This is an adaption of an existing technology. Underwater speakers are often used by the Navy and marine tourist operators, however there has been no commercial application of the technology to date. That was until the Go Buoy. We took a regular marker buoy and customized it with underwater speaker technology. The Go Buoy provided a new media platform for multiple brands. It gave advertisers and sponsors of the Rottnest Channel swim a way to show support and communicate with swimmers while they were in the water, not out of it. For the swimmers it provided them with motivational music and messages of support to help them over the finish line.

We used an Oceanears DRS 8 Portable Speaker, which has a range of up to 1km in every direction. On the day of the event, we had a boat moored near the Go Buoy providing us with a power source. The underwater speaker was connected to an Audio Isolation Impedance Matching Transformer Assembly, which was connected to a 100-watt stereo amplifier and an MP3 Music Device, which we used to play our music and advertising messages.

The Go Buoy was successfully launched at the Rottnest Channel Swim on the 22nd of February 2014. We reached 100% of our target audience and thousands of swimmers heard motivational music and messages from five different advertisers over an approximate distance of 1.5km (1km as they approached Go Buoy and 500m beyond it to the finish line.) Go Buoy also generated substantial earned media on radio, Twitter, Facebook and in print and sparked lots of great word-of-mouth from the swimmers themselves (see case study).

The Go Buoy could be used at various swimming and water sports events all around the world. It can be easily adapted for use anywhere people are in the water. Beyond providing motivation, a version of this technology could be used to provide information, including public safety information, for any advertising purpose or for entertainment.