The 66th Toronto International Boat Show (TIBS) is open until January 28. More than 70,000 people are expected to walk through the doors of North America’s largest indoor boat show, take in the latest and greatest in watercraft and check out the world’s largest indoor lake for boaters.
From anchors to zodiacs and everything in between, if it’s about getting out on the water, it’s at TIBS. People can catch product demos, the Indoor Canadian Wakeboarding Championship, waterski shows, races and more. But what they’re itching to see are the 100+ product launches, 500+ exhibitors and 1,000+ boats on display across 1,000,000+ sq. ft. of floor space.
Stats and facts brand marketers at TIBS should know about, but not worry about. Instead, they should focus on these:
More boats are purchased at the Toronto International Boat Show than at any other place or event in Canada. About 43% of Canadians (12.4 million people) participate in boating and 20% (6 million) own a boat. Direct revenues across Canada’s core recreational boating industry total nearly $5 billion per year, and directly employ approximately 45,000 Canadians.
Those two sentences appeared at the bottom of a five-page press release sent the day before TIBS opened. A seeming throwaway, they are arguably the most important 56 words found anywhere on the TIBS website.
Canada is bordered by three oceans and is home to more freshwater lakes than any other country in the world. It’s a place where watercraft and watersports come naturally to millions and “cottage” is both a noun and a verb. For any brand looking to sell more in Canada, TIBS is the experiential marketing event of the year.
Unfortunately, a lot of the money, time and effort those 500+ exhibitors are spending to put on a good show right now will go to waste. Almost none set aside a little budget to connect people to their products before, during and after TIBS.
Simply put, brands that bet budgets on good times or lasting impressions without a digital backbone to their activations are going to sell a lot less than competitors with more foresight. And it’s all about selling more.
Extending the lifespan of an activation that markets summer products during the depths of a Canadian winter is good business. Doing so with a single software solution like Limelight that captures qualified leads, delivers them to dealers and keeps them engaged until it’s time to buy is great business.
Limelight Platform. Work smarter, not harder.