Celebrity Cruises Travel Marketing Work & Wellbeing

Royal Caribbean’s Celebrity Cruises opts for biggest-ever ad push to combat pandemic lull

By John Glenday, Reporter

October 1, 2021 | 3 min read

The global cruise industry is seeking to steady the ship following a disastrous 18 months, which have seen much of the world’s fleet grounded, by spending big on advertising.

Cruise industry calms choppy waters with a mammoth safety-first advertising push

Celebrity Cruises, one of five cruise brands operated by Royal Caribbean Group, is leading the comeback with the launch of its largest-ever global advertising campaign ‘Journey Safe, Journey WonderFULL’.

Designed to tear up the cruising rulebook, the powerful comeback taps into the audience’s innate sense of wanderlust by illustrating the places, people and sights that await those hitting the high seas.

Building on a widespread sense of frustration and imprisonment engendered by repeated lockdowns, the campaign invites potential holidaymakers to ponder ‘how many precious moments have we missed?’ before embarking on a journey of discovery through exotic locales to the tune of What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.

Emphasising safety first, the campaign highlights the steps taken to protect guests, with Celebrity Cruises requiring all crew and guests to be fully vaccinated before boarding.

Celebrity Cruises President and chief executive officer Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said: “It took enduring a pandemic, where we were literally cut off from each other and the world, to recognize how powerful and meaningful travel is in our lives. It’s not just a vacation. Travel is a journey – where our hearts and minds are filled with new people, new experiences and new realizations about ourselves and the world around us. And, as the first cruise line back in service, we saw an opportunity to not just re-emerge but reframe the Celebrity Cruise experience through this lens.”

Launching online across YouTube, Teads, Unruly and Facebook, the campaign counters the stereotypes and cliches associated with the industry by showcasing the diversity of people who sail.

Celebrity Cruises will follow up this messaging with a digital out-of-home (DOOH) and television campaign debuting later this month on Channel 4 and Sky.

The travel brand has previously emphasized the sense of wonder to be found onboard its ships by transforming its newest vessel into a ‘dreamlike wonderland’.