Optimism aside, there are no guarantees the sales roll we’ve been on will continue into this summer or beyond. It’s imperative that our industry keep the promotional engines turning at maximum RPM, and dealers must hold up their end, too.

Once again, the National Marine Manufacturers Association, Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation are leading the way. NMMA has been ramping up PR efforts ahead of the peak selling season by working with news outlets nationwide to keep recreational boating top of mind. They’ve already chalked up major successes with CNN, the Washington Post, People, HuffPost and USA Today, to note a few.

Meanwhile, RBFF is set to continue the highly successful “Get On Board” campaign this spring and summer. It will again be a fully integrated marketing effort featuring digital advertising, public service announcements, social media and public relations.

Last year, this public service campaign encouraged consumers to take to the water, and it yielded unparalleled results in many areas. More specifically, it’s impact during a time when safe outdoor recreation was being pushed nationally generated 1.8 billion impressions and more than 20 million online video views.

“We joined forces with NMMA and MRAA to create a first-of-its-kind, industrywide effort that uniquely positioned us to tell our story to new and existing audiences in a more impactful way,” says RBFF president and CEO Frank Peterson. “It resulted in a 167 percent year-over-year increase in digital traffic to our TakeMeFishing.org.”

Reaching new audiences is invaluable to bring in the next generation of boaters and anglers. Through the Get On Board and Discover Boating brands, the message that “the water is open and it’s time to leave stress on our wake” resonated as never before, and drove unexpected traffic into dealer showrooms across the country.

A few highlights of the campaign’s success:

• 44,000 new boat buyers entered the market during the March-June sales period.

• Boat sales marked the highest volume in 13 years, driven by more than 381 million impressions from paid advertising in media outlets.

• A 107 percent average increase in digital traffic on Discover Boating’s website and across Take Me Fishing’s digital assets year-over-year, especially among target audiences, such as females (up 65 percent) and Gen Z, ages 18-24, (up 155 percent).

The “Get On Board” video was a top-viewed social post among Discover Boating’s nearly 800,000 Facebook followers. Overall, social content from Take Me Fishing and Discover Boating reached 179 million impressions, up 165 percent year-over-year.

Through Discover Boating, all industry players can take advantage of the Discover Boating Online Toolkit, which includes visual marketing assets such as the “Get On Board” campaign video.
Using these professionally produced materials, dealers can help share the message, keep boating and fishing top of mind during this year’s prime selling time, cash in with more local recognition, and continue to draw new prospects through the door.

Now is the time to start using the materials as postings across your social media channels, websites, newsletters and any other communications initiatives.