TCU Football is back! In the 8th year of this project, we wanted to celebrate TCU’s tradition and history in a way that would unite all Frog fans. Last year, fans missed out on the game day experience because of COVID. This year is all about reuniting with the gridiron, tailgating traditions and most importantly, each other.
The theme for this year’s Riff Ram video, Gather, centers around a return to normal as it takes you on a game day journey through campus, tailgating at Amon Carter and into the stadium itself. Game days in the fall look different for each Horned Frog fan. Some fans enjoy the game day experience from their couch, while others spend all week planning for their perfect tailgate. Regardless of how we support the Frogs, we are stronger together. Gather celebrates the triumphant return of the Horned Frog Faithful by bringing us back to the beat of the drum, the rustle of pom-poms and the roar of the crowd.
See you at the Carter!
Credits:
Concept by: Schaefer Advertising Co. Produced by: Schaefer Advertising Co. and Make Something Beautiful
Places are defined by people, and the Near Southside is among the most vibrant and diverse communities in Fort Worth. So, when they approached Schaefer to help them rebrand their identity, we focused on the neighborhood they create and the people and ideas the Near Southside attracts.
We wanted to present that the Near Southside is first and foremost a community where people and business can thrive in an inclusive and supportive environment. The result is a design balanced in minimalism and boldness that allows the artistic soul of the Near Southside to come through, but also be functional enough to carry the brand across everything from way-finding signage to social. The new color pallet represents the diverse voices that stand up for and continue to create opportunities that cultivate community. The updated identity is malleable enough to work across mediums but enduring enough to be used over decades to come.
It is a pleasure to partner with local organizations that build up our community and help them identify their message and purpose, and carry that through to representing their brand. By creating a flexible mark that more accurately represents the community and culture of the Near Southside, we’re hopeful that their message will resonate more deeply with future community members and contributors. The Near Southside is an excellent ambassador and cultivator of the arts and culture that permeate our neighborhood and creating something that elicits that same level of passion is why we come to work every single day.
River & Blues Fest is a new kind of music festival, featuring a uniquely American lineup of longtime favorites and soulful up-and-comers in country and blues. Launching its inaugural year right here in the heart of Fort Worth, the River & Blues Festival needed a dynamic identity system to engage and attract music lovers and artists alike across a primarily digital landscape.
Launching a New Identity System
Drawing inspiration from the rhythm and the river, we turned up the volume on the ethos and the experience to allow the vision of the festival to come through. The result was a scalable brand identity that represented the heart and soul of the music itself—a perfect balance of grit and a good time. With so many moving pieces, it was important to create a system that easily blended photography, motion and print elements, but most importantly position this instantly legendary weekend as one that can’t be missed.
Connecting with Our Target Audience
Launching any new brand can be a challenge and making noise about a music festival can be especially challenging in Texas. But, a clearly defined vision and a true one-of-a-kind blend of country and blues music is a fantastic experience to position. To connect with a wide audience, we needed to communicate that the River & Blues Festival is not just a blues festival, but also a country music festival, which appeals to a wide range of local music fans spanning demographics. Furthermore, we wanted to bring the river through in our messaging and identity to illustrate that the festival takes place on the Trinity River at Panther Island Pavilion in the heart of Fort Worth.
Concert Going amid Covid-19
“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen. But, what no one accounted for, or could have foreseen, was the covid-19 pandemic. River & Blues Fest was meant to make its first-ever debut during the summer festival season. As it turns out, that fell right during the height of the coronavirus lockdowns. Like other big-name events, we had to shift from a traditionally communal live music experience to a socially-distant, socially-conscious festival. Which meant more than a new date to ensure the people attending, playing and working not only felt safe but participated responsibly. In addition to new precautions we needed to communicate that, while the experience might look different, the music still sounds the same. And after all this time apart, maybe sweeter.
Results:
Total digital campaign resulted in more than 3.2 million impressions and an above-average CTR
New website generated 82.5K pageviews, 50.2K sessions and 42.4K new users
Brought a new brand to market and established their brand foundation
Created a flexible brand identity system
Partnered with artists to cross-promote on social and traditional radio
Built an email database from no subscribers to just over 1,500
Make Life Better
Artists and the people who support them rely on gigs and performances to make a living. River & Blues Fest is, without a doubt, going to be a good time. But it’s also going to prop up an art form, a nearly forgotten genre that survives with every chord. More so, it supports the artists, especially the grassroots, independent and often local musicians still waiting to be discovered. We are so proud to work with a client that uplifts the local creative community and is flexible enough to adjust their brand-new music festival to be safe and socially distant. Bringing people together safely is important now more than ever.
How do you get an entire community to see things differently? Our challenge was to celebrate the Near Southside’s milestone moments at an annual event that invites business leaders, artists, entrepreneurs and friends to gather and give to the organization and district at the single biggest fundraising event of the year.
Inspired by the very optimism that shaped the Near Southside and continues to move it forward, the event focused on the possibility of perspective. A key part of this community’s identity and a driving force behind its transition from forgotten frontier to one of the city’s most vibrant places to live, work and be.
Perspective is more than a way of seeing things; it’s a pursuit. And one we wanted to challenge everyone to actively engage in from the moment they opened the invitation. So we applied a visual trick using red and blue ink and an overlay that allowed us to reveal each message by shifting each guest’s perspective, literally.
Legacy. Capability. Values. Intention. These are big ideas that drive everything Hillwood Communities builds for the communities they create. So, when Hillwood needed a brand refresh and updated messaging, we leaned hard into these core tenets to accurately summarize the massive impact Hillwood has on the communities they build and the people who live there every single day. We needed to communicate these central beliefs in a cohesive and convincing brand brochure that would attract home buyers and investors.
Updated Messaging
When creating updated messaging for Hillwood, we expanded on the word “community” to accurately define the effect that Hillwood has on each of its developments. “We Create Community,” is the direction that we decided upon for the updated brand messaging. From Live Smart amenities to featuring a community garden, Hillwood takes extra steps to make each development a unique place to call home. More than that, Hillwood’s offering of communities, each with their own natural aesthetic and intrinsic values, ensures that there’s a Hillwood Community for every new homebuyer.
A Refreshed Brand Brochure
The Hillwood corporate brochure is where homebuyers and investors can interact with the Hillwood brand on a more extensive level. It needs to convince investors that Hillwood is an excellent investment opportunity and communicate to homebuyers that there is a community waiting for them underneath the Hillwood brand.
Evolved Brand Identity
Hillwood is a pioneer within the community development space. Each community they build focuses on elevating the quality, innovation and sense of community for their homeowner, offering unparalleled conveniences, all while taking subtle and grandiose steps to harbor a real sense of community among the neighborhood. Beyond the amenities that they create for their homeowners, Hillwood emphasizes the natural beauty of the land that they build on and rely on its inherent attraction as a central selling point. Every single step is taken with incredible intention aimed at improving the life of each resident.
The brochure connects all of these points by giving a detailed overview of each Hillwood Community and featuring evocative imagery of the natural aesthetics that define each community. Beyond the physical characteristics that define each community, we used imagery that captured the shared experiences and everyday interactions the amenities and walkways create. Each of these visual stories creates a compelling argument for why new home buyers should call a Hillwood community “home.”
For potential investors, the legacy of pioneering big ideas and sparking engagement are enticing selling points that illustrate the long term and historical health of Hillwood Communities, which makes it a desirable investment. Sharing the story of Hillwood’s success and legacy right up front, aided by the visuals illustrating where Hillwood operates communicates the strength of the brand and implicitly tells investors that this is a worthy investment.
Covid-19 has changed everything and college football has not been immune to the impact of the pandemic. We partnered with TCU Athletics to expand on the tradition of the Riff Ram Video and create a hype video during the first-ever, socially-distant TCU football season. During normal circumstances, this hype video would run in the stadium to invigorate the audience, but under quarantine protocols, fans cannot attend the games and cheer their Frogs to victory. So, how can you inspire fans at home to leave their seats and chant along to “Riff, Ram, Bah, Zoo?” By connecting them.
The video begins by nodding to the new reality of the fan experience. Football is part of the fabric of American life, Zoom is too now. Showing fans in the Zoom space and having them breaking the grid is a fun way to show that no matter where you Riff Ram, you’re cheering with s fans across ages, places and even a pandemic. Despite the virtual barriers (and real ones presented by pandemic quarantine protocols), we’re always connected as a part of the TCU fandom family.
The video illustrates to fans that we aren’t really that far from each other. From the athletes and students, to the family watching at home, we’re all living under a new normal. And while we can’t gather in person, we can find solidarity and spirit in the fact that we’re all in this together.
Director’s Note:
Creating this video during the Covid-19 pandemic was a challenge that required our team to solve problems that we’d never confronted before. The big question was, “how can we keep everyone safe while producing an effective video that serves campaign goals?”
The entire spot was shot on a green screen with all but two shots featuring one person at a time. Every background was added in post and every action and camera move had to be planned out prior to filming. Each crew member wore masks while we were working, and the only unmasked people in the studio were the on-screen talent. We booked each of the actors with their own timeslot to minimize their exposure to others. However, this made each studio session incredibly valuable as we could not invite the actors back for re-shoots later.
The game plan for this shoot was nearly as planned, practiced and choreographed as Gary Patterson’s defense (almost).
The shoot was difficult, but the team at Red Productions made collaborating on such a meticulous production much easier, more enjoyable and pretty impactful!
Go Frogs!
Credits:
Concept by: Schaefer Advertising Co. Produced by: Schaefer Advertising Co. and Red Productions.
Cancer. The word is enough to halt most in their tracks.
It is a disease that affects us all and we will each witness someone live with during our lifetime. This biological villain seems to be impossible to vanquish completely. But sometimes our heroes need us to help support their mission, to rise up as a community and prove that our collective efforts can result in a greater impact than any individual endeavor. This is exactly the purpose of the Moncrief Cancer Institute Report to the Community: to connect individuals with the community they help and empower more people to join the fight against cancer.
Every four years, the Moncrief Cancer Institute produces a Report to the Community that educates the public about their latest advancements in cancer treatment. The goal of the report is twofold: to generate awareness about preventive care and access to cancer treatment, and encourage donations, so that they can better serve their patients and community – because when we all fight, we fight for all.
People are at the heart of the Moncrief Cancer Institute and it was important for us to highlight the real people that are at the forefront of our society’s battle against cancer. Each person in the report features a community partner, volunteer, UT Southwestern / Moncrief physician, caregiver, and past or current patients. The report brings to light the personal stories of cancer patients and survivors and illustrates how Moncrief has helped individuals living with cancer and established itself as a premier resource in the global fight against cancer.
The Moncrief Cancer Institute Report to the Community is a vitally important article that inspires hope in the face of a constant uphill battle. It encourages communal support and raises money for survivor services and early screening for those that would not otherwise have access to care. In short, it inspires everyone in the community to take a stand against cancer. Because if we face it together, we can end it together.
Acne is the most prevalent skin disease in the United States, yet most of us don’t see the struggle that happens beneath the surface. For Acne Awareness month, our client – a major global pharmaceutical manufacturer – wanted to educate the public and healthcare providers about the unseen emotional realities of acne.
We created an unbranded educational campaign with the goal of combining the data and the human element to show people with acne that they are not alone and empower them through a sense of community. Beyond educating the general public, it was important to connect healthcare providers to the patient experience. By showing them the daily struggles of people with acne, healthcare providers can begin treating acne beyond the surface and focus on healing the individual in full.
The result is a powerful campaign that brings a silent battle to the surface and shows people struggling with acne that they are not isolated with their feelings.
One of the most thrilling challenges is helping a client launch a new product, which is exactly what we did for the TearCare® system by Sight Sciences.
Goals
To introduce a new brand to a growing market
Capitalize on a market opportunity with disruptive technology
Improve the lives of patients by getting a new product that targets the underlying cause of dry eye into the hands of eye care professionals
Analyzing a New Market
Before launching any new product, it’s critical to have a deep understanding of the landscape and the potential competitors or challenges within the market. For TearCare®, we performed a thorough analysis, through both primary and secondary research, of the overall healthcare environment, the eye care submarket, the competitive set and TearCare® ’s differentiating attributes. We came away with some incredibly useful data.
There are 40 million dry-eye sufferers in the United States, and of those, 86% have some component of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD). We discovered that most of the existing dry-eye devices are cumbersome to administer to patients, take the precise control out of the doctors’ hands and are expensive for a practice to adopt.
Because of the way TearCare® was designed, and its philosophy to address the root cause of dry eye with a combination of leading-edge technology and doctor skill, we saw this is a huge position of value for TearCare® – and that’s where we began crafting our strategy.
A Different Kind of Healthcare Product
Traditionally, the treatment of dry eye disease has been done with large pieces of stationary equipment that requires the patient to keep their eyes closed and doesn’t fully allow the eye care provider (ECP) to fine-tune the procedure to their specific needs.
Even newer entrants into the market addressed the condition in impersonal or intimidating ways, potentially leaving the patient and the ECP with a sub-optimal approach. In addition, the market leader is incredibly capital intensive and presents a challenge to eye care practices to meet their business goals. These conditions created a perfect combination for a company and a new device to address dry eye differently.
Enter TearCare® – the most unconstrained way to target the underlying cause of dry eye – and make real headway – in evaporative dry eye disease.
TearCare® is the world’s first blink-assisted device that applies heat to the eyelids to remove blockage associated with Meibomian Gland Dysfunction. It’s a wearable, blink-assisted design that offers a universal fit across various patient lid anatomies and delivers consistent thermal energy to prepare meibum for clearance by an ECP. It does so in a system that doesn’t require a steep financial investment in a large piece of equipment. All of this informed the final positioning of giving healthcare providers and patients freedom.
Launching a Product to Disrupt the Market
Launching a brand-new product is incredibly exciting but introducing one that will make the entire market take notice can be exhilarating.
We helped take TearCare® to market with a fully integrated marketing and advertising strategy that focused on the freedom TearCare® gives patients and ECPs, differentiating the device from others in the space.
We utilized a blend of paid, owned and earned media channels to deliver the primary campaign messaging. We designed a new website to act as the central hub of information about TearCare® and helped educate healthcare professionals about the new device with trade show activation, sales support materials, and practice-building resources.
This entire campaign was aimed at educating ECPs, introducing them to a new way to treat MGD, and helping them get the device and training needed to begin helping patients. As the campaign began to rollout, the results were astounding.
Results
Brought brand new, disruptive product to market
The number of new accounts opened in year 1 was 3 times that of the nearest competitor
Make Life Better
Healthcare work is always incredibly rewarding because it allows our team to help connect healthcare professionals to patients in need. For Sight Sciences’ TearCare® device, we were able to help connect healthcare professionals to a new device that targets the underlying cause of dry eye and make life better for those suffering from a chronic degenerative disease.
In the Near Southside, we spend every day celebrating women. As a crucial part of the community, women helped define the purpose, culture and growth of the district. From entrepreneurs to artists and advocates, these female visionaries, past and present, had one thing in common—the spirit of the Near Southside.
Every year the Southside Shindig brings neighbors and friends together to spotlight the people and milestones reached in the past year. It’s also the single biggest fundraising event for the Near Southside organization and district.
This year’s theme honored all the women whose ambitions and talents nurtured the community, paving the way for life and work in the Near Southside. All the mentors, mothers and friends we came to know as rebels, risk-takers and rainmakers who showed us then and now what it means to cultivate community.
