Project Goals

We needed to generate excitement and brand awareness around this new business to our community. We also needed to position Pickleplex as an approachable place that effectively facilitates a vibrant social scene and a beginner-friendly environment while showing that they simultaneously offer competitive athletes the best possible facilities to practice and play.

The Challenge

The "vibe paradox" between needing to appeal to both pros and beginners was a welcome challenge to overcome. Typical marketing slogans like "everyone is welcome" have become meaningless background noise that viewers often scroll past; we needed a way to show rather than just tell this message to build solid engagement and long-term brand recall. Furthermore, we were directly competing with another Pickleball facility's Grand Opening happening around the same time, and it was our job to ensure that our grand opening and campaign remained top of mind.

Key Production Decisions

To maximize efficiency and the impact of the shoot days, we pre-planned four distinct videos. Consistent, cohesive, and unique style across all of the content improved brand recognition and lowered the cognitive load for viewers, ensuring the brand's identity is easily processed and remembered. The Narrative "Pro Match Ad" mimics traditional "prestige" sports ads to build brand authority, only to subvert expectations with humor—demonstrating that the facility is professional yet approachable and doesn't take itself too seriously. Marketing statements such as "everyone is welcome here" have been reverberated so many times that the average viewer doesn’t even register the meaning of the message anymore and will likely scroll past. So, instead of telling the audience, we showed them directly while adding humor to increase memorability.

• The Narrative "Pro Match Ad" - We used high-end cinematic visuals and real Pickleball pros to mimic traditional "prestige" sports ads and establish brand authority, only to subvert expectations with humor—demonstrating that the facility is professional yet approachable and doesn't take itself too seriously. Showing rather than telling the audience creates a more engaging and memorable experience.

• About/Mission video - By highlighting the family-owned nature of the business and the father-son relationship during the intro, we quickly create an emotional touchpoint and humanize the brand, making it feel approachable and relatable. By drilling into social-first values along with harmonized visuals and a description of the tangible steps that Pickleplex takes to facilitate a rich social environment, we prove that this ideal is a reality. Along similar lines, we included the tangible steps taken towards making the facility both beginner-friendly and approachable to help viewers understand that they don't have to be intimidated by showing up with no experience.

• Solutions-Based Ad: This ad works by calling out the widespread social experience of friendship circles shrinking as we age before framing Pickleplex as uniquely positioned to solve this problem. The unique perspective shots at the beginning of this video act as a visual hook, and footage of authentic social interaction supports the core message.

•  Event Coverage: We integrated coverage of the "Beat the Pros" food bank fundraiser, using the goofy handicaps (frying pans, left-handed play, etc.) to show more real social interactions and the facility's fun first culture.

Results and Impact

• The Narrative "Pro Match Ad" generated 3x more comments and 6x more shares compared to Pickleplex's average organic video post on Instagram, with all content created by Sun Reel performing above average compared to other video content on their Instagram page. - (All data as of January 05, 2026. ).

From the Client

"Jayden is a gem of a human, an absolute pleasure to work with!! He has so many great ideas and truly brought the brand to life for our new business. I don't speak the media lingo, but he knew what I was trying to say and was able to turn my thoughts into reality. The process was explained to me clearly, and Jayden "held my hand' beginning to end. Opening a new business comes with some pain points, and I can honestly say that building our media profile was not one of them. He is patient, understanding, and hard-working. Jayden went above and beyond, and we look forward to working with him more in the future."