SWIFT STRIKE – The Pickleball Club

This project is a short overview of an AI experiment.

We wanted to explore if it is currently possible to create an entire brand identity toolkit – for a cool pickleball club – by generating everything with AI tools.

Timeframe for the project was 3 days.

All contextual concept descriptions had to be written and worded for AI tools and we used them as templates (GPTs) throughout the project.

As a brand builder, I'm less interested in the result, we can always make it look pretty amazing and create cut-through digital, social and traditional content, that's never the problem. What I'm more interested is the exploration in defining the brand from a creative strategy POV (which then manifest itself in the "pretty" identity).

In this case all with the help of AI.

This project explored if AI could create a complete brand identity for a pickleball club in just 3 days. We used AI tools to generate everything from the brand narrative to customer profiles and marketing strategies and all digital content and visual assets.?

The goal wasn’t just to create visually appealing assets but to experiment with AI's role in defining a brand identity.

Pickleball is often seen as a sport for older people, but our project aimed to change this by emphasizing its growing popularity among younger audiences who are health-conscious.?

With the use of AI we crafted the first draft of of a marketing strategy including social media outreach, product ideas, and customer engagement plans.?

Since time was limited, this could only serve as a skeleton, but helped us to tailoring content to different audience attributes like playing styles and lifestyle preferences.

Phase 1:

We began by defining the brand’s core narrative—its values, vision, and approach to customer engagement. This served as the foundation for all AI-generated work. Key areas of focus included:

• Audience Definition: AI helped us create detailed customer profiles, specifying demographics, behaviors, and preferences. These profiles were crucial for targeting the right audience and resonating with them through campaigns.
• Marketing Strategy: We developed a community-building approach, using AI to shape social media strategies and athlete sponsorships, which later became part of the campaign's visual assets.
• Customer Engagement: We considered whether to push content directly at the audience or foster a community-led ambassador program to drive engagement.
• Product Line: We explored developing equipment for different playing styles, like control vs. power paddles, and even incorporating noise-reducing technology, addressing common complaints about the sport’s noise.

Phase 2:

Once we defined the brand’s core elements, we segmented them into smaller pieces to feed into AI. We used General Purpose Templates (GPTs) to structure the input, but AI could only work with pre-existing data, limiting its ability to generate truly new ideas.

Phase 3:

The true challenge came when refining AI-generated results. AI suggested taglines like "Strike Swift, Play Bold," which lacked the creative flair needed for a unique identity. Human expertise was critical to adjust and improve the AI’s work, turning bland outputs into something more engaging.

Key Learnings

Generally:

1. It Takes Time: Mastering AI tools requires significant time. Learning how to structure prompts and teach algorithms to become more accurate is essential.
2. AI is a Guide: AI-generated results are often not perfect and require further refinement using traditional creative tools to elevate the final product.
3. Human Creativity is Essential: AI cannot replace the creative expertise needed to produce unique, high-quality work. Crafting distinct content still requires human input. It greatly depends on what tools you are using too: whilst ChatGPT (AI language model that understands and generates human like text) is very capable – it the latest update – to think, adapt and generate new/unique results, text to image (AI assisted) models on the other hand cannot generate new ideas.
4. Visual Aesthetics Can Fall Short: AI often produced visuals that felt artificial or off, particularly in complex compositions. Backgrounds, lighting, or proportions could be wrong, making the images feel unnatural.
5. Difficulty with Objects and Products: AI struggled with niche objects like pickleball paddles due to limited online references. For example, paddles were inaccurately depicted with holes, which don’t exist in real life.
6. Misleading Results: AI can generate impressive visuals, but they often contain subtle errors. Elements like clothing creases, symmetry, or correct shadows were frequently wrong.
7. Where AI Shines: AI was highly effective in time-saving tasks, such as generating accurate headshots, visual models, or simple product images. This reduces the need for back-and-forth with model agencies and can save costs.
8. Efficiency in Composition: AI helped quickly define visual elements like color, accessories, and backdrops, allowing for faster concept creation. This can significantly improve client communication and reduce misunderstandings during production.
9. AI’s Limits on Complex Work: While AI simplifies repetitive tasks, it lacks the ability to handle intricate creative processes or craft emotionally resonant and original content.
10. It's Fun but Requires Balance: While working with AI was exciting, it is clear that the best results come from a combination of human creativity and human crafting know-how and AI assistance. Relying solely on AI would not produce the same level of quality.

Conclusion:

AI can be a powerful tool for streamlining parts of the creative process, but it cannot replace human expertise and creativity. The experiment highlighted the benefits of integrating AI into brand development while emphasizing that humans must still create themselves and guide the process for the best results.

If you are interested, here is a much longer – and more nuanced – article about this experiment.

https://medium.com/@gmkruegel/developing-the-swift-strike-brand-a-pickleball-club-bf4cf4113248

If interested, I'm happy to send you also a more detailed presentation. Just send me msg.

Enjoy!