As avid scuba divers, we all need to be aware of things happening in the scuba industry.  After all, scuba industry events affect us all.  Over the past ten years, the number of new diver certifications have barely kept pace with population growth.  By some estimates, they have actually fallen when corrected for population growth.  Many organizations have made feeble attempts to promote diving nationally;  in most cases with poor results.

The Dive Equipment Marketing Association (DEMA) is the “trade association” for local dive stores, diving resorts, and manufacturers.  While they have managed various attempts to impact diver certifications over the past few years, most of them have had little result.  This may be changing.

DEMA has some new plans for 2008, all targeted at letting non-divers know about this great sport and improving the number of new entrants to scuba diving.  Their involvement with the NASCAR through sponsorship of a car in the NASCAR East series, has interesting potential.  The most interesting new DEMA program is BE A DIVER.  Be a Diver is designed to use cross-sport promotion to reach the target consumer that might have an interest in diving and bring them into a retail store for training and equipment purchases.  Ads and video will be offered in various publications, including sports related television channels.  The following quote was issued today and was taken from DiveNewsWire, an industry Internet publication designed to announce new industry products and initiatives.

BE A DIVER Campaign Moves Ahead

DEMA’S MOST AGGRESSIVE DIVER ACQUISITION CAMPAIGN ON TRACK FOR EARLY 2008 LAUNCH

DEMA’s most aggressive Diver Acquisition Campaign continues to make significant progress since its announcement at DEMA Show 2007.  The elements of the Be A Diver marketing campaign continue to be put into place, making it one of the most sophisticated programs DEMA has ever undertaken to grow the industry.

The brand new DEMA television commercial can be viewed by clicking this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDkbzQp6hfQ

DEMA continues to work directly with lifestyle database information from Pitney Bowes to make it possible for Retail DEMA members to locate their current customers, determine where potential customers will most likely be found, and provide the option for member dive retailers to acquire the actual street addresses for potential customers they wish to target. DEMA’s “Big Wave” Dave Reidenbach will work directly with those retailers wishing to use this sophisticated marketing tool.

The BeADiver.comwebsite construction continues, creating a highly sophisticated, easy to navigate resource that will showcase DEMA members differently than other retailers listed on the website’s Retail Store Finder facilitating easy customer access to DEMA-member stores first.  DEMA member stores will receive recognition of their membership, as well as links to an on-line mapping program to make it easy for potential customers to find them.

The FREE Member Promotional Guide is being finalized and will include everything needed to execute a successful, state-of-the-art advertising campaign including access to digital versions of logos, images, posters, banners, window decals, website banners, outdoor billboards, sales flyer templates, direct mail postcards, self-mailers, and TV and radio spots. There will be two versions of professional broadcast spots to utilize for radio and television: a 30 second commercial designed for the national campaign and a shorter 23 second spot with a seven second tag for the DEMA member business’ message (23:7 cut). In fact, all of the components of the ad campaign can be customized with the member’s message by using the provided templates which have space for logos, and in some instances, sell copy.

Other tools needed by diving businesses to attract non-divers are also coming together – in addition to the television commercials and radio ads, several versions of print ads, and even on-line and hard copy mailers aimed for the targeted customer will be part of the member-only resources provided by DEMA in affiliation with the campaign.

If you are not a current DEMA member, now is the time to join!  Access to the elements of the Be A Diver campaign, including the national and regional campaign tools, highlighted website listing, Promotional Guide and customer lifestyle cluster data is all part of the value of being a DEMA member. Never has your DEMA membership had such a high return on your investment!

For more information about being a member of DEMA and about DEMA’s Be A Diver program, visit www.dema.org.
© -  Material posted and distributed through DiveNewswire is protected by International Copyright law. Any UNAUTHORIZED reproduction, re-distribution or abuse of this information is strictly prohibited. DiveNewswire Networks LLC – 2005, 2006, 2007

Material Properly Sourced and Used for News Purposes Only.

Original Source Link:  http://www.divenewswire.com/

 As this new DEMA initiative matures, we will be having more to say about the BE A DIVER program.  For the health and growth of this industry and this sport, we all hope the 2008 efforts of DEMA will be successful.

Phil Ellis

Discount Scuba Diving Equipment