During the KLM Open - on home soil in the Netherlands - Leadingcourses.com has launched a brand new corporate identity. This new identity includes - amongst others - a new logo, new colours, new photography and new fonts. It was a huge task to replace the old logo, both on- and offline but it was well worth it. Our new identity is fresh, crisp and modern and a better fit with what Leadingcourses.com has become since 2007: Europe's largest independent golf course review website.

The early days
Since the introduction of Leadingcourses.com in 2007 the logo has undergone several changes. Some more radical than others. Back in 2007 we started with a logo which was very different from our current one. Our first logo mainly focused on the fact that our website was about golf (hence the flags and the golf ball) and mainly green colour tones were used, with a thin orange line. The tag line was 'golf beyond compare' as -at that time - we believed that we were a golf course comparison website.

With the rise of social media and the use of the favicon (the little icon which you can see in the tab of your browser), we quickly experienced that our first logo was not very good. It was too wide and if we had to crop it, you would not be able to recognize the logo any more. So, that is when we decided to change our logo for the first time. We decided to add the URL in the logo (so not Leadingcourses, but Leadingcourses.com), we wanted a separate icon and the logo had to be readable if you cropped it. The colours stayed the same (orange and green) although the colour orange became more prominent.

The new 'dialogo'
In 2011 new shareholders joined Leadingcourses.com and that was the time that we decided to do a complete overhaul of the website and the logo. The new website was launched April 2011. The design of the pages, the layout and the logo still form the basis of what you see today. The new logo was called a 'dialogo' by the designer, as it is actually a dialogue between two people (two talk clouds). Back in the days we were the first with such a logo. Now, quite some companies (in the review business) have copied us, using identical talk clouds. But we are still proud that we were the first!

The current redesign - which was officially launched at the KLM Open - is more about nuances that make our logo and identity better than making ground breaking changes. The font has changed and the colors have been updated and switched. The green represents the grass the golfer stands on and the orange shows the Dutch roots of Leadingcourses.com. Not even everybody might even notice it. And there is nothing wrong with that. For us, the new logo combined with a brand guide - provides us solid guidelines on how to use our logo in our communication strategy.

International growth
Nowadays Leadingcourses.com is visited by more than 350.000 golfers per month worldwide and - despite the changes in style and logo - they can still trust on Leadingcourses.com to help them find the right golf course.

With the recent addition of the Italian site - language number 9 - more and more European golfers find their way to the website. The number of golf courses on the website nowadays is close to 25.000 and more than 325.000 reviews can be read. Last month the 50.000th Dutch review was written.

Anniversary
Leadingcourses.com was founded in 2007 by three internet experts with a passion for golf. Together with some friends Managing Director and founder Jeroen Korving played on golf course The European Club in Ireland and found out that the course was too difficult and too expensive for their level of play at the time. The reason why they played that course was because they couldn't find enough information about where they should have played instead. And that is when the idea of Leadingcourses.com was born. Meanwhile it is 2017 and the company will celebrate its 10 year anniversary in October this year. As part of the celebrations, we will also launch a new app in the autumn of 2017, to make it even easier for golfers to find, book and review golf courses.

By golfers, for golfers
Leadingcourses.com's mission is to provide golfers with up-to-date information about golf clubs and golf courses. We are the platform which enables golfers to help each other by sharing their reviews online. That is also why we use the tag line 'by golfers, for golfers'. By posting reviews, golfers are not only helping other golfers, they are also educating golf course managers about what is good and what not and - in the process - they are creating their own golf logbook. All courses that are reviewed are plotted on a map and we also store uploaded photos in the right spot.

In marketing campaigns we will probably use a new slogan more often, which is: 'share what you love doing most'. For us it is important that golfers keep sharing their opinions - good and bad - so that we can keep providing other golfers a helping hand in selecting the best golf courses. Whether that is in your own country, or across the border.

ENDS