With the end of the year bearing down, it’s time for our Q3 2024 RV Market Brand Consideration Report. As with all of our market reports, the RV Market Brand Consideration Report is intended to offer insight to industry members, stakeholders and enthusiasts about the competitive landscape of the Australian RV market, and the state of consumer interest.
Read on for our results and analysis, download the report below, and contact us today to find out where you rank amongst your competitors.
A Note on Methodology
This report leveraged a number of keyword research tools to assess search volume across Australia for Q3 2024. Our research this quarter comprised 112 brands, 10,426 keywords, and more than 3m searches across the quarter. This data was broken into four key categories: all brands, Australian-made, imported, and discontinued.
Retain Media provides this data “as is” for informational purposes only and accepts no liability for decisions made based on this reporting. Users are encouraged to use this data as one of multiple data points in their market analysis.
Top 20 Most-Searched: All Brands
It’s a new quarter but the same old news, as Jayco continues to dominate the all brands category, holding a substantial share of the market despite a 0.7% decline in search interest, dropping from 26.8% in Q2 to 26.1% in Q3 2024. This represents a 2.6% relative decline quarter-to-quarter and a 4% relative drop year-on-year from 27.2% in Q4 2023.
Meanwhile, the perennial silver medallist, MDC, solidified its position with a modest 0.3-point increase from Q2 to Q3 2024, now holding 4.1% of the market. This reflects a 7.8% relative increase quarter-to-quarter, showing consistent growth year-on-year.
Third-place Ezytrail experienced a small 0.2-point increase in Q3, growing from 3.3% to 3.5%, for a 6% relative increase in its search share. Avan, meanwhile, saw a 0.1-point drop from 3.1% in Q2 to 3.0% in Q3 2024, a 3.2% relative decrease quarter-to-quarter. However, it is worth noting that Avan’s search share has cycled between 3.2% and 3.0% for the past year, and is likely reflective of seasonal interest in the brand or certain promotions that they run, such as end of financial year sales.
Although Q3 only presented a 0.1% decline from the previous quarter for New Age, their search share has declined from 3.0% to 2.7% over the past 12 months, marking a 10% relative decrease over the year, a somewhat worrying sign for a brand that remains one of the industry’s biggest names.
The Rest of the Top 20
Elsewhere in the top 20, Snowy River Caravans was one of the quarter’s standout brands, gaining 0.4 points to reach 2.2%. This represents a 22.2% relative increase, highlighting growing consumer interest in the brand, who have established themselves as one of the most-popular options in the Australian market since their launch in 2015.
On the other hand, Opus Camper experienced a minor decline, losing 0.1 points, respectively, reflecting a 5.2% relative decrease quarter-to-quarter.
Rounding out the top 20, Stoney Creek Campers gained 0.2 points in Q3 2024, rising from 1.1% to 1.3%. This represents an 18.1% relative increase, signalling growing consumer interest in their offerings.
The overall top 20 remained relatively stable, with only minor fluctuations for most brands.
Beyond the Top 20: Notable Movers (Australian-Made)
Moving beyond the top 20, several brands experienced significant shifts in Q3 2024:
BruderX: The biggest standout outside the top 20, experiencing a 66% increase quarter-to-quarter as its search share increased from 0.6% to 1.0%. While this is down from its Q1 high of 1.1%, it still represents a 42.8% increase over the past year.
Australian Off Road Campers & Caravans: After holding steady in Q2, this brand recovered with a 0.1-point gain in Q3 2024, increasing from 1.1% to 1.2%, which translates to a 9% relative increase.
Jawa Campers: Although Jawa’s search share held steady from Q2 to Q3, it is up 0.1% over the previous year for a 12.5% relative increase.
Black Series: Dipped from 0.8% in Q2 2024 to 0.7% in Q3, marking a 12.5% relative decrease quarter-to-quarter and a 30% relative decrease over the past 12 months.
In our Q2 report, we discussed how news of Highline Caravans’ liquidation led to an explosion in its search share, which has dipped back to 0.2% after surging up to 1.7% in the previous quarter. Other than that, positions 40-100 remained relatively unchanged quarter-to-quarter and year-on-year.
Top 20 Most-Searched: Australian-Made
The top spot in the Australian-made category presents little surprise, with Jayco retaining its commanding lead with a 35.2% share of searches, despite a 0.5% decline from Q2 2024. This represents a 1.4% relative decline from 35.7% in Q2 and a 3.2% relative drop year-on-year from Q4 2023. Even with the decline, Jayco’s position remains far ahead of its competitors.
In second place, Avan’s share of the category dipped slightly from 4.1% to 4.0%, for a 2.4% relative decrease. Of the third, fourth, and fifth-ranked brands, New Age increased its share by 0.2% quarter-to-quarter but has still seen a 9.7% relative decrease year-on-year, while Patriot Campers and Zone RV both experienced a 7.6% relative increase quarter-to-quarter. Patriot saw a 15.3% relative decrease over the past 12 months while Zone RV saw a 27.2% relative gain over the same period.
In the back end of the top 10, Avida increased its share 0.2% for an 8.6% relative increase, Lotus experienced an 11.5% relative decrease, and Crusader saw a 9% relative increase year-on-year.
The Rest of the Top 20
Positions 11-20 saw more activity, with several brands making sizeable leaps in their search share quarter-to-quarter, including Hitch Campers (13.3% relative increase), Track Trailer (18.1% relative increase) and BruderX (62.5% relative increase).
Of these, Hitch Campers has seen the greatest relative increase year-on-year, at 54.5%, while Australian Off-Road Campers experienced the largest relative decrease year-on-year at 11.1%.
Beyond the Top 20: Notable Movers (Australian-Made)
Several brands outside the top 20 in the Australian-made category demonstrated notable shifts in Q3 2024:
Sunland Caravans: Recovered from 0.7% in Q2 to 0.9% in Q3, marking a 28.5% relative increase in consumer interest.
Malibu Caravans: Dipped quarter-to-quarter and year-on-year, from 0.6% and 0.7% respectively to 0.5% in Q3 2024. This marked relative decreases of 16.6% quarter-to-quarter and 28.5% year-on-year.
Top 20 Most-Searched: Imported
In the imported category, Market Direct Campers (MDC) retains its dominant position with 15.8% of the market share in Q3 2024, up from 15.0% in Q2, marking an impressive 5.3% relative increase quarter-to-quarter. Ezytrail follows closely behind with a 13.7% market share, a small increase from 13.3% in Q2, representing a 3% relative gain.
Third-place Austrack saw a slight decline, dropping from 10.5% to 10.1%, reflecting a 3.8% relative decrease quarter-to-quarter. Fourth-place Snowy River saw a substantial 14.8% relative increase quarter-to-quarter, while Opus Camper experienced a decline, dropping from 7.5% to 6.9%, an 8% relative decrease quarter-to-quarter and a 13.7% relative decrease year-on-year.
Stoney Creek Campers was one of the stronger performers in the top 10 this quarter, increasing from 4.5% to 5.1%, a 13.3% relative increase, and proof of its growing consumer interest. Conversely, eighth-placed Mars and ninth-placed Jawa Campers both saw quarter-to-quarter declines, with Mars’ share tumbling from 5.2% to 4.5% for a 13.4% relative decrease, while Jawa’s slid from 3.8% to 3.6% for a more modest 5.2% relative decrease.
Rounding out the top 10, Kedron Campers actually improved its quarter-to-quarter share slightly, from 2.8% to 2.9%, although this is still a 17.1% relative decrease from the 3.5% search share it held in Q4 2023.
The Rest of the Top 20
Other notable changes include:
Black Series: Dropped from 3.3% to 2.8%, a 15.1% relative decrease quarter-to-quarter, and a 30% relative decrease year-on-year.
Lumberjack Camper: Slid from 2.6% to 2.4% quarter-to-quarter, and is down from 3.0% in Q4 2023, a 20% relative decrease year-on-year.
Regent Caravan: Dipped from 2.2% to 1.9%, a 13.6% relative decrease quarter-to-quarter.
Arctic Campers: Demonstrated solid growth, rising from 0.9% in Q2 to 1.2% in Q3 2024, a 50% relative increase, and a 200% relative increase over the 0.4% share it held 12 months ago, positioning Arctic Campers as a rising star in the imported segment.
Beyond the Top 20: Notable Movers (Imported)
Several brands outside the top 20 also displayed notable changes in Q3 2024:
Prime Campers: Experienced a significant gain in search share, rising from 0.6% to 1.1%, an impressive 83.3% relative increase.
Newgen Caravans: Increased from 0.9% to 1.0%, reflecting an 11.1% relative increase in search interest.
Top 20 Most-Searched: Discontinued
This section covers the most-searched discontinued brands in Australia.
As was the case with Highline Caravans in Q2, this category is led by a recently liquidated brand in Tango Caravans, which captured 42.9% of the search share after liquidators were appointed on August 14. As is to be expected, searches for the brand skyrocketed, leading to its overwhelming search share this past quarter.
Meanwhile, Highline’s search share crashed back down to 6.1% now that news of its failure is well and truly in the rearview mirror, putting it behind Black Series and Lumberjack Camper, at 17.7% and 15.1% respectively. Moving through the top 10, Elite Caravans and Billabong captured 4.7% and 4.6% search share in Q3 2024, which was a 6.1% relative decrease for Billabong quarter-to-quarter, but an 11.9% increase for Elite.
Search share quickly drops off beyond those two however, with Opal Caravans and Aura Caravans holding 1.9% and 1.4% respectively, while Spaceland, Bushranger, Sunbuster, and Riptide Campers hold 1%, 0.9%, 0.8% and 0.7% respectively. For Bushranger, this number represented no change from the previous quarter, while Spaceland and Riptide experienced a 16% and 41.6% relative decrease respectively.
The Rest of the Top 20
The story is much the same for the remaining brands in the category, with search share dropping off consistently over the past 12 months as we move down the list. The one exception to this is Infinity Motorhomes, whose search share rebounded from 0.2% in Q2 2024 to 0.4% in Q3 2024, though that is likely due to news breaking in July that Bradley Boakes, Infinity’s director, had been charged with fraud.
Overall, the discontinued category presents a familiar tale, and while some names near the top of the list, such as Highline, Black Series, and Lumberjack could still attract interest on the second-hand market and offer value to dealers looking to expand their used-stock holding, it is clear that this interest wanes with the passing of time.
Trust Retain Media for Industry-Leading Insights
As we continue to monitor these trends, our goal remains to provide the most relevant and actionable insights, so fans, brands and stakeholders alike can make the most of the challenges and opportunities ahead.
For more in-depth analysis of the Australian automotive industry, including our Q3 Motorcycle Market Brand Consideration Report, be sure to explore our other market reports, including our Q3 FCAI Sales Summary and Q3 TMA Sales Summary, and Insights today.
Download the full Q3 2024 Caravan Market Brand Consideration Report below to delve deeper into the data and gain a clearer picture of where your brand stands among Australian searches.
