With this long Labor Day weekend over, and the weather changing in many parts of the country, it won't be much longer before folks begin thinking of getting away from the cold by taking a cruise through the islands on a luxury liner.
Those get-away vacationers make ideal targets for marketers, being largely affluent and with lots of time on their hands in a captive environment. And you can assume they're having a good time, which puts them in a receptive mood.
In some ways, advertising on a cruise ship is akin to advertising in a resort hotel. The difference is that the guests don't leave the premises. So there's that much less exposure to competing messages.
There are a few different ways to reach cruise passengers, including magazines published for cruise guests, coupon booklets, sampling, and increasingly by way of video ads on TVs in the guests' cabins.
To find out how to get your client’s message before guests taking a cruise, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Advertising to passengers on board cruises.
Who
There are a few main players who handle advertising on cruises, each with contracts with specific cruise lines. Some handle publishing, such as magazines and coupons, while other handle sampling and TV ads.
How it works
One sure way to reach cruise passengers is by placing an ad in on-board magazines, which are distributed to passengers' cabins.
Most major cruise lines have their own magazine, and they are typically published yearly. That means that one's ad might be seen by tens of thousands of vacationers over that period.
Cruise magazines are similar to airline magazines, where the editorial emphasis is on travel features.
Advertisers can also reach passengers through ads and coupons in booklets that offer passengers deals and discounts in stores in the ports where the cruise visits, along with maps that direct passengers to specific stores in a port city.
Advertisers may choose to have product samples distributed to passengers' cabins. Typical sample products are toothpaste, shampoo, sun lotion and snacks.
Advertisers may also reach passengers in their cabins through 30- and 60-second TV spots that are spliced in in place of the regular commercials that viewers back on shore would be seeing. Those ads also air on TVs in the public areas of the ship.
Many advertisers use the TV spots in conjunction with sampling; the ad builds awareness of the product, and the sample is there for the passenger to try. For the most part, advertisers repurpose TV spots for airing on cruises, but they can also produce ads specifically for the cruise audience.
Markets
The market is a floating one, moving from port to port. The passengers hail from every state in the U.S. and from all over the world.
Numbers
Nearly 17 million passenger nights were booked on North American cruises during the first quarter of 2009, down 5.1 percent from last year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration. About 2.5 million passengers were booked on 1,086 cruises by the 17 largest cruise lines.
How it is measured
Cruise manifests are used to calculate ad impressions for the various media. Advertisers can also track coupon redemptions.
What product categories do well
Frequent cruise advertisers include health/beauty products, consumer packaged goods, luxury goods, auto, telecommunications and travel.
Demographics
The median annual household income for cruise vacationers is $93,000, according to the 2008 Cruise Market Profile Study from the Cruise Lines International Association. The median age is 46 years old, and 69 percent have a college degree.
Making the buy
Cruise campaigns typically run six or 12 months. Pricing varies depending on the length of a campaign and its elements, whether it is in a cruise line magazine, product sampling, video ads, or all of the above.
CPMs for TV spots run between $10 and $15.
Who’s already using ads on cruises
Recent or current cruise advertisers include Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Just For Men, Oil of Olay, Bic and Crest toothpaste.
What they’re saying
"Those who use this do so because they can reach consumers who are in a positive mood, and that association gets tied back to the brand." –
Brian Martin, founder and CEO of Brand Connections.
Web site info
Brand Connections
http://www.brandconnections.com
Onboard Media
http://www.onboard.com
PPI Group
http://www.ppigroup.com
