For a leading third-party manufacturer, rising above the competition began with a new marketing campaign.
The Situation
Argon Medical Devices came to Schaefer with a need to create awareness for its brand and various product lines. Its key objectives included elevating awareness of Argon Custom Product Solutions (CPS), a division that offers private label and third-party manufacturing capabilities to clients.
Goals
Increase awareness of the Argon corporate brand and Argon CPS brand
Educate and engage a global Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) audience
Generate qualified leads at the top of the funnel to handoff to the sales team
Build loyalty and differentiation with precise, customer-centric messaging
Strategy
Argon CPS faced two crucial challenges: First, its awareness in this crowded market was low. Second, in a sector that is heavily driven by price, Argon CPS needed to position itself as a premium brand that brought greater value to customers through an unmatched mix of expertise and capabilities.
Solution
Schaefer developed a strategic campaign that differentiated Argon CPS by promoting its superior level of service, quality, and customization. The new tagline “Build It Better” laddered up to and tied-into the existing Argon corporate brand messaging.
Core messages highlighted attributes such as design and testing capabilities, US-based manufacturing facilities, and Argon’s ability to collaborate with client product development teams. Campaign graphics used upscale visual patterns to underscore the client’s endless customization capabilities and showcase specific product categories.
We then deployed a media strategy for email, social media, digital and online industry publications that carefully homed-in on a global audience of manufacturers and decision makers. Careful audience targeting ensured minimal waste — and maximum results.
Results
Our digital and email tactics carefully targeted recipients by geography and title, allowing us to track campaign results with a high degree of accuracy that:
Generated more than 36K website sessions from 31K+ new users
Achieved 3.3 million targeted impressions in less than one year
Achieved a 6% Paid Search click-through rate, 1.8x the industry benchmark
Launched 463K emails, opened by 20% of recipients
Tracked clicked-through rates of prime prospects, including Marketplace Optimization (MPO) click-through rates of .86%
Summary
Differentiation is always important – especially in categories driven by price or viewed as commodities. By elevating Argon CPS above the industry norm, we strengthened its appeal to higher-end device manufacturers who value quality, service and collaboration.
How Argon Medical Devices merged multiple brands and hundreds of SKUs into a single, cohesive user experience (UX).
Situation
As a global company with multiple sub-brands and literally hundreds of products, Argon Medical Devices faced a major challenge in creating a simple and cohesive online presence. Argon tapped Schaefer to execute a complete overhaul of its website, from site architecture all the way through design and development.
Goals
Enhance and optimize the user experience
Accommodate international customizations and product offerings
Restructure multiple sub-brands and product lines into a single cohesive, centralized site
Modernize the design to align with Argon’s new corporate positioning and graphic standards
Allow room for growth as future products, capabilities and divisions emerge
Strategy
Having recently repositioned the company, Schaefer realized that updating the Argon website would require more than organizing products and accommodating multiple languages. To expedite the process, the creative and digital teams worked in tandem, collaborating closely to ensure that the design and function worked in unison.
While Schaefer’s creative team worked to update design and messaging to align with the new brand trajectory, the digital team examined ways to streamline customer ordering, overcome language barriers, simplify navigation, and create a better user experience across the site’s 70+ pages and thousands of potential product permutations.
Solution
The creative team united all business units under the new Argon brand positioning: The Pursuit of Better. This gave all visitors a consistent view of who Argon was, and the shared mission and values that united its multiple brands.
Meanwhile, the Schaefer development team navigated an ever-changing SKU list as the client consolidated product lines. We then performed a number of user experience exercises to build a more efficient user flow for searching and ordering product samples. The new site was able to leverage geolocation to customize content based on the user’s global region, and allowed text to be dynamically translated into multiple languages.
Results
The Schaefer team replaced complexity with clarity, and delivered a site that accomplished key goals for both new and existing customers. The improvements included:
Successfully consolidating multiple domains and destinations into one organized, easy-to-navigate site
Enabling the client to make revisions and updates easily with minimal training
Reorganizing and narrowing the featured products to allow an easier search and order experience
Automating processes to further improve UX and leveraging geolocation to only showcase products in regions where they are available
Summary
To deliver a site that met the client’s goals with a global audience, the Schaefer team leveraged Argon’s core strengths of effective brand messaging and in-depth knowledge of the healthcare space. The client now has a site that better serves its needs today — and will support the brand as it continues to grow and evolve in the years ahead.
Bringing the conversation to light around depression and suicide so that no one suffers in darkness
In 2014, the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation was created on the principle of bringing the conversation to light around mental health, specifically depression and suicide, after the tragic loss of Jordan Elizabeth Harris. Suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States with approximately 1.2 million suicide attempts every year. Yet the stigma around depression and suicide remains. In order to fight these harrowing statistics, Schaefer had the honor of partnering with the JEHF in 2022 to support and promote their second Light the Trail Ride.
The Ride: A 1,800 mile journey of hope
The Light the Trail Ride is a cross country biking excursion that is supported by riders and donors who wish to pledge their time and support to bring awareness and reduce the stigma of depression and suicide. It is the cornerstone effort of the JEHF and the ride strives to encourage supporters to share their stories and give others all over the country a safe place to speak about their experiences with mental health. Between the two rides in 2017 and 2022, The Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation has raised significant funding and awareness around the gravity of this topic and been able to support continued research focused on treating depression, suicide prevention training, creating resources and facilitating education opportunities.
L: Charlie Howlett, Deb Zinderler (Z2 Marketing) and Cory Zimmerman (Z2 Marketing) R: Tom & Ellen Harris, Founders of the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation
Schaefer had the privilege of serving as the marketing partner of LTTR to promote their second ride in 2022. They came to us with a challenge in lack of awareness and support of the their efforts, and we were able to work together through strategic planning, digital asset development and collateral material creation to re-launch the Ride because it aligns with our values as an agency and we were able to share our expertise and skillset. In addition, Schaefer saw the opportunity to bring this crucial event to life in the eyes of more people through a documentary film and trailer. Available budget was an obstacle, however Schaefer was compelled to support this initiative and solicited a like minded partner out of Milwaukee, WI called Z2 Marketing who was willing to provide supporting video production services in exchange for involvement with this powerful initiative. Schaefer was able to donate the remainder of investment to continue bringing the Light the Trail mission to life. What followed was the production of a documentary that captures the riders along their journey in addition to their own personal, compelling stories. This video further advances the mission of Light the Trail and the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation, and Schaefer’s goal through these collective efforts was to walk alongside this inspirational team to make their event a success and champion their cause.
User experience and activation of the #Ride4 effort
Another key motivator around the effort is the promotion and honor of the #Ride4’s of each rider and the community at large. This is a unique way that the riders and the foundation overall can bring the stories forward of loved ones whos lives have been tragically taken as a result of suicide. Schaefer had a unique opportunity to strategize the best way to promote the submission of Ride4’s and prioritize their position on the website to encourage form fills and subsequent promotion of these empowering tributes on the LTT social media pages.
Schaefer implemented numerous functional and user experience updates to create a more seamless tool to promote and accept donations in advance of the ride, as well as encourage Ride4 submission and sponsorship form fill. In addition to these optimizations, Schaefer also streamlined the Foundation’s existing CRM to further encourage passionate individuals to get involved with the next Ride and the Foundation overall.
Elevating the user experience and showcasing excellence
In addition to digital services, it was important to the client that Schaefer provide traditional marketing services that properly married the digital presence with the real life iteration of the brand and its mission. The Schaefer Account Service and Creative team worked closely alongside the Foundation’s team to ensure a delivery of marketing support materials that communicated the very real impact that mental health has on people and manifested this in printed one pager material, bike shop promotional flyers, and a rebuild of the LTT primary logo for 2022 that would support ongoing efforts for the team internally as they navigated the route in real time.
Overall, the sentiment behind this impactful project is the direct alignment with Schaefer’s mission and ultimate goal to Make Life Better. It’s at the core of what we do and a foundational piece of how we interact with and serve our clients, our partners, and our colleagues inside and outside of work. The Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation and the Light the Trail initiative are a real life embodiment of this mission and we’re proud to call them partners in work that truly matters, and to have played a small part in making this event a success.
Get involved or share your story
Whether you participate in a future Light the Trail Ride, make a donation, or share a story, you are helping bring the conversation around mental illness and suicide awareness to light and bringing us one step closer to living in a world where suicide is never the choice.
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, help is available. Please dial 988 for support via the suicide prevention hotline.
Crafting a distinctive brand and web presence for Bennett Partners
At Schaefer, we embarked on a meaningful partnership with Bennett Partners, an esteemed architecture, interiors, and planning firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. Guided by their unwavering dedication to responsible preservation and urban design, Bennett Partners strives to create sustainable spaces that enhance and sustain communities. What began as an initiative to enhance their website and showcase their award-winning work evolved into a comprehensive brand refresh, a testament to our shared commitment.
Navigating transitions and embracing a thoughtful ethos
Recognizing Bennett Partners’ esteemed reputation and shared mission to improve lives within the Fort Worth community, we embarked on a collaborative journey with their team of award-winning designers. This partnership provided a unique opportunity to collaborate with like-minded creatives who valued a strategic approach. Following the departure of a former partner, our goal was to develop a new brand identity that authentically reflected Bennett Partners’ thoughtful ethos, starting with a strategic renaming process.
Our recommendation was to preserve the equity of the original name, Bennett Benner Partners, by preserving the namesake Bennett as a prominent element. Thus, the name Bennett Partners was chosen, capturing the essence of a collective of passionate partners united by their mission and dedication to thoughtful design.
From typography to tone: crafting an approachable identity
We meticulously crafted a comprehensive system of logos and a versatile color palette, offering both flexibility and consistency. Our brand design centered around sophistication, simplicity, and purpose, harmonizing seamlessly with Bennett Partners’ core values. The logo showcases a modern, customized typeface that enhances the letterforms, set in lowercase to reflect the brand’s friendly and approachable nature. The secondary logo variation was refined to include “architecture, interiors, planning,” providing clarity about the services offered. Our expanded color palette embraces softer, thoughtful, and intricate color variations, featuring shades of blue and orange that distinguish Bennett Partners within the industry. These colors effortlessly integrate into diverse project plans and graphics. Additionally, we established a comprehensive brand toolkit, empowering Bennett Partners to effectively convey their unique identity.
Elevating the user experience and showcasing excellence
Following the brand refresh, Bennett Partners sought a website redesign that would seamlessly showcase their exceptional work, engage users, and mirror their commitment to responsible architecture and community impact. Frustrated by their previous website’s inability to communicate their core values and meet their business needs, the objective of the new website was clear: effectively communicate their mission, prioritize their team members, and empower them to effortlessly showcase new projects. The final website encompasses key elements such as a visually striking portfolio, improved organization and categorization, seamless content management, responsive design, and personalized employee pages. Our team at Schaefer delivered a fully customized website with a clean and flexible modular system, enhancing navigation and user interaction to improve their online presence and reinforce their position as an industry leader.
Results
The partnership between Schaefer and Bennett Partners led to a successful transformation of their brand and website, capturing their expertise and unwavering commitment to responsible architecture. Through the reimagined brand identity, Bennett Partners’ captivating story resonates, attracting new business opportunities within their region. By collaborating closely with our team, Bennett Partners achieved a brand and website presence that authentically reflects their excellence in architecture and design, solidifying their position as a leading firm within the industry.
Amplifying Perot Jain’s impact with the perfect balance of strategy, design, and technology
Perot Jain, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage capital funding, is intentional about investing in innovative companies that are developing disruptive, best-in-class solutions. Founded by the collaboration of Ross Perot, Jr. and Anurag Jain, Perot Jain focuses on funding leading-edge companies in the mobility innovation, healthcare, and real estate sectors. With a long history of entrepreneurial success and a strong infrastructure in place, Perot Jain sought to convey their unique approach to venture capital. Unlike other firms, their investment support goes beyond capital and extends to mentorship, access, and alliances within the Perot and Jain family of companies, including Access Healthcare, Hillwood, and the Mobility Innovation Zone. It became evident they needed to enhance their brand identity, create a distinct positioning, and develop a new website that would effectively communicate their unique value proposition.
Through their relationship with Hillwood and the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone, Perot Jain had already established a rapport with Schaefer, leading them to choose the agency for this significant brand transformation initiative. With a shared vision, Perot Jain and Schaefer embarked on a journey to redefine the venture capital firm’s brand strategy, positioning, and visual identity, ultimately showcasing their commitment to investing in and mentoring disruptive companies that have the potential to shape the future.
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From mission to position: uncovering Perot Jain’s unique differentiators
Schaefer initiated a full brand strategy initiative, delving into Perot Jain’s organizational mission and identifying their unique positioning compared to other VC firms. Collaboratively, the team identified the key values and advantages that set Perot Jain apart: collaboration, authenticity, a straightforward approach, leadership, entrepreneurial success, strong infrastructure, and partnerships/alliances. This thorough understanding formed the basis for a strategy that would effectively communicate Perot Jain’s strengths and resonate with their target audience. The strategy aimed to convey success stories and the current portfolio, positioning Perot Jain as an organization focused on investing in innovative companies aligned with their parent organizations’ business goals.
Building on the strategic foundation, Schaefer developed a brand archetype recommendation, selecting the Hero archetype. This choice aligned with Perot Jain’s commitment to investing in and mentoring innovative companies that aim to improve their industries and the world. This archetype dovetailed seamlessly into the positioning recommendation, Transformational, and a powerful positioning statement that highlighted the art and science of experienced entrepreneurialism, emphasizing Perot Jain’s role in driving transformative change.
Uniting Perot Jain’s positioning with a captivating brand identity and website
To visually represent the brand, Schaefer designed a logo and brand identity that perfectly balanced the Perot and Jain family names. The logo mark, a harmonious integration of ‘P’ and ‘J,’ symbolized the partnership between Perot Jain and the companies they support. The customized letterforms, with their subtly rounded edges, reinforced the logo mark and evoked a sense of balance and synergy. The animated version of the logo added dynamism and represented movement within the brand.
With the positioning and brand identity as a solid foundation, the website was crafted to build the brand’s presence online. The website’s information architecture (IA) was thoughtfully developed to feature Perot Jain’s portfolio of companies, leveraging the legacy of Perot and Jain ventures and driving a holistic conversation. The modular page structure empowered Perot Jain to easily expand and update content, ensuring long-term scalability and independence. The comprehensive portfolio system showcased Perot Jain’s wide-ranging investments, offering a clear demonstration of their expertise. The visually captivating website, with its compelling imagery, videos, and clean typography, wowed potential clients and instilled trust and credibility. The website’s design, catering to both desktop and mobile experiences seamlessly, ultimately provided a modern and future-ready platform.
Results: driving success and solidifying market presence
The results of this brand transformation were significant. Perot Jain’s new brand identity positioned them as a global competitor, attracting potential customers and garnering increased visibility among relevant venture capital partners. Perot Jain now has a solid foundation for all future communications, driving continued success in attracting high-quality deals and fostering partnerships that align with their growth goals. In essence, Schaefer’s partnership with Perot Jain exemplifies the transformative power of strategic brand positioning and creative excellence. By combining insights, innovative design, and a client-centric approach, Schaefer has enabled Perot Jain to elevate their brand to new heights, solidifying their position as a trailblazing force within the venture capital landscape.
For the TearCare® System, a crucial step in promoting their solution was to become an advocate for change.
Situation
At first glance, dry eye disease (DED) sounds like a mere inconvenience. However, left untreated, this chronic, progressive condition can impact the vision, surgical outcomes and quality of life of millions of patients. Even though meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is the most prevalent form of dry eye, in-office procedures to address it are relatively new — and none are reimbursed by insurers. As a result, only patients who can cover the out-of-pocket expense receive treatment.
The TearCare® System is designed to address MGD by evacuating obstructed glands using therapeutic heat and natural blink responses. However, to gain wider adoption, fair reimbursement was needed. The company sought to change reimbursement policies and broaden access to care by raising awareness of the situation. TearCare® tapped Schaefer to lead this effort.
Goals
Reiterate the threats associated with MGD
Raise broad, industry-wide awareness of current compensation and reimbursement limitations
Reach an array of stakeholders with a message of “Fair Access”
Rally the market to support reimbursement and accessibility for the benefit of patients, practices and payors
Increase awareness of the TearCare® System
Strategy
The client was ready to promote the need for change and had allocated resources to do it. However, to truly influence the market, the brand also needed to demonstrate the growing support of this movement from eye care professionals (ECPs), patients, employers and other key constituents.
Solution
To convey this message, Schaefer created a campaign that captured the feel of a public protest or political rally. In each execution, a real ECP, patient or eye care industry figure appeared with a sign that read “MGD Care Is Not Fair For All.”
Using precise targeting, Schaefer reached optometrists, administrators, payors and other audiences with a “protester/spokesperson” relevant to them. Using faces and names that are known throughout the industry helped build momentum over time, and, ultimately, drove awareness over the top.
Results
By cutting through the clutter of standard medical device advertising, the campaign achieved a high degree of visibility and effectiveness. Within the first few months, the brand realized noticeable results, including:
228 new requests for information on the TearCare® System from qualified users
More importantly, the industry is becoming aware of the need to recognize MGD as a reimbursable procedure — which is a crucial first step to change.
Summary
In this campaign, we effectively humanized a client’s treatment. Rather than promoting features and benefits of a specific solution, we showed the basic need for access to care — and the simple lack of fairness of not covering a widespread condition. We made the cause personal by featuring people our audiences knew — and who unquestionably held the best interests of patients and ECPs as a top priority.
How we helped NCODA translate membership benefits into an actionable message — and surpass goals by 3X.
Situation
NCODA is an organization that provides resources, events and educational opportunities that enable oncologists, oncology pharmacists, healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare students to connect and collaborate for optimal cancer patient outcomes. However, low awareness was keeping the organization from realizing its full potential as an information hub for HCPs seeking unbiased information on innovative oral and IV cancer treatments, as well as career-building tips to keep them engaged in this vital specialty.
Initially, Schaefer Advertising was enlisted to help drive awareness of the organization and its full suite of benefits. As the campaign progressed, internal business priorities shifted from awareness to membership growth. Schaefer partnered with NCODA to determine how to best adapt the current in-market campaign to aligning with the goal of growing the organization’s base through new member sign ups.
Goals
Expand awareness of the organization, its mission and its extensive array of member benefits
Distill an extensive and complex array of member benefits into a succinct, motivating message
Adapt to changing priorities by shifting the campaign focus from brand awareness to new memberships
Drive new memberships through paid media
Strategy
To drive awareness, Schaefer initially developed a strategy that helped humanize the organization by speaking directly to the membership about the difference that interaction and collaboration can make. The aim was to communicate that by joining NCODA, you’re collaborating and connecting with the best minds in the industry – and helping further advances in cancer care. The message was delivered through an omni-channel campaign — a first for the client.
Solution
Schaefer delivered a campaign and helped control creative costs by photographing actual NCODA members who were attending a scheduled conference. By using actual members, we were able to communicate in a realistic and convincing manner how NCODA helped members benefit by staying connected and tuned in to the latest developments in oncology.
When the business priorities changed the focus of the campaign from awareness to membership enrollment, our media efforts easily adapted to the new direction; it was a matter of moving an already interested audience toward signing up. The Schaefer team responded with speed and agility, making seamless changes to the existing digital assets. We then quickly set a tangible new member goal using estimates based on our experience with average costs per acquisition (CPA).
The revised media strategy was launched — and quickly surpassed expectations.
Results
All clients have finite resources. For NCODA, the limitations of total media dollars were more pronounced than usual. This challenge was something Schaefer was ready and able to overcome. As a result, building a symbiotic creative and media strategy was key to expanding the brand’s awareness and significantly exceed membership goals in record time.
Exceeded paid media membership projections by 3X
Surpassed assisted conversion goal
Attracted new users to the NCODA website through paid media
74% of all member enrollment page views were generated from paid media
Summary
Schaefer met the initial task of distilling a very robust array of benefits into an easy-to-digest creative and media strategy. But when the strategy shifted to membership, we illustrated our ability to provide significant real bottom-line value. Our agility and flexibility enabled us to quickly re-tool our approach, then develop a media strategy that exceeded all projections. Working within a limited budget, the agency was able to leverage the client’s marketing dollars as effectively as possible. In the end, we clearly illustrated the type of ROI that could be generated by a smart, results-oriented campaign.
The Charles Schwab Challenge is one of the longest-running PGA TOUR invitational tournaments. The highly-anticipated event brings together top golfers from around the world to compete at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas. The historic course and club has hosted the event every Memorial Day Weekend since 1946, making the Charles Schwab Challenge one of the premier events on the PGA TOUR year after year.
Rising to the challenge
Coming off a global pandemic, 2022 was a year of transition for the Charles Schwab Challenge. People were still embracing intimate gatherings and with the tournament being played without fans one year and with limited attendance the next, the tradition of attending the Charles Schwab Challenge wasn’t top of mind for many fans. Additionally, 2022 ushered in a new pricing model for the tournament and increased revenue goals that required a shifted approach to marketing from awareness-based to conversion-focused.
An integrated campaign that drives conversion
Before partnering with Schaefer, the tournament utilized more traditional mediums to promote the event to a general North Texas audience. But as we prepared for the 2022 tournament, Schaefer recommended a more granular approach to targeting individual ticket buyers by splitting the audience to focus on two primary markets — avid golfers and social attendees. The goal was to create a more integrated campaign that not only got people excited about the tournament, but spoke directly to each audience’s particular area of interest wherever and whenever their needs arise. By leveraging a more individualized approach to messaging and targeting across tactics such as paid search, retargeting, geofencing, and paid social, we were able to capitalize on the buying period leading up to the event and increase opportunities for conversion.
Creative that can adapt to audience needs
If we had to achieve one thing to make this campaign successful, it was adaptability. A robust media strategy meant the creative needed to scale across a wide variety of mediums, from high-level awareness spaces like streaming TV to high-intent micro moments in the customer journey. That meant keeping design elements functional. So we opted for an abstract reference to course topography. The organic shapes allowed us to create compelling composites that featured the most important textures of the experience — environment, competition, and up-close views of the PGA TOUR’s best players.
Since we were targeting two audience sets, it was important that the messaging be specific yet modular. The line, Texas’ Best, extended across both target audiences while communicating the notoriety and pride North Texans have for the Colonial tournament. It also worked well with new player announcements.
The tournament field greatly impacts ticket sales. Top-ranked players and fan favorites draw big crowds, but player commitments can finalize weeks and sometimes days before the tournament. To improve performance, we build every concept to accommodate on-demand optimizations and leveraged that flexibility to announce new player commitments, some finalizing in the eleventh hour of the campaign. In the final weeks leading up to the event, we saw a big uptick in action, selling 80% of tickets in the last 30 days.
Results
Moving the tournament from more traditional mediums to a digital-first, multi-audience campaign allowed us to reach people at every touch point – connecting the dots across channels to guide consumers from I-want-to-go to I-want-to-buy. Overall, our campaign strategy outperformed industry paid media standards in Sports and Recreation to produce nearly 14K in daily ticket sales and $1.2M in revenue.
A few top channel results include:
Paid Search: 16% CTR, 31% CVR and $3.72 cost-per-conversion Industry Average: 8.8% CTR, 5.9% CVR and $31.50 cost-per-conversion
Email: 39% open rate out of 575K+ emails delivered to a qualified audience Industry Average: 20.5% open rate
Display: 0.11% CTR on location-relevant geofencing campaign Industry Average: 0.08% CTR
Famous for its trailblazing history, Fort Worth still embraces its reputation as a “City of Opportunity.” Quickly becoming an epicenter of growth and innovation, Fort Worth offers an inviting community, talented workforce, and incredibly low cost of living, attracting people and corporations from all over the world looking to move or expand into one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities.
The goal of every city on the rise is to attract new business and talent while strengthening the industries already established. To accomplish that, the City of Fort Worth Economic Development team selected Schaefer as the agency of record for a three-year partnership to create the city’s first-ever economic development and business attraction initiative. The partnership is part of the city’s five-year strategic plan and plays a key role in positioning Fort Worth as a place of purpose where businesses and people can leverage the city’s incredible potential to create the future they want to see.
Goals:
Establish a story that connects Fort Worth’s heritage with its future
Develop a multi-phase, multi-year campaign to drive awareness and attract new business
Highlight Fort Worth’s economic incentives and competitive edge in business, culture and community
Reach key business decision-makers to advance economic development
Elevate Fort Worth on a national and international stage
Foster collaborative conversations between key stakeholders in the public and private sector
We started with a question: what makes Fort Worth and its people so unique? The answer was simple. A pioneering spirit that dated back to the 1800s and still stood strong today. As the first-ever economic development campaign for the city, Schaefer was in a unique position to lead strategy from inception.
We recognized the importance of storytelling in establishing the city’s position in the eyes of our target audiences. A good story would amplify the message, build credibility, create a strong sense of community and offer nuggets of authenticity and purpose that truly make Fort Worth stand out.
Known as the point where the west begins, Fort Worth has always promised possibility, innovation and prosperity. Unlike some of the larger, competitive cities, opportunity isn’t a new promise, it’s woven into the very fabric of Fort Worth. To communicate that, we built messaging around the idea that no matter what you’re looking for — relocation, expansion, opportunity – it can successfully begin in Fort Worth.
Building equity through identity
In order to build equity, Fort Worth Economic Development first needed an identity. We leveraged their voice, tone and values to create an independent identity that was flexible enough to work alongside the city’s existing branding, and strong enough to communicate the impact of their initiatives.
Schaefer then crafted a multi-faceted campaign that unified strategy, creative and media to promote Fort Worth’s business advantages among corporate decision-makers, site selection consultants and local business owners. The campaign further cemented Fort Worth as a city of growth and opportunity, while highlighting its competitive edge as a leader in innovation who works hard to meet the needs of the businesses who chose Fort Worth.
Solution: Fueling growth and connections online
Revamping the website to reflect the new brand campaign was vital to communicate key messaging. As the central platform that business leaders, stakeholders and prospective residents visit to find relevant information about the city, the website confirmed Fort Worth’s proven economic landscape with tangible proof points our audience would find attractive.
With this in mind, we included demographics, workforce statistics and other data points that leverage Fort Worth’s resources against competitor cities. A strategic mix of traditional and digital media, including paid search targeted prospects helped drive traffic back to the website. Knowing our target audience sets and strategically placing ads in places they frequented (in person and online) expanded Fort Worth’s presence on the list of key business destinations in the US.
After 8 months in market, our team identified a list of top engaged companies. The insights we gathered included a list of prospects from target industry sectors with the potential to increase the size of the labor force and generate millions in economic output for the city of Fort Worth. These key insights have helped us to strengthen our marketing approach in more specifically targeting like prospects.
Results:
During the first 8 months of the campaign, we created an anchor site that served multiple economic development organizations with one source.
88% of total site traffic driven by paid media
44% derived from prospecting emails delivered to corporate decision-makers, site selection consultants and other key decision makers in select target outer markets
98% increase in new site traffic from key markets and industries
55K new visitors
Significant engagement achieved in Los Angeles, Chicago and Raleigh-Durham markets, which were key target markets within the initiative
As a result of this increase in traffic to our website, Fort Worth continues to receive organic recognition as a top place in the U.S. to start a business. This is a direct result of the growth in widespread awareness for Fort Worth as a great place to live, work and do business.
By the end of Year 1, we developed strategic partnerships with key economic development influencers in the region and positively impacted corporate relocation and expansion for the city of Fort Worth, drawing business from two key industries — Aerospace and Defense, and Mobility Innovation.
How humanizing a “free screening” offer helped a client achieve 95% of their 3-year goal — in just 8 months.
Situation
Healthcare inequity is perhaps the most pressing social issue facing the medical community today. To help combat unequal access to care, and make up screening ground lost to COVID-19, Moncrief Cancer Institute partnered with Schaefer to help encourage underserved and uninsured members of the community to sign up for a free cancer screening.
Goals
Craft messaging and materials that would drive cancer screenings among the target patients (3rd-grade reading level)
Develop tactics that would reach the audience throughout their day-to-day movements
Leverage the screening to build brand awareness among the underserved community
Strategy
While the offer of a free cancer screening may seem like an easy sell, the initiative faced several challenges: members of the targeted, underserved audience were often hard to reach. Many were skeptical of receiving healthcare services, for fear that they would reveal conditions that are terminal, untreatable, or expensive to treat. Many also suspected that a “free screening” might come with hidden costs or fees. And, to address health literacy, all materials needed to be flexible enough to reach our various audiences in the media channels they use every day, and in their preferred language.
Schaefer knew we needed to develop a campaign that was driven by a straight-forward invitation for people to call in and see if they qualify for the free screening. However, knowing that many members of our demographic would be more likely to do something for their family rather than for themselves, we delivered a secondary message that leveraged this emotional connection.
Solution
The creative for the campaign tapped into a core motivation for the audience and featured screening patients who proudly showed “I Voted”-like stickers, proclaiming that they did it for their kids, their families, their spouses, or their friends. The end effect was a message that communicated that a screening isn’t just something you do for yourself; you do it for the people you love.
This solution helped accomplish two very important things: It turned a straightforward offer into an emotional appeal, which drove engagement. And it also helped the campaign speak more effectively with our key demographic – primarily patients over the age of 40, across a diverse array of tight-knit communities.
Results
Ambitious goals were set for the campaign—and an avalanche of responses followed:
Generated 1,000+ online appointments and 4,600+ calls to schedule—or 95% of the total 3-year goal—in the first 8 months of the campaign
Drove more than 16,000 visits to the screening landing page
More than 8,800 clinical services were provided to nearly 6,000 individuals in the first year
The tremendous success led to a decision to raise Year 2 program goals and allowed the client to secure additional on-the-ground resources to reach more people in the community.
Summary
By humanizing their appeal to an underserved audience, Moncrief Cancer Institute was able to move one step closer to alleviating healthcare inequity. In the process, they generated brand awareness and community goodwill — a very healthy outcome for both themselves and the communities they serve.
