What Does DEMA do for You?

How DEMA and the Go Dive Now Campaign are Promoting the Sport of Diving & Helping Members Grow their Businesses

On May 24, 2016 DEMA launched Go Dive Now and has since been leveraging the successful campaign to help grow the Industry. From online advertising to media coverage of the Go Dive Now Pool, Go Dive Now has been hard at work marketing the sport of scuba diving to help DEMA Members reach new customers and grow their businesses.

In addition to ad placements throughout the internet, Go Dive Now’s success is largely attributed to marketing through social media (such as targeted Facebook and YouTube advertising). Facebook ad buys are focused mainly around local DEMA Member retail stores. (Don’t miss out on this invaluable opportunity - become a 2017 DEMA Member to make sure your location is included!)

Touring around the country, “Big Wave” Dave Reidenbach and the Go Dive Now Pool have traveled from Florida to California since the beginning of 2017 to bring the try diving experience to hundreds of event participants. Each pool tour stop has provided opportunities to increase business for the participating local DEMA Member dive centers who volunteer to work the event. Members benefit from the invaluable opportunity to acquire new customers, attract previously-certified divers who may have been inactive for a while, and generate media coverage for their store and for recreational diving, both locally and nationally. And by being part of a potential new diver’s first experience, participating retailers are already building trust and loyalty with potential new customers that could develop into a long-term buying and diving relationship. Sponsored by the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors
(PADI) and Scuba Schools International (SSI), and supported by the DEMA Manufacturers Fund and participating DEMA Member Retailers, the Pool will continue its tour as a top consumer event feature throughout 2017 at various consumer-oriented travel, outdoor activity and adventure shows. Retailers who are interested in participating in a scheduled Pool stop or who may be aware of an event with potential for attracting new divers are encouraged to contact Dave Reidenbach at (920) 205-3657 or bigwavedave@dema.org.

Before the official launch of Go Dive Now, the DEMA Board of Directors and Consumer Marketing Committee spent a year developing this campaign and have since continued to evaluate, develop and implement new strategies to best serve the goal of reaching new potential divers. Past and present members of the Consumer Marketing Committee include: Kristin Valette (Chair), Stefanie Cash, William Cline, Derrick Crotts, Stuart Cove, Mike Hollis, Doug McNeese, Jenna Meistrell, and Tim Webb.

More than a way to drive just certifications, Go Dive Now utilizes industry research to locate and target the audiences near DEMA-Member retailers that will be most likely to fully engage in diving, including buying equipment, diving locally and buying dive travel. Go Dive Now, is planned as a multi-year campaign and has been and will continue to be, a collaborative effort amongst industry stakeholders through the gathering of marketing insight, coming together for brainstorming sessions, and sharing media files for promotional efforts.