SOCIAL MEDIA SIX MONTH SNAPSHOT:
Fairline is one of the UK’s leading luxury yacht builders.
The MTM Agency was appointed in February 2020 to take over the brand’s social accounts to develop a consistently premium creative presence across each channel, with three key objectives; to grow engagement, brand awareness and increase perceptions of this world-leading yacht manufacturer.
HNWI and UHNWIs are not your typical consumer, so reaching the world’s wealthiest individuals requires a highly tailored social strategy. At MTM we understand the world of these elite customers. We know where they live, what they do, how they spend their leisure time and how to connect with them through social media. Our team set about transforming Fairline’s social platforms through creative tactics catered specifically to reach HNWIs in a way that resonates with them, driving results and securing a fantastic return on investment for Fairline.
Now, just six months in, Fairline has seen a 48% increase in engagement on LinkedIn - a channel that had previously been hard to deliver cut through, and a 104% increase in reach of Instagram content, with a 29% increase in followers. Facebook has seen an equally impressive 75% increase in engagement rates in the past half-year, with a 300% increase in website link clicks and enquiries.
With COVID-19 restrictions coming into place just a month into the activity starting, Fairline’s social channels were quickly transformed and adapted to suit the changing needs of Fairline’s customers and the industry as whole - acting as a positive space for customers to reconnect with genuine, real-time content at a time of global uncertainty.
ENGAGING AMID COVID-19
With the pandemic taking a firm grip on people’s lives around the globe, Fairline quickly recognised a requirement to flex up it’s social and digital strategy to suit the changing needs of the world and the people within it.
There was a sudden need to be even more responsive to its customer base, and we quickly worked with Fairline to develop a digital solution which would enable customers to explore its range of yachts from the comfort and safety of their homes, whilst connecting at a deeper and more honest level with the brand.
CONNECTING AT A DEEPER LEVEL
When it comes to leisure marine brands, the boat show season is a critical period for the industry. The start of summer through to autumn is typically when customers are out on their own boats, but it’s also when new relationships and new purchases are made. The unforeseen challenges and stringent travel restrictions brought on by COVID-19 meant that Fairline needed to find a way to replace the loss of contact with its audience, and it needed it immediately.
It was clear that a new digital platform was required; one which would allow customers to explore Fairline’s range of yachts with ease, and and from the comfort of their homes...or yacht. The site needed to work hard as a sales tool for the Fairline brand but also for its network of dealers around the world, with regular calls to action for customers to contact their local agent.
The platform offered the entire Fairline range as virtual reality 360° boat tours, but it was the campaign’s live content that was key to its success. The site promoted a programme of regular live events, presentations and interviews, creating a reason for the user to return, encouraging engagement and, most importantly, providing opportunities for the user to engage on a one-to-one basis with active prospects – all live on the site and on social media.
CREATING COMMUNITY BUY-IN
To maximise buy-in and engagement from Fairline’s current and existing customers, developing content which would spark genuine interest would be key to the success of the platform. This included tapping into Fairline’s global audience of potential buyers and current/former owners. We also wanted to expand Fairline’s audience and expose the business digitally, to those who hadn’t interacted with Fairline to date.
THE SOLUTION
In a matter of days, we designed and developed a new, bespoke digital platform enabling Fairline’s customers to browse the Fairline range from the comfort and safety of home, with strong signposting and opportunities to engage with the brand and local dealers around the world on a deeper, more personalised level than ever before. This was supported through a new programme of live digital and social media activities to create maximum cut through in an already crowded environment.
FEATURES & STRATEGY
The Fairline Virtual Marina brings the world of hand-crafted luxury boats direct to the customer. The platform includes 360-degree VR detailed tours of all the yachts within the Squadron, Targa and F//LINE model ranges, allowing customers to explore the Fairline family of yachts during social distancing and in the longer period afterwards while things remained fluid and travel, industry shows and exhibitions were still on hold.
CONNECTING GLOBAL AUDIENCES THROUGH LIVE CONTENT:
In addition to the VR tours and live chat function on the platform itself, we developed a regular programme of livestream yacht tours, which were hosted by Fairline’s global dealer network from all over the world - including Mexico, New York, UK and Croatia.
Live tours streamed through Facebook enabled customers to access detailed tours of the yachts and have the opportunity to ask questions as they are guided through the vessel, ideal for showcasing hidden details, demonstrate the yacht’s performance and ask any questions directly with the dealer. Each livestream took customers on a unique and unseen tour - from stern to bow, meticulously walking them through the yacht.
In addition to the live tours was an exclusively recorded interview with Fairline designer Alberto Mancini. In order to drive interest, we enlisted the help of Nick Burnham, esteemed marine journalist and founder of Aquaholic to conduct the interview. The interview complimented the live tours and was shared widely across Fairline’s and Nick’s own social channels.
Each live tour was promoted across all of Fairline’s social channels, and re-shared on Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube to enable as many people to engage with the content as possible. Premium high-quality content was created to reflect the brand’s look and feel which included social promotional videos, animations and highlight showreels were also created by our in-house design team to enable dealers and key influencers to promote the activity across their own channels, resulting in increased buy-in and engagement from the industry.
The Results
490 new organic Facebook page likes. This is a 3.5 % increase in total page likes: February 13,764 page likes - 14,254 page likes in August 2020
72% overall increase in engagement rates. Approx 145 average engagements per month in February, this is now at 250 engagements per month on average (likes, comments and shares of posts)
In February 14 posts on average per month has increased by 79% to 25 posts per month
93% increase in page likes: February 193 likes - 373 likes August 2020
48% increase in engagement rate. Engagement rate - average in February 4.4% - August average 6.5%
200% increase in the number of comments per post. Comments average 7 comments per month now 21 comments per month on average
29% increase in followers from February - August. We have gained 2,484 new followers since February 2020. Today’s total is 11,100.
104% increase in average post reach. Post reach increased 24,000 (Feb) - 49,000 (August)
1175 increase in engagements. Post engagements increased 1800 (Feb average) - 3900 (August average)
Virtual Marina Snapshot
- The launch of the VR site and Live Tours has been a great success with the top-performing tour being the Targa 45 Open (23.8k views and 119,000 people reached) and F//LINE 33 (19.4k views and 108,000 reach).
- Total reach of all Live Virtual Marina videos: 355,572 people
- Paid promotions to drive traffic to the site performed well with an extremely low cost per link click at 0.07p and 0.09p
- The Alberto Mancini interview was well received with 4.8k views and 450 likes and we would recommend additional interviews with key Fairline team members to drive traffic further to the Virtual Marina.
- Top traffic referrals 1: Facebook average 570 visits a month 2) Fairline.com average 95 average visits a month 3) Direct url access 60 average visits per month
- Average 28,000 site users June 2020
- Top 3 entry pages: 1) homepage 2) Pre-owned 3) F//LINE 33