05 Jun Social Media Case Study: Discover Boating
As a social agency, we have the opportunity to work on some fun projects. One of those projects was a campaign called “Welcome to the Water” for Discover Boating. Discover Boating is a public awareness effort managed by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA). Discover Boating focuses on increasing participation in recreational boating by demonstrating the benefits, affordability and accessibility of the boating lifestyle while offering opportunities to experience the fun and togetherness of being on the water on a boat. Our work with Discover Boating won Audience Honor for Large Media Buying Strategy at the Shorty Awards. You can read more about our social media case study below.
Campaign Objective
Discover Boating came to Ignite looking for a partner to increase boating participation and manufacturer referrals from their social channels.
Discover Boating also wanted to engage a younger audience. They wanted to reach males and females, aged 25-49, living in the United States who enjoy being outside, active and vacationing.
Strategy & Implementation
Our strategy was to bring the experience of boating to our audience and to demystify boat ownership. We used a multi-phased strategic approach:
- Develop—Bring the experience of boating to social audiences and encourage participation
- Desire—Build desire by demystifying ownership
- Dream—Give them tools that help the audience dream in detail to find the right boat for them
- Decide—Highlight stories of ownership from owners
We created engaging content, such as canvas ads, Instagram Stories, and repurposed UGC, that aligned to each phase.
Our paid media approach related to the stages of the funnel we were driving. We strategically optimized to custom categories of conversions to drive users further down the funnel.
Utilizing the platform’s targeting options, we implemented the Facebook pixel on Discover Boating’s website to re-target visitors to push them through the purchase funnel. We would re-target visitors to get them to take action on key pages (i.e. Boat Finder and Boat Loan Calculator). We developed Custom and Lookalike Audiences based on website visitors. Additionally, we had target groups built around our target audiences’ interests, behaviors and media and brand preferences.
Social Media Case Study Results
Our social media campaign successfully and efficiently drove qualified users down the path to conversion.
We also conducted a Facebook Brand Lift study during the course of the campaign.
- Respondents who recalled seeing a Discover Boating ad had a 22.7-point lift over the control group
- 12.3-point lift over the control group for those likely to purchase a boat in the next year
- 22.2-point lift over the control group for those likely to go boating in the next month
Additionally, we successfully reached and engaged a younger audience as 71% of campaign engagements came from users under the age of 45. Our team had a lot of fun working on this campaign! Check out more on this social media case study and other industry leading case studies.
