P&O Ferries has launched a multi-million pound advertising campaign and a new air fare-style pricing model in a bid to turn around the fortunes of the struggling business.
The new campaign – which will feature across the national and regional press, billboards and radio stations – plays on the P&O brand with p&ople. The ferry operator said thousands of roadside poster sites have been taken within a three-hour radius of its Hull, Dover and Portsmouth operations.
Commerical and marketing director Hugh Edwards said: “Combining people with P&O highlights the importance of our key assets – our employees and our customers.”
He added the company was being positioned as a “pleasant and lively” alternative to low-cost airlines, other ferry operators and the Channel Tunnel.
Its new fare system – at poferries.com – offers the cheapest fares on early bookings and pricing for the intended day of travel. It will initially be available only for the ferry operator’s most popular route, Dover-Calais, on which P&O carried nine million people last year, before being rolled out to cover other services in due course.
The company said it was responding to customer demand for more transparency and clarity in its pricing.
Last year the company announced a major restructure of its ferry division. It plans to axe 1,200 jobs and cut £100 million in costs in a bid to cut its increasing losses in the sector. It recorded a pre-tax loss of £210 million for 2004.
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