Freedom Boat Club
Tampa Bay

Freedom Boat Club is the world’s first and largest boat club, with over 35 years of experience. Members enjoy reciprocal access to 400+ locations across North America, Europe, and Australia. They offer concierge-level member support, taking care of everything - including maintenance, cleaning, repairs, insurance, and storage.

THE CHALLENGE

Better Quality Leads

When we started working with Freedom, they had 13 locations and 162 boats. They wanted to grow 40% yearly but lacked a clear process. Their lead: member conversion ratio was 22:1, primarily utilizing referrals from members and social media leads. They needed better quality leads and more of them.

HOW WE HELPED

FISHfinder!

We began by identifying their business cycle: times of the year people were interested in joining a boat club in Tampa. We also studied member demographics - who they were and why they joined. Next, we developed a series of 30-second ads to be played on Connected TV, segmenting the market based on the demographics we discovered. We provided them with a dashboard that measured site traffic and lead conversions and tied them to sales. We met weekly with their marketing team, fishing in various zip codes and trying to learn as much as possible about their market. We changed up the creative often, especially during Covid.

We also utilized other forms of marketing - social media contests, display ads, text blasts for their open houses. All leads that signed up for more information were entered into a marketing funnel. We kept their Sales Team inform of prospect behavior through an app we developed for them. We called the process we created FISHfinder.

THE OUTCOME

5:1 - $97 million

We enjoyed working with the team at Freedom Boat Club of Tampa Bay. They became the largest of FBC’s franchises and eventually sold to Brunswick Corporation, which added FBC to its marine portfolio. Ultimately, Tampa Bay had 33 locations and over 625 boats, and we helped create $97 million worth of business for them. We came a long way from their 13 locations and 162 boats, and we enjoyed the ride!

During the transition period when Brunswick assumed ownership of Freedom Boat Club of Tampa Bay, we conducted a case study comparing three lead sources: Facebook, Google Ads, and Connected TV (OTT) and how they led to FBC memberships. Our findings? Facebook ads closed 228:1; Google closed 28:1, and OTT closed 9:1. Other industries may differ, but Connected TV won hands down here.

We also lowered their lead-member ratio. The national average in Freedom Nation was 22:1; in Tampa, we enjoyed a 5:1!

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The Crossing