MSC Cruises is set to launch a “huge” TV advertising campaign that will position the brand in a new way, according to the line’s UK sales chief.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast on Tuesday (January 10), UK and Ireland sales director Steve Williams confirmed the advert would start appearing on TV, on-demand platforms and in the consumer press from January 23.
He explained why MSC was launching its turn-of-year advertising campaign slightly later than it had done previously.
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“We’re a going a little bit later – and there’s a reason for that,” he said. “We needed to capture a lot of footage from World Europa, which obviously only launched recently.
“I think business is so good right now I think that it will be great to stimulate and keep the market going as we move into February and March. It’s really exciting.”
Williams noted how the incoming advert had been “well received” by focus groups.
“The brand has been positioned to the consumer in a different way,” added Williams, who confirmed there was a trade call-to-action on the advert.
Williams went on to say the line’s sustainability credentials would be highlighted in the advert.
“We’re very proud of our environmental credentials,” he explained. “We already plug in Virtuosa into shoreside power at Southampton and World Europa was our first ship to use liquefied natural gas.
“There’s a way to go and of course [sustainability] doesn’t happen overnight but it’s something you have to be driving as an agenda.”
Williams added that focus groups had shown that sustainability was increasingly at the “forefront” of people’s minds particularly “the younger cruiser”.
“Sustainability is a really important part of the younger cruiser’s buying process,” he commented.
MSC has stopped producing paper copies of brochures, said Williams.
“We’ve made a conscious decision not to go back to paper copy brochures,” he added. “I think you need to put your money where your mouth is if you’re serious about sustainability.”
He confirmed stopping the production of physical brochures was a global initiative. “We operate in 80-plus markets so we produce millions of brochures,” Williams added. “It’s something that we just don’t feel is a necessity. People have access to computers and laptops.
“They can get the information from our website, and we’ve got downloadable digital brochures.”