Ocean Village is to launch a £1 million TV advertising campaign to reinforce its casual cruising message.
The company’s second TV campaign, which follows its first in January, features the voice of actress Tamzin Outhwaite and features on ITV1 in the Granada, Central and Meridian regions from Monday June 2. It targets the 35-54 year age gropu and promotes its Caribbean winter 2008/09 programme of cruises.
The four-week campaign will also feature across TV, radio and print but focuses on the Granada, Central, and for the first time, Meridian, television regions with a £1 million advertising spend.
The cruiseline – known for its tagline “the cruise for people who don’t do cruises” – promotes travel agency chains as part of its campaign. The Co-operative Travel is promoted in advertisements in the Granada and Central regions and Thomas Cook, the largest cruise retailer in the UK, in Meridian areas. The advertisement will also run on Thomas Cook TV.
The commercial, developed inhouse in partnership with production house Tigervision, shows a scene on a Caribbean beach, where a girl makes off with a sunhat from a man snoozing on a hammock. The scene then switches to the top deck on board the ship, where the man pinches the hat back from the girl.
As well as the TV campaign, Ocean Village is running a 40-second radio advertising campaign on regional radio stations and nationally on Classic FM, with a call to action through SMS text messages and visiting ABTA agents. There is a six-week print campaign.
Instore marketing for agents include posters and shelf wobblers reflecting the TV campaign.
The new Ocean Village brochure features Caribbean 2008/09 itineraries as well as new 2009 Mediterranean itineraries, when Ocean Village will sail the Eastern Mediterranean for the first time with maiden calls at Venice, Cairo and Istanbul.
Head of marketing Gill Haynes said: “The new Caribbean campaign aims to demonstrate to cruise virgins just how much cruising has lightened up, and left the days of bow ties and tiaras far behind.”