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With more than a million new boaters entering the market in recent years, safety education is a top priority for Discover Boating, powered by the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. To strengthen Discover Boating’s educational resources, and to support new and existing boaters throughout their experience, NMMA has expanded its partnership with Progressive Insurance, a longstanding sponsor of Discover Boating boat shows.

This new collaboration includes a focus on safety content and strategic, year-round awareness efforts through boat shows and events, across all screens, including TV, mobile, web, social media, email and public relations.

As part of our original collaboration with Progressive Insurance, the NMMA-produced boat shows featured new elements to engage audiences and enhance their 360-degree experience. One of these new elements was the launch of the enhanced Boat Finder tool, which attracted more than 160,000 unique visitors in just over two months, allowing prospective buyers to shop for the latest boat models in a market. As part of this experience, visitors received helpful information from Progressive on the importance of boat insurance in the buying process.

With the 2023 NMMA-owned boat shows under the Discover Boating brand for the first time, we saw natural increases in awareness, reach and impact, and could provide additional continuity for boaters and prospective boaters as they navigated the boat-shopping and owning experience. All of this will continue into the 2024 show season, with plans for more immersive experiences around boating safety and education in partnership with Progressive.

Last spring, we teamed up with Progressive to launch a digital video series featuring five short-form episodes that address some of the most-asked questions from boaters related to safety, including watersports, carriage and capacity requirements, tips for captains, celebrating safely on the water, and passenger etiquette. To date, the Discover Boating Safety Basics Video Series, Presented with Progressive Insurance, has garnered 1.5 million views.

A key takeaway from the video series is the timeliness and type of content. Launching relevant, short-form safety videos leading up to, and during, peak boating season proves to pique interest in new boaters who are looking for snackable educational content before they get out on the water.

In June, Discover Boating and Progressive hosted an immersive press trip in Charleston, S.C., with national consumer lifestyle media and content creators to generate boating-related content and stories, while providing educational tips and raising awareness for how people can get on the water safely and confidently. During the three-day event, attendees took to the water to learn safety basics from expert captains and local pros on the picturesque waterways of Charleston, and they shared their experiences in real time through social media, further driving brand exposure and engagement among next-generation audiences.

Immersing attendees in the boating lifestyle with hands-on experiences and safety tips allowed the writers and content creators to gain a deeper understanding to better tell our story to their loyal readers and followers.

Additionally, in July, Discover Boating and Progressive launched a television public service announcement campaign. It featured videos from the Safety Basics Video Series. In just one month, the PSA aired 2,000 times across local, regional and national networks including ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX affiliates, driving nearly 13 million impressions. The PSA has already generated more than $750,000 in ad value.

The videos are also airing on Connected TV and have a view-through rate of 99%, which is higher than the industry average of 89% (source: Connect360 Multimedia). The amount of pickup the PSA has achieved thus far shows that the message is resonating with TV producers who are looking to fill airtime with compelling content that raises public awareness on important issues like boating safety.

For more than a decade, the NMMA and Discover Boating have worked with Progressive to deliver world-class boat and sport shows. Taking our collaboration one step further to provide more safety education resources helps the industry engage the new boaters who entered the market and build their confidence, so they have more fun on the water. 

This article was originally published in the October 2023 issue.

Ellen Bradley is chief brand officer and senior vice president of marketing and communications for the National Marine Manufacturers Association.