ABOUT | Fortress Creative

LEGEND HAS IT...

The evolution into an agency has been by way of a journey through creative entrepreneurship. Along the way we've met the people and adopted the values that form the foundation of Fortress Creative.

In 2015 we started Fortress Presents, a live experience promotion company responsible for Fortress Festival, North Texas' only multi-day, multi-genre, destination music festival. Inaugurated in Fort Worth in 2017 with headliners Run the Jewels and Purity Ring, Fortress Festival was immediately welcomed as a fresh addition to the culture of a city most commonly known as Cowtown.

After three festivals, tens of thousands of attendees, multiple awards and enthusiastic praise from the likes of Billboard, Pollstar, Texas Monthly, USA Today, Harper's Bazaar, The Daily Dot, and People Magazine, the event has become a hallmark of the city’s vibrant culture. As Fort Worth Magazine once put it, Fortress Festival "reflects Fort Worth's diverse community and true artistic character."

While initially we thought of ourselves as event producers, we quickly realized our most lasting contribution was in marketing and branding.

As Fortress Festival’s profile grew, so did the sponsors from local/regional brands to those represented by global holding companies like Diageo and VF Corporation. In working with these brands, the Fortress team was expected to design and execute dynamic experiential and digital activations that achieved specific marketing objectives for their clients.

We became experts in the most up to date thought leadership in branding, content, and marketing technology. Eventually our work on behalf of clients took on a life of its own independent of Fortress Festival, or even live entertainment.

As Fortress Presents became in demand as a service provider to clients seeking experiential activations outside of Fortress Festival, the team realized we were actually being enlisted to help these clients achieve marketing objectives. Clients were seeking to build the same brand equity demonstrated through the rise in popularity of Fortress Festival.

Set against the backdrop of tectonic shifts in the marketing services industry, the light bulb flipped on. What we had in effect been doing all this time, what our team could offer most, what clients were asking for, what the marketing industry at large now recognized was most important for today's consumer, was content marketing. Using creative, cultural content to help brands tell their story and not just sell to customers, but create relationships with them.