DDL Advertising does a bit of everything for everyone. Our repertoire shows just how much we can provide to clients, and LongPlex is the perfect example of how versatile our agency is.
In 2017, we were approached by the owner and creator of a brand new, state-of-the-art family and fitness center. The main goal of this facility was to draw in fitness savvy and sporty people alike. Since then, we have been involved in its infancy to where they are now. This business did not happen overnight, and it’s taken many creatives to help mold it into the facility it is today. With the owner’s great ideas and our determination to see it through, we present to you our client, LongPlex Family and Sports Center!
About LongPlex
LongPlex Family and Sports Center is a 187,000 square foot facility located in Tiverton, RI. Whether you’re looking for space to work out, take fitness classes, or join a pickup league, they are your go-to sports facility! LongPlex offers a full Sports Kitchen and Bar, adult arcade, retail shop, bouncy rooms, full gym, walking/running track and more! The motive behind this complex is for parents (and kids) to enjoy their time while watching or playing in tournaments. How many times have you been a day-long tournament with nothing good to eat or anything to do in between? LongPlex is planning to be that solution.
Design and Branding
Our first and possibly the easiest step was to create a name for this amazing complex. Our team got to work and the name “LongPlex” was born – a combination of the owner’s last name and the word complex.
Design was the next and biggest step. Without a brand identity, a company is lost. We created everything for this company’s branding – logos, graphics, and brand standards. During this phase, we stuck with their vision for a royal blue color scheme and added one off colors that paired well with their primary color.
DDL designed a primary mark logo that will be used the most and a secondary mark of their initials, LP, to offer variety. Our designs include a 1-color print option and white logo.
Aside from the two main logos, we also created icons for all the sports being offered. We did this as a way for the sports to stand out amongst everything else, while remaining consistent with the brand. We wanted viewers to know that these sports are directly affiliated with the Longplex facility. So, our team decided to create these graphics to be used whenever a specific sport is mentioned; social media, marketing collateral, website, and print.
While sports are the main attraction, LongPlex has other exciting brands inside the facility, which DDL helped to build out – LP Gear, LP Fitness Performance Center and Sports Kitchen and Bar. Of course, logos needed to be created for these brands, so we worked within the brand standards to create different, but consistent icons.
LP Fitness Performance Center includes a large gym, located on the second floor. This gym has fitness machines, free weights, agility training, and lifting equipment. A bonus track is included where members can walk/run along the perimeter of the facility.
LongPlex offers its own brand of merchandise called; LP Gear. The LP Gear shop is located on the first floor of the complex, right next to the entrance. Here, you can find a variety of LP merchandise, from shirts and bags, to water bottles and headbands.
Sports Kitchen and Bar is the most exciting feature inside this facility. Located on the second floor, SK is a panoramic restaurant designed with parents in mind. With a fully stocked bar, multiple TVs, an adult bar-cade, and a delicious menu, parents will never be bored at a tournament again. What’s even better is that this restaurant is open to the public, as well, and is kid friendly!
Social Media
Once the logo and brand identity were established, DDL worked to set up social media accounts with their logo, branding, pictures and more. Their Facebook and Instagram pages helped to establish their name and build excitement about the grand opening of this great sports facility.
Over time, companies and people evolve. When the accounts were created in 2018 there were a lot of things uncertain about the facility. DDL circled back to the social media accounts in 2020 and did a complete overhaul of their previous work. This overhaul included creating a content calendar of things to be posted, recreating the look and feel, incorporating highlights tabs about sports, facility info, COVID-19 and more, and added more direct call to actions in the bio.
Paid Advertisements
In the infancy stage of our marketing efforts, we set up a lead generation form for email submissions on Facebook. This was done to spread awareness of the facility and let people know what was coming. As a result, they received over 300 email subscribers, which were then added to the CRM system for future communication.
DDL also executed paid ads for a summer sports camp that happened in the summer of 2020. Amidst COVID-19, summer sports camps few and far between. With many parents usually jumping to send their kids to a camp, this year was very different. LongPlex wanted to let parents know that they were doing everything possible to ensure social distancing and proper COVID-19 protocols were being followed. We ran two different ads, both pandemic conscious – an initial awareness ad and then a retargeting ad.
The retargeting ad ran for 6 days with a small budget of $300. In the short time that it ran, we received 160 link clicks and 48,560 people reached. As a result, approximately 10 kids signed up for the camp from our ad.
Public Relations and Media Buying
From a PR standpoint, we wrote press release documents and worked with the local press involved with coverage from popular news stations and newspapers like The Herald News, The Newport Daily News, and the Sakonnet Times. They generated buzz through traditional and digital media to a much wider audience.
Email Subscriptions
While construction of the location was underway, a website was next up on the list, DDL set up a landing page for email submissions and received over 1,600 subscribers eager to hear more about the opening of this new facility! Now, years later, their email list has increased to thousands of subscribers due to the popularity of the facility in its community.
Website
LongPlex’s previous website was content heavy. Our challenge was to make the website as user-friendly as possible without over-complicating. The home page will get the most traffic, so it was pertinent for us to design and map it out properly. We included a video as the main banner to help attract viewers from the moment they visit, as well as putting any frequently sought after information on this page.
Adding sports information, amenities, and COVID-19 protocols were done next. DDL incorporated a mix of video, photography and iconography to make the website fun and flow seamlessly.
Photography and Videography
Yes, the next layer of our rollout was photography and videography! A business always needs assets to use whether it be for social media, website, and paid media. We wanted to make sure we captured the initial building phase of this 187,000 square foot facility to show how far it’s come.
The excitement has been building over the several years it took to build out of this enormous 3-level complex including turf fields, hard courts, a roller hockey rink, birthday party rooms, restaurants, arcades and more. Stay tuned for a lot more to come from LongPlex, including fun advertising and marketing campaigns we are planning to launch in 2021!