Take, take, take me away P&O...

There is enormous irony in the announcement this week, that P&O is taking itself away from Australia, so to speak - https://www.traveltalkmag.com.au/why-po-cruises-is-exiting-australia/

Because, one of the greatest cruise marketing campaigns that ever ran in Australia, included the P&O TVC - Take me away please P&O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAXmZilVnUA

It helped to create the whole cruise industry down under. At the time, the 1980s, there was little competition - Sitmar Cruises was the main cruise line and it's ships were known for their party atmosphere around the Pacific.

Sitmar's most famous ship was The Fairstar - known affectionately in its advertising as "Fairstar the Funship". But known colloquially among travelers as "Deckchairs Overboard" - which a band named themselves in 1982, possibly after a party on The Fairstar.

But here's how P&O grew the industry

Every time the Take me away TVC ran, Sitmar faxed special offers to all travel agents around the country. When the punters arrived at the travel agents, well motivated for a cruise by P&O's advertising, many ended up on a Sitmar cruise instead. Every time that P&O advertised, Sitmar sold out and P&O went a long way to filling its ships too..

But you cannot build your brand on the back of a competitor's advertising and eventually a struggling Sitmar was bought by P&O.

I worked on the P&O account at the time - and ironically 20 years later, was a partner in the first travel agency that had a website with software that allowed direct bookings for cruises. Prior to that you could only search itineraries.

Back in the day, the smart people at P&O created a database of customers - it was pioneering stuff. The reason was simple - in the travel industry there is a term called "the wave" which is when about 45% of cruise bookings are made. All competing brands and travel agencies promote cruises during a three-month period at the start of the year, months in advance of the cruising season.

Once the wave is over, then the push starts to fill the remaining rooms/packages on the ships. P&O was extremely successful using direct mail to generate the early bookings - the mail went to customers, many of whom cruise annually. Response rates for bookings were often above 25%.

Here are some from my archives:

The fact is, you could run a version of these mailings now, with QR code or PURL as the response device, and they would seriously outperform any advertising in digital media - for response and cost per sale.

Sadly, we have a clueless generation of marketers who don't understand mail, as they've had no experience with it, and they naively think the world is digital-first.

Yet the best media to get consumers to websites and landing pages is direct mail.

But enough of the sermon.

It will be sad to see the famous P&O logo leave our shores. I admit, I've not cruised on her ships - am more of a Royal Caribbean fan myself. But I suspect there will be much souvenir acquisition of various items by the passengers in those final cruises.

Which reminds me of one of Bill Jayme's famous headlines for a travel magazine:

"How much do you tip the waiter when you're planning to steal the ashtray?"

I stole it for a Hyatt Hotels campaign:

"How much do you tip the porter when you're planning to steal the bathrobe?"

Ahoy for now...

#directmarketing #directmail #P&O #cruisemarketing #advertising