Discover Boating’s 2024 Year-Round Brand Experience Attracts 6.5 Million People to Its Digital and In-Person Experiences

Over the past 12 months, Discover Boating, powered by NMMA and MRAA, has been working hard to attract the next generation to the boating lifestyle while simultaneously retaining current boaters. Through Discover Boating’s year-round, fully integrated omni channel strategy – including the See You Out Here campaign, that’s helping new audiences see themselves as part of the boating lifestyle, current and future boaters are being engaged at every turn. This is happening thanks to a robust digital community, 10 Discover Boating boat shows in key markets around the country, strategic brand partnerships that elevate and extend Discover Boating’s reach, and the boat buying and ownership experience through training and resources offered by MRAA to its dealer members. The industry-wide effort connected with people identified in Discover Boating research as most likely to be interested in boating – as many as 91 million people – supporting their boating interests wherever they were in their journey, ensuring they not only felt welcome, but informed, empowered, and excited about boat ownership and the memories, joys and benefits of life on the water.

With the industry’s investment in Discover Boating’s long-term strategy, and two years into a new omni-channel approach, it’s coming at a time it’s needed most. By staying the course amid slowing sales, Discover Boating is helping connect with future boaters, keep boating part of the conversation, and retain the new boaters who’ve recently joined the lifestyle.

As a result, in its 2024 fiscal year, Discover Boating made valuable introductions to manufacturers and dealers across all stages of the consumer’s journey. Today’s consumer expects to be in control more than ever, that’s why Discover Boating puts the consumer at the helm, allowing them to research, explore, learn and connect with boating in ways they choose, from exploring boat brands, rentals, and boat models, to learning about dealers in their area, attending a boat show, or becoming a lead to be contacted by a dealer or brand, and more. To truly welcome new people to boating, manufacturers and dealers must welcome and nurture these future boaters, knowing that they’re being introduced at all stages of life and at all stages of their boating journey.

For the Discover Boating year (October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024), Discover Boating reached new heights, delivering 7.3 billion impressions (the number of times people saw the content) and attracted more than 6.5 million of the people reached to Discover Boating’s websites in the U.S. and Canada (up 5% against plan and 23% year-over-year), which supported 1.6 million introductions to manufacturers and dealers through website referrals, boat shows and leads (up 10% against plan and flat year-over-year).

In its effort to expand the market for recreational boating, Discover Boating saw an uptick in the number of females visiting DiscoverBoating.com at 33% (up from 31% last year), and DiscoverBoating.ca at 38% (up from 34% last year) revealing that when connected with in a genuine way, women are indeed interested in boating and take action.

“Discover Boating is a long-term growth strategy, rooted in expanding the market, and we’re seeing that strategy work when we connect with people in a way that’s not only meaningful but genuine, and that’s where our partners on the manufacturer and dealer side come in – helping make sure that as Discover Boating introduces new people to boating, they’re met with that same level of engagement and accessibility,” said Ellen Bradley, Chief Brand Officer for NMMA. “As we build and grow our industry for the future, truly understanding our customers’ values, beliefs, and interests helps us attract, engage and retain them and testing our assumptions about who a boater is and what they want, is central to what Discover Boating is helping us tackle together.”

“Leveraging the power of our industry’s Discover Boating brand is a must for stakeholders looking to grow their businesses. Discover Boating’s marketing efforts are grounded in cutting-edge research to deliver a targeted marketing strategy that supports, educates and engages new and existing boaters,” noted Matt Gruhn, MRAA President. “We encourage industry stakeholders to take advantage of Discover Boating’s valuable marketing tools, resources and assets to help enhance the customer experience from researching to shopping to buying to boating.”

Over the past year, Discover Boating marketing results helped reach new audiences and engage current boaters:

• Delivered 7.3 billion media impressions, driving our industry’s voice in the market and building positive awareness for boating with more than 6.5 million people coming to Discover Boating websites (up 5% against plan and 23% year-over-year) and 1.6 million introductions made to boat manufacturers and dealers (up 10% against plan and flat year-over-year).
• Created more than 5,000 pieces of inspiring content resources, ensuring our audience has access to multiple pieces of daily boating content across all our various channels. This includes targeted videos – examples here and here – generating more than 10 million YouTube views. That means people are seeing and watching our boating messages.
• Generated nearly 24,000 positive news stories to help reach new audiences and deliver important education, including public service announcements in the U.S. and Canada, driving $10.4 million in media value (equivalent cost of securing the same media “real estate” if the news coverage were paid advertising).
• Grew social media audiences across all platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Meta and X to 951,000 followers. Compared to 2023 growth, social platforms saw a 1,261% increase year-over-year.
• Partnered with more than 140 influential content creators who shared personal boating experiences with their loyal followers, reinforcing boating messaging in an authentic way, driving 25 million impressions that resulted in 12.5 million interactions, including engagements and views – examples here and here. Reaching our audiences through the content creators they trust, helps Discover Boating improve its impact.
• Hosted dozens of brand activations, including the Black Boaters Summit, a 3-day on-water event in Martha’s Vineyard, and American Century Golf Championship with NBC Sports, to interact face-to-face with consumers, boating enthusiasts, and influencers and bring Discover Boating directly to next generation audiences.

For questions related to Discover Boating, contact Kevin Williams, NMMA’s Vice President of Marketing, at kwilliams@nmma.org.