Schaefer Advertising Co.

"What's inspiring you right now?"

Scott Porter – Copywriter, Photos, Video, etc.
For photography, I recently discovered the work of Josh Wool. Portraits are my favorite thing to take, and his are awesome. Between his work and all the Photoshop tutorials I’ve been watching lately, I’m really itching to shoot a lot more.
For writing, I’m currently reading a collection of Hunter S. Thompson’s articles for Rolling Stone. I’d (somehow) never read any of his stuff before or seen any of the movies about him. For being known as a drug-addled wild man, his writing is surprisingly coherent. Irreverent and vulgar, yes, but uncompromising. I think he’d be the kid who called the emperor naked. I doubt any client is going to ask for Gonzo-style copy, but I’ll see if I can’t sneak it in somewhere.

July 20, 2014

Guiding the journey home

Founded in 1984, Presbyterian Night Shelter is a non-profit organization that does more than just provide a place to sleep. Through a variety of services, they help clients on the journey from homeless to home. With new services being added and new building projects underway, they came to Schaefer for rebranding and fundraising materials.

The open door logo was birthed out of a game of catch in the side yard. That probably had nothing to do with it, but it’s how we got the creative juices flowing. While the door is symbolic of the roof Presbyterian Night Shelter provides to the homeless, it’s also a symbol of permanent housing, which is the goal for everyone who stays there. For many, the Night Shelter is the only door open to them. But there’s hope on the other side.

Another aspect of the project was fundraising materials for a new women and children’s housing project on the Night Shelter property. While the original ask was for printed materials, we looked at the fundraising goals as well as the potential donor base and decided that a video would be the most effective way to go.

Filmed on a shoestring budget by our, at that time, brand-new friends at 1820 Productions, the video sought to convey a single, powerful idea: home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling. As you hear businessmen and women, professionals and even someone who is currently homeless talk about home, the specifics might be different, but the feeling is universal. Punctuating it all is the surprising statistic that 85% of homeless people don’t stay that way.

Homelessness is a curable condition. And we’re proud to help Presbyterian Night Shelter in their mission to end homelessness in Tarrant County.

July 10, 2014

Rolling Out the Pink Carpet

Moncrief Cancer Institute in Fort Worth offers the premier breast cancer screening experience because everything from the rooms to the robe are tailored to making it as quick and comfortable an experience as possible. When they asked us to help promote this new service, we knew right where to start. After all, what better way to promote a premier experience than with a premier experience?

July 9, 2014

Schaefer Advertising, this is Amanda?

Everyone, this is Amanda Peredo, Schaefer’s new operations coordinator. As “The O.C.,” Amanda will be the friendly voice that takes your calls, the smiling face that greets you in our lobby and the person we complain to when we’re out of snacks.
Recently, I sat down with Amanda to ask her the hard-hitting questions Channel Scott News is known for.

Scott: Hi, Amanda. How’s it going?
Amanda: It’s good! How are you?
S: Hey, I’m the interviewer here, okay?
A: Oh, uh…okay.
S: But I’m fine, thanks for asking. So – tell me everything about yourself in a blog-friendly number of words.
A: Oh gosh, born and raised on an island. Now I live in North Texas.
S: […] Okay, I’m going to need more words than that.
A: Um…I come from a big military family, so I travelled a lot growing up. I lived in Spain, then Guam, then Texas, back to Guam, then back to Texas. And now I’ve found my home in good ol’ Fort Worth. I’ve lived in the area for 20 years, but I’ve worked in Fort Worth for six years.
S: Where did you work before?
A: I worked for XTO Energy for five years. I started as an intern, and they hired me full-time after college.
S: How do you like Schaefer so far?
A: I love Schaefer. I love the people, the different work and meeting clients that come in.
S: I’m not Ken, you don’t have suck up to me.
A: Oh, I hate it here. Just kidding.
S: Cool, how about something important. What is your favorite animal?
A: My favorite animal? Um…I kinda like the honey badger. He’s got a great motto.
S: Do you put ketchup on your hot dogs?
A: I do, plus mustard. That’s it.
S: And here I thought I was going to like you. What else can you tell me to make up for the fact that you’re a ketchup person?
A: Let’s see…I won the Steer Fort Worth photo contest. Mayor Price picked my photo and I won a new Canon DSLR camera.
S: Actually, I’m the photographer around here. You should probably keep that at home.
A: (sigh)
After that, the phone rang and I got the feeling that the interview was over. So we may never know the truth about where Amanda was when the Hindenburg blew up, but we can continue to speculate. I’m Scott for Channel Scott News, signing off.

July 7, 2014

A Summer Sequel

She claims to single-handedly fund Yogurt Land. She wants to name her own OPI polish “Sweet Colada Sunshine.” And she would pay to be in Beyonce’s music video Love on Top. Ladies and gentlemen, Taylor DePuma has found her home at Schaefer.

But she’s no stranger. Taylor started at Schaefer as an account services intern before finishing up her senior year at Texas A&M. Now, she’s back for good as a full-time account coordinator. As an intern, she blogged about the Schaefer teams “hilarious” behaviors, so, for her feature blog post, we are going to share with you the funniest things we’ve learned about Taylor so far:

Taylor wants to start a book club in which she is the only member.
Taylor’s brother once introduced Taylor to his girlfriend by saying, “We just laugh along with her because she thinks she’s funnier than she is.”
At her intern luncheon, Taylor didn’t know who Lee Harvey Oswald was. Because of this, she is now a self-taught Lee Harvey Oswald expert.
Lauren Conrad is Taylor’s best friend. Lauren just doesn’t know it.
If Taylor were to die in a scary movie, it would be Stay Alive starring Sophia Bush, but she doesn’t remember how Sophia actually dies, she just remembers liking the plot of the movie.

So, it’s official! We are now welcoming Taylor to the Schaefer team of hilarious employees. We can’t wait to see what she does here. (The comedic relief that she has already provided us is already much appreciated.)

June 23, 2014

Schaefer Advertising Co. Receives District-level ADDY Awards

Schaefer Advertising Co. is pleased to announce that the agency has earned four American Advertising Federation (AAF) District Ten ADDY Awards. District Ten represents ad clubs from Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. The award-winning work was nominated for regional consideration, following their success during the AAF-Fort Worth ADDY Awards in February, winning a total of 26 awards. With over 500 entries, the awards won by Schaefer included nine Gold, 10 Silver, five Bronze, one Special Judges, and Best of Show overall. The District Ten award-winning campaigns originally won Gold awards at the AAF-Fort Worth ADDY Awards, including Best of Show, Non-traditional, Out-of-Home, Collateral Material, and Advertising for the Arts & Sciences.

“We are honored have our work recognized on a regional and district level, and continuing on to the National ADDY Awards. But to be honest, what we are most proud of is that we were awarded Gold ADDY’s for six different clients. It wasn’t just one campaign that won in a lot of categories. It was a diverse portfolio of work for a wide range of clients. And given the measurable results the campaigns delivered, it affirms the work was winning blend of strategy and creativity,” Ken Schaefer, president, said.

Schaefer’s Gold and Silver District Ten winners were also entered as finalist at the AAF National ADDY Awards competition. The winning campaigns include:

Gold ADDY – Cassco Development Company, Word Crop Signs

Silver ADDY – Cassco Development Company, Word Crop Signs

Silver ADDY – JPS Health Network, Respiratory Etiquette Campaign

Silver ADDY – Fort Worth Zoo, Zoo Ball Invitation

“It’s great to be recognized at this level for one of our non-traditional projects. It takes a creative idea and bold client to be able to do something as unique as “word crops.” It’s a testament to our collaborative relationship with our clients,” Todd Lancaster, Vice President – Creative Director, said.

About The American Advertising Federation
The American Advertising Federation protects and promotes the well-being of advertising. The AAF has 15 district operations, each located in and representing a different region of the nation. The AAF’s membership is comprised of a national network of nearly 200 local federations, representing 40,000 advertising professionals, located in ad communities across the country; and more than 200 AAF college chapters, with over 6,500 student members. For more information regarding AAF, check out their website http://www.aaf.org/.

June 20, 2014

One futuristic invitation

For Moncrief Cancer Institute’s Future of Academic Medicine event, we used a silver foil on two types of paper to create an upscale invitation. The main imagery on the sleeve is a line rendering of their building, which stands out well from the blue background. The use of silver foil in the negative space of the invitation also created a striking effect.

May 30, 2014

From the ballpark to your backyard

The Story

When Nolan Ryan Beef made Kroger their exclusive retailer, they asked us to help generate awareness for this partnership while driving customers to Kroger stores to buy beef. With a limited marketing budget, we had to get creative if we were going to make a splash in a market the size of the DFW Metroplex. Luckily, “getting creative” is kind of our thing.

The Work

If there’s anything more creative than pairing up NOLAN RYAN Beef and the Texas Rangers, we don’t know what it is. So instead of sinking their marketing dollars into traditional advertising media, we recommended that they pursue a sponsorship with the Texas Rangers. They didn’t have the budget to be a top sponsor in the Ballpark, but we helped them make the most of what they could afford.

With Nolan Ryan Beef as the official beef sponsor of the Texas Rangers, we felt that someone needed to be the official spokesman of Nolan Ryan Beef. Enter Howdy the Hot Dog. Born from a dry erase marker and a window, this guy could be seen everywhere you looked in the Ballpark: concession stand signage, hawker boxes, Jumbotron and more. We even helped design an entire concession stand. We made it virtually impossible to miss Nolan Ryan Beef.

The Results

In the first year of the sponsorship, the Texas Rangers sold more hot dogs than any other ballpark in Major League Baseball. Nolan Ryan Beef doubled their sales with Kroger and even saw a spike in sales in their online direct sales. Answering the question, what’s more American than hot dogs and baseball? Cartoon hot dogs and baseball.

May 19, 2014

Run, but they can’t hide

The Story

When the Fort Worth Zoo tells you they’ve got something big coming, you naturally go think elephant, giraffe, hippo – that kind of thing. Not even close. This time it was bugs. Enormous, animatronic bugs that moved, flapped, hissed and even sprayed. Thirteen of them would be located throughout the park to greet visitors who thought the lions and snakes would be the scariest animals they were going to see that day. Schaefer was tasked with creating a name, identity and marketing materials for the exhibit. Most of us were fine with it. Certain people were less than enthused to learn of the existence of a car-sized spider in Fort Worth – even if it was a robot.

The Work

For the name of the exhibit, we went with GIGANTABUGS!, which was fun and playful but still conveyed exactly what people were in for. And since these bugs were larger than life, our marketing materials had to be “GIGANTA,” too. Our TV spot featured a variety of enormous bug shadows invading well-known Fort Worth spots. To further tease the exhibit, we applied ten-foot bug decals to a three-story building and the sidewalk in front of a busy grocery store.

The Results

This wouldn’t be a case study if our marketing didn’t work, so you probably saw this coming. Our TV spot and guerilla efforts received positive feedback and a lot of social shares leading up to the exhibit. And during the months the exhibit was open, Zoo attendance surpassed their goals by 5%.