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 Bellair, Florida.
To honor this moment we designed a brand experience to match 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 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 brand identity.
A Bold Brand Discovery
Starting social accounts from ground zero? Challenge accepted. As we began the brand development for this project, our first step was putting together a creative brief that identified the holistic brand story and purpose of the event. The client tasked us with establishing brand awareness for the new event and creating a meaningful engagement for the audience that followed.
Collaboratively, we defined that our target audience was young female golfers aspiring to play in the LPGA; women who live and breathe all things golf. We also identified a secondary audience as 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. The first audience would serve as who the brand would be designed for, while the secondary audience would be our main focus for marketing strategy and efforts.
This legendary female golf tournament was on a mission to shatter glass ceilings and inspire future generations of women’s golf. We wanted to create a brand feeling that conveyed this purpose.
With the client’s bold mission at the forefront, we landed on a valiant brand idea: A New Season for Women’s Golf. This brand idea expressed that the Pelican Women’s Championship was an experience for female athletes unlike any other, and that it would be something the golf industry had never seen before.
The Focus
Understanding the expansive nature of social media, we narrowed our focus to three traditional platforms: Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. A bold brand idea called for a visual execution that would match the hype.
We set out to create original photography content exclusively for the Pelican Women’s Championship. We had limited access to the property and tournament, which meant we needed to get creative with our planning and execution. The photography vision included highly editorialized photography designed to stand out in the golf industry.
The images were essential on all three platforms. From art direction to execution, the result was a standout brand personality unlike anything the golf industry had seen before. The images were bold, bright, and told a story that tied back to A New Season for Women’s Golf.
We integrated key elements of the club’s brand such as their world-class food and beverage, hospitality experience, and exclusive merchandise. 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 attracting followers on all three platforms, with Instagram reaching a 30% increase in followers since the previous year’s tournament.
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. These weren’t staged photoshoots. Our in-house photography team captured the athletes living The Pelican experience — laughing, relaxing, and, of course, playing fine golf.
This real-time photography captured the true essence of The Pelican brand. After carefully curating the event, we were able to capture the tournament through photography and real time reporting with captions on social media. From generating the big idea to covering the event live, our team alongside the client each step of the way.
Each element of the Pelican Women’s Golf Championship, including our social presence, had to be hand-crafted and fine-tuned to meet the sophisticated style of The Pelican. Touch points were designed with intention, ensuring a brand experience for guests that would be remembered for years to come.
In 2023, the Pelican Women's Championship was renamed to the ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
Annika Sörenstam is one of the best female golfers in history. She has over 90 worldwide victories, including 72 on the LPGA and 11 Major Championships. Annika's impact on the sport could never be measured, her determination could never be duplicated, and her legacy could never be compared.
We helped brand The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, to bring the best female golfers together to play in the Tampa Bay area's signature LPGA event at the renowned Pelican Golf Club. Annika has shown the world how to Lead With Legacy, and we were tasked with taking this message to the next level. Take a look at the refreshed brand for the 2023 event.
