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The Grow Boating Marketing Summit, held earlier this month at IBEX in Tampa, had 150 marine industry marketers in attendance to hear from marketing and research experts on the evolution of digital marketing. Summit attendees included boat, engine and accessory manufacturers, as well as dealers, boat clubs and marine industry service providers.

“This year we expanded to a full-day program with a diverse line-up of digital marketing experts to provide attendees with valuable insights and learnings that can be immediately applied to their marketing efforts,” said Carl Blackwell, Grow Boating president. “With digital marketing evolving quickly, staying on top of these changes is important and something the Discover Boating campaign is focused on to ensure we’re reaching potential customers in a meaningful way.”

Summit presentations outlined how to effectively market to the next wave of boaters by leveraging digital marketing channels, such as display ads, video, social media, email, search and websites, to move the sales needle.

The speaker line-up included: 

• Marcus Sheridan, Author of They Ask, You Answer: How the Video Revolution is Changing the World of Business As We Know It
• Tom Martin, Author of The Invisible Sale: How to Win the Invisible Sale
• Brooke Skinner Ricketts, Cars.com: Winning the 4 P's of Digital Marketing
• Tannis McKenna, Google: Digital Measurement in the Age of Assistance
• Brad Dixon, Adaptly: Why Social for Boating?
• Jack Ellis, Info-Link: Today's Boat Market, Tomorrow’s Boaters
• Steve Pizzolato, Avala Marketing Group: Perfecting the Prospect Journey: How to Help Consumers "Discover Boating”

Recordings of all Summit presentations can be found here on GrowBoating.org and we encourage you to consider sharing these presentations with your team.

“The Grow Boating Market Summit was a comprehensive day-long experience that included excellent presenters from a wide range of digital expertise and research. A must for all marketers in the boating industry to expand their knowledge of marketing & sales trends and improve outreach with potential customers. A very rewarding and inspiring day!” – Bryan Seti, General Manager, Yamaha WaterCraft Group

“I would encourage all industry leaders and decision makers to attend the Grow Boating Marketing Summit to hear firsthand the important marketing message delivered. Working together we can keep our industry healthy, allowing all our businesses to grow – this starts with getting more people on the water.” – Ned Trigg, Executive Vice President, Marine Division, Dometic Group

“Our team thoroughly enjoyed the Marketing Summit event and left feeling reenergized. The event’s content was world-class and all of the speakers delivered a unified and clear message. We are already looking forward to next year and will definitely be in attendance.” – Victor Gonzalez, Marketing Manager, Sportsman Boats

Added Blackwell, “We’re excited about the momentum the Grow Boating Summit has created and already looking at how to make next year’s event bigger and better. Given the positive feedback we’ve received on how Discover Boating is helping to introduce new marketing practices and learnings, we’re working on identifying further resources we can share to help our industry execute the kind of consumer marketing that’s going to move the needle for the long-term.”