As the pickleball facility market shifts from a land-grab era to a focus on community and experience, Premier Pickleball in Herriman, Utah, has pioneered a successful strategy: providing free memberships to local content creators. By leveraging the influence of nearby players rather than traditional marketing, the club has turned its facility into a hub for organic, high-engagement social media content.
The Premier Pickleball Creator Strategy
The club’s approach began organically with local coach and ambassador Randy Nguyen, whose content demonstrated the value of showing potential members exactly what the facility experience feels like before they visit. Recognizing this impact, Premier formalized the relationship by offering specific perks to creators in exchange for collaborative social media content. The program includes the following benefits and requirements:
- Free Memberships: Creators are granted complimentary access to the facility, removing cost barriers for those who spend significant time on-site.
- Unrestricted Filming: Creators are not required to clear their filming schedules in advance, allowing them to capture authentic, spontaneous moments.
- Event Access: The club invites creators to capture b-roll at various events, ensuring they have high-quality footage to share with their audiences.
- Swag and Unlimited Replays: Creators receive branded merchandise and full access to the club’s automated replay technology.
- Collaboration Requirement: The primary condition for these perks is that any content relevant to the club must be posted as an Instagram or Facebook collaboration with Premier’s official account.
This strategy is supported by the club’s integrated video technology, which has revolutionized the workflow for creators like Chase Ferrel and Sione Moli. Instead of the traditional, labor-intensive process of hauling cameras and scrubbing through hours of footage, creators can now simply tap a replay button during their session or pull clips from the club’s app after playing. This infrastructure allows creators to focus on their game while the technology handles the footage, making the process 10x more productive.
For Premier, this model solves significant operational hurdles. Because the court-level video systems—provided by vendors such as PodPlay—cover every court, the club no longer needs to manage scheduling conflicts or prioritize which creators get to film. This seamless integration of technology and community building highlights a broader industry trend: as consumers increasingly trust local, relatable creators over brand-led advertising, facilities that provide the infrastructure for "shareable" experiences are better positioned to foster the deep sense of belonging that defines a successful, modern pickleball club.
