Celebrity Cruises will increase its marketing spend by £1 million in 2012 as it targets double-digit growth and reveals new branding.
The upmarket brand in the Royal Caribbean Cruises stable gave Travel Weekly an exclusive glimpse of its new branding last week based around the concept of ‘modern luxury’.
The campaign, which kicks off this month for the key peak selling cruise wave period, is an adaptation of branding launched in the US earlier in the year.
Jo Rzymowska, Royal Caribbean UK general manager, said the UK version would be different, highlighting an aspirational lifestyle and the diversity of experiences available on a Celebrity cruise.
“The good news for agents is that this gives them even more opportunity to support the Celebrity brand. Next year we want to do for Celebrity in the UK what we’ve done for Royal Caribbean,” she said.
Rzymowska said agents who had been shown the new branding at its latest advisory panel meeting were very positive.
“We feel Celebrity defines modern luxury. It’s contemporary, not old-fashioned. It’s Audi as opposed to Jaguar.”
The increased marketing budget will not stretch to Celebrity advertising on TV, but Rzymowska said it would target offline and online publications that have the right potential demographic.
She said the intention is that people will walk off the street into an agency and demand the cruise line. “The trade has really got behind Celebrity but we want it to be a consumer driven sell as well as a trade sell.”
Celebrity’s wave campaign will feature a £49 flight offer. Celebrity Eclipse will sail its third summer season from Southampton in 2012 and Constellation is also due to offer a series of ‘wine cruises’ to the Mediterranean.