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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.

Real estate developers and home builders have historically allocated a large majority of their marketing resources to traditional advertising methods. However, digital marketing strategies have unique advantages over traditional advertising methods that can greatly improve the effectiveness and ROI of real estate marketing efforts. We partnered with Hillwood Communities, one of the nation’s largest independent real estate development firms, to shift their focus from traditional advertising methods and refocus their marketing resources for a comprehensive integrated strategy that earned higher, more measurable returns.

Goals:

  • Evolve traditional marketing strategy into one with more measurable results to drive increased home sales for each Hillwood Community
  • Broaden the tools of the marketing strategy to include fully integrated digital platforms
  • In the process, educate the client on the strategic advantages of full-funnel digital marketing efforts in real estate through compelling data points
  • Map key tactics and touchpoints with the consumer and realtor journey to move beyond awareness and drive action while chronicling engagement

Education and Action

Prior to shifting to a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, it was important to educate our client on the improved transparency and the bottom-line benefits of a focused digital approach. Fortunately, the team at Hillwood Communities was actively interested in learning about digital strategies and how marketing performance and measurement can be improved via a strong digital program. Through collaborative dialogue, we worked together to find strategic ways to pair their business intelligence with our digital marketing strategy and measurement plan.

Incorporating a Prospect Funnel

Hillwood’s prior marketing efforts were heavily focused on traditional awareness tactics, but lacked a lower-funnel, nurture and conversion strategy.  Traditional advertising methods do an excellent job of generating awareness, but they are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to a full-funnel strategy. Without the inclusion of digital tactics, it’s more difficult to drive measurable action and clear results. Digital strategies can provide insightful data for ongoing optimization against both short-term and long-term marketing goals.

At the foundation of our recommended strategy was the introduction of a comprehensive prospect funnel that outlined each stage of the buyer journey with corresponding media and messaging tactics. From there, we established key performance indicators and goal metrics at each level of the digital funnel. From awareness to conversion, we set clear goals for the ongoing measurement of the health and effectiveness of our digital marketing strategy.

A Refreshed Digital Strategy

We began Hillwood’s marketing strategy evolution with prospecting tactics at the awareness level such as display media, paid social, streaming radio, and prospecting emails. From there, we moved down to the buyer research/consideration stage of the funnel, including tactics like retargeting, paid search, and real estate search engine advertising. At the lowest level of the funnel, we focused on action-oriented tactics such as geofencing and personalized content delivery.

This comprehensive approach gave us a detailed look at the buyer’s journey through the funnel while empowering us with the real-time ability to alter the strategy at each level for improved returns.

Data Partnership

The effectiveness of a marketing plan boils down to the final results. Therefore, it was critically important to develop a measurement plan that accounted for data capture through the point of each home sale. We partnered closely with Hillwood’s business intelligence team to sync marketing and sales data. As a result, we were able to establish buyer match-backs, measured as any buyer who has made a sale and can be linked back to marketing engagement through CRM data collection. Aside from total home sales, buyer match-backs became the most essential data point for measuring the effectiveness and ROI of our strategy.

2019 Full-Year Results:

  • 135 match-backs collected, and $42 million in match-back revenue measured, across 9 communities
  • Lead goals were exceeded for all communities
  • Directly informed 113 home sales, verified through detailed consumer and realtor match back data
  • Influenced more than 45 million dollars in sales prior to purchase
  • Home sales goals were met or exceeded by the majority of communities, despite fluctuations in the market
  • Use of data to develop full buyer journey maps, from first engagement to sale
  • More efficient and cost-effective prospect targeting

Through strategy, results, testing and some mitigated risk we were able to shift Hillwood’s marketing strategy into a predominantly digital-driven, measurable marketing strategy that moved them away from the historically traditional plan. This new effort optimized their marketing efforts and has resulted in increased home sales and revenue that can be directly tied to marketing.

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

I’m a Libra and an ENFP. I’m married with an 8-year-old daughter named Brielle and a little baby lady due in July. My husband Stephen is a comedian and the head chef of our household; he currently specializes in creating culinary masterpieces based on my vague cravings.

What’s something you love to do?

I love hanging out at “The French Salon” with my friends and cousins…which is anywhere we post up together to discuss all things life. It’s our take on the French Salons of olden days where thought leaders discussed politics, art, humanity, literature, and social change… the place where democracy was born. Although we’re not always discussing such heavy topics— sometimes we just quote Billy Madison or talk about which Vanderpump Rules cast members we are most like.
I also love spending time with Stephen and Brielle, making them indulge my lofty craft ideas, the latest being “Valentine’s Day Fondue Craft Party,” and the next being “St. Patrick’s Day Lucky-To-Have Box and RAK (random acts of kindness) Day.”

What’s your favorite place?

At any family get together, surrounded by my loud, hilarious, and loving family, who I refer to as “my people.” The food, the company, and the conversation are what make it my favorite place to be.

What do you love about the job?

In general, I love the psychological aspects of digital marketing, figuring out what people like and staying in tune with the constantly changing landscape. I’m a learner by nature, so having a continuous need to develop new skills is something I need in a role.

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

I’d be a writer because I feel like I have a lot of stories to tell. I play it pretty fast and loose with grammar and punctuation, so that could be a hurdle I’d have to overcome if I were going to be a successful writer.

What is the last thing you binge-watched?

Fleabag. The main character is really crass, and she’s humanly awkward – which I relate to. She doesn’t have a manufactured sense of awkwardness or nerdiness, and her life is messy with a lot of gray areas which I think makes her character so relatable.

What’s your favorite book?

I don’t have a specific favorite, but here’s my top 5:
Frannie and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
All Over but the Shoutin,’ by Rick Bragg
The Liars Club, by Mary Karr
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari
The entire Harry Potter series

If you could live in any sitcom, which would it be?

The Office, because it’s one of my favorites.

Are you a listener or a talker?

I’m a listener because I love people’s stories.

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

This is a very difficult question, I’m a very food-driven person. The meal that I don’t get tired of is homemade fried chicken, with chipotle mashed potatoes, two yeast rolls, and peppered gravy.

What’s your favorite children’s story?

“The Giving Tree.” It was the first book I read out loud to my dad.

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

Writing, reading, or doing puzzles – I love jigsaw puzzles. Realistically though, I’d end up spending the hour playing with my dog Jackson, he’s a good little buddy who loves all of my silly made-up games such as “Threshold” and “Puppy Parkour.”

Why Schaefer?

I’ve been looking for the right agency fit for about five years, but I haven’t wanted to compromise what I want in company culture or core values. I follow DFW “Best Places to Work,” and Schaefer was on the list. After doing some research, Schaefer seemed to check all of my boxes and the whole portfolio of the agency’s work was so impressive. As soon as I met the team, I knew this was the exact place I wanted to be!

Let’s start by getting to know you a little better. Tell us about yourself.
I’ve been married for about five years to my husband Joshua, and we have a two-year-old daughter named Avery. We’re very much in toddler mode right now— she’s 2 going on 22, and she shares a lot of my same qualities – she’s very independent. We spend a lot of our time in Keller and Southlake, and we lead worship at Milestone Church in Keller. Joshua plays guitar in the band, and I’m a singer, mostly backup (laughs), but I also play piano and enjoy playing it with Avery. I spend a lot of time with my family and my twin sister either shopping or just hanging out – we’re connected at the hip.

What’s something you love to do?
I make a lot of stuff – I’m very crafty. Hobby Lobby and Michaels are my happy places, and I get strange angst when I can’t go to Hobby Lobby on Sundays. You name it, and I can make it. I’ve made mums, wreaths, planned events like baby showers and wedding showers. I’m the crafty person in the family, I can literally make anything.

I also really love to travel – Italy and Spain are my favorite places to be. My husband and I really love Europe.

What’s your favorite place?
I’m kind of a homebody. As much as we go out and do things, my favorite place to be is at home on the patio with my family. We love to crank up the music and garden together. You show me an outdoor plant, and I can probably name it. I worked for a landscape architecture firm in Newport, Rhode Island, which I really loved. I grew up going to my grandmother’s farm in Missouri, and we’d go crazy picking fruits and vegetables and flowers together.

If you could do anything besides what you are doing now, what would you do professionally?
Voiceovers (begins singing ‘Do You Want to Build a Snowman’), I think about being Kristen Bell every single day. I guess it’s not too late to go that route, but I don’t know how I’d get started with that. I acted a lot in high school performances, and at Texas Tech I went to the theater and saw that they were having auditions, and I just had to go in and audition to see if I could get in and have some fun – and I got the lead role! I played in Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It is a riot of a performance. I just love acting, it was the best experience ever.

What is the last thing you binge-watched?
I watched all three seasons of The Marvelous Miss Maisel. It was so good, and I identify a lot with the lead character, “Midge.”

What’s your favorite book?
It goes way back – my favorite book was always Little Women. I’m such an old soul, I love reading classics. Growing up, we visited Boston and went to Louisa May Alcott’s house. In Concord, Massachusetts, we visited Walden pond where Emmerson and Thorough lived and worked – it was incredible.

What’s your favorite children’s story?
With Avery, there are so many children’s stories right now. We love Goodnight Moon. There’s something so special and timeless about it. The illustrations are just so magical. There are also two little kittens in it, and one looks just like our cat Penelope.

If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
It’d be a Neapolitan style Margherita pizza – I could eat one every day.

If you had an extra hour of free time every day, what would you spend it doing?
Probably craft time at Kimberly’s Craft Corner.

If there weren’t any more computers, what would be your new occupation?
Voice overs, for sure. I’ve always been told that I have a really good voice.

Any words of advice?
Something I’ve learned over the years is, it’s not necessarily about the work that you’re doing – yes that’s important – but it’s how you get there. I don’t think anything we do can be done alone, but I really lean on the team around me to accomplish things.

As I get older, I try to begin every day with gratitude by trying to be actively thankful for the people in my life, our health, and everything else It helps keep me positive.

What do you love about the job?
I love that my focus is on analytics and insights – which is my strength – but I’m also focused on how I can help out in other areas. I just like to be able to offer my expertise whenever I can. I love the fact that everybody is so receptive to hear what each other has to say.

Why Schaefer?
Being a Fort Worth native, I wanted to get back to my roots. I grew up going to the Fort Worth Zoo, the Kimbell Art Museum, and other key areas of Fort Worth – all of those are my first memories. So, when the opportunity arose to work close from home, I jumped on it. I just wish I got here sooner, really. I really love the culture at Schaefer, it really feels like you’re at home. Everyone goes above and beyond to make you feel welcome.

Most prescription savings cards cover a narrow scope of treatments, which overcomplicates the savings process. As a result, patients are often left confused about how to redeem savings and may end up actually paying more for their prescriptions. Discounts change frequently and branded products are not always covered, leading to patients and providers losing confidence in the cards and programs themselves.

Galderma CareConnect is a patient savings program that consolidates Galderma’s prescriptions into one savings portal that’s accessible for patients and “Remarkably Simple” to use.

Goals:

  • Build awareness of the savings program among qualified patients.
  • Make the program easier to access for patients.
  • Inform more potential patients about their eligibility for the program.

Strategy & Execution

Schaefer led the Galderma CareConnect launch with a few key strategic imperatives: communicate the scope of Galderma prescriptions covered under the program and quickly build awareness of the program among patients, healthcare providers, and pharmacists. We developed a comprehensive, multi-channel campaign around the tagline “Remarkably Simple.” This included traditional advertising, digital ads, video, paid digital media, display targeting, customized email marketing as well as personal and non-personal sales support.

Connecting Patients with Care

At the core of this comprehensive campaign was GaldermaCC.com, a centralized location for information about the savings program. The site was strategically developed to communicate key information to each of our core audiences:

  • Patients – Information about savings, ease of use and a great opportunity to quickly download a GCC card.
  • Healthcare Professionals – Key points to share with their patients when prescribing Galderma products, information about pharmacy access and a portfolio of products on the card.
  • Pharmacists – Information about patient eligibility.

The website follows a clean design and user-friendly navigation to make the user experience just as “Remarkably Simple” as the Galderma CareConnect program itself. In addition, the website utilizes a seamless API to connect directly with the card provider, so that a unique card can be generated in just seconds when the user chooses to download.

By making this direct connection, we are able to utilize technology and data to measure card redemption rates at pharmacies across the country and measure the success of marketing campaigns in market.

Results

  • In less than two years, Galderma Care Connect site metrics have steadily climbed month after month.
  • To date, Galderma Care Connect has reached more than one million unique patients.
  • As of June 2019, more than 3 million prescriptions have been processed through the Galderma Care Connect portal, saving patients, healthcare providers, and pharmacists valuable time and money.
  • MM&M Gold Award for Best Payer Marketing.

Make Life Better

Navigating healthcare can be a confusing process for patients and even some healthcare providers. By creating the Galderma CareConnect website, we were able to help more people download a patients’ savings card and connect them with more affordable care.

As one of the nation’s largest independent real estate development firms, Hillwood Communities has spent 30 years creating community through master-planned developments. Hillwood Communities continues to raise the bar in terms of quality, innovation, and the unmistakable sense of community that sets each property apart.

So, when Hillwood tasked Schaefer with creating a new website for their Union Park community, we needed to build a website that communicated the excitement and energy of the community in order to convert visitors into Union Park homeowners.

Goals

  • Educate prospective homeowners about Union Park
  • Improve website functionality to encourage more user interaction
  • Increase qualified lead collection through the website to grow the Union Park marketing database
  • Encourage foot traffic to model homes at Union Park

Strategy & Execution

Our strategic imperative was to evaluate Union Park’s existing website and streamline the information to more accurately represent the community under the tagline “Live a Vibrant Life.”

Our team utilized existing user data from two of Hillwood’s other community websites to craft high-level strategic conclusions that informed how we built the Union Park website. We used sophisticated web tools to identify user engagement patterns through on-site heat mapping, screen recordings, and behavioral pattern flow.

The Union Park website was integrated with home inventory feed to give site visitors real-time information about available homes. We added a testimonial portal that gave prospective homebuyers insight into the active lifestyle and community that powers Union Park. We incorporated a live social feed that gives visitors up-to-date information about what’s happening around Union Park, and we added a Google Maps integration that empowers people to easily find Union Park on desktop or mobile.

Furthermore, we continued to optimize and improve the website based on reporting and detailed analysis. One core improvement that we made was building a chatbot to automate conversations with prospective home buyers, deliver relevant content, and collect qualified leads to pass along to the builders. The chatbot also helps direct users to specific pages of interest to help create a frictionless consumer journey.

Results

We designed the website to have user-friendly functionality that encourages engagement but also helps the consumer effortlessly move through the home-buying journey.

Since the new website launched:

  • Average website session duration has increased by 30%
  • Union Park website form fills have increased by almost 4X
  • PDF downloads have increased by more than 20X
  • Pageviews have increased by 15%
  • High-quality foot traffic has increased to the community.

Make Life Better

Creating communities doesn’t happen overnight – it can take years of strategy and ongoing marketing efforts to cultivate the right audience to buy into a new development and call that space “home.” As a result of creating Union Park’s new website with improved functionality, we were able to connect the community with more qualified leads in a much shorter period of time.

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

When anyone asks me “where I’m from,” it’s sometimes hard for me to answer. I grew up living in Dallas, Fort Worth and several cities in between, so many areas of DFW feel like home. Growing up, I played every sport I could – volleyball, gymnastics, cheerleading, soccer, and track. I made so many lifelong friendships and learned a lot about work ethic through playing sports; that really has a lot to do with who I am today.

What’s something you love to do?

Honestly, just being outdoors anywhere I can, and living in Austin, that’s pretty easy to accomplish. There’s so much in Austin to do outdoors – from random concerts in the park to hiking and yoga, really anything. I love Barton Springs Pool – it’s the best thing to visit after work and just jump in and relax. That’s the place I recommend anybody to go when they’re visiting Austin.

What’s your favorite place?

Probably Paris, France (not Texas). My husband Adam proposed to me there, so it is where I spent one of the best days of my life.

What is the last thing you binge-watched?

I am borderline obsessed with Shark Tank, and I probably watched nine in a row. I love thinking of [good and bad] invention ideas. Most recently, I’ve thought of a device that puts sheets on people’s beds automatically and I would name it “Oh Sheet.”

What’s your favorite book?

I like to read to learn. I love many books written by John Piper, but the latest book I’ve read is called Switching on Your Brain, by Dr. Caroline Leaf. I enjoy reading about how your beliefs shape your abilities. 

If you could live in any sitcom, which would it be?

Friends, it just gets better every time I watch it.  

Are you a listener or a talker?

I’m a listener.

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

Cheeseburgers. Clark’s in Austin is especially awesome, I love it.

What’s the scariest thing you’ve done for fun?

On one of my birthdays in college, I convinced one of my friends to skip class and go skydiving with me. Long story short, we probably shouldn’t have used a Groupon on such a life-risking activity. We were fine, but you couldn’t pay me to do it again. 

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

I would spend it on improving my cooking skills and making new recipes of my own. I think it is such a gift to have the ability to pass down personal recipes to friends and family.

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

Architecture has always interested me. Similar to what I do now, there are no real black-and-white answers. Thinking of how complex and the number of people involved in a project is beyond comprehension.

What do you love about the job?

I think that every day is different. I look at the clock and can’t figure out how the time passed. Most questions or problems we face on the account service team aren’t black-and-white, and that really energizes me. I love working with clients to make complex brand priorities into simplified, powerful strategies and with the creative team to turn highly technical medical jargon into a compelling brand story.

Why Schaefer?

“Leave it better than you found it,” is somewhat of family motto I grew up with. Everyone who makes up the Schaefer team shows up every day with genuine and purposeful intention to do just that.

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

I’m a native Texan, and I’m full of Lonestar pride. I’m the oldest of three children, and my younger brother was my “archrival,” in school at Baylor. I met my boyfriend in high school and we have been dating for seven years. I was always a TCU fan growing up, but never thought I’d end up attending. But, long story short, I wound up loving the school of communications and became a Horned Frog shortly thereafter! I’ve also danced all of my life, but I stopped in college because I thought I was done with it – I was just tired. However, I missed dancing so much that I began teaching dance at the studio MoveMINT in Fort Worth.

What’s something you love to do?

I love listening to country music because it brings up a nostalgic, summer feeling– it just sounds warm for some reason. I really gravitate toward Texas country music because of the grittier sound that doesn’t sound too “pop-y”. My boyfriend and I are constantly going to country concerts around town, and it always reminds me of being at the lake or driving in a Jeep with the top down. My musical taste is pretty wide because of my history with dance, but a country song is always mixed into my playlist somewhere.

What’s your favorite place?

My favorite place is my grandparent’s lake house in Granbury. It’s close to the metroplex, and it’s the perfect mix of being at the beach, and in the country – it’s such a weird, great little sweet spot. My grandmother calls it her “little cottage.” It’s great having coffee on the boat or the dock. It’s also super fun to go out there with my siblings to just have fun and spend time together. As I’ve gotten older, I really appreciate how slow the pace is at the lake house, it’s incredibly relaxing.

What is the last thing you binge-watched?

Jack Ryan, but I mostly binged it because I wanted to find out how it ended. However, my favorite show that I’ve binge-watched recently is The Marvelous Miss Maisel.

If you could live in any sitcom, which would it be?

Friends, because I have this side of me that wants to pick up and move to New York, which is largely due to Friends and Frank Sinatra. There’s a charming, elegant side to the city. Plus, I grew up watching – it brings a sense of comfort. People would call me a Monica, but I really try to be more like Rachel.

Are you a listener or a talker?

A talker. But I am so aware of it that I am CONSTANTLY challenging myself to talk less in conversations. From what I’ve gathered, I am an enneagram 3 wing 2, so that is very on-brand.

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

Italian food. My dad’s family is Italian, and I couldn’t imagine life without it. After traveling to Italy, I acquired more of an appreciation for the culture around the food rather than just the taste. Plus, learning about the culture has made cooking Italian food with my grandmother even more special, as she did the same with her mom.

What’s your favorite children’s story?

You are Special, by Max Lucado. I used to go to this Fine Arts camp at our church every summer and the woman that ran it would read this book to us every year. Reading it now, even the summary, makes my heart swell and my eyes well.
In a village, there live many different Wemmicks. The Wemmicks walk around all day and give each other either a gold star or a gray dot sticker. A Wemmick named Punchinello always tries his best to receive gold stars from the other Wemmicks but only receives gray dots for not doing well enough. One day, he meets a Wemmick named Lucia who doesn’t have any gold stars or gray dots because they don’t stick to her. Punchinello doesn’t want any stickers on him either so Lucia tells him to visit their maker, Eli. Eli explains to Punchinello that if he is not bothered by what the other Wemmicks think then the star and dots will not stick to him either.

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

Something culinary. If I have a midlife crisis, I imagine I’d go to culinary school. I’m not the type to do anything crazy like that, but if I did, I’d love to pursue a culinary profession.

What do you love about the job?

I love the people – everybody has been super nice, especially my direct teammates Krista, and Ali. They’re very considerate and understanding that this is my first real work experience, but also guiding me along the way. It’s great because I’ve always wanted older sisters, and they really feel like that to me. I love the culture here at Schaefer, it feels like a family.

Why Schaefer?

Right off the bat, I loved the building. I interviewed during Christmas time, so I was able to see it in all its’ decorated glory and that hooked me from the beginning. The intentionality behind each process and person really sealed the deal. This opportunity was dropped in my lap when I wasn’t expecting it and things like that are usually the best blessings.

When the Texas Ballet Theater needed a way to reinvigorate their marketing, we created a comprehensive marketing campaign that expanded their ticket sales from a steady group of subscribers into a larger group of new season ticket holders.

The Problem

Season subscriptions to Texas Ballet Theater, while strong, had stagnated. Subscribers were offered the same options year after year, purchase the entire season or purchase single tickets at a later date. Within performing arts, the prospective ticket buyer ranges from the devoted fan to the person that wouldn’t even consider attending. Marketing resources are precious, and we have to ensure they are being invested where they will yield the highest ROI.

The Solution

Using data to drive decisions, Schaefer proposed restructuring subscriber packages to give existing patrons more choice and convince new people to become subscribers and single ticket purchasers. Beyond subscriptions, the campaign was designed to have a positive impact on single ticket purchases. Single ticket sales launched in the middle of the campaign on July 1st, and within the first day, more than 3,500 individual tickets were sold.

The Approach

One of the largest components of our overall campaign was audience segmentation. To accomplish this, we appended audience data from TRG Arts – the Ballet’s consultant.

We divided the Ballet’s existing consumers into four distinct groups of:

1 – previous year subscribers
2 – lapsed subscribers
3 – multi-performance buyers
4 – single ticket buyers

 

By building package options, we were able to convince larger subsets of people to subscribe to Texas Ballet Theater.

We added historic subscribers and single ticket purchaser data to create persona profiles based on audience demographics and psychographics. We then built lookalike audiences based on the four groups and mapped each of the groups’ behaviors to identify purchasing trends across multiple digital channels. This gave us the insight needed to better understand their consumption habits and likelihood to purchase either a full or partial season or if they were likely to be a single-ticket purchaser.

Once we isolated recurring trends in the audience segments, we hyper-targeted the right ticket package to each group through paid digital media. Further, website retargeting enabled us to identify those that had expressed interest but not yet purchased and then retarget them with the TBT message most likely to yield a purchase.

Goals

  • Clearly brand the full 2019-2020 ballet season, while also promoting individual performances on their own merits.
  • Earn more new, full-season subscribers.
  • Define the main buyer personas and outline their purchase-decision journeys to understand their motivations for purchasing a full-season subscription and a single-performance ticket.
  • Outline a way to recapture people that did not renew their full-season subscriptions from the previous year.

Results

  • Paid media campaign delivered 1.8 million targeted impressions, and generated more than $40,000 in ticketed revenue in just a few weeks.
  • After only 2 weeks of a dedicated full-season campaign, subscription sales up by nearly 3% YOY.
  • New subscribers up by 45% YOY.
  • Exceeded last year’s launch-day single ticket sales by more than 10%.
  • Total ticket sales up 18.43% YOY, despite a later season launch than 2018.
  • During the campaign, overall website sales totaled $199,000.

Recently, the Schaefer team attended Fort Worth’s 2020 American Advertising Awards (ADDYs), which celebrates excellence in advertising. This year, Schaefer received 20 total awards – ten of which were gold awards, including Best of Show – Print for the Texas Ballet Theater’s 2019/20 Season Posters. We are truly humbled by the recognition and reminded of how fortunate we are to work for incredible clients that collaborate with us to create impactful campaigns.
Receiving recognition for our work is a celebration of our team and our clients, who diligently work together to produce campaigns that rise to the top of a crowded, competitive market. We’re grateful to work in an industry that encourages innovative ideas and incredibly proud of the entire Schaefer team, who come to work every single day committed to our mission to Make Life Better.

Best of Print:

  • Texas Ballet Theater 2019/20 Season Poster Campaign
    Judge’s Award – Best of Print

Gold Awards:

  • Texas Ballet Theater 2019/20 Season Brochure
    Sales and Marketing – Collateral Material – Brochure – Single Unit:
  • Fort Worth Zoo Ball Untamed Invitation
    Sales and Marketing – Collateral Material – Special Event Marketing – Card, Invitation, Announcement – Single Unit
  • Texas Park & Wildlife Foundation’s Texas Road Trip Invitation
    Sales and Marketing – Collateral Material – Special Event Marketing – Card, Invitation, Announcement – Single Unit
  • Schaefer Christmas Cards
    Direct Marketing – Advertising Self Promotion – Collateral – Branded Elements
  • Texas Ballet Theater Sleeping Beauty Poster
    Out-Of-Home & Ambient Media – Poster – Single Unit
  • Texas Park’s & Wildlife Foundation’s Texas Road Trip Poster Series
    Out-Of-Home & Ambient Media – Poster – Campaign
  • Texas Ballet Theater 2019/20 Season Poster Campaign A
    Out-Of-Home & Ambient Media – Poster – Campaign
  • Texas Ballet Theater 2019/20 Season Poster Campaign A
    Out-Of-Home & Ambient Media – Poster – Campaign
  • Texas Park’s & Wildlife Foundation’s Texas Road Trip Illustrations
    Elements of Advertising – Visual – Illustration Series
  • Texas Ballet Theater 2019/20 Season Illustrations
    Elements of Advertising – Visual – Illustration Series

Additionally, the Schaefer team was humbled to win 11 silver and bronze awards for clients across several industry verticals, including Hillwood Communities, Kimbell Art Museum, River and Blues Festival and TTI.

Special Shout Out

One of our team members, Julia Cooper, won a gold ADDY for her independent work with the Japanese Akita Club of America. She won a Direct Marketing Award – Specialty Advertising – Apparel for creating a Komainu Bomber Jacket for J.A.C.A. We couldn’t be happier for Julia, and we are incredibly proud of her initiative and excellent work.

Schaefer Advertising Co. | Ft. Worth, Texas
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