Schaefer Advertising Co.

Events

May 24, 2016

Feast with the beasts

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Beastro, the Fort Worth Zoo’s annual music and tasting event that supports local and international wildlife conservation and education efforts. Within a few weeks of this year’s campaign going live, Fort Worth’s wild side responded with record breaking ticket sales and a fastest ever, sold out VIP offering.
The event features the finest area restaurants stationed throughout the Zoo, serving sample appetizers, entrees and desserts. In addition to the delectable cuisine, the event features open bars throughout the park and live music entertainment. Several animal exhibits remain open until sunset. This year’s entertainment features the local talents of: Emerald City, The Project and Live 80.

The event sold out, for the first time ever, and we had to stop the ad campaign early. The night was a success from ticket sales, but our team also successfully enjoyed the feast with the beasts.

April 26, 2016

Battle of the B®ands

Last year, we changed the Addys with a new venue and format. How’d we top that this year? Rock & Roll.
We launched our “Battle of the B®ands” concept and invited agencies to submit their work to compete on the big stage where the winners advance and the losers stay home.
Gig posters announced this year’s competition, submissions were collected, the historic Ridglea Theater was booked and the rest was advertising rock & roll history. Fans received pre-show invites packed with tickets & stickers and event lanyards were given at the door. Trust Printshop printed merch on-site and The Swags played us through the night, backed by technicolor elephants and eyeballs.

The brands battled, awards were given and everyone left with a CD-sized reminder of what actually happened. For those who couldn’t make it or for those who want to re-live it, here’s the night’s house playlist. Until next year, keep on rockin’ in the free world.

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.

January 7, 2016

The Art of an Invitation

If you’ve ever planned a big party – you know what a pain it can be. Countless meetings with your committee to pick a theme, arguments over tablecloth colors and whether to serve the mango glazed salmon or the free range chicken stuffed with cranberries and walnuts. Every detail fretted over. And then you send out a 5 x 7 postcard invitation in an effort to attract people to your $15,000 per table event. Doesn’t make much sense does it?
The invitation is the calling card that can have a material impact on whether your event is a not only a financial success, but just as important, deemed a success by your guests.
No matter the budget, you can create an invitation with mailbox impact that leaves a lasting first impression. Download our free guidebook, The Art of an Invitation, and follow our top five ways to create a successful invitation that breaks tradition and becomes something memorable.

Download Now

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

August 5, 2015

Process: Zoo Ball 2014

Project

The Fort Worth Zoo’s largest annual fundraiser, Zoo Ball, attracts some of the biggest names in Fort Worth to support the Zoo’s local and international wildlife conservation and education efforts. 2015 will see the event’s 30th anniversary, and past invitations have included everything from View-Masters with custom slides to flocked, psychedelic blacklight posters. For last year’s invitation, we wanted something new, exciting and different.

The 2014 Zoo Ball theme was “Festival of the Elephants,” an annual festival held in the Indian city of Jaipur during the Holi festival when elephants are elaborately painted to honor the Hindu god, Ganesha. The theme was chosen in part because the Fort Worth Zoo had just welcomed two baby elephants named Belle and Bowie only a few months prior. (If you look closely, you’ll see they made an appearance in the invitation with their mothers.)

We started by researching Indian culture and events as well as typography, textiles and more. With reams of printouts taped up on the walls of our office for inspiration, we were most intrigued by some of the intricately die-cut wedding invitations we found.

Process

At Schaefer, we have a reputation for punishing ourselves – often saying, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if…” then scrambling to figure out how to make it happen within the given timeline and budget. For this project, we did it again. Our complex design required us to partner with many more vendors than we typically do, but the end result was worth it.

From paper and printing to foil stamping and laser cutting, each step of the process required multiple press checks and test samples, each of which had to be okayed by the Zoo Ball committee. Thankfully, they loved it, and it was a big hit with attendees. The Zoo even had event decorations produced to match the invitation, including ten-foot panels that were die-cut using the same illustration files.

Results

According to the Zoo, this invitation was their new high-water mark. That’s quite a compliment, but as we get ready to reveal this year’s Zoo Ball invitation, it’s also a slightly intimidating bar that we’ve set for ourselves. Thankfully, we like the pressure.

We have received several awards for the piece, including Best of Show for the 2015 Fort Worth ADDY awards, a national Gold Addy Award and entry into the Graphis Design Annual.

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 5, 2015

Off the Record with Ann Compton

The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting began with a red lanyard at check-in, private access and the declaration: “We’re making you all reporters today!” from none other than retired ABC News White House Correspondent Ann Compton. As the keynote speaker, she offered objective insight into upcoming campaign media coverage. The Chamber enlisted her 40 years of covering seven presidents and First Families to offer entertainment and nostalgia in an upper-level business audience challenged by regulations and taxes.
Our charge was to create collateral materials that would grant access to the “confidential” White House details regarding business or public policy. We established a political look and feel, with a patriotic color palette and layered “press badges.” In place of a ticket, each of the 700+ business leader attendees received a lanyard and folder of collateral that detailed Chamber activity and relevant articles. Our team even had the honor of meeting the decorated as they received “Off The Record” comments about local business.

March 11, 2015

Advertising is Dead.

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.