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Emocean Sports

Client

Holiday Diver

Date

Oct, 2017

Tags

branding

environmental

photography

social media

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Project

Emocean Sports

Trying to ‘save the dive industry’ is no small task… but with careful planning, and a strong brand - you can set the gold standard for water sports.

Overview
Holiday Diver is the largest scuba retailer in the USA. The industry is in decline, and has been for many years. This is because the diving experience is generally not good for most people trying to get into the sport - and they abandon the activity. The owner of Holiday Diver, saw this decline and wanted to expand his business into larger offerings - not just diving, but also other water sports, such as spearing, freediving, paddling, and wave runners.

Solution:
To grow Holiday Diver, investment was made into purchasing businesses in the Florida Keys that centered around a variety of watersports. A logo had already been designed. It was called, ‘Emocean’ and I was brought in to lead a team to flush out all aspects of the brand and to help get it off the ground.

We had unique challenges ahead of us in that we did not want to lose the brand equity in the businesses that were acquired. Therefore, we developed Emocean in a way that could serve as a ‘parent brand’ to the acquired companies.

Great care was made to develop standards, not just for the brand look/feel… but for the experiences of the guests. Emocean became the ‘white glove’ diving experience in Key Largo. Boats were not overcrowded, staff was trained for impeccable service, and all customer touch-points were refined and made easy to use. We created store signage, team shirts, van and boat wraps, stationary, and store signage. An ecommerce website was designed to allow customers to make easy purchases right from their mobile devices. We refined and set standards for PADI training at our facilities. We redesigned store interiors with signage and video displays, while we organized photoshoots to obtain quality footage exclusive to the brand.

This all worked within the Holiday Diver business goals. Emocean always had the latest and greatest gear, the best trained staff, and a professionalism that made them stand out against their competitors in the Florida Keys and Holiday Diver had growth into a new market.