Tag Archives: ad campaigns

Royal Caribbean reveals ad campaign and strap line

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Royal Caribbean International has unveiled a new brand positioning as part of its multi-million pound wave campaign.

The line today announced its new ad campaign, including a new TV ad which will first air on Boxing Day during Surprise Surprise.

Royal Caribbean has not had a strapline in recent years but following extensive market research and customer feedback, has introduced ‘Where Extraordinary Happens’.

The ad campaign will run on ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and various Sky channels. The new messaging will also feature on radio, print, digital, social and trade advertising.

Royals Latest Advert
Tamara Strauss, director of marketing and PR for Royal Caribbean, said four slogans were created but existing and potential customers reacted best to the one chosen.

“For most of the year people are working hard so for the couple of weeks they get for holiday it’s important they get to experience things and have fun,” Strauss said, explaining the new brand positioning.

“You get to blow the doors off being sensible when you’re on holiday and we wanted to bring that to life because extraordinary things happen on our ships. It’s all about the experiences you can have onboard and off our ship while travelling with us.”

“We want people to see this creative and think differently about what it means to have a Royal Caribbean holiday,” she added.

To support the new positioning, agents are being sent new collateral such as new point of sale displays. The line’s portal Cruising Power has also been updated to reflect the new strapline and the call centre team in Guatemala has also been trained to have a “new tone of voice to reflect the new position”.

Royal has also revealed its wave offers which will encourage customers to ‘Go All In’. The line has a buy one get one half price promotion, meaning there’s a 50% saving on a second guest; third and fourth guests get 25% savings; all inclusive drinks packages for the first and second guest; and a reduced deposit of £50 on bookings made within at least 57 days of the sailing.

The promotion is applicable on bookings made before February 29 on selected six-nights or more cruises departing between February 1 and December 31, 2016.

Beyond the marketing pitches

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By Tom Stieghorst
*InsightSometimes the reasons people cruise can’t be found in any catalog or sales brochure. The passenger who took 33 consecutive cruises aboard the Carnival Elation earlier this year is an extreme example.

Mark Fosselman found himself on the same itinerary over and over again following the loss of his wife, Becky. She had been in ill health, and the two had shared numerous cruises on the Elation before she passed away in April.

Fosselman told Carnival that the ship held special memories for him and that cruising was very therapeutic in helping him mourn his wife and come to terms with her death.*TomStieghorst

There are many conventional selling points to a cruise. But often it isn’t the size of the cabin, or the itinerary or the food that people care most about when they’re on a cruise.

When I asked a man on a recent cruise why he was on the ship, there was no hesitation: “I wanted to spend time with my brother,” he said. The passenger lived in Tennessee, his brother in Michigan. They didn’t see each other regularly, and a weeklong cruise was a chance to catch up.

More than marketing slogans or ad campaigns, the human need for connection and recognition often drives the choice of a cruise vacation. One passenger on another cruise I took recently was astonished to be the center of attention after his family surprised him with a cruise for his 90th birthday.

Another person on the cruise was aboard with someone who had started to show signs of memory loss. She said she took the cruise because she wasn’t sure in a year or two if her traveling companion would even be the same person.

So it is fine to have the latest and greatest technology on a ship, hot new entertainers or interesting new shore excursions. Onboard spending credits or free gratuities may be the way to seal the deal if someone is close to making a purchase.

But just as often it is the soft things, the human things, that start passengers thinking about taking a cruise. Cruise lines have started to pick up on this in their advertising, for example in Carnival Cruise Lines’ “Moments That Matter” spots or the Princess Cruises “Come Back New” campaign. They’re definitely not hard sell, but effective in the long run, it seems to me.