Royal Caribbean International’s “Nation of Why Not” marketing campaign is history. In its place, a new global brand platform has emerged from the depths of the sea. Literally.
The line’s new campaign is based on the theme: “The Sea Is Calling. Answer It Royally.” The cornerstone of the multifaceted initiative is a “shellphone,” a large seashell that rings like a telephone.
Once a consumer raises the shell to his or her ear, a voice from the sea entices the listener to vacation aboard a Royal Caribbean ship. The shellphone will be featured in TV commercials, posters and print and online advertising.
“This is not just an ad campaign,” said Betsy O’Rourke, senior vice president of marketing for Royal Caribbean International. “It is a platform that challenges the old perceptions of cruising and reframes the context of cruising so that those who aren’t cruising with us today will tomorrow.”
Several marketing challenges prompted the line to move away from “The Nation of Why Not.”
“We had to look at the global nature of our product, and the translation of ‘nation’ sometimes can have a political connotation,” O’Rourke said. “So we found that the word was not clear, and it wasn’t obvious to non-cruisers that it [referred to] the environment that’s created on a Royal Caribbean cruise.”
Anticipating the shellphone TV commercials, which will begin airing in major cities across the U.S. on Jan. 9, the company’s “consumer push” starts Dec. 19 with posters, banner ads for Internet and social media, and newly designed brochures for distribution in the U.S.
O’Rourke said the consumer push “all drives to Facebook,” where a sweepstakes contest, which will give away a cruise a week for six weeks, begins on Jan. 9.
The line’s international offices also are integrating the new campaign “at their own pace,” O’Rourke said, adding that it has already launched in Spain with TV ads.
“France is doing print and online,” for example, O’Rourke said. “Mexico has launched, Italy is working on it, the U.K. will launch next summer.”
For the U.S. trade, the platform rolls out Dec. 12. The line has created a website for retailers at www.answeritroyally.com/travelpartners, which will house various marketing tools such as postcards, posters, brochure rack displays and co-op advertising guidelines, she said. Training webinars explaining the platform will also be offered.
Some of the trade advertising will feature the familiar faces of Royal Caribbean executives, including Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales, trade support and services, answering the shellphone.
O’Rourke said the line invested in substantial consumer and trade research before creating the ocean-inspired platform.
“We went all around the world, to 16 countries,” she said. “We spoke to our offices, marketers and sales folks, agents and consumers. We were looking for the universal truths, the common themes that we could make the basis of our messaging. ‘Give us emotion,’ they said.
“We also wanted a platform that would work in both emerging and mature markets and reach out to noncruisers as well as cruisers. The idea also had to work across all of our channels: print, TV, online, radio. It was a pretty tall order. We’re very excited about how it turned out.”