Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The power to light up the internet

I've watched with interest for the past few days as a client of ours readies a new product for its unveiling at the Miami Boat Show on Thursday. The client is Seven Marine, and we've had the pleasure of helping them design the cowling to the most powerful production outboard ever built: 557 horsepower.

As you can imagine, the boating forums have been buzzing with speculation about this beast, and their booth will be mobbed at the show.

So how are they getting all this attention?
  1. They created a product that is absolutely remarkable. While the industry leaders, Mercury, Yamaha and Evinrude have raised the bar incrementally 25 - 50 horsepower at a time for years, Seven have blown them all out of the water with over 60% more horsepower than the most powerful outboard currently available.
  2. They're teasing the market with just enough information to get the conversation started. It's fun to watch people try to fill in the blanks. How's it mounted? Who's the company behind this? Is it real or just a gimmick?
  3. They partnered with Intrepid, one of the most respected, high performance boat companies out there giving the product instant credibility.
Unlike the auto companies which announce their game changers years in advance of availability (can you say Chevy Volt?), the folks at Seven Marine were able to keep this under wraps until just a few days before the show so the story won't be old news before the actual unveiling.

Want to know more about these motors? You'll have to wait for Thursday in Miami, like the everyone else (except me, of course).

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