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We just got back from Monaco Yacht Show 2014 and our first impressions were rather positive considering the general optimism that we noticed while speaking with a number of yacht builders, yacht owners, yacht brokers, designers and component manufacturer. Boero Group export and marketing manager who was attending the show at the Boero Yacht Coatings boot told us Monaco usually doesn’t fall back on expectations and that his first impression was positive. Luciano Bregola CEO of Isa Yachts was confident about future orders and the MTU sales team was very busy with a series of meetings with existing clients and prospective ones. It seems that the Italian builder are getting busier than they were expecting.  As one would expect a few companies that were exhibitors in the previous years were not present at the show, some had reduced their presence however, some others were there ready to do business with the usual enthusiasm and refreshed brands such as that of ISA Yachts that has undertaken a minor re-branding. The first thing we noticed, however, is that the organisers of MYS 2014 have decided to raise the price of tickets to 150 euros per day and 500 for a multi-day pass, which in fairness we believe it is a good move in order to discourage visitors whose pockets and interest are not strong enough to pay this price to visit the show. We all know large yacht owners, brokers and yacht builder don’t quite like their vessels to be too crowded with non-potential customers also due to the extensive time it takes to visit such large vessels so thumbs up for MYS 2014 edition.

On the other hand of the ticket price increase which for the record more than doubled compared to the previous 60 euro price, all exhibitors had plenty of free invitations to invite their prospects, media professionals and other types of interested parties which made it easy for all of us in the industry to invite the right audience to the show.

The show ground was also extended thanks to the the new Yacht Club de Monaco area with its impressive structure in the north part of Port Hercule that also gave much more useful space for exhibitors needing water space and logistic support.

We also noticed a slight reduction in the number of Yacht Magazines which we believe is an appropriate market adjustment considering the lowered marketing budgets most companies say to have this upcoming years.

This 2014 edition of Monaco Yacht Show at first glance seemed to be a positive and optimistic one from a sales point of view, however, we will get back on the specific topic with more updates after exhibitors have settled the show frenzy and will talk to us regarding the real output of the show in terms of business. Don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter to receive updates

From a marketing point of view we were pleasently surprised by a number of interesting techniques to move visitors on the show ground such as Edminston’s Gelato invitations served by the now famous team of red-dressed models, the traditional Feadship panama hats distributed for free to visitors,