Pelican Women’s Championship Social Media Curation — Hoot Design Company

Pelican Women’s Championship

Creating a Social Media Presence

Pelican Golf Club put itself front and center when it hosted The Pelican Women’s Championship, an elite LPGA tournament. As a hyper-private golf club, Pelican has strategically shied away from showcasing details about its club or offerings to the public. That was until the opportunity for a branded event came up.

The Pelican Women’s Championship brings the greatest female professional golfers to Pelican Golf Club in Bellair, Florida. This was our chance to create a brand experience that matched The Pelican’s sophistication and detail.

Pelican needed to revamp their public presence to showcase the event and what it stands for while maintaining their distinct brand integrity. Enlisting our help, we determined a social presence on Instagram and Twitter were essential for the event. We set out to create a social media strategy that would remain true to the brand we have worked with for years. This required not only a social media presence for Pelican, but also an entire event branding package.

Banner design with three female golf athletes with text “female athletes.”

Golf shoe on top of basket of golf balls social media content.

Event Branding
Campaign Ideation + Messaging
Content Creation
Social Media Management
Event Concepting
Event Photography
Editorial Photography
Stop Motion Animation
On-Site Event Coverage
Videography

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A Bold Brand Discovery

Starting social accounts from ground zero? Challenge accepted. Before we began on any brand development for this project, we knew the first step was putting together a creative brief that identified the holistic picture and purpose of the event. The client tasked us with increasing brand awareness of the new event and creating meaningful engagement for the audience at hand.

Collaboratively, we defined that our target audience should be young female golfers that are aspiring to play in the LPGA who live and breathe all things golf. We also recognized the secondary audience of the more general ‘golf-obsessed’; those who feel connected to the game of golf and hold a deep respect for the traditions of the sport. This secondary audience would be our main focus for our social media specific strategy and efforts.

With a lack of public recognition for elite female athletes in the golf industry, we wanted to create a space for a legendary female golf tournament to emerge and shatter a glass ceiling to inspire future generations of women’s golf. The Pelican Women’s Championship would be exactly that tournament.

With a bold idea and curated inspiration we landed on a brand idea that could withstand the times. ‘A New Season for Women’s Golf’ expressed to the global audience that the Pelican Women’s Championship was an experience for female athletes unlike any other, and would be something the golf industry had never seen before.

Fruity drink held up to the cloudy blue sky.

Colorful golf balls splashing into pitcher of water,

Pink and white golf shoes next to a club and golf ball.

“Practice more, play better” graphic design for social media event promotion.

Daily countdown for event promotion with text “156 Days”.

The Focus

Understanding the expansive nature of social media, we narrowed our focus on three traditional platforms; Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Bold ideas meant that the visual execution needed to match.

With our brand idea in tow we set out to create custom photography content exclusively for the Pelican Women’s Championship. We had limited photo resources of the property or tournament, which meant we needed to get creative with our planning and execution. The photography vision included highly editorialized photography that would stand out in the golf industry.

We created custom photography sessions on the grounds of The Pelican and utilized our in-house studio. The images were essential on all three platforms, and the art direction and execution was unlike anything the golf industry had seen. The images were bold, bright, and told a story that tied back to A New Season for Women’s Golf.

The focus wasn’t just on traditional golf images, instead we integrated key elements of the club’s brand such as their world-class food and beverage, hospitality experience, and exclusive merch. Our strategy included marrying the custom photography with stunning graphics that expressed key event information such as countdowns and announcements. The result: a gorgeous social feed and an increase of followers on all three platforms, with Instagram reaching a 30% increase in followers.

Female golf athlete making stoke during golf tournament in front of a group of spectators.

Pelican Golf Club main building at dusk with large American Flag.

Spectator taking photo of female golf athlete being interviewed branded event photography.

Close-up of golf athlete figure on top of silver trophy branded event photography.

Female golf athletes smiling while reacting to tournament branded event photography.

Female golf athlete smiling and walking while being interviewed by journalist.

Person holding up scorecard for golf tournament.

Person holding clipboard of score and athlete lineup for golf tournament.

Spectator watching golf tournament through binoculars.

Female golf athlete in bright red pants walking among sand dunes on course.

Event Branding: Real Time

As The Pelican Women’s Championship approached, the town of Belleair, Florida buzzed with travelers and players from all over the world. Our team came prepared for five full-days of event social coverage, and the content became essential to The Pelican brand. These weren’t staged photoshoots, either. Our photographers captured the athletes living The Pelican experience — laughing, relaxing, and, of course, playing fine golf.

This real-time photography not only ensured content for The Pelican, but also captured the real essence of The Pelican brand. After carefully curating the event, we were able to capture the execution through photos and live sports reporting through captions on social media. From the generation of the big idea and target audience to witnessing the event live, we were there.

Each element of the Pelican Women’s Golf Championship, including our social presence, had to be hand-crafted and perfected to meet the sophisticated style of The Pelican. Every touchpoint was designed with intention and expertise, ensuring a seamless brand experience for members and guests of The Pelican that would be remembered for years to come.