Knysna Yacht Company, Knysna
from a Knysna boatyard to a global audience.
Knysna Yacht Company builds bluewater catamarans in Knysna for sailors all over the world. over six months of YouTube campaigns, built around the global launch of the Knysna 550, we grew the channel into a showroom that sailors in the USA and Europe keep coming back to.
the results
the results at a glance.
YouTube Studio figures for May to October 2026, compared with the six months before the campaigns began.
1,712 net subscribers, up from 82 in the previous six months.
344,068 views, up from 31,508.
1,915.44 hours watched, up from 585.43.
18,281 views from people who came back, up from 8,188.
163,276 views from the USA alone.
“Knysna 550: Global Launch Annapolis Sailboat Show 2026”.
YouTube figures are from YouTube Studio and compare 1 May – 28 October 2026 with 1 November 2025 – 30 April 2026. subscribers are net (gained minus lost). the YouTube campaigns started on 4 May 2026 and most of the views in the period came from them. cost per subscription is for the Demand Gen subscribers campaign of 25 September – 16 October 2026, as reported in Google Ads.
a bluewater catamaran is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, made by sailors who may live on the other side of the world from the yard that builds it.
most future owners will never walk through the yard in Knysna before they get serious. they get to know the boat, the build and the people behind it on YouTube, often over months or years. but in the six months before the campaigns, the channel had 31,508 views and gained 82 subscribers.
with the Knysna 550 heading for its world debut at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, the brief was to grow the channel: put the launch in front of sailors in the markets that matter, and turn those viewers into subscribers who keep watching.
a world debut, seen around the world.
we built the YouTube campaigns around the Knysna 550’s global launch. short launch films ran as in-stream, in-feed and Shorts ads, timed in weekly bursts in the run-up to Annapolis, so the boat was already familiar by the time it arrived at the show.
what we did
- ran the launch, sea trial and walkthrough films as in-stream, in-feed and Shorts ads
- launched campaigns in short weekly and fortnightly flights, so every new film got its own push
- kept the Annapolis world debut at the centre of the story from July through to the show
- 106,704views on “Knysna 550: Global Launch Annapolis Sailboat Show 2026”
- 91,417views on “Welcome aboard, global premiere Knysna 550 catamaran”
- 63,748views on “World Debut Annapolis 2026: Knysna 550 Catamaran”
- 1,111.43hours of watch time on the top launch film alone
sailors in the markets that buy.
the audience moved to where Knysna Yacht Company’s buyers are. before the campaigns, South Africa was the channel’s biggest market. during them, the USA became the biggest by far, followed by the Mediterranean sailing markets of Italy, Spain, France and Greece.
USA views grew from 2,859 to 163,276 compared with the previous six months.
viewers who stay for the whole build.
views are only the start. from August, Demand Gen campaigns set to win channel subscriptions ran in two- to three-week flights, asking the new audience to follow the yard.
the six-part Knysna 550 Build Journey series then gave subscribers a reason to come back, with each episode holding viewers far longer than the channel average.
- 3:31episode 1, design and consultation
- 2:27episode 2, layup and infusion
- 4:06episode 3, primary assembly
- 3:42episode 4, secondary assembly
- 1:00average across the whole channel
a showroom that never closes.
for a boat that is built in Knysna and sailed all over the world, YouTube is where future owners first step aboard. the campaigns made sure they find it, watch it and come back.
- 01/ 03launch
be seen.
launch films took channel views from 31,508 to 344,068, up 992%.
- 02/ 03audience
reach the buyers.
99.21% of views came from outside South Africa, led by 163,276 views from the USA.
- 03/ 03channel
be followed.
1,712 net new subscribers, up from 82, with returning viewer views up 123.27%.
want results like these?
tell us who buys from you and where in the world they are. we’ll show you how to put your story in front of them.