Lake Geneva Ziplines & Adventures
The Transformation of a Favorite Wisconsin Outdoor Adventure Company
Lake Geneva Ziplines & Adventures was an exciting and expanding adventure company, and their brand and online experience needed to catch up in order to better represent what they offer. Their team building division had grown to be best-in-class, and was ready for a brand of its own. To address these needs and emerge with modern brands prepared for growth, we defined the brands, created new identities, and built new sites.
Customer Research
Brand Strategy & Positioning
Logo Development
Brand Expression
Web Design & Development
Challenges
- A website with a poor conversion rate and mobile usability issues
- No formal name or identity for the team building division
- A long, ambiguous name for the adventure division (Lake Geneva Canopy Tours & Outdoor Adventure Center)
- No articulated brand purpose or unifying brand direction to guide future growth
Defining the Brand
To establish a solid foundation we dug into who the company is, where they’re headed, and what customers want and need from them.
Customer Research
Giving Customers A Voice
We already had information from customer reviews and surveys, but we wanted to dig a bit deeper into customers’ behaviors, desires, and perceptions, so that we could understand how the company could speak to—and meet—customer needs better. We conducted surveys and interviews of adventure customers and team building customers and created insights reports for the adventure division and team building division.
"Blend’s industry expertise comes through in the continuous flow of ideas they bring to the table."
Brand Strategy
Define The Company
We met with company leaders to discuss who the brand is at its core and where the brand is heading. The outcomes included each division's brand promise, brand purpose, brand associations, and positioning statement.
Vision Casting
Bridging the Gap Between Vision & Identity
Building upon the workshop outcomes, we developed potential strategic directions for each division. After discussing the options with the Lake Geneva team, we created a vision report to guide the brand development. In this stage, we formalized the decision to create a separate company for the team building division.
Creating a Distinctive Identity
With a clear articulation of the brand vision for the the adventures and team-building brands, we took a fresh look at how they look and sound.
Naming
New Names for Growth & Clarity
We chose Lake Geneva Ziplines & Adventures to remove the ambiguity of “canopy tours” and to increase the emphasis on non-zipline adventures, to position the company for growth and to encourage more repeat business.
The team building division needed its own name to convey its quality and focus, since it’s much more than just an additional adventure choice. The straightforward Lake Geneva Team Building Adventures retained both the geographic identity and the reference to outdoor adventure, contrasting it with competitors.
Brand Marks
Clean, Modern, Adaptable, & Legible
Because brand recognition is important, we decided to retain the familiarity of the zipliner element from the previous logo, but gave it a more modern and simplified treatment that would work more effectively across digital and print applications. The team building logo followed a similar construct and—rather than incorporating overused team building symbols—utilized a symbol that combined the concept of the forest and upward progress.
Visual System
Creating a Balanced Tapestry to Represent the Complete Experience
For both brands, the connection with the outdoors is a key part of the experience. Because the photos are able to carry the earthy tones for the brand, we decided that a fun and vibrant color palette with playful nature patterns, was the right complement. The result is bright, friendly, outdoorsy, and professional.
Verbal Expression
Selecting the Right Words, Phrases, & Tone
To convey the proper attitude, we started from scratch to develop a series of headlines that exude the fun, energetic, and adventurous spirit of the staff and the guests. Phrases such as “Adventure Big” and “Live Boldly, Adventure Often” call prospective guests to embrace the challenge and reward of pushing their limits and enjoying thrilling outdoor adventures. We also created headlines for each adventure, and guidelines for word usage so that all messaging is consistent.
Building the Sites
In the final stage, we brought the brands to life on the web with two fresh, modern sites designed for a mobile-centric world.
Planning
Laying out our objectives and the plan to achieve them
After listing our project objectives, we created a list of all existing and new pages. We identified the key pages and created “page tables” for them. (Page tables list page objectives, key content components, top forward paths, keywords, etc.) A hierarchical site map and navigation plan were also created, preparing us for content and design.
Content & Design
Determining the content and layout of templates and pages
From the page tables, the design team was able to begin laying out key components of each template and page. Motion was incorporated into many of the elements to add some energy to the site. The content team polished the content on each page, balancing SEO, verbal expression, and completeness and accuracy of information.
Build & QA
Putting It All Together
The design and development teams worked closely together to ensure precision of layout and motion interactions on mobile and desktop devices. Forms and other functionality were added and tested, and measurement was put into place so that results—such as revenue or form submissions—can be tied back to marketing channels.
Outcomes
Today, Lake Geneva Ziplines & Adventures and Lake Geneva Team Building Adventures, each have brands and sites that are not only fresh and fun, but are attracting and converting the right audiences.
