Boating brands struggling with social media engagement, new study reveals
Instagram remains the main platform used by boat and yacht brands
A study examining social media activity across the boating sector has shown relatively low levels of audience interaction compared with other luxury industries.
The analysis, Social Media Insights – Boating Industry 2026, was prepared by Austrian market research firm Interconnection Consulting and reviews the social media performance of a number of boat and yacht brands.
Interconnection Consulting is hosting a free webinar on 26 March 2026, to provide a comprehensive overview of the report.
Companies referenced in the study include Azimut, Bavaria, Beneteau, Brunswick, Ferretti Group, Hanse Yachts, Princess Yachts, Sanlorenzo, Sunseeker and Yamaha Boating. These companies represent a substantial portion of the global boating market.
“We developed a proprietary index where we assigned a score to three key performance metrics across each platform (Instagram and YouTube),” study author Rubén Rodríguez tells MIN. “Based on this framework, we benchmark all brands by evaluating their engagement levels and the interactions they generate (comments, likes, shares, saves, etc.), which ultimately allowed us to establish a comparative performance ranking.”
According to the study, boat and yacht brands record an average social media engagement rate of 1.3 per cent. Engagement measures how frequently users interact with a post through actions such as liking, commenting or sharing it relative to the number of people who see the content.
The study notes that other luxury sectors achieve engagement rates of around 3 per cent on average. This places boating sector interaction levels at less than half of those seen in comparable industries.
Instagram remains the primary social media platform used by boating brands, with almost all companies maintaining active accounts. The brands included in the analysis have an average of 174,500 Instagram followers. By comparison, luxury brand accounts in other sectors typically average around 956,900 followers.
Researchers attribute part of the difference to the similarity of content published across the sector. The study states that many brands rely on ‘similar, highly polished images’, which can make it difficult for individual accounts to differentiate themselves.
Use of other platforms is less widespread. Approximately 30 per cent of the analysed brands maintain an active presence on TikTok. YouTube is more commonly used to host product presentations and boat tour videos. The platform nonetheless shows potential for audience retention, the report says, with viewing rates reported between 60 per cent and 75 per cent for boating-related content.
Interaction levels remain another important factor that influences visibility on social platforms. Increasingly, algorithms on major platforms prioritise content that generates user discussion. The study finds that the brands analysed generate an average of 6.1 comments per Instagram post and 3.9 comments per YouTube post.
Varied posting styles lead to positive results
The research also highlights several companies that achieve higher levels of performance on specific platforms.
For example, Azimut records engagement rates on Instagram that exceed the sector average. The Italian boatbuilder achieved engagement rates exceeding 4 per cent in 2025, significantly higher than the average engagement rate among the companies analysed in the study, which was 0.8 per cent. The study attributes this to frequent posting, a broader range of content formats and the use of paid campaigns across Meta platforms.
Across the marine industry as a whole, Instagram engagement sits at 1.3 per cent, according to the analysis.
On YouTube, Sunseeker records comparatively high view counts despite having a smaller subscriber base than some competitors. The company’s videos average around 231,000 views each, while the other companies analysed in the study averaged 20,200 YouTube views per video.
The report says these positive results are associated with a mix of shorter and longer video formats.
“The boating industry has clearly embraced social media, but many brands are still using these platforms as digital brochures rather than as spaces for real conversation,” says Rodríguez. “In a sector driven by aspiration and lifestyle, the brands that succeed online will be those that move beyond polished images and start building genuine dialogue with their audiences.”
At a high level, while some of the practices mentioned (frequent posting, mixed formats, paid campaigns) may appear standard, in reality, their execution is far from consistent across the industry. In fact, one of the key findings of our analysis is that many luxury boating brands still lack a clearly differentiated social media strategy, often following very similar content patterns – resulting in feeds that look largely alike.
“Azimut stands out in this context because it introduces clearer differentiation in its content approach and makes more effective and consistent use of paid campaigns, which translates into above-average interaction levels.
“In the case of Sunseeker, its differentiation lies in achieving particularly strong view-through rates on YouTube, despite having a comparatively smaller subscriber base.”
Marine companies struggling to define digital strategy
The Social Media Insights – Boating Industry 2026 study also notes the scale of the broader global boating market. The sector generated €25.5bn in revenue in 2025. Despite this, the analysis states that many companies are still struggling to define a clear digital strategy to attract new audiences and sustain long-term growth, billing it as a ‘decisive moment’ for those brands that are able to turn ‘passive viewers’ into ‘engaged communities’.
Chloe Buchanan, head of PR and social at marketing agency MTM, has 18 years of experience working with brands including Sunseeker, Fairline, Archipelago, Highfield Boats, and Omaya. She agrees there is a real problem when it comes to the social presence of maritime brands.
“The marine industry still too often treats social media as a broadcast channel rather than a community-building tool,” she says. “One of the biggest mistakes brands are making is relying on polished product imagery alone, without thinking about how organic content can create connection, conversation, and long-term brand affinity. Boats are 100 per cent discretionary purchases; nobody needs one, they want one, so success depends on building desire around the lifestyle that surrounds ownership, not just the product itself.
“For marine brands in particular, organic social should be doing much more of the heavy lifting. It should be bringing people into the brand world through stories, experiences, owner advocacy, behind-the-scenes access, and content that reflects the aspirations and identity of the audience. The brands that will succeed in future are the ones that use social to build a genuine community, one people want to be part of whether they already own a boat or are still dreaming about one.
“In a category driven by aspiration, relevance and belonging matter just as much as the product.”
Free webinar on report findings 26 March 2026
Interconnection Consulting is hosting a free webinar on 26 March 2026, to provide a comprehensive overview of the report.
As the study is part of a paid publication, the full report is not available online for free.
