Situation:
The Fort Worth Zoo, one of the top 5 zoos in the country, is undertaking a massive expansion campaign, with the goal of raising $100 million dollars to expand the park. The expansion will include new exhibit space, renovated habitats, special events space, multiple dining areas, and most importantly, new ways to observe, interact with and learn about animals. The expansion will guarantee for future generations the survival of many endangered species.
Opportunity:
The Zoo needed a clever solution to bring this capital initiative campaign to life to the Fort Worth and surrounding communities. Schaefer Advertising was tasked with developing an integrated media strategy and creative campaign to drive awareness, engagement, ambassadorship and donations.
Approach:
On September 12, Fort Worth got water-colored. The Fort Worth Zoo kicked off the public phase of its $100 million capital campaign by promoting splashes of color all over the city. For 5 weeks, the community chattered with speculation on what this “advertising as art” represented. The campaign evolved over the following weeks, with each phase revealing a little bit more of the campaign. Culminating with a launch event for community leaders, the campaign revealed the public-facing fundraising effort.
Campaign Goals:
Generate awareness of “A Wilder Vision,” the Fort Worth Zoo’s plans for significant expansion over the next 8 years.
Drive donations from the Dallas-Fort Worth Community.
Drive web traffic to the Zoo’s giving site in order to generate excitement and process donations.
Results:
Our reporting approach consisted of consolidating data from multiple sources such as social media platforms, display networks, and external and internal email platforms for a multi-phased campaign approach. By making continuous optimizations throughout the campaign, we were able to drive the below performance wins.
In the quiet phase, the Zoo raised approximately $90 million of the $100 million goal, with the public facing campaign focused on generating the remaining $10 million. The campaign continued until the end of November and will begin again in FY2017.
98%
Display engagement rates above the industry benchmarks
164%
Increase in traffic, from Phase 1 to Phase 2
84%
Lift in impressions from Phase 1 to Phase 2
41%
Increase in web sign-ups from Phase 1 to Phase 2
15%
Above industry performance benchmark open rates for email
No matter the season or circumstance, we believe Christmas time should be special. We try to convey this with our Christmas cards. This year’s Christmas card prompt was to share our Christmas experience.
Our first idea was to surprise our recipients inside their home with homemade cookies– but our lawyer advised against it.
The next best thing is to encourage people to prep ovens, and create Christmas magic. We thought: we want people to get excited about making things–especially tasty Christmas things, how do we send that? We arrived at Christmas cookie-cutters. And not just any cookie cutters. Squirrel shaped cookie cutters. (They make tastier cookies.)
A lot of mystery surrounds the Squirrel; We have a squirrel on the building next to Schaefer, squirrel anniversary pins, a squirrel nut-cracker in our entry way. The list goes on. But the squirrel has become the unofficial mascot of our agency. The squirrel is resourceful, cunning and a little quirky. So this year we wanted to share in your Christmas tradition by sharing a little part of us. May your days be merry, and your cookies find dairy!
And if you’d like to try your hand at the official Schaefer Christmas Cookie, the recipe is as follows:
Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened to room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
In large bowl, beat butter until creamed and smooth – about 1 minute. Add sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 or 4 minutes. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl. Add egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat on high until fully combined, about 2 minutes. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl.
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Turn mixer to low and add half of flour mixture, beating until just barely combined. Add restof flour and continue mixing until just combined.If dough still seems too soft, add 1 Tbl more flour until it is a better consistency for rolling.
Chill for one hour.
Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out and using your limited-edition Schaefer Squirrel cookie cutter,cut into shapes. Transfer cut cookie dough to baking sheet. Re-roll remaining dough and continue cutting
Bake for 8-11 minutes, until very lightly coloredon top and around the edges. Allow to cool on bakingsheet for 5 minutes, transfer to wire rack to cool completely before icing.
For icing, combine all ingredients and beat for two minutes. Decorate cooled cookies and share with @schaeferadco!
Whether you are new to the Schaefer culture or a return-reader, our community matters to us. Lights need to be kept on and our families provided for, but we make a great effort to do work that impacts the community in a significant way. This year, we had the opportunity to partner with a non-profit organization called Chisholm Challenge. This organization, alongside the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, create a venue to showcase the abilities of disabled equestrian athletes.
“The benefits of therapeutic horseback riding are well established and enable riders with physical and mental challenges to strengthen their bodies and empower their spirits. A horse show that promotes and encourages further development provides these competitors the opportunity to show off all their hard work and talents.” – Chisholm Challenge
We created the save the date and invitation collateral for the Chisholm Challenge banquet. The banquet allows for awareness and fundraising to create the actual horse show that occurs in the spring. We wanted to develop a sophisticated-yet-rural way to celebrate the opportunity to help give equestrian aesthetes the chance to feel like celebrities at their own horse show. Our invitation collateral was a vertical tri-fold piece on paper with a rodeo-inspired texture, a playful script type-lockup and plenty of cattle-brand badge treatments. Each invitation came with a reply card and envelope set that embody the aesthetic of the fairground. Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save
Two years ago we reintroduced a 100-year-old cheer back into popularity among the TCU faithful and the Fort Worth community alike.
This cheer has soaked into the collective TCU community and is now a highlight of the TCU fan experience. It’s a part of student orientation, a staple across social media and tailgate talk, and has spread wildly thoughout merchandise. With this strong endorsement building year after year, it is humbling to see the “fire” we started in partnership with TCU Athletics in 2014.
When TCU looked to us to bring a 3rd rendition of the in-game video to life, we looked no further than the fans themselves. This year we filmed the very fabric of this spirited, TCU fan base. 120 people to be exact. We weaved together 3 unique edits of the cheer and told a collective story for each and every home TCU football game.
We brought in TCU and Fort Worth heroes and kept the anticipation of the surprise ending in each game.
This year the video has been finished out by the likes of TCU Alumni Trevone Boykin, Bram Kolhausen, Aaron Green, Olympians and Bob Lilly. Each one delivering the final line, “Give ‘em Hell, TCU!”
With a few games left in this season, we know there is a whole lot of fight left in the Frogs. And after you watch this video, you’ll see the fans aren’t done yet either! Save
In an age where everything is digital and your family and friends are a FaceTime away, writing a letter by hand and sending it through the mail is a lost art. There is something very personal about receiving a note that’s both thoughtful and handmade. We wanted to encourage our digital world to slow down and craft a note to their loved ones so we Don’t Forget to Write.
Arts Goggle is an initiative of Near Southside Inc. and is in its 14th year of existence. We have participated for the last 5 years and always enjoyed plugging into the community we spend so much time in. With the size of this year’s festivities and the addition of local businesses, our team aimed at pairing down our involvement without paring down our impact. We have consistently attempted to engage the community through unique encounters with: lemonade,body art and chalk–but this year needed a creative twist. After brainstorming, we resurrected an idea to create a postcard series that both: encouraged the novelty of handwriting while becoming collectible items themselves. There wasn’t a moment of hesitation to recruit Trust Printshop to gauge the feasibility of screen-printing the paper goods. So we designed press sheets that had 5 cards to the page and Trust delivered beautiful duo-tone prints with an unexpected (but welcomed) texture to the ink that really made them feel unique.
After the cooperation of multiple agency hands cutting down and tying our card sets with butcher string, our product was ready for the public. At the event, we set up a tent and displayed posters with our simple pricing: ¢25 to send one postcard and $5 for the set. We spoke with hundreds of people and encouraged people to send cards to people they love. We met with illustrators, nihilists, philanthropists and novelists. Some stayed to just write a card, some shared their cards and others politely declined. But whether they sat at our brown craft covered picnic tables or not, Arts Goggle was inspired to cherish and resurrect the art of rhetoric and postage. Save Save Save Save Save Save Save Save
If you live in DFW, you’re most likely familiar with the Fort Worth Zoo and may be familiar with their largest annual fundraiser, Zoo Ball. Every year Zoo Ball attracts some of the biggest names in the area to support the Zoo’s local and international wildlife conservation and education efforts. The invitation for the event has always been closely tied to the theme; i.e. last year’s Zoo Ball at the Flamingo or the previous year’s Festival of the Elephants. The theme and focus of this year’s event was to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Texas Wild!, a portion of the Zoo that exhibits our great state’s different regional landscapes and wildlife.
Instead of the black tie formal-wear of years past—in the words of Alan Jackson–“We’re goin’ country!” And with a performance from Clint Black, Zoo Ball was set to be a cowboy cocktail-themed success. Our minds immediately went to the honky-tonk wood floors of Gruene Hall and Nashville-inspired Hatch Show Prints. So with the direction of “Big Hair, Boots, and Beers,” our team went on its westward way.
Process
Our hearts were set on creating a distinctly Zoo deliverable with the romance and heritage of wood block letterpress. Letterpress, simply explained, is pressing ink onto paper via wood, metal or hand carved letters and images. This process dominated commercial printing from the 1400’s to the mid-twentieth century. In today’s digital era, this process is celebrated for it’s unmatched nuance of color and texture.
To produce our limited edition set of prints, we sought out Minnesota-based premium letterpress studio, Studio On Fire. After following (and admiring) their work from afar, we were excited to partner with them for the project. With their help, our vision for the western-inspired prints came to life, complete with a blind emboss of the Fort Worth Zoo logo and hand-numbering of each print.
We created three custom illustrations that combined cowboy regalia with exotic wildlife found in the Fort Worth Zoo, bringing together the key elements of the event. These illustrations were paired with wood block-styled type, set to mimic posters of old. We created three “sayings” for the print set:
Deep in the Heart of Texas Wild! Long Necks Ain’t Nothin’
Without Rednecks Big Hair, Boots & Beer
Results
The final invitation is truly a complete package. An oversized envelope features a rustic Texas flag and warns ‘Don’t Bend or Fold or Mess with Texas’. Custom postage features animal illustrations and the Zoo logo. A hand-crafted pattern featuring Texas sayings, Clint Black lyrics, Fort Worth nods and custom animal illustrations floods the insert upon opening. And finally the prints are secured by a custom bellyband with event details and slip-sheeted for safety.
The event sold out of tickets and was both appropriately rowdy and respected. Even with fears of rain, the Zoo reassured its patrons: a little weather can’t stop our boot-scootin’ and tequila-shootin’.
Remember when we developed a unique brand and identity for the Hurst Conference Center’s bridal market, Lumiere Ballroom? We’ve continued to promote this unique positioning to the local bridal market through both traditional and non-traditional means. The goal of our most recent campaign was simple: book more tours. We knew that by viewing the venue, with it’s simple elegance and central location, wedding and reception bookings would increase. Through a digital campaign, we geo-targeted brides with the message ‘Cheers to You!’ in celebration of their engagement and the excitement to come on the big day. By booking a tour with the Hurst Conference Center, couples would receive a complimentary champagne flute set.
Developing the custom packaging came with it’s own set of challenges. Functionally, it needed to be collapsible, easy to assemble and structurally sound. There may (or may not) have been a few flute casualties in the development phase, but through trial, error and a little paper engineering, we created a carrier that met all requirements.
The flute packaging was constructed with Neenah folding board and stamped with holographic foil. The silver-based, rainbow hue mimics the iconic fiber optic star-field chandelier, making it a perfect solution to bring the abstracted Lumiere Ballroom logo to life. Since holographic foil happened to be on our design bucket list, we killed two birds with one, err, rainbow. Upon receiving the first press sheets, giddy excitement and dancing in the sunlight ensued.
Since you may not be able to see it in person, check out the foil in action above.
We all know that gathering metrics and creating reports helps determine the success of marketing or advertising campaigns, but how we gather those metrics and turn them into meaningful presentations is at times difficult for us all.
Schaefer believes that a reporting approach should be more than an excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint with graphics, so we put together a metrics and reporting “roadmap” that explores every aspect of the process. From the gathering, organizing, and graphing to analyzing and presenting, we wanted to dive into what makes up a successful campaign report.
Download our Metrics and Reporting Guide and hopefully all (or one) of these tips will help set you up for reporting success.
Debbie Carrell bashfully met me in our phone room on the third floor to share some of her stories of past kindness and present excitement. Being our first full time Accounting Manager, she had much more to say than compound interest and federal withholding. So here’s our interview: Okay so could you tell us a brief summary experience about owning your own business?
It’s challenging. It’s rewarding. Sometimes you have the flexibility that you might not have in a corporate environment. But it’s just like working for someone else because things have to get done, and if you don’t do them they won’t get done. It definitely helps to appreciate other businesses and business owners {laughs}. So with the diverse work experience you have, do you have any particular stories that stand out?
Well, the first thing that came to mind was when I was working for Bass. I was in my office one day and there was a window behind me, and someone came in to talk to me about something. All of a sudden she was looking with these big eyes behind me.
And she starts to point.
I thought something was going to fly in behind me. Or something.
So I DARTED across the office and across the floor. {laughs}
Then she said: “oh I’m so sorry I was just going to tell you that there was this huge bird outside…”
{we laugh}
I thought there was a bird that was going to fly through the window or something. It was kind of embarrassing.{laughs} Just a bird on the window {we laugh}
And then in our work, I remember during tax season there were certain clients that were super sweet. They would come in to pick up their things and they would bring these cupcakes or bags of chocolates. Just being appreciative knowing what we did. When we did sell our business, we had one client for years and we were their CPA. She heard we were selling our business, so she sent us this nice long card. The detail she went into was really nice to hear. It was more than numbers. It was a life connection. It feels good when you know you’ve made a difference. That’s so great! I would like to think we are an agency that tries our best to make connections with the community. Tying back to our agency, what is different about working at Schaefer than other agencies?
Well I’m one of the older people here. {laughs} That’s new for me.
I think what’s different here is that I love the group of people, and I enjoy the vibrancy and positive feeling that you have around the office. It feels very close-knit, like a family connection. Even the environment of the building. I go home and tell my husband that I don’t just sit in a cubicle or a little white office. Schaefer puts off a neat energy. Yeah!I think that–well I know that I’ve never felt this way about a job before. The people, the job itself and the office environment is super neat. I completely agree. So now for the age old question: how did you hear about Schaefer? Like were you in Oklahoma and saw a billboard and thought–
I hadn’t heard of the company until I found the job listing on the Fort Worth chapter of the CPA website. When Ken asked me what made me interested I couldn’t tell him, but I knew that if I applied, there was something special because I wanted a feeling and an experience, not just crunching numbers or sitting behind a desk. I told him that I must have picked up on that. Maybe not from the job description itself, but you definitely get that from the website. You can tell that the company is more than just ‘strictly business.’ And we try our best to stay away from ‘strictly business.’ {laughs} Any final thoughts for your fans:
Those of us that have to find work, make sure you find some joy in it every day.
We sat down with our newest Account Coordinator, Morgan Staral, to introduce her to the world, per our world famous interviews. This interview was unique because we’ve been warming up to Morgan for months through her internship, and by now we have a decent understanding of how embarrassed we can make her. She politely obliged, after her billable work concluded, and we chuckled through topics ranging from: small towns, local deities and dismemberment. So without further adieu, our freshest devotee:
The first thing I have written down: Rumor has it that you hate blondes. Tell me about that.
{Laughs} Let me think about this…
You’re not going to write everything I say right? {Laughs} Well most people say that brunettes….I don’t know. People say blondes have more fun. Okay so you wanted to be brunette to disprove–
I wanted to be rebellious. Towards the blondes? You wanted to be a rebellious blonde?
No. I wanted to be a rebellious brunette! You wrote down you’re kind of from Aledo–
… For sure from Aledo. {Laughs} My apologies, {laughs}. What led you to stick around DFW after you graduated high school? Did you visit Fort Worth a lot?
Mainly because I love my family. I love Fort Worth too, but I really didn’t want to be out of my comfort zone at the time. And on the weekends yes, I’d visit Fort Worth, but on the weekdays I was busy being an athletic trainer. Any short stories?
As an athletic trainer, you have to keep your stuff together. So when people get hurt, you have to try to not freak out. But you know how I am with medical things– You run?
Yeah I run. {Laughs} So having to run to the injured player…was always horrifying. This one time a player’s fingers were stuck in another guy’s face-mask. We had to cut the face-mask off while his fingers were still stuck. That’s when I knew my training career needed to come to an end…
And we ran with scissors. Everything your mom told you not to do. {we laugh} So how did you hear about Schaefer?
Well my best friend Katie is the daughter of Ken’s good friend. One time we were at an airport in Nashville and Ken was actually there. She ended up sitting next to him on the plane and we had no idea what the future held, but she introduced us. Then when I was looking to work at an ad agency, Katie suggested looking at Schaefer (even though I had my heart set on leaving Fort Worth) and well the rest is history…
Then you know the art show thing the graphic designers do? Oh yeah the FW Creative Co-op Gauntlet?
I saw Ken and I was like, “BOW DOWN he’s a god!!” (knowing that shortly I would be an intern at Schaefer). All my friends started laughing and geeking out with me because even in graphic design, he’s a big deal! {Laughs} Even if it doesn’t make it to the interview, he’s gonna hear about that.
