nobody wants to do the same thing as everyone else

Every company from the smallest of start-ups to the largest of international household names wants to be different. A lot of people dream of putting their unique vision, spin, or personal branding into some sort of profitable service or product - but few actually succeed in doing so.

Sometimes the ambition of being different outweighs one’s financial capabilities, and other times being different is just reinventing the wheel when nobody asked you to. If I wanted to start a “different” kind of coffee shop, what exactly is my idea or niche that I’m so confident will bring customers to me instead of Starbucks or the trendy cafe next door with the viral TikTok latte art?

This Halloween I got to work with Project P, a talented group with the idea of “rebranding pickleball” by throwing events that combine the rapidly growing appeal of the sport with car culture and EDM music. So to oversimplify the concept, what happens when you partner with a pickleball court to turn it into a nightlife party?

I got to be a part of their first event called Nightmare on PCH at The Tennis and Pickleball Club at Newport Beach, and I was eager to see how they would approach being different in the pickleball scene.

I know nothing about pickleball

I mean, not a literal “nothing”. I understand how the sport is played and from a fundamentals standpoint I’ve played tennis in the past and still watch professional tennis, but pickleball is inherently different both in approach and culture.

You don’t need to be as athletic as Serena Williams to pick up a paddle, and with how popular the sport is nowadays you can find open pickleball courts in a lot of public parks with people of all ages willing to play - a stark difference compared to tennis which often gives country club vibes similarly to golf.

But Project P wasn’t looking for a pickleball photographer or a sports videographer to capture their event. They needed someone who understood visual marketing and would be able to provide them with content to build their brand.

In their own words, Nightmare on PCH was a proof of concept. That means they needed high-quality documentation of their inaugural event that showcases to potential sponsors, vendors, influencers, and venues that they’re worth investing in.

So how is Project P being different?

Throwing pickleball parties isn’t new - Jamie Foxx co-founded his own paddle company called The Best Paddle and they organize pickleball parties and influencer events all the time. Even the promise of bringing in a young, trendy demographic to pickleball isn’t new. But Project P’s story is different. They’re turning a lifestyle into a marketable pickleball event that will scale and grow as the sport becomes more and more mainstream.

My goal was to tell that story through strong content, but I needed to have a balance. On one hand, I wanted to get as many shots as possible of guests in Halloween costumes, engaging with the nightlife activities, and visually depicting themselves having the intended vibe and aesthetic that Project P wants to position itself as. These shots would be critical for selling Nightmare on PCH itself so they could accurately recap the event and show how they capitalized on the intended theme.

And on the other hand, I wanted to capture action shots of pickleball being played, lifestyle images of the sponsor’s products, and just a general pool of content that Project P can pull from and utilize for social media posts and marketing graphics for months to come.

It needs to make sense

All the boxes were checked regarding Project P’s goal of hosting a cool event, but what were the checkboxes from a business perspective? Realistically, it needed to achieve the following performance indicators:

Were new people (i.e. non-preexisting members of the venue or Project P’s invited friends) purchasing tickets for the event?
How much foot traffic and/or sales were the invited sponsors receiving at their booths?
Did the partners who contributed products, banners, or marketing materials feel like their branding was well represented both physically and digitally (in terms of impressions and reach)?
Was there an increase in social media following for Project P, the venue, or the sponsors that can be attributed to the event?

There’s more to think about than just those questions, but being able to objectively analyze performance metrics is how Project P will know what worked and what didn’t for their first event, and most importantly, if/how they can make a bigger and more successful event for their next one.

At the end of the day, Project P’s product of “pickleball, cars, and EDM” needs to make sense. A prospective pickleball venue should be saying “omg this is the type of event our guests and members would love to be at” or a marketing employee of a pickleball company should be telling their boss “wow, let’s see if we can be a part of their upcoming event”.

a brand worth building

These are the kinds of projects I love to be involved with and why I do what I do. My job is to do more than just take pictures or videos, but be able to create meaningful content that tells a story or illuminates a message. A brand worth building knows its identity and understands the value of visual storytelling in order to make a meaningful impact on its audience.

Project P isn’t afraid to embrace what makes them different in the world of pickleball, and the momentum they started from their Nightmare on PCH event will inevitably snowball them into bigger and better opportunities.