Carnival Corporation is to launch its first cross-brand marketing initiative next Monday designed to trigger demand from newcomers.
The objective is to dispel the myths about cruising and communicate the value for money offered by cruise holidays.
The scheme, which involves global digital and social media activity, will include a competition to enable one person to win a cruise a year for life.
Carnival Corporation chief executive, Arnold Donald (pictured), said the marketing push would include a ‘Cruise-a-nality’ scheme designed to match cruise passengers with one of the group’s nine brands.
The multi-million dollar promotion, which will include TV and digital advertising from the new year ‘wave’ peak booking season, will communicate all nine brands for the first time in an effort to attract new to cruise customers.
The hub for all the activity will be a revamped World’s Leading Cruise Lines website with an initial focus on the market in North America.
A contest encouraging consumers to share what they love about cruising will start on November 24 through the use of a new company Twitter handle, @CarnivalPLC.
In addition to instant prizes for tweets at 50,000, 150,000, 250,000, 400,000, 500,000 and 750,000, one person will be selected at random to receive 100 days of cruising for themselves and a partner on their choice of the corporation’s US-based brands.
A key element will be a crowdsourcing World’s Leading Cruise Lines Marketing Challenge, enabling consumers to “join the company’s marketing team” and pick their favourite TV ads from a selection of creative concepts, with the chance to win a yearly cruise for life.
The campaign will also encourage consumers to consult travel agents as a valuable resource for planning cruise holidays.
“We are going to walk them all the way through, and get them to offer comments all along the way. We hope people will engage,” said Donald.
“The future lies in broadening demand. This is just the first step in executing our growth plan.
“This is not just an advertising campaign; we want to get people engaged,” he said. “We want to change the basic perceptions about cruising.”
“It’s important to get across the diversity of cruising whatever people’s personal preferences,” said Donald, adding that the promotion is being designed as long-term activity rather than a one-season push.
Donald explained that the idea was to inspire new to cruise passengers to consider taking a ship-based holiday over a land-based break, highlighting the value offered.
“Our job is to help people understand why cruising is such a great vacation, and to help them find which of our nine cruise brands is the right one for them,” he said.