The Launch of 704 Pride

Hello! Welcome to the first blog post of 704 Pride!

Our first post is dedicated to the recent launch of our new brand: 704 Pride. As a reminder, 704 Pride is a digital media group dedicated to developing a community, culture, and brand surrounding the professional sports scene in Charlotte, NC. Our higher ambitions are to foster passion for what makes Charlotte special, sharing unique work, businesses, eateries, entertainment sources, and more. We hope you enjoy the first blog, and we look forward to this incredibly exciting journey with all of you!

Our brand was born from the original page, @pantherspride on instagram. In 2015, @pantherspride was founded and dedicated itself to providing Carolina Panthers content to fans across the world. However, this goal was not fully reached as the account fell inactive for many years. In January of 2023, however, the account was reborn. The re-ignited passion for Carolina Panthers content led to @pantherspride's much awaited return. Over the past 7 months since @pantherspride's rebirth, we have tripled our follower count (400 to 1200+), have engaged with tens of thousands of accounts, and have provided valuable content, insight, and engagement opportunities for Carolina Panthers fans worldwide. The re-birth of @pantherspride is an ongoing success that continues to bring people from all walks of life together.

With proof of concept demonstrated through @pantherspride, the vision grew larger. There had to be a way to expand this work, reach to a bigger audience, make a bigger impact. The answer: 704 Pride. As a native Charlottean, my passion for Charlotte sports is unmatched, and the answer soon became very clear. I would expand the brand to include @charlottehornetspride and @charlottefcpride, all working under the newfound parent brand @704pride. This way, our digital media work would be shared to all sporting interests within the Charlotte area.

So, I got to work. In the midst of college finals, my internship search, and collegiate athletic training, I set out to develop this brand, to make an impact for the people of Charlotte. I spent hundreds of hours meticulously crafting each and every logo, developing our integrated website, drafting our high quality announcement videos, and updating our branding across all platforms. It was hard work, but I knew that it was bound to be something truly special.

So, I had it ready. The posts were scheduled, the logos were ready to change, the brand was prepared to be released to all @pantherspride fans on May 21, 2023 at 7PM. However, at 6:30 PM, I noticed that instagram was down. Everyone, across the world, experienced a never-before-seen outage of all instagram services. The launch was detrimentally affected. But, if there's any lessons that can be taken from entrepreneurial experiences, it's that the failure––if processed correctly––can end up leading to the greatest successes.

So, I reworked everything. I was now ready. 704 Pride was now set to launch on May 22, 2023. Success! Our brand is now officially launched. Our instagram presence now encompasses @pantherspride, @charlottefcpride, @charlottehornetspride, all operating under the parent brand of @704pride. Additionally, our newly created twitter presence includes solely the parent account @704pride.

Our announcement video has now been viewed over 4300 times across all platforms! Our branded launch posts racked up hundreds of likes, comments, and follows, increasing engagement and starting the brand out on the right foot. Our website has been launched and we are experiencing new visitors each day. It is here, it is now! Our website is live, our announcements have been made, and it's go time.

We are incredibly excited to continue this journey with all of you. It's ambitious, but that's the only way to create something truly special. We love Charlotte, we love our sports, we love our people, and we're going to make it happen. Our focus at the moment is to provide unique, engaging digital media surrounding our three professional sports franchises. As previously stated, however, our long-term goal remains to showcase everything that makes Charlotte special, in all facets of life.

We hope that you will join us in our journey to make an impact across one of the greatest cities in the world. We are excited to get to know all of you and share our passions with you each and every day.

Thank you. Welcome to 704 Pride!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/aacd8c_c8ac49b1940547f8ad5e7b869e206d34/1080p/mp4/file.mp4