Welcome to Media in Focus where we regularly highlight a media opportunity by asking the owners/founders how they started their business, the features and benefits of their advertising offer and how they manage their advertising sales process.

Through Media in Focus we are also pleased to showcase innovative Aussie entrepeneurs – Yacht and Boat is a great example of a business started to fill a gap recognised by the founders.  3 years later they have grown their traffic levels and are now successfully taking on the big boys.....

Name of Website:  www.YachtAndBoat.com.au

Owned by:  Independent - Ben Gaze & Rebecca Jones

Target Market: Australian's boating, water sport and leisure communities.

Launched:  November 2007

Staff: 6  (3 in-house, 3 contract)

If you would like your business to be featured with Media in Focus please contact us

See Yacht and Boat's MediaScope listing here

Can you give us some background information on your business?

Yacht and Boat is a boating lifestyle website.  Apart from thousands of new and used boats for sale the site offers the boating and water leisure community a variety of national resources to help newcomers access information easily.

Tell us how & why Yacht & Boat started?

Three years ago we saw a gap in the market for affordable online boat sales advertising.

Further research showed that there was no national boating resource for newcomers into the market.  Information was fragmented on a State by State basis making the whole prospect of owning a boat daunting and confusing. 

By centralising national information and providing easy to access, high quality content we aim to defragment the industry - making the boating lifestyle accessible to all Australian's whether they have a fishing rod or a superyacht.

Can you outline Yacht & Boat's current market position and your forward plans? 

There is no other single, independent website that offers the variety and depth of national services, resources and information that Yacht and Boat does. 

We certainly see ourselves as a challenger brand in the boating classifieds space - we are now only a few thousand listings shy of the largest player.  Our intention is to significantly increase that footprint in 2010 & 2011.

Without giving too much away, we also have a variety of new user tools launching this year that we believe will revolutionise the way boaters buy, sell and engage online.

What benefits do you offer advertisers?

Yacht and Boat offer advertisers the opportunity to reach a growing, socially connected audience of Australians with a significant discretionary spend.  Essentially our *85,000 monthly visitors are 50/50 male/female - a unique position in this vertical. This is particularly significant considering women are playing a rapidly increasing role in the decision making process of boat ownership.

Advertisers can reach their target market through a variety of methods throughout the site - apart from standard display advertising, which starts at just a $3 CPM rate.

We work closely with our advertisers to understand their campaign objectives and then customise an advertising package that is going to deliver the best cut through for their brand.

*Google Analytics - March 2010

What is the best & worst thing about being an independent web publisher?

Resources and funding are the most challenging aspects but the two best elements are :

1) the excitement of growing a unique and independent brand in an emerging market. 

2) the dynamic ability we have to make decisions and implement improvements quickly.

Tell us about your advertising sales structure? (who sells your ads, your sales team, client base etc)

Most of our ad space is sold by us to marine and travel businesses. We also deal with media buying agencies and online marketing agencies.

What are some things you have learned when dealing with advertisers?

It is vital to understand the advertisers marketing objectives and establish expectations accordingly - prior to the campaign launch. 

Results important to one advertiser are not necessarily important to another. 

Measurement of success largely depends on whether the campaign is focused on brand awareness or a specific call to action and outcome.

What is some advice you would offer to anyone starting a new commercial media business?

Have a clear strategy from the out-set but be open minded enough to adapt as the market changes and your experience grows.

Seek constructive criticism constantly from a variety of sources (especially your customers) and implement changes quickly.

Choose your developer carefully.  This is one of the most important relationships you will have so make sure the platform is scaleable and that provider and vendor lock-in is kept to a minimum.

Get advice from an industry professional from day one. Proceedures you implement in the beginning will pay dividends when your site grows. (Denise - I'd love to give your consulting services a plug here as they were invaluable to us and Im so happy we engaged early on.  But, Im not sure if you want me to.  If it's Ok to write something just let me know and I'll add it immediately.)

Where do you get your advertising and marketing information from?

Everywhere! Magazines, newspapers, books but primarily online.

Other Pages of Interest:

See Yacht and Boat's MediaScope directory listing

See other Media In Focus Profiles

To appear in Media In Focus please contact us