Branding sessions are my favorite storytelling challenge, and there is no greater story in the equestrian industry than the heartfelt one told by breeders.
Of all the aspects of horses, I believe breeders are the backbone. It is after all, where it all starts for each horse. When I work with a breeder, I spend a lot of time focusing on the “why” behind their program so I can accurately depict the many aspects – both physically and emotionally – behind their business.
For Kirsten Fereday of Fereday Sporthorses, we wanted to highlight her beautiful stock, her personal relationship with horses, and her new facilities to feature on a new website. Let’s take a look at why we chose each section of story and how it serves her in digital marketing.
FACILITIES
Every program – breeding, training, or rehabilitative in nature – can benefit from a collection of facility images. Professional facility images can really enhance the look of a website and offer virtual visitors a well rounded picture of where you and your horses call home. In the case of branding photos – a shoot day planned well in advance is often the catalyst for making some physical improvements and general tidying up which paints the best overall picture.
The facilities at Fereday Sporthorses are still under construction but we were able to still take some preliminary images to get their website designers up and rolling. New construction is also a great time to photograph spaces before general wear and tear have set in.
BREEDING PROGRAM
The bulk of branding imagery for a breeding program is obviously the horses – from broodmares to foals to started youngsters, stallions, and sales horses.
Fereday Sporthorses has quite a few foals and sales offerings. For the foals we wanted to show happy, healthy, spunky babies – fun imagery that draws in a crowd appreciative of quality breeding. For the sales horses, a clean, well shot conformation image really highlights the horse and elevates the overall look of a sales page on a website.
In singular advertisements on social media, a well balanced conformation image can stop someone in their scroll in a very visually saturated environment. Just like a job interview, good conformation images help horses put their best hoof forward. And a fun foal photo can help create engagement from prospective buyers, other breeders, and horse lovers in the local community.
PORTRAITS
The best branding images connect your audience to your business but also to you individually. For Kirsten, she wanted her site to feel personable, professional, and friendly. The easiest way to achieve these tones is to introduce Kirsten visually as the warm hearted horse lover she is as well as the dedicated breeder. We photographed her under saddle with her personal horse to show her passion both in and out of the saddle and took some beautiful portrait and lifestyle images with one of her favorite pregnant broodmares. This type of digital media has multiple uses. Not only does it make for incredible imagery on website biography pages, but it also generates personal jumping off points for social media or any articles about her operation.
EQUINE ART PORTRAITS
Not only are they eye-catching, but Equine Art portraits (commonly known as “black backgrounds”) not only highlight the beauty of each horse but also make incredible backgrounds for digital content. Banners, flyers, title pages – these are all classy uses for some of the more artistic images we took of Kirsten’s personal and sales horses. For Fereday Sporthorses, a new multipage website could benefit from images needing clean, negative space for text based designs.
Add a comment
0 Comments