GREAT PEOPLE MAKE GREAT WORK.

We are Schaefer Advertising, an independent advertising agency based in Fort Worth, Texas.

We help brands forge connections, hit their targets and move audiences to take action. Our work is defined by one pursuit – to make life better – for our partners, clients and each other.

MAGNET MATTERS // SPRING 2023

AMERICAN ADVERTISING AWARDS FORT WORTH:

BEST OF TRADITIONAL

BEST PLACE FOR WORKING PARENTS INNOVATOR AWARD

MM+M SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR FINALIST

20% GROWTH YEAR OVER YEAR IN 2022

Healthcare

We build human-first brands for clients across the healthcare spectrum. From pharmaceuticals to medical devices, hospitals to health systems, we create campaigns that speak directly to the patients, providers and people you want to reach.

Real Estate

You’ve got the vision, we’ll pave the way. At Schaefer, we craft brands that actively engage consumers and drive business results. Our strategic approach and award-winning creative has amplified some of real estate’s biggest names and industry up-and-comers.

ATTRACTIONS, TOURISM & THE ARTS

What sets us apart is our approach – we partner with ambitious brands and people to reach new audiences and cultivate a meaningful relationship between brands and their guests. By helping brands think like consumers we can better connect people with places and experiences.

» CLICK TO VIEW CASE STUDY

» CLICK TO VIEW CASE STUDY

» CLICK TO VIEW CASE STUDY

I mentioned to my Compass group a few weeks ago that historically we have been an agency of a few, larger AOR clients. Accordingly, our “news” has historically been focused on those “big” wins or “big “ losses, but the past two years have been much more sedate — more project work, fewer wins, no real losses.

There is good and bad in that relative quiet — a sense of stability as all client relationships are solid, but “standing still” isn’t necessarily comfortable. So, new business continues to be the top priority for us.

Our Business

Top line … business is stable — stronger in strategy, creative and production opportunities than media — but quiet in terms of real growth. Revenue and profit were flat over the past six months.

Like many of you, our costs (primarily payroll) have increased faster than rates (particularly longer-term AOR contracts), so services that are not so directly pegged to hourly estimates of labor (media and production) are ideal right now.

From a revenue standpoint, the first half of the year should be good and at or above budget as every client has a key initiative being developed or launched in late Q1 early Q2. My gut is the second half of the year will need new business to offset some client hesitance as a result of economic uncertainty (though we’re not seeing that yet).

In fact, new business activity seems better than it has been. Q1 has us in a few projects and pitches of note with Chipotle, the new Jacksonville USL pro soccer team, creative AOR for FirstLeaf (online wine curation/subscription) and creative AOR for Benefytt (insurance marketplace) as well as a few smaller projects. That said, none of those represent the additional “tent pole” account(s) we seek and need to be confident in the year.

Our focus right now is creating a compelling value proposition for St. John. Where Nectar Studios (production) and Store By Store (restaurant/retail consulting) have specific reasons to be, the general market, integrated business seems like it needs a stronger point-of-difference that is not category specific. So many prospects come to us for a strategic and/or creative exploratory, but then do much of the activation/implementation internally. We need to define a compelling story to attract more sustaining work.

In a bit of ironic exploration, after writing the paragraphs above I asked ChatGPT to predict the future of independent ad agencies. The response: “Overall, the future of independent ad agencies will likely depend on their ability to adapt to changing technologies and consumer preferences, as well as their ability to differentiate themselves from larger competitors. Those that can offer unique value propositions, specialized expertise, and exceptional customer service may be able to thrive in a rapidly changing industry.” So at least “the future” agrees with what’s required in the present.

Our Staff

We entered 2023 with 20% of our staff working remotely and our Jacksonville staff working in the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We continue to discuss how we will work long-term and how we can best engage our staff permanently based in other states.

In November, we brought the entire staff into Jacksonville for two days of meetings we called “Here For It,” with content designed around demographic and industry trends and dedicated time for pod and team meetings. It was a great opportunity to have everyone in one place and working together on strengthening the agency and their individual skill sets.

As part of the lead-up to Here For It, we divided the agency into groups of six and assigned them what we called the Pitch Perfect Challenge, a competition where each team randomly selected a brand, an audience demo, an audience driver and a pitch type (from a previous training session we did on Daniel Pink’s Masterclass on “persuasion”). Each team had eight minutes and fewer than eight slides to make a compelling pitch. The winning team randomly drew Marcus, Married Boomers, vanity and the rhyming pitch, which led to an engaging presentation of the evolution of Boomers from hippies to financial security sung to the tune of “My Favorite Things.”

Competitions like Pitch Perfect and one’s we’ve done previously — “The :30/:15/:06 Film Festival” and “Seven Sins in Sin City” — have proven to create energy and camaraderie, encouraging our staff to spend time with different people and in different ways than their day-to-day work experience.

Our content/production studio continues to be a successful part of our business. Currently 80% of Nectar’s business derives from agency client relationships, and the 2023 goal is to grow the Nectar client portfolio to reduce agency business to 40% of revenue.

The Nectar new business focus remains direct to in-house creative services groups and tier two brands where “brand” is important to success.

As referenced in the last MAGNET Matters, SxS is a consulting brand that works with restaurant brands to mine local store and location data to build “store back” marketing strategies on a local, co-op or systemwide basis.

We created SxS distinct from the St. John brand as an alternative path into the restaurant category in which we have experience but can’t always get an opportunity through the “full service” door. We’ve recently completed projects for Perkins/Huddle House and have proposals currently at Papa Johns and Firehouse Subs/Restaurant Brands International.

So far, through Social, LinkedIn and email, SxS has opened doors. Clients are slower to commit than we would like, but we’ve learned that they respond to data services they can “see” — place-based and time-spent data and, this year, we plan to incorporate additional white label services around observed consumer behavior and wrap SxS with creative or field services offerings when relevant.

Looking forward to the content and camaraderie in Park City.

Jeff