The fastest-growing sport in the US isn’t winter fat biking, off-course golf, or alpine touring. It’s Pickleball, and it’s HUGE. Participation has grown over 171% in the past four years, and with very good reason. Unlike so many other competitive sports, you don’t need to be in killer shape to enjoy it and be good at it. It’s the reason baby boomers love it, and why there are now - get this - over 36.5 million players (known as “picklers”) in the US alone. And they have almost 11,000 locations to choose from.

This fun and more intimate cross between tennis, ping-pong, and badminton was invented by three dads for their bored kids to play during the summer of 1965. It’s played with a ball full of holes, much like a waffle ball, that travels around a third of the speed of a tennis ball. And it’s played not with a racket but a paddle. And that’s where Paddletek leads the charge as the premier manufacturer of Pickleball paddles. 

The folks over at Paddletek are smart, so when it came time to formulate a strategy to get more eyes on their products, and more media coverage, they knew the solution wasn’t to throw money at the problem. Instead, they wanted to use something else taking the world by storm - User Generated Content. And the natural choice for the partnership was Cinebody.

Joining Forces To Execute Big Ideas on Small Budgets

Unlike many “traditional” production processes, this was a true partnership in every sense of the word, with the teams at Paddletek and Cinebody coming together to brainstorm and get creative. The process was simple but highly effective:

• First, the brainstorming. Either working in tangent with Cinebody or bringing something new to the table, Paddletek’s ambassadors select the ideas to be shot. 

• Next up, the Cinebody team builds out a shot list, develops materials for the filmers, and gets them more hyped than a grandma who just beat her grandson at Pickleball. 

• The filmers log in to Cinebody on their smartphones and have fun (that’s all part of it) filming content that gets automatically uploaded for the Cinebody team to edit. 

• Editing can actually be started as soon as the footage starts rolling in, and once filming warps the project can be completed with incredible speed, adding the graphics and music before handing it off to the Paddletek team to post. 

• All that’s left to do is watch the views, comments, shares and likes roll in. 

As you can see, that’s easier, faster and much cheaper than the old ways of doing things. And it’s something that enables Paddletek to fill countless holes in their content calendar, ensuring a steady stream of content for rabid fans, including tips and tricks, reviews, and this gem for International Women’s Day. 

“Cinebody has really helped us enhance our video campaign strategy on our social pages because now we aren’t concerned with having the bandwidth to get all of them executed,” said Morgan Handy, Paddletek’s Sales and Marketing Manager. “It's really just coming up with the ideas, and they take your ideas and they’re able to run with it, and put in the details, the music, the special effects, and really, in the end, we get so much better engagement from it because it's a high-quality video and you’re relying on our sponsored players and our influencers we already have at our disposal to execute that content.”

This is the kind of strategy that is enabling major global brands like Paddletek, Crocs, and even Spax Screws to get the authentic content they need, and people crave, in any location around the world. And without ever having to travel, rent expensive equipment, or hire large crews. Plus it can be done on a quick turn without sacrificing quality. 

“Because of Cinebody, we can produce high-quality videos that are posted throughout the course of the year on our social pages and we no longer have to come up with separate campaign budgets,” continued Handy. “The video content is happening continuously and it wouldn’t have been possible without Cinebody.”

With more and more brands quickly seeing just how effective UGC actually is, and people on social media rejecting overproduced and glossy videos for more genuine, fun content, it’s no surprise that this kind of strategy is being embraced by marketing managers as quickly as Pickleball is growing around the world. Get in on it now, and get the competitive edge in your own social calendar.