, Schaefer Advertising Co.)
Ella the Jellyfish (Eisai, Patients & Purpose)
eWizard platform for omnichannel content authoring and management (Viseven)

From the press release:

Since 2009, the PM360 Trailblazer awards have recognized outstanding achievement and innovation in healthcare marketing. Each year, nominations are judged by the PM360 Editorial Advisory Board, a distinguished cross-section of industry experts. Winning initiatives were selected for their ability to stand out in the complex, ever-changing healthcare environment, and were judged on their ability to overcome challenges; the skill, innovation, and quality of planning and execution; and the effectiveness of the work.

A total of 82 finalists were chosen in the 18 Initiative categories which include: App/Digital Solution or Suite, Consumer Website/Online Initiative, Data/Analytics Initiative, Direct-to-Consumer Campaign, Direct-to-Patient Campaign, HCP Education, Interactive Marketing Program, Patient/Consumer Education, Persistence/Adherence Program, Point of Care, Product/Service Launch, Professional Campaign, Professional Website/Online Initiative, Sales Aid, Self-promotion, Social Media Campaign, Unbranded Campaign, and Video/TV campaign.

“The very best marketing initiatives are defined by their ability to stand out, and these 82 finalists made an impression on our judges for their ability to do just that,” says Anna Stashower, CEO and Publisher of PM360. “While some stood out thanks to their eye-catching creative, others left judges in awe due to a unique ability to educate patients or doctors, an empathic approach that took judges into the bodies and souls of patients, an innovative use of technology to connect with patients in new ways or make it easier for them to get life-saving treatments, or just a fascinating new strategy that can change how the rest of the industry operates.”  

Finalists are acknowledged and winners will be announced during a special virtual celebration on Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 6 pm EST. Tickets for the virtual Trailblazer Awards Event can be purchased by visiting www.pm360online.com/trailblazer-info. For more information about the awards or tickets, contact Kayla Walsh at 646-300-8117 or kayla.walsh@pm360online.com.

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About PM360

PM360 is the premier, must-read magazine for marketing decision makers in the pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics, and medical device industries. Published monthly, PM360 is the only journal that focuses on delivering the full spectrum of practical information necessary for product managers and pharmaceutical marketing professionals to succeed in the complex and highly regulated healthcare environment.

The journal’s targeted and insightful editorial focuses on issues that directly impact critical decision making, including: Planning and implementation of cutting edge strategies, trends, the latest technological advances, branding/marketing, advertising/promotion, patient/professional education, sales, market research, PR, and leadership. Additionally, the “360” in the title signifies the span of this critical, how-to info with personal and career insights for an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.

By providing the full circle of enriching content, PM360 is truly an indispensable tool for busy and productive marketing professionals to stay at the top of their game.

Let’s start by getting to know you a little better. Tell us about yourself.

I’m a native Austinite and I enjoy working with my dog and doing therapy with him. I’ve been in advertising for just over 20 years, and I’ve been specializing in healthcare for the last 14 years.

What’s something you love to do?

I love to paint – I really do, although I don’t do it that often. Usually, I paint dogs – either Griswold (my dog) or somebody else’s dog, because it will bring them joy – it makes me happy to bring people joy. I really enjoy training with my dog, whether it’s agility training for Griswold, or dock diving – I’m very competitive.

What’s your favorite place?

I think it’s the Hill Country, like around Fredericksburg. It’s a fun little place to go and visit the little shops, Enchanted Rock, and there’s a ton of wineries to visit, and I’m not even really a wine drinker. I like going to try different things.

What do you love about the job?

I like that spark of “oh yeah!” One of my favorite memories is that I made a grown man cry during a presentation one time. I remember coming away from that presentation feeling like I had accomplished something meaningful. I really like the emotion that you can evoke when talking about your ideas, coming up with the one big idea that affects people.

If you could do anything besides what you are doing now, what would you do professionally?

Probably something with dogs. My friends and I seriously considered buying a doggy daycare that was closing due to Covid-19. We’ve also really considered opening a dog bar for adults and their dogs.

What is the last thing you binge-watched?

“The Twilight Zone” with Jordan Peele. Although we just got Disney+, so we just watched nearly all of the Marvel films recently, except for the Spiderman films.

Are you a listener or a talker?

I think it depends on the situation – I feel like I’m a big talker. I got in trouble at school a lot from talking. But, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that listening is far more important. When I’m in a client meeting, I can learn so much more from a client by listening to them and hearing about their needs. But, I started out as a big-time talker.

If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Tacos, because you can taco anything – you can have breakfast tacos, crunchy tacos, corn, flour tacos, fish, vegetables – I wouldn’t say one specific thing, but I’d eat tacos in general.

If there weren’t any more computers, what would be your new occupation?

Dog bar, here I come.

What’s your favorite children’s story?

Any of the Berenstain Bears stories.

Any words of advice?

“You can’t sell sausage sitting down.” 

If you had an extra hour of free time every day, what would you spend it doing?

Walking the dog, which is probably one of the things I feel like I don’t do enough. If I had an extra hour, I’d probably walk Griswold in the evening, too.

Why Schaefer?

I wanted to use all of my healthcare knowledge, stay in Texas and I believe in the clients I’ll be working with. I’ve worked with the people at Sight Sciences and Galderma, and both are great companies full of good people that know how to do things the right way.

When COVID-19 first struck the United States, people weren’t sure what to think or how to appropriately respond. This left a void of reliable information, and The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth – a medical research center and university – saw an opportunity to step forward as a reliable source of scientific information that people could trust. Since the Health Science Center had recently unveiled its rebranding efforts, the timing was perfect to build awareness and positively impact the community.

Avoiding Fear and Promoting Optimism

The public is saturated with dire warnings and doomsday scenarios about COVID-19. While the health and safety intent is noble, many of the messages cause stress, anxiety, and fear, and the emotional effects of these campaigns can muddy the facts and leave the community confused about the realities of COVID-19. The situation required someone to step up, take the lead and empower the people of North Texas with reliable messages and accurate information about COVID-19. Instead of creating something that leads to confusion and fear, why not urge optimism through clear information and encourage preparation?

Producing Against a Deadline and Beneath Quarantine

The seriousness of the coronavirus required truly timely messaging. With that urgency in place, our team had to be nimble and responsive and put together a comprehensive campaign that would inspire community-wide participation in safer lifestyle changes. To complicate matters further, we earned this new business opportunity while our entire team was in the first stages of working remotely and adjusting to the new normal of professional life under quarantine. These circumstances challenged us to strategize quickly, and the nature of creating accurate messages about COVID-19 implored us to execute with extreme accuracy.

Goals:

  • Change attitudes about living during a pandemic from fear to resilience.
  • Educate and empower cautious optimism and offer practical and informative guidance and resources.
  • Leverage the credibility of HSC as the messenger and aggregator of content.
  • Expand HSC’s influence on North Texas by positioning them as dependable sources of reliable information about COVID, and healthcare at large.
  • Improve HSC’s brand awareness and impact in North Texas.

The Solution

COVID-19 is a serious disease that requires people’s earnest respect. Unfortunately, that has created an atmosphere of negativity, and disempowerment that makes people feel like they’re being told what they can and cannot do every single day. People are worried about their jobs, concerned for their family and friends, and lack a clear direction and information about where the situation is heading.

The pervasiveness of negativity and the ultimate feeling of powerlessness led to the creation of the COVID DAYxDAY campaign, which empowers people to be optimistic and pragmatic during these uncertain times. When we created this campaign, we wanted to change the public’s general attitude from fear to resilience. We understand that people feel down, powerless, and pessimistic about the future, so our challenge is to help our community get through this one day at a time – and that’s where DAYxDAY was born. Our ultimate goal is to meet our audience where they are emotionally, and encourage a positive attitude shift with hope, optimism, and science-based guidance that can protect the individual – and our community – from the coronavirus. We needed to do all of this while under a brief, three-month campaign period. 

A Comprehensive Educational Campaign Tailored for North Texas

We built the DAYxDAY campaign with the guidance and partnership of the Health Science Center team. DAYxDAY provides north Texans with reliable information about how to safely navigate the world during the pandemic and offers important community updates to the people of North Texas. In fact, education is at the heart of the DAYxDAY campaign, and one of the core objectives is to encourage healthy lifestyle changes to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. To centralize this information, we created coviddayxday.com – a microsite under the Health Science Center umbrella purely focused on sharing COVID-19 content.

We formed strategic partnerships with Texas news leaders like The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and local organizational partnerships with the City of Fort Worth, Visit Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Tarrant County and Camp Fire First Texas to tap into relevant supporting content and leverage our partners’ audience for improved campaign exposure. To ensure that we shared a wide breadth of valuable information, we carefully selected the type of content we shared from each partner so that we could create a comprehensive informational hub tailored to the needs of North Texans.

Our campaign content matrix uses a blend of organic content, partnership content, paid and organic social media, and earned media to make certain that our message reached the widest local audience possible. Furthermore, the microsite exists in English and Spanish to better communicate with a third of North Texas, which is Spanish speaking.

Tactical Activation:

  • Developed a fully integrated digital campaign to build awareness and drive traffic to the Health Science Center’s COVID-19 resource page.
  • Built a new microsite to consolidate and share relevant COVID-19 content.
  • Encouraged opt-ins and built an integrated CRM and text audience.
  • Developed new content and repurposed existing content through the new microsite.
  • Continued awareness-building and built opt-ins through multiple digital platforms.
  • Expanded geographic targeting to cultivate a larger audience for UNTHSC and make a larger impact on the community.

Results: In just 3 months, the DAYxDAY campaign generated:

  • Nearly 10 million media impressions served
  • Over 1 million people reached through social channels
  • Over 100,000 pageviews on the COVID DAYxDAY website
  • Over 70,000 unique website visitors
  • Email, display advertising and paid social media performance each greatly exceeded industry benchmarks

An Ongoing Battle

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, and we’re still working to encourage people to take the necessary preventative measures to protect themselves and our community. It’s an honor to be part of a creative campaign that educates and empowers our North Texas home, and we feel fortunate to play a role in helping to keep our community safe and healthy. As a result of our shared success, we’ve expanded the initial campaign agreement into a broader, long-term initiative for the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth.

In real estate, a “sea of sameness” exists that engulfs the majority of brands. From real estate companies to master-planned communities to apartment complexes, there is a lot of branding overlap that makes it difficult for consumers to differentiate one brand from another. But, this industry-wide ubiquitous branding opens the opportunity for other brands to rise above the noise and connect with more consumers on a deeper level. For Hillwood Communities, that meant telling unique brand stories for multiple communities beneath one parent company.

Goals:

  • Analyze each community individually, and define their brand’s differentiators
  • Perform detailed market research to discover how each brand stands apart from the real estate market as a whole
  • Develop branded material for each of Hillwood’s communities that can be used across mediums for various marketing goals
  • Tell distinct stories for each development that will better resonate with target consumers

Navigating The Sea of Sameness

There’s a widespread marketing problem – the sea of sameness – that affects a variety of industries, but it is particularly prevalent in real estate. The sea of sameness occurs when marketers and brands capitalize on similar strategies and KPIs, resulting in identical tones, marketing approaches, and even branding aesthetics. This ultimately dilutes a brand’s market impact, and waters-down the effectiveness of marketing strategy. This market saturation makes it incredibly hard for brands to create real connections with the consumers they serve and hurts their ability to build long-term relationships with consumers.

Strategizing Brand Differentiators

The sea of sameness isn’t all bad, though, and gives willing brands a clear opportunity to use distinctive branding and different marketing tactics to overcome the ubiquity afflicting their competition. For Hillwood, we treated each individual community as its own entity and branded around what makes each community a unique and identifiable neighborhood.

Union Park is an active community that features an onsite elementary school and expansive green spaces. We wanted the community’s energy to shine through, so we used bright, vibrant colors, and highlighted some of the young residents having fun at the park, which better connects to the young family demographics at Union Park. The energy pops off the page, and the brand lives up to the tagline “live a vibrant life.”

Wolf Ranch is situated in the Texas Hill Country and offers a scenic, relaxing way of life hidden along Georgetown’s San Gabriel River. The residents of Wolf Ranch seek escape and adventure, so the brand had the opportunity to really lean into that with messaging and creative. We chose “the hill country is calling” as a tagline, warm, natural colors, and stunning photography of the community and the surrounding Hill Country in the brochure to mimic the nature surrounding Wolf Ranch.

Bluewood is a community in every sense of the word, where residents come together to form real connections and friendships. The community offers an abundance of features such as a community pool, trails, and an on-site elementary, all within a very attainable price point that appeals to Millennial and first-time homebuyers. To brand Bluewood, we chose bright, bold colors that help communicate the community’s exuberant energy. We brought through some of the blue colors used throughout the development and chose the tagline, “a community without compromise” to better highlight all the offerings at an affordable price.

Each specific brand identity is built with identifiable marks that express the community’s individuality. That same individuality allows the brand marks to be fluid and flexible, and useful on a variety of mediums. From brochures to websites and outdoor signage, the brand is clearly communicated and identifiable. By making that connection, we’re able to help spread broader awareness of Hillwood Communities’ developments, and more meaningfully connect with a larger audience of potential home buyers.

Results:

  • Created a full brand platform and messaging pillars for each community
  • Full asset creation and ability to utilize assets across platforms
  • Created a unified brand message, look and feel for each brand

Some campaigns are planned well in advance, which provides ample time to uncover strategic ideas and develop tactical solutions. However, certain campaigns operate under more confined deadlines, which necessitates expedited action to get to market quickly. No matter the planning time available, our goal at Schaefer is always the same— meet our client’s goals and provide a positive impact on their business.

Station House is a luxury, multi-family development in Frisco, Texas. Their team approached Schaefer with a unique situation: they needed to drive 60 new leases in just around 90 days in order to capitalize on peak leasing season. In addition to more residents, Station House needed to generate more brand awareness with their target consumers, young professionals working in the Frisco area.

Beyond the marketing goals, there were some interesting challenges facing our team as we approached this opportunity. Construction crews surrounded most of the major entry points into Station House, which made it difficult for potential residents to enter; there was limited visibility from the tollway, hurting their curb-appeal to traffic passing by; potential residents had to drive by major competition on their way to Station House; and, the amount of construction made prospective residents unsure if Station House was even open.

Between lofty marketing goals under a tight deadline, and the factors affecting local brand visibility, our team had plenty of challenges to navigate as we began strategizing.

Goals

  • Generate 60 new leases to meet occupancy goals in a tight window – 90 days
  • Increase brand awareness among target audience

Strategy

Station House needed a way to entice potential residents with their beautiful amenities and overall space, despite the temporary challenges with their location. Based on time and budget constraints, we chose to evaluate Station House’s existing marketing assets and make strategic recommendations about how to better leverage them to help the Station House rise above the competition in a crowded market.

In addition to photography assets, we identified an existing drone flyover video that would allow us to show off the complex, and its close proximity to dining and entertainment, unconstrained by the surrounding construction by leveraging an aerial view.

We leveraged the flyover video in rotation with other assets in a variety of channels, including Paid Social, Display and Paid Search to spread awareness about Station House, and all that it has to offer residents in Frisco.  We geotargeted strategic locations near Station House to capture the attention of young professionals in the area. In addition, we leveraged Facebook lead generation ads to expedite the process for connecting with a leasing agent. We also leveraged an offer message to incentivize web conversions.

As our campaign unfolded and the numbers began coming in, it was clear that our team had crafted a winning strategy for Station House.

Video Credit: Station House 

Results

  • Netted 68 new leases
  • Improved occupancy to 96% leased space
  • Increased website sessions 2X YOY during campaign period
  • Generated over 250 form fills
  • Produced over 900 phone calls through Google search ads
  • Provided clear strategy and exceeded predicted results

Make Life Better

It was a pleasure to work with the team at Station House, and we thoroughly enjoyed putting together a comprehensive campaign that was driven by a tight window of performance. It is such a treat to shape the fabric of neighborhoods by helping people find a spot to call their home, and turning prospects into residents.

One of the most thrilling challenges is helping a client launch a new product, which is exactly what we did for the TearCare® system by Sight Sciences.

Goals

  • To introduce a new brand to a growing market
  • Capitalize on a market opportunity with disruptive technology
  • Improve the lives of patients by getting a new product that targets the underlying cause of dry eye into the hands of eye care professionals

Analyzing a New Market

Before launching any new product, it’s critical to have a deep understanding of the landscape and the potential competitors or challenges within the market. For TearCare®, we performed a thorough analysis, through both primary and secondary research, of the overall healthcare environment, the eye care submarket, the competitive set and TearCare® ’s differentiating attributes. We came away with some incredibly useful data.

There are 40 million dry-eye sufferers in the United States, and of those, 86% have some component of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD). We discovered that most of the existing dry-eye devices are cumbersome to administer to patients, take the precise control out of the doctors’ hands and are expensive for a practice to adopt.

Because of the way TearCare® was designed, and its philosophy to address the root cause of dry eye with a combination of leading-edge technology and doctor skill, we saw this is a huge position of value for TearCare® – and that’s where we began crafting our strategy.

A Different Kind of Healthcare Product

Traditionally, the treatment of dry eye disease has been done with large pieces of stationary equipment that requires the patient to keep their eyes closed and doesn’t fully allow the eye care provider (ECP) to fine-tune the procedure to their specific needs.

Even newer entrants into the market addressed the condition in impersonal or intimidating ways, potentially leaving the patient and the ECP with a sub-optimal approach. In addition, the market leader is incredibly capital intensive and presents a challenge to eye care practices to meet their business goals. These conditions created a perfect combination for a company and a new device to address dry eye differently.

Enter TearCare® – the most unconstrained way to target the underlying cause of dry eye – and make real headway – in evaporative dry eye disease.

TearCare® is the world’s first blink-assisted device that applies heat to the eyelids to remove blockage associated with Meibomian Gland Dysfunction. It’s a wearable, blink-assisted design that offers a universal fit across various patient lid anatomies and delivers consistent thermal energy to prepare meibum for clearance by an ECP. It does so in a system that doesn’t require a steep financial investment in a large piece of equipment. All of this informed the final positioning of giving healthcare providers and patients freedom.

Launching a Product to Disrupt the Market

Launching a brand-new product is incredibly exciting but introducing one that will make the entire market take notice can be exhilarating.

We helped take TearCare® to market with a fully integrated marketing and advertising strategy that focused on the freedom TearCare® gives patients and ECPs, differentiating the device from others in the space.

We utilized a blend of paid, owned and earned media channels to deliver the primary campaign messaging. We designed a new website to act as the central hub of information about TearCare® and helped educate healthcare professionals about the new device with trade show activation, sales support materials, and practice-building resources.

This entire campaign was aimed at educating ECPs, introducing them to a new way to treat MGD, and helping them get the device and training needed to begin helping patients. As the campaign began to rollout, the results were astounding.

Results

  • Brought brand new, disruptive product to market
  • The number of new accounts opened in year 1 was 3 times that of the nearest competitor

Make Life Better

Healthcare work is always incredibly rewarding because it allows our team to help connect healthcare professionals to patients in need. For Sight Sciences’ TearCare® device, we were able to help connect healthcare professionals to a new device that targets the underlying cause of dry eye and make life better for those suffering from a chronic degenerative disease.

Let’s start by getting to know you a little better. Tell us about yourself.

I’m a Texas girl, but I’d like to become a world-traveler, and I’d like to begin in Egypt. The only things that prevent me from traveling now are my responsibilities to family and pets – I really like being home and close to them.

What’s something you love to do?

I like to rock climb, actually, if it’s vertical, I’ll climb it – trees, rocks, mountains, whatever.

What’s your favorite place?

Anywhere outdoors, really. If it has a soft patch of green grass and a blue sky, I’m happy. I still really enjoy going home to Acton, Texas. It’s one of my favorite places to be.

What is the last thing you binge-watched?

I binge-watched all of the Resident Evil franchises. I like Milla Jovovich, but I’m not sure why I did it, it’s not my normal genre. I usually gravitate toward drama, comedies, and action films.

What’s your favorite book?

My favorite book would be the one that made me fall in love with reading, The Secret Garden. I haven’t read it in like 20 years, but I still remember it well.

If there weren’t any more computers, what would be your new occupation?

I’d probably be a farmer — likely a beef cattle and hay farmer. My family has done it for six generations here in Texas, so it makes sense.

What’s your favorite children’s story?

My mom used to make up stories about two characters from Looney Tunes – Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. She would sit at the edge of my bed and just make up stories off the top of her head and they were so engaging and detailed, it was awesome.

If you had an extra hour of free time every day, what would you spend it doing?

I’d spend more time with my dog Pancake and take him for an extra-long walk.

If you could do anything besides what you are doing now, what would you do professionally?

I’ve always loved history, and if I could anything other than what I do now, it would be working as an historian, specifically an Egyptologist.

What do you love about the job?

I love the people that I work with, and the environment that we work in. I love seeing warm, friendly faces every day, and the sense of camaraderie and the feeling of being a part of a team. I love the people here.

Any words of advice?

You don’t have to learn things the hard way. 

Why Schaefer?

I had an instant connection with Debbie, our Controller, when I interviewed on the phone. I love the work and the people I work with, plus, “Dog Fridays” are awesome.

A season of ballet programming is made up of a series of performances, each standing alone as a unique story being told on the stage. How, then, do you create a campaign that communicates these different stories under one cohesive message? That was the obstacle we faced when ideating creative assets for the Texas Ballet Theater’s 2019-2020 season campaign, and here’s how we solved it.

Campaign Goals

  • Tell the individual story of each performance, while also fitting the unique designs into one cohesive, identifiable campaign.
  • Conceptualize ideas that work in photography to incorporate the dancers as crucial campaign assets.
  • Illustrate the ballet’s marriage of art and athleticism.
  • Attract a wider audience and convince them to become season subscribers.

The Challenge

Branding an entire season of ballet was a huge puzzle for us because each performance has its own story to tell, full of imagery and icons that are significant within the individual narrative but may not translate into one clear campaign. Plus, it was crucial for the dancers to be featured in each advertisement, so finding a way to marry all of those elements into a unified campaign was crucial.

We needed to create a full season campaign that is cohesive, blends together as a collective vision and message, but that also has enough individuality for each performance that a creative asset could confidently stand on its own. For that to occur, there needed to be enough interest and variety on a performance level as there was on the campaign level, so that the creative assets could be used in advertising on multiple platforms and mixed media.

The Creative Solution

We developed “Alive with Wonder,” a concept featuring the tagline Let Beauty Envelop You. This central message was accomplished by creating illustrations unique to each performance and then having those designs envelop the dancer on the page. Each pattern visually represented individual performances with elements that are important to the story on the stage.

This interaction between dancer and design alluded to the immersive experience of witnessing performances on stage and hammered home the overall campaign tagline – Let Beauty Envelop You.

Once finalized, the campaign imagery was extended into a full graphic system that allowed for both consistency and customization in the promotion of each performance. To accommodate the variety of mediums in our cross-platform media strategy, the flexibility of the system was imperative.

Making Life Better

The common misconception about ballet is that the performances are only suited for fans of high art or those that understand the nuances of performative arts. General audiences sometimes mistakenly assume that a barrier exists between them and enjoying and understanding ballet performances. The reality is this: over the course of a season of ballet programming, a performance will occur that is enjoyable for all types of audiences with different levels of ballet experience. Creating a campaign that cohesively communicated the different themes and tones of each performance and enticed a wider audience to attend was a hugely rewarding endeavor.


National Addy Award Winner


An Award-Winning Campaign

The Texas Ballet Theater’s 2019-2020 season campaign took home some prestigious awards from the American Advertising Federation at the local, regional and national levels. All totaled, the 2019-2020 season campaign won 9 Gold Awards, special Special Judge’s Awards at both the local and regional competitions and a National Silver Addy. It is such an honor to be recognized and earn shared success with our clients.