We wanted the campaign to generate a real appetite for vacation. By showing our audience people just like themselves having a wonderful time on Royal Caribbean’s cruises— virtually live—while they are at home, overworked tired and stressed, we made them realise that there’s no reason to postpone, and inspired them to book a trip right now. We created a large number of “live” ads on Royal’s ships using real cruisers, targeting many different audience segments and destinations.

The results were immediate and dramatic. Phone calls to Royal Caribbean increased by 27%. Traffic to their website jumped 24%. Click-through on e-mail was 175% above average. Our Facebook fan page garnered 5,000 new fans during launch week alone. And sales increased by 4.2% week on week—and by almost 7% versus the prior year, which is more impressive, given the relative state of the economy, year on year. More than that, people liked the brand better— brand metrics such as brand awareness, image measurements and likelihood of cruising withRoyal Caribbean rose to the highest levels ever measured.