P&O Cruises aimed to revitalize interest in their Round World Cruises (RWC) through a partnership with The Telegraph and Classic FM, as sales had been declining despite a two-year customer consideration journey. The campaign, titled 'Round World Cruise Week', utilized an omnichannel approach to generate awareness and engagement, resulting in a dramatic increase in competition entries and a 5% growth in their customer database. Insights from the campaign demonstrated the effectiveness of using trusted news brands to connect with potential customers and change perceptions about cruising.

1. P&O Cruises: Celebrating Round World Cruise Week in Association with
the Telegraph & Classic FM
Executive Summary:
RoundWorldCruises(RWC) were a keypressure point forP&Othisyear,howeverwithRWChavinga2
yearconsiderationtopurchase, itistheirtoughestcruise tripstosell. We neededtofocusonshifting
consideration&perceptioninthe shortterm, inorderto grow our customerdatabase forthe following
year.To achieve this,buildingawareness&drivingengagementwere crucial,makingapartnershipthe
onlychoice.
Afterinvestigatingandanalysing multipleoptions,the Telegraph wasidentifiedas the perfectlead
partner,withClassicFMchosenas a strongsupport partner.Creatinga highlyengaging,omnimedia
approach,engagingwithourcore targetaudience acrosseveryplatform, successfully resultinginahuge
numberof newentrantsforthe RWC database andone of the most successful competitionsthatthe
Telegraphhasrun to date.
Background & Objectives:
KeychallengesthatP&Ofacedwasthat there isa declininginterestinthe categorywithparticular
apathytowardsthe RWC market.Alsoa change inroutesthisyearmeantthat there was increased
volume of bedstofill.Inadditiontothis,P&Osmarketingdatabase hadbeenexhaustedwithlessnew
customersforthento target.Awarenessforthe RWC trade isalso particularlylow asitisnot normally
supportedwithabove the line advertising.
Customerinsightshowsthatthere isa2 year considerationjourneyforthe full RWC, there are also
multiple Cruiseswithinthe fullRWCitinerary,thisgivesusanopportunitytobringinnew people tothe
Cruisingcategorywhowouldnothave previouslyconsidered thistype of holiday.Thisthenlends
awarenesstothe full RWConce a customerhas trieda shortercruise.
In orderto do this,we neededtoengage new guests,educate themonthe offeringandopenadialogue
withthemthat we couldcontinue throughoutthe longconsiderationphase.
Our core audience of ABC145+ have longstandingtrustedrelationshipswiththeirbrandsof choice,
theywere earlyadoptersinaccessingtheirpublishercontentacrossmultiple platformsandstill lookto
these brandsto advise &advocate.Tappingintothis brandtrust wasessential.Telegraphwerethe
perfectpublisherpartner.Byworkingalongside ClassicFM,thisallowedustoadd deeperlayers of
engagement&extendourreach,while capitalisingonthe natural crossoverbetweenthe twobrands.
Insight
From insightwe hadconducted we knew thatthere are new guestswhodidnotknow that RoundWorld
Cruise’soffermultiple shorter,butstill luxury,‘tripof alifetime’options. Thisoptiontocustomiseand
take chunksfrom the largercruise wasappealingtonew customers.
To arrest apathyinthe marketwe needto initiallyengagenew guestsbefore beingable tochange
perceptionswe hadtocreate buzz& excitement.

2. To achieve all of thiswithinarestrictedbudget,we created‘RoundWorldCruise Week’,one week
dedicatedtobuildingawareness,creatingastoryto inspire &educate onthe multiple offersof RWC.
We knewthatour chosen mediabrandsare trustedadvocatesforour core audience,sowe wantedto
ensure we utilisedeach platformtotheirfineststrengths inordertomake a real impact.
Finally,withlimitedbudgetwe knewthat byconsolidatingourcampaignlengthandmediapartnerswe
couldreally use ourbudgetas efficientlyaspossible.
The Plan
An omnimediacrossplatformapproachoptimisedourbudget,(Partnerships vsDisplaydelivers+33%
recall & +10% inBrand Consideration)while allowingustoborrow the brands advocacyto have a longer
conversationwithourcore audience.
Focusingall activityintoone weekmeantwe coulddominate onadailybasis,ensuringwe deliveran
‘event’feelwhilstalso drivinghighfrequency. Utilisingmultiplatformcreatedaubiquitousfeel tothe
campaignbuildingefficientawareness.
Finally, aRWC isa verydistinctproductto the rest of P&O Cruisesoffering,thereforewe neededtotalk
aboutthemdifferently,whichaPartnershipallowsustodo.
The weekkickedoff withsponsorshipof JohnSuchet’s mid-morningshow –2 days priorto the actual
RWC week,inorderto build awarenessand excitement- givingusinstantbroadreach& highfrequency
throughoutthe week
DuringRWC we activatedthe competitionelements,runningacrossTelegraphandClassicproperties,
givinga cruise awayeveryday,buildinguptothe final daywhere P&Ogave awayan entire RWC.
The competition wassupportedbyavarietyof elementsincluding;
 TelegraphMicrosite that;
o Displayedaninteractivemapshowingall possiblecruise routes&destinations,the map
was sodetailedthatP&Oare goingto purchase thisforuse on theirownedchannels
 Native contentthatwasusedbothin print& online
 On boardvideos&galleriestochange perceptionsof Cruisingetc.
 Home page take overs,trafficdriversacrossbothsites,newsletters,all drivingtraffic tothe P&O
website
All competitionentrieswere given anopt-inoption,inorderforusto grow our database.
The Results
The campaigndrove a huge numberof entries throughthe Telegraph (18,914),ClassicFMsaw the
largestnumberof entriesinthe firstweekthananyothercompetitiontheyhave run,demonstrating
that the competitionresonatedexceptionallywiththeirlisteners. Similarthe Telegraph’scompetition
entrieswere the strongestacrossRWCweek,higherthananyothercompetitionrunningthatweek
(unique usertargetexceededby123%).

3. From the 18,914 entriesreceivedwe mergedthese intothe P&Odatabase givingusaccessto a pure
‘new’guestlistforleadgeneration. Thisreaffirmedthe unique relationshipnewsbrandshave withtheir
readers,whichcanbe borrowedbybrandsto informandpersuade.
“The relationshipnewsbrandshave withtheirreadersisverystrong,we knew thatitcouldworkreally
well forusif we couldtap intotheirreadershipinaninnovative way.The Telegraphworkedextremely
creatively&closelywithClassicFMto delivera trulyintegratedpartnership,whichsuccessfully
increasedourRoundWorldCruise database by5%” Eithne Anderson,P&OHead of Marketing
Communications
“The P&ORWC campaignbrought togethertwoverytrustednewsbrandstocreate a stronger,wider
reachingandsuccessful campaign.Byusinga highimpactand veryengagingformat,the campaign
produceda huge response thatexceededexpectations.”Cheryl Johnson,TelegraphGroupHeadTravel
“Thiswas a great campaignthat workedacrossmanylevels.Itenabled ourpresenterstotalkabouttheir
owntravel experiencesinawaythat wasrelevanttoP&O Cruisesandprovidedcontentforthe
Telegraph.P&Oisonbrand for ClassicFMand our listenerslovedthe cruise prizesonoffer,aswe was
reflectedinthe numberof entrieswe hadtothe competition.” Clare Patterson,ClassicFM Programmer