Southern California Companies Create New Agency Model That Marries Creative Innovation, Data, and Media
IRVINE, Calif. – Media agency Schiefer Media and creative content firm ChopShop announced they are merging as Schiefer Chopshop (SCS). With proven leadership teams in social media, content, influencer, digital product, media, creative, and strategy, SCS’s full-service team has the capability to deliver fully integrated campaigns for their highly diverse client roster of global brands, including: Blizzard Entertainment, Boost Mobile/Sprint, Japan Tourism, Prestone, JX Nippon Oil & Energy, Mothers Polish, and a host of respected automotive industry clients.
Schiefer Media and ChopShop merge to create a new agency model that marries creative innovation, data, and media.
This partnership brings a 13-year-old content production house and 31-year-old “real-time” media agency together, along with their diverse body of talent, including third-generation automotive media executive, James Schiefer, who will lead as the agency’s CEO, and action sports and documentary film director Zach Lyons, the company’s Chief Creative Officer, along with third founder, Ken Anderson, a long-standing content studio executive. The leadership team will also consist of President and Chief Strategy Officer, Jeff Roach, Chief Operating Officer, Dan Mickelsen, SVP Creative & Executive Creative Director John Zegowitz, and VP of Media, Tim Walsh.
SCS has moved to a 10,000 sq. ft. in-house content studio that includes a large green-screen video and photography studio, edit bays, and sound and VFX suites. It will host a content team of nimble filmmakers, editors and makers who produce cost-efficient content and support everything from broadcast commercials and 360 VR video to social media content and entire TV series. Their content will be amplified and integrated with media partners like A&E, Discovery, and TEN The Enthusiast Network, powered entirely by SCS’s media, creative, content, and digital teams.
“The media business has been changing rapidly and Schiefer Media has always been at the forefront of marketing trends,” says Founder & CEO, James Schiefer. “Our merger with ChopShop and the integration of our offerings allows us to meet the demands of modern marketers who need to not only connect with consumers, but to convert them into brand enthusiasts.”
SCS has a proprietary, client-accessible, analytics dashboard that layers NPD category market data with demographic information, social media analytics, and competitive sales data to show in-market performance in real time. This technology allows the SCS team to evolve marketing planning on a day-to-day basis and optimize media and creative to continuously improve brand engagement.
“For five years Schiefer and ChopShop created integrated content and media programs together that netted remarkable results for clients,” says Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Zach Lyons. “As a creative content company, the opportunity to merge with a media agency who can amplify content and creative was a natural fit, and it allows us to take branded entertainment to the next level.”
SCS’s dedication to innovation is directly in line with the Silicon Beach tech start-up scene in L.A. and the trend of Southern California agencies being at the center of technology and marketing innovation. Unlike most agencies that silo media and creative, SCS uses a ‘creative-first’ process that works in partnership with major media outlets to devise new and brand-ownable media placements, products and properties that are custom to each client’s marketing strategy.
“Schiefer Chopshop is offering a powerful capabilities mix and lightning-speed efficiency for brands,” stated SCS’s President and Chief Strategy Officer, Jeff Roach. He continues, “We will now be able to deliver the kind of integration that future business demands: consumer and category insights that drive creative and media strategy, with performance measurement that then dictates content and media improvement in real-time.”
The agency will be driven by five values:
1. A Constant State of Change – Media, publishing, and advertising are constantly evolving and advancing, causing most brands and agencies to be reactive to change, rather than agents of it. SCS introduces a new agency model that addresses what marketing means today, and in the future.
2. The Consumer is Dead, It’s All About Enthusiasts – SCS believes for brands to be effective with consumers today, you can’t treat them like consumers – you must engage them as brand enthusiasts, passionate about aspects of their life and your brand.
3. Instigation Happens Through Integration – SCS truly integrates brands’ marketing, creative, digital and media to disrupt markets and audiences for clients – this yields cohesive, emotionally powerful creative, curated with real return in mind, that delivers brand engagement.
4. Integrity is Central – SCS is a new and innovative agency that aspires to true partnership, transparency, friendliness and collaboration with all partners – they don’t lead with an ego, they’re humble while also being exceptional at what they do for clients.
5. Fiercely Independent – SCS is independent and passionate about their work and their process, and translates that energy to clients who want to create exceptional campaigns and build lifelong fans.
Prior to the merger, Chopshop and Schiefer Media were frequent collaborators, which produced several successful campaigns.
About Schiefer Chopshop
SCS is an Irvine-based media and content agency. Founded in 2016 with the merger of media agency Schiefer Media and content creation studio Chopshop, Schiefer Chopshop combines data-driven media planning and innovative creative content for global brands.
