Superyacht Marketing

To be different takes some ‘BIG KAHUNAS’*

For many years now we have been photographing and filming superyachts of all types all over the world for a large number of clients with an equally large number of marketing objectives.  At the same time we hear and read comments about how we, as an industry, need to market the the superyacht world in a different way. 

Defining ‘different’ is of course open to interpretation and everyone has their opinion.  Regardless of what definition of ‘different’ a client comes to us with, more often than not, we usually end up going down a familiar path when it comes to the creative strategy.  Why is this?

When I think how a typical creative strategy meeting plays out we all start with a desire to do it different, to stand out from the crowd, to attract a new demographic oh and of course the mother of all objectives - to go VIRAL!!

We begin by brainstorming all sorts of ideas, we dive deep in to our library of sometimes weird and wacky ideas, add in a little sanity and come up with an idea that hits the spot.  This process is both challenging and exciting and we are all buzzing about making the idea come to life.  But then somewhere between this point and the result the idea gets derailed or at the very least watered down. 

So what happens? Especially when we all agreed we wanted to do it different this time.

Here’s what happens....

1. Unless the final decision maker is involved in creating the idea or they trust their own team 100% there is always a risk that one person will veto it.

2. The client gets nervous when they begin to realise they only have the yacht for 3 days before it sails off in to the wild blue yonder for 12 months so if they get it wrong a redo is not on the cards.

3. The clients creative brain was disconnected from their budgeting brain and they realise they don’t have anything like the funds needed to make the idea happen.

4. The reality that we are all working with something that is someones personal pride and joy starts to weigh on our minds.

5. The client starts to get overwhelmed with conflicting outcomes from the shoot - walkthroughs, crew, technical, detail, short films, long films, toys only, tender only, cuisine only etc. These days there are so many marketing channels available its no wonder the list of requirements grows year by year.

With all this coming at them is it any wonder what was once seen as the breakthrough idea that was going to bring clients running through the door ends up being “let’s just go with a male and female model, or maybe we just do a technical walkthrough”

And let’s not forget once on the shoot the client can get distracted with other opportunities, leading to what was once a well defined and well planned three days ending up as a mashup of conflicting priorities.  The result - a compromised outcome.

So maybe before saying ‘lets do it different’ try to understand it takes some big kahunas to stay strong and make it actually happen.  

So who has actually has “Big Kahunas”? The following projects spring to mind

MOONEN - a 2mins 30 sec brand film with no yacht until around the 2min mark. View Here

KAHLILAH - One woman all alone having fun, going against the opinions of the PC crowd to show just how much fun being on a superyacht really is. View Here

CYCLONE by TANSU - One woman with an ‘in your face’ aggressive styled Landrover making a statement about the yacht brand and the target market. View Here

HOME by Heesen - The contrast between the noise of a helicopter and motorbike with the silence inside the yacht to illustrate its sound proofing features.  Development of this idea and its implementation took less than 48hrs and took courage and some quick talking to make happen. View Here

MAKING YOUR WORLD BRIGHTER by CNI a campaign of six short films depicting the superyacht life on and off the yacht.  The film series approach was a new idea in 2015 but it paid dividends by giving the campaign a long promotional shelf life for CNI. View Here

SARP YACHTS - A more abstract approach to promoting the brand via a voice over script and E Type Jag.  Back in 2016 this film turned a few heads and the concept has since been replicated by others. View Here

GARCON by Damen - This was the first Yacht Support film we created for Damen and they took a risk with the style and music. But true to form they have maintained this style across all their Yacht Support films and it has paid off. View Here

*BIG KAHUNAS - figuratively a person who has big kahunas has a lot of nerve, is brave, a risk taker

By: Robert Gleed