Play Hard Florida was incepted to create a community using the beautiful landscapes and activities that make Florida such a unique and fun place to explore.
With a large directory of adventures from vendors across the state, Play Hard Florida helps the thrill-seekers, water lovers, and landlubbers find adventures under the sun, between the clouds, in the woods, and on the water.
The Play Hard Florida team came to PHOS for an online experience that would help visitors find adventures throughout the state easily, allow for partners to list/advertise their adventures on the website, and encourage people to share their experiences with others.
Putting Wild Within Reach
Our vision for this project was to create an online experience that exploded with aspirational feelings of adventure and fun. We wanted to use imagery that not only showcased real people but also the beautiful landscapes unique to the state of Florida. The online experience needed to accomplish three things:
Guide Adventure-Seekers
We wanted searchability to be the forefront of the website. Our goal was for users to easily locate adventures that they were interested in and close in proximity to.
Attract Partners
Play Hard Florida couldn’t do what it does without its partners. Attracting them would be key to business growth. Highlighting benefits and showcasing beautiful design and functionality, partners would feel confident funding a listing on the website.
Encourage Sharing
Play Hard Florida’s brand is built on adventure, the beautiful scenes of Florida, and community. We wanted to make sure people could find that community through social media.
Social Media Campaign
To drum up excitement about the brand, our team put together brand introduction video intended for high reach and brand awareness.
The video is a short, high-energy compilation of the adventure that Florida offers, with beautiful imagery from all around the state.
We were proud to be recognized by the American Advertising Federation of Gainesville for our work on this project and humbly brought home a Silver ADDY Award.
Web Design
The main objective of the website is to guide to an adventure that they’ve always dreamed of doing and didn’t know existed in Florida. Knowing this, we knew we needed a reliable search function for visitors to browse through adventure listings. Our team started by mapping our buyer’s journey, thinking strategically about how we wanted seekers to engage with the site. Using thoughtful categorization and post-type functionalities, we were able to create an intuitive journey for browsing different adventures.
After an in-depth website architecture was built, we were ready to start thinking about design and messaging. Using photography, our team used design to create aspirational stories. The site is flooded with beautiful images of Floridian adventures, making even the modest of thrill-seekers itching for an adrenaline rush.
We were honored for this work to be recognized at the American Advertising Federation of Gainesville’s annual Gala, bringing home a Gold ADDY Award.
Results
After launching the new website design, traffic tripled and % of new users went up by 250%! Not only is the new online experience encouraging tourism around the state of Florida, it’s building community. That kind of impact is exactly what motivates our team to come to work every morning.
