Filling boats every day for a 50-year-old experience operator

The challenge

Dana Wharf has been the largest sportfishing and whale-watching operator in Southern California for more than fifty years. That is an institution, and it is also a full calendar of departures that has to be filled every single day in a business that is seasonal, weather-dependent and perishable. An empty seat cannot be sold tomorrow.

What we did

We run the entire demand side: all paid media, all email, the online travel agency relationships and listings, and SEO.

The thing that makes this category different is that the offer changes weekly. What is running, what is biting, what is migrating past. So the marketing is tuned to the season and the species rather than to a content calendar set three months out. Email cadence and paid budget follow whatever is actually on the water that week.

The outcome

Average email open rates sit at 46%, well above the norm for travel. Booking conversions are up 13% year over year, two years running. Paid-search visits are up 22% year over year.