Merimbula Marina

Merimbula Marina is a whale watching and fishing charter business, mostly focused on whale watching tours out of Sydney during the winter months. We caught up with Owner, Simon Millar to discuss why he believes Groupon is their primary marketing tool for the Northern whale migration each year.

The Challenge

As a seasonal tour company, Merimbula Marina were looking for a marketing channel to reach a larger audience than they were able to through their existing website, Facebook and SEO channels. The aim of the Groupon campaign was to increase interest in whale watching and grow a steady flow of customers who may or may not have heard of Merimbula Marina before.

The Result

In the first month of their Groupon campaign alone, Merimbula Marina sold 200-300 vouchers per day, and maintained this pace over the course of the offer. Simon believes Groupon were able to take their marketing to places other avenues may not necessarily be able to, by reaching people that may not be looking for whale watching, but are intrigued once they see the offer promoted. With such a massive audience across many and varied global channels, Groupon is an ideal marketing tool for tourism. Groupon assisted Merimbula Marina greatly in terms of getting the word out. During the peak of the season, Simon saw a massive 5000 people visit their website each week, with the Groupon campaign being responsible for an additional 25% of business through the door. Simon has found many customers will return year-on-year, and since the success of their initial campaign, they've continued to run offers with Groupon for their fishing charters, Vivid Festival and other whale watching tours outside Sydney.