The Nutcracker ballet is a timeless performance that has delighted audiences for more than a century. Over time, it has cemented its place as a beloved holiday tradition and one of the most popular ballets of all time. Each holiday season, Texas Ballet Theater (TBT) stages 35 performances between Dallas and Fort Worth, which sets the tone for ticket sales throughout the season. For some ballet companies, sales from The Nutcracker make up more than 85% of a company’s ticket revenue for the season. While its popularity makes it easy to sell performance tickets, The Nutcracker also creates a unique opportunity to attract a broader audience to experience the art of ballet.
As the agency of record for the past six years, Schaefer Advertising has helped TBT increase ticket sales year-over-year to make The Nutcracker a revenue powerhouse. Fresh off a record-setting year in 2022, TBT increased its goals for 2023.
To meet the new goal, our team acted quickly to implement new optimizations that leveraged our current campaign assets, made strategic recommendations for TBT-owned channels, and proposed a few incremental options to get in front of new attendees. A peak-valley-peak approach to paid search led to higher revenue for lower costs, making paid search a key driver of conversion revenue. The coordinated email marketing campaign launched in late November ranked second in revenue generation.
Results
The Nutcracker campaign concluded its 2023 run with record-breaking revenue and ticket sales, surpassing each previous year’s revenue and 2023 goals for both Dallas and Fort Worth. Total revenue closed at 120% to goal, with online sales specifically growing revenue by over 30% from last year.
Let’s start by getting to know you a little better. Tell us about yourself.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, raised in Saint Bernard Parish. Moved to Dallas after Hurricane Katrina and was recruited to play football at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. While in school, I adopted two dogs. Cookie, who I found in a parking lot of a Sonic, living off scraps, and Louis, who was given to me. I majored in Information Systems and Data Analytics for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. I enjoy the combination of creative problem solving and numbers.
In college, I was the General Manager of a brewery, whereI learned to brew beer and a lot about cooking. After graduating, I transitioned to a coaching role, serving as a QB assistant coordinator throughout grad school and eventually got hired by the Houston Texans to “turn numbers into colors,” which translates to leveraging data and analytics to learn more about their fans.
I like to try new restaurants and discover new bars – preferably outdoor places with easy TV viewing. I watch a lot of football. No surprise. I like to find good bars. And I wants to visit every NFL stadium. So far, I’ve been to three.
What’s something you love to do?
In no particular order: golf, pickleball and cooking.
Where is your favorite place?
New Orleans
What do you love about the job?
Continuous learning.
What is the last thing you binge-watched?
The Bear
What’s your favorite book?
Profiles in Courage
If you could live in any sitcom, which would it be?
Entourage, I’ve never been to California.
Are you a listener or a talker?
Listener
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Steak
If there weren’t any more computers, what would be your new occupation?
Football Coach
What’s the scariest thing you’ve done for fun?
Snuck into an abandoned orphanage.
What’s your favorite children’s story?
The Giver
If you had an extra hour of free time every day, what would you spend it doing?
The North Texas Community Foundation (NTCF) is a Fort Worth-based philanthropic organization committed to driving meaningful change through charitable investment in North Texas. With a strong reputation, deep community knowledge, and tailored services, NTCF helps high-net-worth individuals structure their philanthropic giving for immediate impact and long-term legacy.
Challenge
As a central figure in the community with a wide range of audiences and causes, NTCF needed a way to articulate their offerings to specific audience sets with very different wants while positioning their own brand for growth. In addition, they needed to improve their user experience online to better meet the demands of visitors.
Tailoring the message
NTCF is beholden to not one but three separate audiences – fundholders who support charitable giving, professional financial advisors whom NTCF partners with to manage donor funds, and nonprofit leaders who leverage grants and gifts to proactively respond to the needs within the community. While the driving purpose and service offering are the same across all partners and clients, it’s crucial to shape messaging around the intended audience.
We started the process by first establishing a brand archetype – NTCF is a Caregiver – and letting that lead to a clear and compelling brand position and purpose. This step helped cement NTCF’s mission to drive meaningful change, unify the internal team and motivate all partners to advance toward a shared future. Next, we tailored key messages to resonate with the distinct needs and priorities of each audience. From cross-functional partners to clients and community stakeholders, brand messaging is tailored to the unique perspectives of each audience.
Design with a growth mindset
To further illustrate the Caregiver archetype, we evolved the brand identity to better mirror the trust, support and service NTCF is known to provide. From logo to photographic styling, we created a comprehensive design system that perfectly encapsulates the brand’s dynamic service offering. The vibrant yet strong color palette features navy, periwinkle and complementary shades of yellow, orange and blue to balance optimistic and approachable with the more intuitive and assertive sides of the NTCF brand. In addition, we expanded creative assets to offer more versatility and the ability to grow with the brand.
Creating a seamless experience
A website acts as a front door to your organization, and NTCF could benefit from a more inviting user experience. The previous website structure was dense and the navigation was choppy, leading to confusion and cognitive overload for site visitors. On the back end, employees lacked the ability to easily create, modify and publish content.
To provide current and potential fundholders with an enhanced experience, we restructured the new site to reduce page count, minimize clicks and better guide visitors to the information they were seeking. We also developed a custom content management platform, empowering the internal team with the tools needed to edit and manage their site without extensive coding knowledge.
Results
Developing an impactful brand strategy and tailoring every message to suit the intended audience allowed NTCF to better communicate their purpose and address a multifaceted branding challenge from a foundational level. The new brand identity also aligns each audience with the overarching vision of NTCF and positions the brand for success and growth.
A more intuitive website improved the user journey while empowering the internal team with the ability to easily develop and manage brand materials and content. When compared to the previous year, the new website saw outstanding results:
28% increase in visitors
7% reduction in bounce rate, illustrating users found the site more relevant
21.7% increase in page views, indicating stronger user engagement post site launch
Data measured from Feb 2021-Aug 2021 and Feb 2022-Aug 2022.
Every year, Texas Ballet Theater (TBT) launches a season filled with a combination of performance styles, from mixed repertoires to storybook ballets to the beloved holiday tradition, The Nutcracker. And each year, the organization builds revenue goals based on factors such as previous success, attrition, new-to-file trends, name recognition and more. In the last few years, all performing arts organizations have been rebuilding after, for some, more than a year of no programming. It is more critical than ever that these goals be met, which is a challenge we do not take lightly.
Benefits of a Integrated Campaign
As TBT’s agency of record for over five years, we have the pleasure of guiding the organization strategically through a merriment of creative and media targeting each year. This level of integration is ideal, as it allows the team to work on one cohesive plan for success and be proactive with optimizations along the way. We cannot overstate the importance of messaging, design and ad placement all aligning to drive success.
With a robust overarching season revenue goal as well as individual performance goals, we knew this year needed to be on point. Pun intended.
A New Creative Solution
Each year we establish the creative concept for the season which reflects the individual performances, incorporates artistic direction from TBT and provides a consistent look for the entire season. This season, we created custom typography for each performance title to elevate the distinct nature of each performance and provide an additional asset that incorporated elements from the storyline or theme of each ballet. The titles were paired with a wash of color for each performance, and when viewed together created a vibrant kaleidoscope that reflected the varied nature of the range of performances. The ability to utilize a key color and title treatment to support individual performance campaigns beyond dancer imagery alone gave our team a broader range of assets to leverage across mediums.
What We’ve Learned
A benefit of the tenure of our relationship with TBT is that we are able to learn more and evolve every year. We always tell new clients that they are the experts in their field, and we are here to learn and assist. But as we learn more year over year, we build industry expertise that becomes invaluable.
What we continue to see is that video outperforms static ads, which is no surprise when you are promoting a moving art form. We also know that the more digital assets you have, the more opportunities you have to improve visibility, engagement and the overall effectiveness of each deliverable. Video content can be costly to produce, so we focused on creative solutions that maximized the available resources. By incorporating animation, we were able to support each performance with repeatable textures that expand our campaign assets.
Because of this, we were able to produce more formats and sizes to test against each other by incorporating animations and movement in post production. Additionally, we chose to sunset some static ad units in order to focus on video.
Enhancing Ticket Sales
From a media perspective, we adjusted flighting to focus on awareness tactics early and conversion tactics during peak ticket sales, which is traditionally within the final weeks of the promotion.
We also implemented an institutional campaign throughout the year to boost awareness and increase website sessions unrelated to ticket purchases, which in turn allowed our retargeting pools to grow and improve our ticket sale campaigns.
Where We Landed
While we are delighted to see the success of last year come through, it was with intention that our team set out to achieve and surpass these revenue and new ticket buyer goals. The Year of Splendor proved to be successful all season long, seen most notably in The Nutcracker & Alice in Wonderland performances, where goals in both Dallas and Fort Worth were exceeded.
Final revenue exceeded annual goals by 24%
Final revenue increased from previous year by 25%
Opening the season with a new work (which is inherently more challenging to sell due to no name recognition), ROAS was 5:1
The Nutcracker in Dallas finished at over 140% to goal
The season closed with Alice in Wonderland which had almost 10,000 patrons attend clearing goals by over 30%
Promoting a new season each year has its fair share of challenges, and that’s what keeps us going. We’re proud to be a long-standing partner of Texas Ballet Theater and can’t wait to share in their continued success for years to come.
As the holiday season approached, Schaefer faced the familiar challenge of driving revenue for the Fort Worth Zoo through membership and adoption gift purchases. In a marketplace brimming with options, our task was to set the Zoo apart and exceed year-over-year revenue goals for an offering that had remained consistent for a long time. Our strategy focused on positioning the Zoo’s offerings as unique and meaningful gifts, highlighting the value of membership while also reiterating the experiential aspect of these presents.
Positioning for Audience Impact
Emphasizing memberships over adoptions in both messaging and media was key to maximizing revenue. The campaign aimed to convey that the Fort Worth Zoo offers versatile gifting options, from a tangible present for under the tree to a membership for year-long experiences.
We know that the target audience, composed of Zoo-goers and potential members, already enjoy visiting the Zoo with their families. However, they might not have initially considered Zoo memberships or adoptions as compelling gift choices. The campaign’s goal was to shift the audience’s perception, portraying Fort Worth Zoo memberships as a perfect holiday gift due to their numerous benefits, including unlimited admission, free parking, discounts and access to special events. Zoo adoption packages, featuring plush animals, certificates, coloring kits, and more, not only make for delightful presents but also support animal care and conservation efforts. These offerings were positioned as experiential gifts that fostered a lasting connection to the Zoo, encouraging family enjoyment throughout the year.
Showcasing a Unique Gift Experience
Creatively, we met the challenge of maintaining freshness for a campaign that recurs annually as well as distinguishing the campaign in a crowded holiday market. Unconventional elements took the spotlight, with a memorable neck-bending giraffe as the hero visual and playful copywriting like “A Gift Above the Rest” as the primary headline. The campaign also tapped into the universal appeal of baby animals by featuring the recent giraffe births through secondary imagery and messaging to visit the Zoo often while the babies are still small.
Additional supporting imagery featured the immersive membership experience and the physical adoption package complete with plush animals. This comprehensive visual approach provided a well-rounded perspective of the gift options.
Results
As a result of the strategy, creative concept, and media plan working in sync, the campaign was wildly successful. We succeeded in setting the Zoo apart in the bustling holiday market and surpassing revenue goals for both gift offerings.
New and gifted memberships in 2022 were almost triple in quantityand revenue as compared to both goals and previous year sales.
Return on investment for the campaign as a whole was nearly 10:1.
Emails were the top-performing channel, driving a 69% increase in revenue over 2021, led predominately by a Black Friday sale.
In conclusion, Schaefer’s ability to break through the saturated holiday market with a creative and strategically aligned media plan led to an exceptional year-over-year increase in revenue. The campaign not only met, but exceeded goals, emphasizing the power of unique creative and effective media planning in achieving outstanding results.
Nestled in the heart of Fort Worth, Texas, Colonial Country Club stands as an iconic institution with an unwavering commitment to excellence and timeless traditions. Founded in 1936 by Marvin Leonard, the club offers a distinctive private club experience that fosters a strong sense of community. With a rich history in championship golf and a dedication to creating unforgettable moments, Colonial embodies unparalleled luxury and camaraderie.
Revitalizing tradition for Colonial Country Club
In 2023, the club found itself at a pivotal moment, embracing the desire to redefine excellence and embody a new era without forgetting their historic past. This ambitious journey began with an extraordinary renovation project, breathing new life into the esteemed championship course.
The transformation extended beyond the greens as Colonial invested in an array of exciting amenities, embarking on a revitalization journey to align their brand with the club’s updates. Recognizing this opportunity, Schaefer Advertising partnered with Colonial to refine and update their marketing and messaging, ensuring effective communication with a shared commitment to tradition and innovation.
The path to success is empowerment
Working closely with the internal staff at Colonial, we understood the significance of helping the team to define the authentic voice of the brand and building the necessary tools to support business objectives. Colonial’s strategic marketing initiatives focus on three primary goals:
Increasing awareness and perception among targeted prospective members to generate a consistent waitlist of high-quality prospects,
Enhancing member engagement to foster loyalty and advocacy, and
Boosting club revenue through increased event sales.
To achieve these objectives, Schaefer developed a comprehensive marketing strategy that presented findings from a digital platform audit and brand messaging exercise, as well as provided platform-specific optimizations, culminating in a holistic digital ecosystem approach for the internal team to utilize as a road map to support and elevate Colonial’s marketing endeavors.
Uniting past, present, and future
To elevate the essence of Colonial’s brand, we embarked on an extensive brand refresh that began with a meticulous exploration of the club’s unique attributes and a thorough brand landscape assessment. This approach identified key differentiators and core values that set Colonial apart. Establishing the brand archetype and positioning recommendations, Schaefer recognized that Colonial’s messaging should center around the unwavering pursuit of greatness, beautifully capturing the club’s rich history and unyielding commitment to excellence. This masterful process of brand archetyping and positioning culminated in the development of the club’s brand story, a compelling narrative that artfully united the past, present, and future.
Building upon this solid foundation, we crafted a cohesive visual system that seamlessly unified the brand while accommodating flexibility for its evolving identity. A comprehensive brand style guide was introduced, offering clear guidelines to the team and serving as a valuable tool for external communications, ensuring consistent brand alignment across all touchpoints. To capture the true essence of Colonial, Schaefer directed and produced photography and video shoots featuring real club members, thus curating an authentic content library that would enrich the future website and all brand materials, beautifully reflecting the genuine spirit of the club and its cherished traditions.
Elevating Colonial’s digital presence
Alongside the visual transformation, Schaefer undertook the crucial task of redesigning Colonial’s website to realign with the club’s prestigious history and standing. Our expertise came to the forefront as we crafted a visually stunning and user-friendly design that successfully communicated vital information while elevating the overall user experience. Through a development partnership with MembersFirst, the website became a powerful tool in supporting awareness, engagement, and lead-generation objectives, providing an app and private portal for members. Schaefer’s thoughtful approach, in tandem with Colonial’s rich heritage, gave rise to a website that now stands as a befitting window into the club.
Outcome
The collaboration between Schaefer and Colonial resulted in a stronger brand presence that honored the club’s legacy as well as their future. The consolidated brand provides a consistent experience for current and potential members, reinforcing Colonial’s position as a pillar in the community. The revitalized brand strategy and web presence articulate the Club’s forward-thinking nature, appealing to both a global audience in search of elite golf experiences and creating a home away from home for local members. By providing the internal team at Colonial with the necessary tools and support, Schaefer empowered them to effectively communicate the brand’s voice and usher in a new era of success.
Developing sales support materials that are on time, on budget — and on the mark.
Situation
Galderma, a leading manufacturer of OTC and prescription skin care products, had developed a new formula aimed at helping teenagers fight acne. The new product’s launch faced two challenges: First, it had a new and unique Mechanism of Action (MOA) that needed to be communicated to dermatologists and other healthcare professionals (HCPs). Second, a limited budget restricted the options that their large global brand agency was able to provide.
Goals
Support the new brand launch of Twyneo
Distill key product information and prepare highly memorable assets
Expand the reach of launch budget by providing better value than larger global agencies
Encourage HCPs to write Twyneo for teen acne patients by clearly differentiating the product
Strategy
At the core of the product’s efficacy was a microencapsulation technology that combines tretinoin and benzoyl peroxide (BPO). Both molecules have proven efficacy for the treatment of acne but had never before been combined into one formulation. The goal of the initiative was to equip the sales reps with materials that could simply outline and educate how microencapsulation works on the skin, to an audience of HCPs.
Solution
Healthcare professionals tend to be busy people, and the solution needed to communicate quickly and effectively. Schaefer designed a compelling sales aid that used custom die-cut and pop-up images to clearly show how encapsulation worked, and how it set Twyneo apart from other products on the market.
A complementary animated video brought the MOA to life and used Key Opinion Leaders for narration. Schaefer created a visual tool that did the heavy lifting of differentiating the product, while working within the brand’s existing graphic standards.
These effective, engaging sales tools enabled the reps to make a visually compelling case for how this never-before-seen combination of molecules provided HCPs — and their teen patients — with a new solution for moderate to severe acne.
Results
Working on a tight timeline and narrow budget, Schaefer:
Developed a suite of sales resources (innovative sales aid and MOA video) that equipped the sales team for a successful product launch.
Highlighted the unique and innovative nature of the new product
Supported successful first-year adoption through in-person sales
Summary
By working within the client’s budget and timeline, Schaefer provided a level of value and quality that extended the client’s budget far beyond the capabilities of a large, global agency. Our “right size” agility and flexibility enabled us to mobilize quickly, and develop distinctive, memorable launch assets that led to a successful adoption curve with HCPs.
Let’s start by getting to know you a little better. Tell us about yourself.
I grew up in the Bay Area, California before moving to Texas to attend TCU. My junior year of college I took a class where someone from Schaefer led a creative project for a group of students. That class was where I learned about Schaefer and made my first connection. A few years later, I had the opportunity to intern under that same person, which was a key moment that has shaped my professional career.
After graduating in 2022 with my BFA in graphic design, I knew I loved Texas and wanted to stay. I decided to continue my internship with Schaefer for a second season, and now I’m happy to be officially joining the team!
What’s something you love to do?
I love photography and being able to combine that with other things I like to do, such as off-roading, traveling, and hiking. I also enjoy a game of pickleball.
What’s your favorite place?
Lake Tahoe, year-round.
What do you love about the job?
I love having the opportunity to be creative with everything I work on. Along with that, every day feels like there is something new to do, so I never get bored. Also, the people here are the best!
What is the last thing you binge-watched?
Only Murders In the Building
What’s your favorite book?
I’m not a reader, but I hear the Harry Potter books are a good read (and I like the movies).
If you could live in any sitcom, which would it be?
That ’70s Show. It’s one of my favorite shows and I think I would fit in great. As for a BFF, definitely FEZ.
Are you a listener or a talker?
Definitely a listener.
If you had to eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Pasta. Any and every kind. But if I had to rank them, my top two are Mac and Cheese (all shapes and cheeses) and Pesto Raviolis.
If there weren’t any more computers, what would be your new occupation?
Probably a photographer… but maybe a teacher.
What’s the scariest thing you’ve done for fun?
Explored an abandoned hotel in the middle of the night. We thought it might be haunted, but the living inhabitants were scarier.
What’s your favorite children’s story?
Goodnight Moon
If you had an extra hour of free time every day, what would you spend it doing?
Drinking that extra cup of coffee in the morning.
Any words of advice?
Just keep swimming.
Why Schaefer?
The high level of creativity I saw was what drew me in. The people are what made me stay.
For a leading third-party manufacturer, rising above the competition began with a new marketing campaign.
The Situation
Argon Medical Devices came to Schaefer with a need to create awareness for its brand and various product lines. Its key objectives included elevating awareness of Argon Custom Product Solutions (CPS), a division that offers private label and third-party manufacturing capabilities to clients.
Goals
Increase awareness of the Argon corporate brand and Argon CPS brand
Educate and engage a global Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) audience
Generate qualified leads at the top of the funnel to handoff to the sales team
Build loyalty and differentiation with precise, customer-centric messaging
Strategy
Argon CPS faced two crucial challenges: First, its awareness in this crowded market was low. Second, in a sector that is heavily driven by price, Argon CPS needed to position itself as a premium brand that brought greater value to customers through an unmatched mix of expertise and capabilities.
Solution
Schaefer developed a strategic campaign that differentiated Argon CPS by promoting its superior level of service, quality, and customization. The new tagline “Build It Better” laddered up to and tied-into the existing Argon corporate brand messaging.
Core messages highlighted attributes such as design and testing capabilities, US-based manufacturing facilities, and Argon’s ability to collaborate with client product development teams. Campaign graphics used upscale visual patterns to underscore the client’s endless customization capabilities and showcase specific product categories.
We then deployed a media strategy for email, social media, digital and online industry publications that carefully homed-in on a global audience of manufacturers and decision makers. Careful audience targeting ensured minimal waste — and maximum results.
Results
Our digital and email tactics carefully targeted recipients by geography and title, allowing us to track campaign results with a high degree of accuracy that:
Generated more than 36K website sessions from 31K+ new users
Achieved 3.3 million targeted impressions in less than one year
Achieved a 6% Paid Search click-through rate, 1.8x the industry benchmark
Launched 463K emails, opened by 20% of recipients
Tracked clicked-through rates of prime prospects, including Marketplace Optimization (MPO) click-through rates of .86%
Summary
Differentiation is always important – especially in categories driven by price or viewed as commodities. By elevating Argon CPS above the industry norm, we strengthened its appeal to higher-end device manufacturers who value quality, service and collaboration.
How Argon Medical Devices merged multiple brands and hundreds of SKUs into a single, cohesive user experience (UX).
Situation
As a global company with multiple sub-brands and literally hundreds of products, Argon Medical Devices faced a major challenge in creating a simple and cohesive online presence. Argon tapped Schaefer to execute a complete overhaul of its website, from site architecture all the way through design and development.
Goals
Enhance and optimize the user experience
Accommodate international customizations and product offerings
Restructure multiple sub-brands and product lines into a single cohesive, centralized site
Modernize the design to align with Argon’s new corporate positioning and graphic standards
Allow room for growth as future products, capabilities and divisions emerge
Strategy
Having recently repositioned the company, Schaefer realized that updating the Argon website would require more than organizing products and accommodating multiple languages. To expedite the process, the creative and digital teams worked in tandem, collaborating closely to ensure that the design and function worked in unison.
While Schaefer’s creative team worked to update design and messaging to align with the new brand trajectory, the digital team examined ways to streamline customer ordering, overcome language barriers, simplify navigation, and create a better user experience across the site’s 70+ pages and thousands of potential product permutations.
Solution
The creative team united all business units under the new Argon brand positioning: The Pursuit of Better. This gave all visitors a consistent view of who Argon was, and the shared mission and values that united its multiple brands.
Meanwhile, the Schaefer development team navigated an ever-changing SKU list as the client consolidated product lines. We then performed a number of user experience exercises to build a more efficient user flow for searching and ordering product samples. The new site was able to leverage geolocation to customize content based on the user’s global region, and allowed text to be dynamically translated into multiple languages.
Results
The Schaefer team replaced complexity with clarity, and delivered a site that accomplished key goals for both new and existing customers. The improvements included:
Successfully consolidating multiple domains and destinations into one organized, easy-to-navigate site
Enabling the client to make revisions and updates easily with minimal training
Reorganizing and narrowing the featured products to allow an easier search and order experience
Automating processes to further improve UX and leveraging geolocation to only showcase products in regions where they are available
Summary
To deliver a site that met the client’s goals with a global audience, the Schaefer team leveraged Argon’s core strengths of effective brand messaging and in-depth knowledge of the healthcare space. The client now has a site that better serves its needs today — and will support the brand as it continues to grow and evolve in the years ahead.
