Three days after announcing that the company has placed an order for two additional river cruise ships in 2013 (for a total of eight newbuilds next year), Viking River Cruises revealed it had finalized an agreement to renew its national corporate sponsorship of the PBS program “Masterpiece” for two more years.
The new deal will extend the partnership through 2014. Viking initiated its national corporate sponsorship of “Masterpiece” in late 2011.
The river cruise operator will now continue to have a 30-second on-air national sponsor spot at the head and tail of every "Masterpiece" episode for another two years.
And it’s no coincidence that the “Masterpiece” partnership comes just as Viking is in the midst of a massive ship-building spree, with six Viking Longships (the company’s newest class of vessels) launching this year and eight more in 2013.
“The ‘Masterpiece’ partnership has certainly helped us in terms of creating awareness of river cruising,” said Richard Marnell, senior vice president of marketing at Viking. “Our research is showing that our passengers are huge fans of ‘Masterpiece’ as a series of programs, and that is certainly helping increase our market for river cruising and increasing the market for Viking.”
Marnell said that while Viking can’t attribute the success it’s had in filling its rapidly increasing berths directly to the “Masterpiece” ads, the company has noted an increase in people going to the Viking website during TV programming, as well as an uptick in phone calls during the programs.
According to Marnell, the fact that the ads are able to showcase river cruising in video format makes them one of the company’s strongest selling tools.
“I would say video is one of the best ways by far to convey the strengths of river cruising,” Marnell said. “River cruising in the general traveling public, I don’t think it’s completely understood. I think there’s still a misunderstanding about the quality level of the vessel and the proximity of the vessels [to city centers]. … Video brings the experience alive in a way that no other media can accomplish.”
"Masterpiece," which used to be known as "Masterpiece Theatre," airs weekly on PBS affiliate stations. It features the series “Downton Abbey,” “Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Jane Eyre,” “Reckless” and “Prime Suspect.”