The Carnival Corp. brands’ decision to prohibit travel agencies from bidding on their trademarks as keywords in online search engines led to what would seem to be an unintended consequence: a higher placement for the sponsored links of competing cruise lines.
As of Jan. 1, cruise sellers have not been allowed to bid on keywords using brand names or other phrases trademarked by Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Cunard Line and Seabourn Cruises.
Previously, a search on the phrase "carnival cruises" on a search engine like Google.com or Bing.com would produce sponsored links purchased by large agencies such as America’s Vacation Center and Vacations to Go.
With the new prohibition in place, the only other sponsored link that came up during a Google search of the phrase "carnival cruises" last week was Royal Caribbean International.
At one point, Viking River Cruises was the second sponsored result after searching Princess Cruises on Google.
Carnival Cruise Lines spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz said, "Other cruise lines appearing in search results for our brand is not new and is not a point of concern."
However, previously, the other cruise lines’ sponsored-link placement was far below that of the cruise sellers.
"It doesn’t make sense that Carnival would prefer to have their competition’s website right up at the top of the search results, instead of people who actually sell Carnival cruises," said one cruise seller and former Carnival keyword bidder, who asked to remain anonymous.
One cruise seller and former keyword buyer said that agency sales were negatively affected by the new rules and that the policy had not eliminated competition on branded keywords, but "simply reshuffled the online landscape."
That seller said advisory sites like CruiseCritic.com that sell advertising to agencies and cruise lines are still advertising and are now top-ranked on sponsored searches.
As of last week there were still several cruise sellers advertising under the branded keywords of some Carnival Corp. brands.
A Google search on "seabourn" yielded links for several retailers, with competitor Regent Seven Seas showing up sixth.
Seabourn spokesman Bruce Good said that there was probably some "lag … in terms of compliance. We will work toward complete compliance in due course."
A representative from one travel agency that came up in sponsored-link results for some Carnival brand keyword searches said that it would stop bidding on the words once it accepts the terms of the new agreement.
Steven Hattem, vice president of marketing for CruiseOne and Cruises Inc., said their sister company Cruises.com was "still working to turn everything off in regard to Carnival."
Carnival’s de la Cruz said that the line had been "working closely with all affected agencies during this transition period and have made significant progress. We are close to full compliance at this point."