Based on how often it’s promised in advertising, “becoming one’s true self” must be a near-universal obsession. New clothes, tanning salons, gym memberships, eyeglasses, Colorado tourism – the real you is out there. You just need to change in order to find it.
Well, we’ve changed. But we’re more “us” now than we’ve ever been, dig?
Welcome to the brand-new, same ol’ Schaefer Advertising Co. As you can see, we’ve gotten a haircut. But the advertising in us means we’re not going to wait for you to notice.
Our new website and refined logo are just the beginning – we’ll be rolling out little goodies as often as we feel like it. So why the change? Are we not still making notes on napkins?
What’s the saying? The cobbler’s children have no shoes? Advertising agencies are like that, too. We do what we do for you and often don’t have time to do our thing for ourselves. Years go by, and we suddenly don’t recognize ourselves in the mirror. So we go off to the desert, sit in a tepee for a while and come back with a new perspective.
Or something like that. In reality, we just had a lot of conversations over the course of the year. Who are we? How do we represent a diverse group of people in a single, unified way? Rather than dumping out a year’s worth of notes and revisions, let’s just skip to the result.
And you’re here. Allow us to reintroduce ourselves. We’re Schaefer Advertising Co. We’re an explorer brand. Schaefer is our hub, and we are spokes – each of us going out in our own way, gathering information and bringing it back to our home base. We pursue our interests and talents and share them with the group. We’re confident; we’re not afraid to say, “I don’t know,” then go figure it out. Our new tagline is also our mantra: Seek what’s possible.
One of the main things you’ll notice is our updated logo. There’s really nothing “pre-packaged” about Schaefer, so moving away from a stock font was a must. (We’ll do a dedicated post on that later so senior designer Charlie Howlett can geek out about it to his heart’s content.)
We’ll have a lot more to show and tell in the near future, including new ways to stay up on our adventures. But for now, you’ve got our new website to explore! Go forth, pioneers!
Yours truly,
The Schaefer team
In April, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to London for 8 days with my family. Before leaving, we made plans to do our best to visit everything that we possibly could in the time that we had there. We were all over the city, only taking breaks to rest our feet or sleep. We visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, Hyde Park, Buckingham and Kensington Palaces, Harrods and so many other places.
I am also not ashamed to admit that I tried to adopt the English accent. It’s easy to get carried away over there – by the end of the trip I think I had it down pretty well. Now, I am sure that if I tried it out on a local, they would have told me I was crazy!
On the trip I learned that I have an interest buying things that are just not necessary. For example, I came back with three pens, a planner, a paperweight, a keychain, too many coffee mugs, and many more things that will most likely never leave my bedroom. But darn it… I will have those souvenirs for the rest of my life, and THAT is what matters.
When I came back from my trip, my coworkers wanted to hear all about my adventures. Someone suggested that I pull together a blog with some cool images from my trip. When flipping through my phone, I made the joke that I could make a blog post out of the embarrassing amount of selfies I took. In true Schaefer fashion, what I thought was a joke ended up being a reality (you have to be careful what you say around here). So here it is. Makes you feel like you’re in England, right?
-Taylor
Spring is in the air, and sleepy animals are emerging from their caves to venture out into the sunlight once more. Sorry, I meant people. Emerging from their homes. After another typically unpredictable winter, spring is back, which means a lot of moms and dads are ready to get their kids out of the house before they all go crazy.
Thankfully, there’s a ton of stuff to do at the Fort Worth Zoo – animal shows, keeper chats and all kinds of new baby animals being all cute. For this year’s spring campaign, we focused not only on the variety of experiences, but also on the memories those experiences create for families. Check out what we put together, then go out there and see it for yourself – it’s a beautiful day!
The old axiom says: You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. So we thought there was no better way to put on the 2015 American Advertising Awards, than to take it away.
In late 2014, with the help of the People’s League for the Abolition of Advertising (plAAd), the United States government passed Amendment 28 to end the practice of Advertising as it was rampant with persuasion and coercion. Local agencies were canvassed with official cease and desist notices and instructions on how to package and submit their, now illegal, advertising materials.
To keep advertising and our livelihoods alive, AAF Fort Worth swept into action and the AAFFXFW underground advertising movement was born. The group intercepted the government submissions and threw an Addy Awards celebration under the cover of “bingo night” at the local Masonic Temple. Our craft was celebrated, awards were won and Amendment 28 was repealed by night’s end.
Long Live Advertising.
Our friends at Fort Worth South Inc. asked us to create the collateral for their twentieth anniversary celebration earlier this year. FWSI began as a small coalition of Near Southside businesses and community leaders and has grown dramatically over the last two decades. The redevelopment of Fort Worth’s Near Southside was the story we wanted to showcase. Schaefer worked with them to find headlines from the past 20 years that helped to tell the story of how this community has become a vibrant, urban, mixed-use neighborhood.
Our very own Ken Schaefer was one of the speakers, talking about the growing creative scene in the Southside. He rocked a bow tie and shared some great insights about the unique opportunities that are available in this culturally rich community. His message focused on how important creative organizations are to helping this area flourish.
When Mouser, one of the leading providers of electronic components, wanted to refresh their company icon, we started the way we normally do – by taking a step back. What they were looking for was a fresh, attention grabbing way to reflect their brand. With this goal in mind, we got to thinkin’. While we had a ton of ideas, we quickly found that they all seemed to fit in three buckets: icons, fictional characters and spokesmen.
What we liked most about introducing a nonfictional spokesman was the idea that he or she would have the technical expertise to relate to the target audience on their level along with a curiosity for what engineers were building with Mouser components. After all, contained within Mouser’s warehouses are the parts needed to build the next great technological breakthrough. Some assembly required.
One person who perfectly embodies the expert host persona is Grant Imahara. Best known for his role on the TV show Mythbusters, Grant is an electronics expert with a long and impressive resume, working on projects ranging from battle bots to R2-D2. When we approached him about becoming a spokesman for Mouser, it was no surprise that he was already familiar with them – he’d been ordering components from Mouser for years.
Turns out, Mouser was just as big a fan of Grant’s as he was of them, and they immediately jumped on the idea. Now, Grant and Mouser are empowering innovation with the very latest in electronic components. Along with that, Grant is looking far and wide to find out what great, new innovations are happening in the engineering world.
This was the second year Schaefer got to produce the annual TCU Baseball video. The team was coming off a very successful year, yet they still felt the sting of coming up short in the College World Series. For 2015, both the coaches and players had an even greater resolve to take it all the way to the championship.
Based on the Boy Scout oath, “On Our Honor” is a promise to themselves, their teammates, coaches and fans to follow the path of selflessness, energy and excellence.
This was another fun shoot with N8 Visuals out at Heart of the Ranch in Clearfork, another Schaefer client. Even the non-Horned Frogs here at Schaefer are excited to see how far TCU Baseball can go this year. Go Frogs! #toadtoomaha
On Friday night, advertising professionals from all over Fort Worth gathered for the 2015 American Advertising Awards. As last year’s Best of Show winner, Schaefer was responsible for this year’s event theme, which was “Amendment 28,” a modern take on prohibition except that it was advertising and not booze that was illegal.
In typical Schaefer fashion, we had a lot of fun with it. From a fake theme to fake government agents to real posters taped on real agency doors, we used a wide range of media to keep the game going. It all culminated last Friday with “The Event” – a secret meeting of ad pros at the Fort Worth Masonic Temple to celebrate in secret another year’s worth of work.
Results are still coming in, but early returns suggest that the event was a success. Guests enjoyed hors d’oeuvres and drinks while sizing up with each other’s work and catching up with old acquaintances and coworkers. The awards presentation video, courtesy of our friends at Studios 121, maintained the underground theme with glitchy effects and the subversive statement that, “If advertising has been outlawed, then we are all outlaws.”
Fitting then, that we made off like bandits, coming away with 16 total awards including five golds and another Best of Show award for the 2015 Zoo Ball invitation we did for the Fort Worth Zoo. Designed by Blair Babineaux with art direction by Charlie Howlett and production by Maren Gibbs, this piece is a fitting jewel to crown a busy and productive 2014.
Of course, winning Best of Show again means we get to put on the show next year, but we’d rather not think about that for a few months. It was a lot of work.
Here’s to a great 2014 and to our three-peat next February!
The annual Fort Worth Zoo preschool is a great way for kids to learn all about their favorite animals from A to Z. So, industrious designer Jon Chapman set about illustrating a menagerie of animals – one for every letter of the alphabet. This series of animal flash cards was made available on the Fort Worth Zoo website so parents could print them out for their kids’ to enjoy. Which one’s your favorite?
Congratulations to client and Near Southside neighbor, Moncrief Cancer Institute, on their brand-new, state-of-the-art mobile clinic! We may have designed the outside, but the inside is the exciting part. Soon, services like cancer screenings, one-on-one exercise sessions, personalized nutrition planning, clinical support and more will be coming directly to the people of Tarrant County and surrounding areas.
