SEATTLE — It was standing room only at Norwegian Cruise Line’s live webinar on Monday here, where more than 60 agents attending Travel Weekly's CruiseWorld & Home Based Agent Show learned that they could be featured in Norwegian’s newest national ad campaign.
The campaign, launching in mid-July, will feature photos and quotes from travel agents.
Norwegian offered agents in Seattle, as well as the hundreds attending the webinar online, the opportunity to be photographed during CruiseWorld and at other events this summer to be chosen for the ads.
In addition, Norwegian is allowing any agent who gets photographed to customize an advertisement for use on that agent's website, social media or other venues, such as a consortia newsletter.
"You can be in your own ad campaign," said Andy Stuart, Norwegian’s executive vice president of global sales and passenger services. "You will have your own custom ad to utilize — post it on social media sites, etc. — and from there you might be featured in a national ad campaign."
Stuart said the new campaign piggybacks off of the success of last year's, which also featured real travel agents as the "heroes of the ads" with the slogan, "You're not just a travel agent, you’re a travel guru."
In this year's ads, Stuart said, travel agents will be the "voices and faces" of the campaign. Up to eight travel agents will be chosen in July to be featured in the national ad campaign throughout 2012.
Follow Johanna Jainchill on Twitter @jjainchilltw.