This year marks the 10th anniversary of Beastro, the Fort Worth Zoo’s annual music and tasting event that supports local and international wildlife conservation and education efforts. Within a few weeks of this year’s campaign going live, Fort Worth’s wild side responded with record breaking ticket sales and a fastest ever, sold out VIP offering.
The event features the finest area restaurants stationed throughout the Zoo, serving sample appetizers, entrees and desserts. In addition to the delectable cuisine, the event features open bars throughout the park and live music entertainment. Several animal exhibits remain open until sunset. This year’s entertainment features the local talents of: Emerald City, The Project and Live 80.
The event sold out, for the first time ever, and we had to stop the ad campaign early. The night was a success from ticket sales, but our team also successfully enjoyed the feast with the beasts.
Everyone loves babies. I mean, everyone with a soul loves babies. And that’s why when there is a new baby at the Fort Worth Zoo, we all get a little excited. So when the Fort Worth Zoo told us, months in advance, that they were expecting the birth of a western lowland gorilla, we began developing a launch plan to make the announcement. In our initial phases of planning, we identified key challenges that the campaign would need to overcome in order to be effective. The first was that baby gorillas basically mirror a human child in terms of growth and development. This means that for the first few months, the zoo’s newest star, Gus, was going to spend most of his time sleeping and never be more than a few inches from the arms of his mother, Gracie. And, like most moms, Gracie is a wee bit protective. In spite of the infant gorilla not being mobile or very active at all for that matter, we had to find a way to get people excited about coming to see Gus.
Which leads to the second challenge – how do you photograph a tiny black fur ball held closely in the clutches of his mom? Add in the fact that parents, Gracie and Elmo and new baby Gus, live in a secure designed area, plus wanting to minimize any disruptions to their normal activities, you don’t exactly have an Olan Mills photo studio in which to capture that “perfect” baby picture.
But usually, it’s the challenges that lead you to your solution. And this was no different. Think about it, what does every new parent do? Your Facebook feed is proof, that every new parent posts every single progress update. “Here’s junior sleeping in is blue onesie. Now, here’s junior sleeping in his yellow one that Aunt Marge from Des Moines bought him. Oh, wait, now his eyes are open, oh wait, never mind.” You get the idea. So we decided to build the campaign around the experiences that every parent wants to show their child doing. Eating. Playing. Sleeping. Riding.
Using the zoo’s photography documenting Gus and Gracie’s relationship, we created an “interactive” campaign that gives Zoo goers a reason to come back frequently over the coming months. Visit The Fort Worth Zoo today because as we all know, they only stay babies for just a little while.
Did you know that right here in Tarrant County we have one of the premier Fire Service Training Facilities in the Southwest, an elite culinary kitchen experience and a world class dance program? We do. Across 7 campus’, Tarrant County College offers these unbelievable programs and facilities to put success within reach for over 50,000 students.
Shot on location, in TCC’s real “classrooms”, we paired actual TCC students with the obstacles they’ve faced on their journey to higher education and showcased how TCC’s diverse and unique programs are putting success within their reach. For the thousands of potential students facing their own obstacles; TCC has a path for you and one question to ask. What’s stopping you?
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 Haha Haha 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 Hahahaha 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 Hahahaha 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.
It only seems natural that when tasked with solving the summer heat, the Fort Worth Zoo would look to their animal’s strategy: The watering hole.
One of the coolest mysteries of the year, was the 14,000-square-foot, zero-depth splash called Safari Splash. We created member invites, an email campaign and an identity system to introduce this all-new attraction. The new addition featured climbing structures, 3 slides, 26 water play features, a dump tower and water cannons to cool off at the Zoo no matter what the temperature.
While we waited on the site production to finish, one of our kids might have spilled the beans to their pre-K class that they were spending their summer at the Zoo’s water park. Don’t they say that’s the best form of advertising?
Throughout the Fort Worth community, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is known to most as the beautiful building next to the Botanic Gardens. Beyond the visual attraction of the building, they have a rich history in our community and a tremendous reputation in their industry.
BRIT views the world and their interactions with the planet through the lens of the BRIT Nexus. This perspective prioritizes water, plants, soil, food and energy and focuses on the interactions between those five elements. This focus informs everything the organization does.
Hahahaha was asked to inform members of this unique process while showing how it impacted all of their efforts. This challenge led us to create the BRIT Annual Report as two books in one. The “top” book featured the BRIT Nexus and used infographics to communicate specific topical information about each of the primary elements of the Nexus. The bottom book looked back at the year and explored a diverse range of projects and initiatives that they were involved in throughout 2014.
“The BRIT nexus informs everything we do.” Pat Harrison, BRIT Interim Executive Director
The report features a modern aesthetic, with a bright and energetic tone that distances itself from a ‘granola’ stereotype. BRIT has successfully laid down strong roots in our community and continue to look beyond to big issues facing our world today. We are grateful to work with them and help them bring their knowledge to the world.
The Riff Ram cheer has been a part of Horned Frog history for over 100 years, but it had become little more than an occasional homage to the school’s legacy. In 2014, TCU asked Hahahaha to devise a way to reintroduce the Riff Ram cheer as part of the game day experience – and the Riff Ram video was born! The 2015 video shows fans and players alike, uniting for the game all saying the words of this chant. They play the video at every TCU football home game and each one ends with a different TCU celebrity saying, ”Give ‘em hell, TCU!” Since bringing it into the game experience last year, the chant has taken on new life and continues to gain momentum.
This year, we showed how the spirit of the chant has taken the Fort Worth community by storm. It is a unifying thread among Frog Fans, and it has deepened the pride we all have in Fort Worth’s university. TCU is further establishing itself as Fort Worth’s team. Alumni or not, Horned Frogs bring an added sense of pride for our city. Riff Ram is unique to TCU, and it is taking root beyond the stadium.
Hahahaha worked with TCU athletics to bring a unique finish to each time the video played in-stadium. The final line, “Give ’em Hell, TCU!” was delivered by famous TCU alumni like Bob Schieffer, Jake Arrieta and Matt Carpenter, Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, ISU fan turned TCU fan Abby Faber and Country Music Star Brad Paisley.
In addition to the in stadium video, Hahahaha created a range of Riff Ram branded extensions to further deliver what the fans were wanting. We designed t-shirts, coffee mugs, pennants, digital downloads, wall murals, an 80’s workout video and even commissioned a painted SuperFrog portrait. It has been a great project to be a part of and it fires up even the non-TCU alumni in our office. Go Frogs!
Produced in partnership with N8 Visuals.
Each year the Fort Worth Zoo hosts an annual gala event, Zoo Ball, to raise money in support of the zoo’s ongoing mission of conservation. In a city as large and philanthropically minded as Fort Worth, it’s absolutely vital to break through the noise of other worthy charity events. This year being the 30th anniversary, the planning committee held high expectations for all aspects of the party. Dubbed 1940’s Las Vegas nightclub themed, we set on the path to creating a high-end invitation the encompassed the elegant event.
The Work
To define the tone of the event, our first step was to create inspiration boards. Focusing on high end elements, animal details and historic landmarks, we created the visual foundation for the invitation and ultimately the event. During our research, we discovered that Bugsy Siegel’s legendary Flamingo was one of the first nightclubs in Las Vegas. Leveraging the iconic venue, we titled the event Zoo Ball at the Flamingo. Just like that, the perfect animal pairing for our period event was born.
Harnessing the juxtaposition of larger-than-life Vegas shows within dark, unassuming nightclubs, we developed the concept for an elaborate three dimensional pop-up invitation. Though we may not be paper engineers per se, we always aim to seek what’s possible. Concept turned into reality through partnership with Cockrell Enovation and Structural Graphics, good ‘ole trial and error and more than one paper cut.
The end result is a structural masterpiece. The custom envelope was built to ensure the piece would not get damaged in mailing. The guests were presented with what appears to be a flat “standard” invitation. But upon opening, two pink flamingos emerge from the pages of the invitation, unfolding into an incredible display of creativity and paper construction.
The Results
This year’s event sold out in record time and successfully raised a record-setting amount for the Zoo. Invitees began posting videos of the invitation on social media. And yet again, the bar was raised a little higher for next year.
UPDATE:
Hahahaha was awarded a gold national Addy for the 2015 Zoo Ball invitation, for the second year in a row! To give it some context, we were one of only 83 gold winners out of 40,000 entries. We’re incredibly proud of our back-to-back wins and excited to represent Fort Worth among some of the top agencies in the country.
