There’s an old saying in the cruise industry that you don’t sail with an empty cabin. Most of the revenue comes from on-board spend, so it’s vital that ships are filled to capacity.

In November 2015, P&O’s fleet was to grow from 3 to 5 ships, meaning capacity would increase by 40% overnight.

Let’s face it, there’s always been a certain sort of person who goes on a cruise.

And the problem is, we’d already exhausted the market of the typical people who go cruising. Just the year earlier, our “Be Free Earthlings” campaign converted our 4 millionth Earthling to become one of P&O’s “Cruiselings”.

OBJECTIVE

Increase purchase intent amongst people who would have never considered cruising.

To fulfil the 40% extra capacity, we’d need to:

1.Position P&O as an aspirational holiday

2.Feature the new environment of the new ships

3.Get Australia talking about the new P&O ships

Teaser content

We suspected we’d get some attention, so we started with a series of teaser videos posted on YouTube and social media.

Online films

Be Free Owen centered around a series of three short films starring Owen Wilson, titled The Conspicuous Awakening of Owen Wilson. The three films were then launched on a campaign website, and released over the course of two days, timed to maximise media coverage.

Virtual tours

The website also featured virtual tours of the new ships, Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden, and profiled the key experiences that had captivated Owen.

Digital display

Viewers were then re-targeted with digital advertising which promoted key environments and experiences on board the new ships.

Trade marketing

We gave the travel industry a different experience - special advanced VIP screenings of the films, along with personalised popcorn boxes as the invitation.