Chippewa Boots is an American legacy that dates back to 1901 and has been worn for generations by hardworking, passionate men and women who helped build and shape this country. Today, Chippewa Loyalists remain steadfast ambassadors for the brand, but a new breed of Chippewa customer – the young urban – is emerging and embracing the lifestyle that Chippewa represents. In 2016 Chippewa, a division of Justin Boots, a Berkshire Hathaway Co., sought Schaefer Advertising to create an elevated brand platform that would continue to reflect the legacy, quality and craftsmanship of their boots, but also bridge the brand’s appeal to this new target audience.
The new brand creative features sweeping imagery that captures the Chippewa lifestyle in its Americana roots. The platform features a custom trade show exhibit that launched at America’s largest outdoor trade show, Outdoor Retailer, along with new catalogs, look books, advertising, web and social elements. Outdoor Retailer was so impressed with the new platform, Chippewa was upgraded to a premier location within the “America” section of the show. Sit back and relax while you take in the new Chippewa.
What happens when a billion dollar, Berkshire Hathaway company, a global market leader in the distribution of innovative, technologically advanced semiconductors and electronic component parts, approaches you to create a brand persona? At Schaefer we think big. In 2015 we introduced Grant Imahara, celebrity engineer, robotics expert and Mouser customer for 20 years as the company’s spokesperson. We blended Grant’s appeal to the Mouser audiences with true stories from real-world engineers who are responsible for some of the world’s most cutting edge initiatives. Ultimately, creating the “Empowering Innovation” campaign. Cast across digital, social, event and traditional platforms “Empowering Innovation” reached millions and continues to engage and inspire engineers across the world in 2016.
It’s been 4 years since Moncrief Cancer Institute, part of UT Southwestern’s world-renowned NCI designated cancer program, last presented an annual report, and since then there has been tremendous growth in outreach activities and services provided. Consequently, Moncrief came to Schaefer looking for a way to update the community on news, growth, and upcoming plans in a way that was engaging and went beyond the standard annual report.
Instead of simply presenting the information in a passive way, we wanted to ask something of the reader while at the same time introducing Moncrief’s brand essence and subsequently creating an umbrella under which future materials could be produced.
The central theme of the report acknowledged that no one is for cancer; therefore everyone’s against it. Or in other words, everyone is fighting cancer. Not just those directly affected by the pervasive disease, but each of us in our own way is in the fight. That’s a concept that not everyone grasps. So we took the opportunity to position Moncrief as a leader in the fight against cancer.
Moncrief has taken on the role of informing and empowering the entire community to rally around the fight against cancer. With this idea in mind, the report specifically dove into how Moncrief is helping reduce the threat of cancer in our community through education and putting the right resources in the right places to make superlative cancer care and treatment available to those in need. And coming full circle, through the Moncrief Cancer Institute programs we are providing a platform for the community to engage in the fight, whether for themselves or for others.
Four years ago, Schaefer was asked to create a spokesman character for TTI, Inc., a $2B electronic components distributer that had just been acquired by Berkshire Hathaway. Thus the Specialist was born, and since then he’s been fighting bad guys and saving production lines both in videos and a comic book series. Both have been very successful within the industry. “TTI – you’re the guys with the Specialist, right?”
Wanting to maintain our momentum but keep things fresh, Schaefer went back to the drawing board to think of a new way to capitalize on The Specialist character’s infinite knowledge of all things electronic.
Now, Schaefer is proud to introduce Ask the Specialist, a new video series that features our intrepid hero answering questions on a wide range of topics – everything from parts and components to relationship advice.
Clearfork is a new mixed-use development on what was the last undeveloped piece of the legendary Edwards Ranch. Many Fort Worth landmarks like Texas Christian University and the Fort Worth Zoo now sit on what once was Edwards Ranch property, but the Clearfork portion remained virtually untouched since 1848. Having just completed the Clearfork branding and positioning, the client asked us to produce some vinyl banners to announce the coming development.
“Sure, we can do that, but…”
The Work
With a newly completed road cutting through the property, this was the first time most people had seen this property since before Fort Worth (the actual fort) existed. We felt this called for something a little more unique than a vinyl banner.
Pulling back from the assumed solution of banners and focusing instead on the goal of attracting passersby’s attention, our ideas included an iron ranch sign, cattle guards and a water tower. What won out in the end were what the team dubbed “word crops.” Three eight-foot-tall words were strategically placed around the property: discover, legacy and vision.
The road to the final product was a long one, since none of us had ever seen word crops before. We cut an “A” out of a sheet of plywood in the side yard of our office and hauled it out to Clearfork to see where the words should go. Our production manager then talked with a variety of vendors to see if anyone could do it on-budget (one could). We had a test letter made with three colors of paint to see which worked best (silver).
The Results
The word crops were a success in several ways. First, they captured people’s attention and made them curious about what was coming to the property. Second, they garnered some social shares as people took photos with the words and shared them on their networks. Thirdly, (shameless plug) they earned Schaefer the Best in Show American Advertising Award for 2014.
Best of all, they’re a perfect example of what we mean when we say, “Give us your goal, and we’ll seek what’s possible.”
TTI, Inc. is a $2B Berkshire-Hathaway company that supplies electronic components to practically every major electronics company in the world. A few years ago, Schaefer created TTI’s spokesman, the Specialist, whose ongoing adventures have been a successful video series for the company. Three seasons in, they asked us if there was a way to expand the Specialist into other media and broaden his reach.
The Work
Comic book movies are coming out left and right, but our idea was to do the reverse. The Specialist had always been a live action video character. Why not got 2-D with it? We proposed comic book-style direct mail series that would take the Specialist and his adventure directly to the desks of our target audience. We sourced an illustrator who could do the old-school comic book style, and wrote a series of adventures involving everything from jetpacks to spaceships – two things we (so far, at least) haven’t been able to pull of in video.
The Results
In just a few months, TTI was able to grow their direct marketing database by 500 leads, and they have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from both clients and partners. To date, we’ve produced seven issues of The Adventures of The Specialist and have more issues in the works. What crazy jam will the Specialist find himself in next time? Schaefer only knows.
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.
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%.
An opthamology practice with five physicians, Nethery Eye Associates tasked the Schaefer team to develop an integrated marketing plan to increase patient traffic in light of a more competitive marketplace. We evaluated and refreshed their current branding to support these marketing efforts and executed the refreshed brand in a website, collateral and other patient education tools, and an online media campaign.
Educational Video Series
for Nethery Eye Associates
JPS Foundation is a non-profit arm of John Peter Smith Hospital that helps raise money for things the hospital budget doesn’t cover such as baby supplies for low-income women, clothes for the homeless and medicines for those who can’t afford them.
When it came time for their annual employee giving campaign, they came to us with a challenge. Donations had been in decline for several years, as well as the number of employees who were donating. Employee involvement is an important metric when applying for funding, so it was up to us to bring the numbers up.
The Work
When you think of fundraisers for non-profits, you might think about the poster board thermometer that is gradually filled in with red sharpie. When the goal is a large sum of money, it can easily feel like the dollar or two you have to spare won’t make much of a dent. Since we needed as many people to participate as possible, we had to overcome this perception.
Our idea was to show that a small donation—even as little as a dollar—could actually have a real impact. That’s because many of the things JPS Foundation provides, such as a pair of socks or a pedometer, cost very little. We called the campaign Small Change, Big Impact and used a series of four videos to show how even inexpensive items could make a big difference in a person’s life.
The Results
It’s clear that JPS employees took the message to heart. JPS Foundation raised over $200,000 as a result of this campaign, up from $95,000 the previous year. The number of employees who participated also rose from 685 to 1019 in one year. And while it’s always great to see that a campaign worked, we’re most proud of the real, life-changing impact those stats represent.
