Tag Archives: TV Ad

With agent reference back in Carnival ads, retailers applaud

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With agent reference back in Carnival ads, retailers applaud

By Tom Stieghorst
CCL adCarnival Cruise Lines’ return to referencing travel agents during a call to action at the end of its TV commercials got a warm reception from several travel agents, although one suggested it was overdue.

“I think that’s fabulous,” said Monica Ambriz of Anytime Anywhere Travel in Antioch, Calif., outside San Francisco. “Anything that gets the word out that travel agents still exist is good.”

Carnival said that beginning this fall it will include a call-to-action feature at the end of its 30-second TV spots. It said the feature will suggest that viewers “contact a travel professional, Carnival.com or 1 (800) Carnival.” It didn’t specify whether the call-to-action will appear as a visual or be spoken in a voiceover.

A longer, 60-second version of the commercial will not feature the call to action, but will end with a simple image and brand logo, Carnival said.

Carnival said it last incorporated a call to action in its TV advertising in 2010.

“We’ve heard loud and clear from travel agents that in order to build business together, we need to do a better job of guiding the millions of consumers we reach through our marketing initiatives to contact a travel agent,” said Joni Rein, Carnival’s vice president of worldwide sales. “We are so excited to introduce this message with our new fall television campaign and hope it will drive visibility to the value of using a travel agent when consumers decide to book a cruise.”

Rein said the inspiration for returning to a call to action came from the line’s travel agent outreach program, Carnival Conversations, launched in early July. It has held agent forums on ships in New York, New Orleans and Port Canaveral, with more scheduled.

Some agents expressed mixed emotions about the TV plug.

“It’s about time!” said Marlys Aballi, owner of Connection to Cruise in Redlands, Calif., who said she feels that Carnival’s website has taken priority over travel agent referrals for too long.

Aballi said she sells quite a bit of Carnival, especially the shorter cruises out of West Coast ports, and she emphasized that Carnival isn’t the only cruise line that has sought to increase direct bookings.

She said Carnival could be doing more to help travel agents. A small example she cited would be to move the white space provided for travel agent contact information from the back of its brochures to the front.

Suggestions like that are what Carnival executives say they had in mind when they launched Carnival Conversations. In addition to the road shows, there were sections for travel agent feedback created on the GoCCL agent website.

Ideas adopted so far by Carnival after the program’s launch include a move to simplify the number of fare categories and promotional codes and reforms to make booking groups on Carnival easier and more rewarding.

Carnival plans a major marketing push this fall to fuel its recovery from a price slump that followed the Carnival Triumph engine fire in February. Agents are being wooed as part of the overall strategy.

Jo-Ann Moss, a Cruise Planners franchisee in West Linn, Ore., outside of Portland, said she’s encouraged by the attention.

“I’ve got some clients who won’t sail on anything but Carnival,” Moss said. “I’m thrilled for their renewed appreciation.”

The contented Carnival cruiser

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The contented Carnival cruiser

By Tom Stieghorst
*InsightIn most businesses, customer satisfaction looks like a bell curve.

On one end, there are a few loyal patrons who can’t stop raving about their experience. There’s a big group in the middle who are moderately content, and then a few very unhappy campers.

At this point, the public may think most Carnival Cruise Lines passengers are all in the last group, and that taking a cruise with Carnival is a risk that few sane vacationers would accept.

But there are plenty of Carnival passengers in the other two groups. This fall, the company plans to feature some of them in an ad campaign to reboot public perception about Carnival.

To that end, it is collecting testimonials on its Facebook page from customers who have enjoyed their cruise.

There were plenty of them on a recent Carnival Sunshine cruise I took in the Mediterranean. The ship had an admittedly rough start after emerging from a drydock in May. Areas of the ship weren’t ready for passengers, due in part to last-minute sabotage of some cabins, company President Gerry Cahill said at a media briefing.

But the cruise that I was on was uneventful.*TomStieghorst

There were no fires, no illness outbreaks, or rogue waves, or missed ports of call, or mechanical breakdowns or any of the other misfortunes that tend to draw media attention to a cruise.

It was smooth sailing, literally, on a flat Mediterranean Sea. Passengers were largely unaware of a hearing that took place during the cruise, in which Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) outlined his bill to give them more rights.

Typical, perhaps, was a group I lunched with on a port call in Marseille, France. Some said that after booking Carnival, they monitored news about the company to be sure they hadn’t made a mistake. None felt they had.

A honeymoon couple said they chose the Sunshine cruise for the port-intensive itinerary, which included Marseille, Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice, Dubrovnik, and Messina, in Sicily, in nine days.

An older couple picked Carnival for the low price and good value.

The group wasn’t giddy, but they did seem satisfied. Ads with real folks like these, talking from first-hand experience, could be just what Carnival needs to bring the discussion about cruising closer to reality.

Thomas Cook TV ad banned after consumer complaints

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Thomas Cook TV ad banned after consumer complaints

Thomas Cook TV ad banned after consumer complaintsThomas Cook TV advert has been banned after viewers claimed it could cause harmful copy-cat behaviour among children.

More than 100 complaints were made against the ad which showed a holidaymaker remove a valve from a wheel of one of the company’s coaches with a pair of pliers to cause a flat tyre in an apparent bid to avoid returning home from a sunny destination.

The advertising watchdog ruled that the Thomas Cook campaign was “irresponsible” after it received 118 objections.

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld complaints which suggested children could emulate the potentially dangerous scene.

The ASA ruled: “Although we were satisfied that adults would not view the ad as condoning the act of removing the tyre valve, we considered that children, including teenagers, were unlikely to identify the fantastical nature of the story.

“We also noted that the scene in which the tyre valve was removed was central to the ad’s narrative and, because of the risks to children in emulating that action, considered that the ad unreasonably featured that behaviour.

“We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible.”

Cook argued that the “horrified and outraged” reaction of the other holidaymakers in the ad indicated that the behaviour of the man letting down the tyre was not condoned.

The company said it did not consider that the ad was irresponsible because it clearly showed a comical scene and the man’s actions were immediately challenged as being wrong.