CASE STUDY

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National Boat Shows New Milton Sand & Ballast Rose Road Southampton City College Southampton City Council Southampton Solent University The Nuffield Theatre

Miss PSP Southampton Boat Show 2008

Run by National Boat Shows, a subsidiary of the British Marine Federation, The Southampton Boat Show is a world-class event and has Europe’s largest Show marina. Thousands of visitors attend every year and there is lots to see, do and try out on the water. Carswell Gould, with its excellent face-to-face interactive marketing skills was the perfect partner for NBS, who wished to create an integrated marketing and communications campaign to attract a wider, younger and more diverse audience.

The Aim

The primary aim was to create an integrated marketing and communications campaign to target a wider, younger and more diverse audience all along the south coast, using an existing event, Miss PSP Southampton Boat Show, as a marketing vehicle.

The Approach

• CG worked closely with NBS to create a campaign across a range of media – posters, DL leaflets and online marketing

• Face-to-face marketing from Bournemouth to Southampton, by models in branded t-shirts, handing out branded “business cards” and sashes to potential entrants, ensured a “buzz” about the event along the south coast, helping to spread the news about the event among a new and wider audience

• Similar face-to-face marketing at associated marine events, such as Cowes Week, made sure that CG was also talking to the equally important traditional marine audience

• Branded promotional material encouraged potential contestants to apply online

• The ten finalists were used in pre-Show publicity, such as the launch of 400 balloons to celebrate 40 years of the Boat Show at Southampton

• All finalists were encouraged to ask friends and families to vote for them online

• At the Show, to further encourage the marine link, the finalists had to visit five stands, Hanse, RYA, H2O in association with Calshot, PSP, Topper and perform a variety of practical tasks and answer a marine-themed quiz, the results of which contributed to the girls’ overall mark

• The event was held at peak time on the busiest Saturday of the Show

• The judges were a mixture of high-profile within the marine industry, including NBS and PSP and local celebrity. The winner had a photoshoot at the Fairline stand, on a top-end luxury powerboat

• Branded sashes used in publicity shots ensured Post-Show longevity of message

The Results

Through the face-to-face marketing, thousands of people were exposed to the promotion as branded items were handed out to potential contestants. Online, there was a record entry of more than sixty girls, whittled down to a final list of 10. Media interest in the event was high, with coverage on local radio and in local and regional press, including a front page item in the Southern Daily Echo and three lots of video coverage on the online version of the paper, one of pre-Show publicity in Southampton parks, one showing interviews of each of the 10 finalists and one of the day itself. There were items in the Bournemouth press, Isle of Wight press and a double page spread in Hampshire Society magazine. The winner was decided by a combination of online voting (nearly 9,000 votes), marks given by each of the stands the girls visited, the judges’ opinion, marked across a range of criteria and by audience participation. For this last, “thumbs up/down” boards were produced for the audience on the day to vote for their favourite finalist, as each girl left the stage.

If you would like a comprehensive, 17 page report detailing how we achieved the above, please contact Charlie.