PRESS RELEASE

 
Strategically timed to support retailer marketing efforts for the coming summer diving season, the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association will launch the Be A Diver national television advertising campaign on May 5, 2008.  The campaign is aimed at helping the Diving Industry acquire new customers and re-activate previously-certified divers.

The 30-second television commercial will air nationwide for six weeks on the Travel Channel and will appear in two separate flights:  May 5-25 and June 2-22.  To reinforce the national reach with concentrated frequency, the commercial will also air throughout the summer and early fall in target-rich markets in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and Texas.  For these areas the commercial will air on the CNBC, MSNBC, Travel Channel and Golf Channel networks in four flights covering a five month period:  May 5-June 1, June 9-29, July 7-20, September 1-14 and September 29-October 12.

The markets for the regional broadcast advertising buy were selected based on several important factors including the DEMA Certification Census, which helped determine the areas most able to support a region-wide advertising campaign; and third party affirmed research that revealed the areas that include the highest populations of consumers with the lifestyle, household income, sufficient time, and interest in purchasing the experiences and equipment for such activities as scuba diving.  The networks on which the commercial will air were selected similarly, using research on the type of programming and networks viewed by DEMA’s target market from Mediamark Research and Intelligence (MRI).  The MRI reports indicate that the “target group index” (TGI) rating for DEMA’s target market is highest for the Travel Channel, MSNBC, the Golf Channel and CNBC, when compared with national viewer averages.

“We’ve taken full advantage of the data from our third party-affirmed research to purchase broadcast advertising in the markets that give us the best opportunity to reach the greatest number of target customers within our budget range,” said Tom Ingram, Executive Director of DEMA.  “Purchasing broadcast advertising both nationally and regionally allows us to reach the most people and drive them to the Be A Diver website with the goal of getting them into their local professional dive center.”...