Schaefer Advertising Co.

Attractions, Tourism & The Arts

February 10, 2016

A summer oasis

It only seems natural that when tasked with solving the summer heat, the Fort Worth Zoo would look to their animal’s strategy: The watering hole.
One of the coolest mysteries of the year, was the 14,000-square-foot, zero-depth splash called Safari Splash. We created member invites, an email campaign and an identity system to introduce this all-new attraction. The new addition featured climbing structures, 3 slides, 26 water play features, a dump tower and water cannons to cool off at the Zoo no matter what the temperature.

While we waited on the site production to finish, one of our kids might have spilled the beans to their pre-K class that they were spending their summer at the Zoo’s water park. Don’t they say that’s the best form of advertising?

February 1, 2016

Love and Death In Fort Worth

On the heels of the Sundance Film Festival we thought we’d pay a little cinematic love to another festival we’ve had the chance to work with from our hometown of Fort Worth, The Lone Star Film Festival.
In 2011, we were asked by the board of the Lone Star Film Society to develop a new logo for both the organization and their festival. Their current logo screamed “cheesy western.” For some reason, people in Texas often make the mistake of throwing a pair of longhorns or a wagon wheel into a design to make it seem like it’s part of Texas’ heritage. We took the opportunity to create a new identity package that significantly upgraded the feel of the festival.
As with many festivals, marketing budgets are often tight, relying on barter agreements and creative developed by someone, that knows someone that has a nephew with a computer. Good creative is the best way to maximize limited marketing resources. So our agency went to work. We guided the organization through a process to position the festival in a way that made a lasting impact on the culture of Cowtown. Over the next three years, the Schaefer team created several award winning campaigns that not only dramatically elevated awareness of the festival but also drove attendance numbers to record levels.

January 13, 2016

You’ve Just Been Flashed

Flash Global is a leading provider of global service supply chain solutions that specializes in the high tech industry. Supply chain and logistics marketing can often times be dry and boring but Flash works hard to set the brand apart with non-traditional marketing.

Given that a plethora of Flash prospects and customers annually attend VM World, one of the largest global trade conferences for virtualization and cloud computing, the Flash team saw this event as an opportunity to engage with targets and customers “beyond the booth.”

Schaefer concepted an integrated social campaign and contest that would include pre, during, and post show marketing tactics. The overarching campaign concept was predicated on the theme of “Flash Flashers”, a branded street team that would surface at the VM World event.

Prior to the event, the Flash team teased the Flash Flashers campaign with a number of social posts, eblasts and sponsored Twitter ads that were directed toward a specific list of VM World guests. In addition, the team hosted a subject-specific Twitter Chat focused on timely supply chain topics particularly relevant to the high-tech audience at VM World.

Flash received very strong metrics from their eblast efforts.

Eblasts

2873 recipients
46% open
55% CTR

2636 recipients
12% open
88% CTR

2622 recipients
85% open
14% CTR

On opening day of the event the Flash Flashers, (purely fun, and rated “G”) were positioned outside of the Moscone Center where VM World was hosted. While canvassing the streets, The Flash Flashers were outfitted with bright orange trenches, showcasing the brand’s signature color. The high energy crew made the most of their tour by encouraging tweets for #VMWorldFlash, as well as handing out selfie sticks, flash collateral and fake apple watches that invited the recipient to enter to win real Apple and Android prizes.

Throughout the event the Flash team promoted socially on both LinkedIn and Twitter, using organic posts, blog posts, and twitter cards to further encourage engagement.

Twitter 83 Entries

520 engagements
96 Retweets
14 Replies
86 Favorites
52 User Clicks
122 URL clicks
11 Hashtag Clicks
103 Detail Expands
32 Embedded Media Views

81,447 Impressions
19,024 promoted
62,453 organic.

915 Impressions
5 clicks
.55% engagement

To further promote the Flash Flashers, and the Apple and Android prizes, a campaign landing page was crafted. A key feature of the landing page was a Twitter social feed, in gallery format, allowing viewers to see all posts in real time. Additionally, participants who were not current Twitter users, could utilize this page as an alternative way to enter the contest by filling out the on-page form and subsequently were added to the Flash database.

Website

85 entries via the web form
Increased site visits attributable to the event
- 269 visits during that week from social media
  - 145 came from LinkedIn
  - 108 from Twitter
  - 11 from Facebook

As a result, Flash Global carved out a noteworthy presence outside the show, building an experiential relationship with prospects and setting a tone for a brand that is on the cusp of significant growth.

December 18, 2015

Lickety. Lickety. Zoo. Zoo.

The Riff Ram cheer has been a part of Horned Frog history for over 100 years, but it had become little more than an occasional homage to the school’s legacy. In 2014, TCU asked Schaefer to devise a way to reintroduce the Riff Ram cheer as part of the game day experience – and the Riff Ram video was born! The 2015 video shows fans and players alike, uniting for the game all saying the words of this chant. They play the video at every TCU football home game and each one ends with a different TCU celebrity saying, ”Give ‘em hell, TCU!” Since bringing it into the game experience last year, the chant has taken on new life and continues to gain momentum.

This year, we showed how the spirit of the chant has taken the Fort Worth community by storm. It is a unifying thread among Frog Fans, and it has deepened the pride we all have in Fort Worth’s university. TCU is further establishing itself as Fort Worth’s team. Alumni or not, Horned Frogs bring an added sense of pride for our city. Riff Ram is unique to TCU, and it is taking root beyond the stadium.

Schaefer worked with TCU athletics to bring a unique finish to each time the video played in-stadium. The final line, “Give ’em Hell, TCU!” was delivered by famous TCU alumni like Bob Schieffer, Jake Arrieta and Matt Carpenter, Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, ISU fan turned TCU fan Abby Faber and Country Music Star Brad Paisley.

In addition to the in stadium video, Schaefer created a range of Riff Ram branded extensions to further deliver what the fans were wanting. We designed t-shirts, coffee mugs, pennants, digital downloads, wall murals, an 80’s workout video and even commissioned a painted SuperFrog portrait. It has been a great project to be a part of and it fires up even the non-TCU alumni in our office. Go Frogs!
Produced in partnership with N8 Visuals.

October 23, 2015

Facing the Beast

“You’ve gotta learn to drive with the fear. There ain’t nothin’ more frightenin’ than drivin’ with a live cougar in the car.”

Wise words from the character, Reese Bobby from the critically acclaimed movie, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
In our case, the cougar (or tiger) refers to: the beast that is professional networking. Whether you’re a professional concerned with finding new talent or a student worried about starting their career, the Fort Worth Creative Co-op’s Creative Gauntlet is the place you need to be. With 4 years under their belt, the FWCC has become familiar with creating environments for open dialogue and friendly advice. This year the event was held at 916 Bryan, a recently redeveloped 2-story warehouse building designed for creative office uses, housed in Fort Worth’s Near Southside. The free event brought students from TCU, UNT, UTA and The Art Institute of Fort Worth together to make connections with creative industry professionals and present their work in a “speed-dating” style conversation/portfolio review.
Jon Chapman created the look for Creative Gauntlet No. 4 and Trust Printshop screen printed the posters and gift bags.

October 14, 2015

Arts Goggle 2015

Now that the chalk dust has settled, who is ready to plan for Arts Goggle 2016? Ok, so maybe we aren’t there yet but if you were not able to make it out this year, you missed out. This year, Arts Goggle took over the streets of Magnolia and we took over the street between Henderson and S. Adams. Best Idea Ever!! Having the freedom to be as creative as we wanted, we decided to create a 10ft x 40ft chalkboard wall in the field next to our office. The wall was covered from top to bottom with frames that were all shapes and sizes and allowed for the community to be as creative as they wanted. Starting off, the team was vigilant at keeping the wall clean for more people to participate, but as the day went on and the crowds got bigger, they over took us. By the end of the night the chalk drawings, messages and shout outs had taken over the street.
We teamed up with Trust Printshop for the second year in a row and once again, they out did themselves. To keep with the chalk theme, Matt Lucas put on his mad scientist hat and created chalk–infused ink for the day and printed Southside shirts on site. All the proceeds from the shirts went to help Fort Worth South continue to promote public art in the Southside. “If you didn’t leave Arts Goggle covered in chalk dust you were probably doing it wrong. By the end of the night that giant wall and the shirts were the chalk of the town… See what I did there?

Thanks to everyone who tagged us in your posts! It was great to see your art and hear your thoughts. Here are some of our favorites:

“Having so much fun at Art Goggle in Fort Worth today! Made my day to meet and chat with Matt from @trustprintshop and Ken from @schaeferadco. You guys are awesome! #celebratealways #artsgoggle2015” — celebrate.always

“Super cool art wall set up by @schaeferadco at this years Arts Goggle. #artsgoggle2015 #iheartart #FortWorth #instafw #instagram” — brianhutsonphotography
“A little art culture for the soul. @schaeferadco #iheartart #art #streetart #fortworth #texas” — vangbee87
“My super talented wife having fun at Arts Goggle. #artsgoggle #artsgoggle2015 #nearsouthside @schaeferadco #iheartart — weaver.engineer

September 27, 2015

Zoo Ball at the Flamingo

The Story

Each year the Fort Worth Zoo hosts an annual gala event, Zoo Ball, to raise money in support of the zoo’s ongoing mission of conservation. In a city as large and philanthropically minded as Fort Worth, it’s absolutely vital to break through the noise of other worthy charity events. This year being the 30^th anniversary, the planning committee held high expectations for all aspects of the party. Dubbed 1940’s Las Vegas nightclub themed, we set on the path to creating a high-end invitation the encompassed the elegant event.

The Work

To define the tone of the event, our first step was to create inspiration boards. Focusing on high end elements, animal details and historic landmarks, we created the visual foundation for the invitation and ultimately the event. During our research, we discovered that Bugsy Siegel’s legendary Flamingo was one of the first nightclubs in Las Vegas. Leveraging the iconic venue, we titled the event Zoo Ball at the Flamingo. Just like that, the perfect animal pairing for our period event was born.

Harnessing the juxtaposition of larger-than-life Vegas shows within dark, unassuming nightclubs, we developed the concept for an elaborate three dimensional pop-up invitation. Though we may not be paper engineers per se, we always aim to seek what’s possible. Concept turned into reality through partnership with Cockrell Enovation and Structural Graphics, good ‘ole trial and error and more than one paper cut.

The end result is a structural masterpiece. The custom envelope was built to ensure the piece would not get damaged in mailing. The guests were presented with what appears to be a flat “standard” invitation. But upon opening, two pink flamingos emerge from the pages of the invitation, unfolding into an incredible display of creativity and paper construction.

The Results

This year’s event sold out in record time and successfully raised a record-setting amount for the Zoo. Invitees began posting videos of the invitation on social media. And yet again, the bar was raised a little higher for next year.

UPDATE:

Schaefer was awarded a gold national Addy for the 2015 Zoo Ball invitation, for the second year in a row! To give it some context, we were one of only 83 gold winners out of 40,000 entries. We’re incredibly proud of our back-to-back wins and excited to represent Fort Worth among some of the top agencies in the country.

Check out the complete List of 2016 National Gold Addy Winners.

September 1, 2015

The Making of TCU Riff Ram 2015

It’s all about the details and that was the story for the 2015 Riff Ram Video. Our team embraced the opportunity to make this in-game tradition something special for the Horned Frog faithful. Each scene was curated with new and old memorabilia and a few custom creations to make each viewing a new experience. We designed t-shirts, coffee mugs, pennants, digital downloads, wall murals, an 80’s workout video and even commissioned a painted SuperFrog portrait.

We vandalized, trespassed and 2-stepped our way through a coffee shop, practice field, barber shop and tattoo parlor over 3 days of shooting. We directed a Heisman hopeful, a former chancellor and a 5-year old cheerleader. We pulled it all off with a chorus of football players, a retro workout video and Renaissance painting of Super Frog. Enjoy this behind the scenes look at how Schaefer reinvented TCU’s classic tradition for the 2015 football season.
Produced in partnership with N8 Visuals.

June 10, 2015

Party. Animals.

Each year, the Fort Worth Zoo brings together some of the best restaurants and music acts in town for a tasting and music event called Beastro. For this year’s campaign, we boiled it down to the essentials.

June 10, 2015

Paint the town hot pink

We love our neighborhood of Near Southside here in Fort Worth, and we try to be neighborly whenever possible. So when residents started complaining about business patrons parking in front of their houses, we were there to help. See, there’s this perfectly good parking garage just off Magnolia street, but a lot of people didn’t know about it. How do we remedy this? With advertising, of course!

Schaefer created the “Park the Garage” campaign using eye-catching street banners to point people in the right direction. We also provided table tents, buck slips and coasters to local businesses to help reinforce the message. With all that hot pink, there was basically no way for upstanding gourmands to miss that great, big, juicy parking garage just waiting for their vehicles.

Today, the garage is in use, the neighbors are happy and there is peace and tranquility in Near Southside once again. All thanks to some well-placed, brightly colored information.