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Over the course of a conversation with Ken Schaefer, president and CEO of Schaefer Advertising, one word you’ll hear repeatedly is “nimble.” He sees nimbleness as one of the defining qualities of his Fort Worth-based agency. And he admits that quality was put to the test during a challenging 2023.

“It was an odd year,” he says. “It was an interesting year.”

While Schaefer Advertising enjoyed success on the new-business front, it experienced some contraction among existing clients. “Markets were a little unsteady or product releases were a little slower coming than clients expected them to be,” Schaefer notes.

The results reflect that reality. Revenue at the agency fell nearly 20%, to $12.3 million from $15.3 million in 2022, and the company’s head count dropped by 10, from 50 to 40.

While the overall number of clients was relatively flat — 31 in 2022, 29 in 2023 — more of the work was project-based. Schaefer stresses that while the agency experienced some attrition due to reductions in budgets and work being moved in-house, no clients were lost or resigned during the year.

Indeed, he believes that the headaches of 2023 strengthened Schaefer Advertising’s client relationships — it counts Sight Sciences, OptMyCare, Marius Pharmaceuticals, ViaLase and the University of North Texas Health Science Center among its roster mainstays — and set the company up for a stronger 2024.

Again emphasizing the importance of agility, Schaefer believes recent challenges have drawn out that same quality in the agency’s client partners.

“We always love clients that have a challenger mentality,” he explains. “Even with a client such as Alcon, where the company is a market leader in so many categories, we get to work with them on new products or product extensions that are positioned to disrupt an existing market. Then there’s Galderma, which has existing DTC brands where you need a highly responsive, value-driven approach to keep things moving when products go off-label.”

Indeed, Schaefer sees plenty of commonalities among members of the agency’s roster, especially compared to typical health and wellness clients. “They’re hungrier, they’re nimbler and they’re willing to take more risks. We enjoy that.”

As it was at many other firms, AI became a prime area of focus at Schaefer Advertising in 2023. The agency has subscribed to machine-learning platform Placer.ai and has benefited from the access it provides to place-based, behavior-based and HIPAA-compliant data.

“Our ability to utilize data from a source such as Placer is helping us further link those HCP insights and behaviors to give us a richer snapshot of the healthcare journey,” Schaefer explains. “This makes us smarter so that we can make faster, more direct and more meaningful connections to our clients, patients and customers.”

So while Schaefer will look back on 2023 as “not optimal” in terms of revenue, he believes the agency grew in other ways that will truly matter as it charts its path forward.

“Years like last year help build resiliency,” he adds. “That’s a tremendously valuable skill set for an organization to have.”

. . .

Work we wish we did

The tightrope skills required to align a brand with a social good are delicate, especially when marketers need to walk the line of demonstrating commitment without appearing to pander. That’s what makes the AT&T Sound of Silence spot so compelling. AT&T and its agency, Translation, spent years developing a 5G-connected football helmet to enable coaches to communicate plays during games to deaf and hard-of-hearing players. It demonstrates a functional benefit, yes, but it also carries much greater emotional weight. — Michele Evans, associate creative director

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