Inclusive Campaign Spotlight: Celebrity Cruises
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There has been a surge in "Inclusive Marketing" campaigns in the last few years. Companies are seen launching campaigns with an inclusive theme for their staff, audiences and community. While many of these campaigns are worth the spotlight and praise, quite a few of these campaigns might just be another example of not really being about "Inclusion & Diversity" but more about increasing followers, brand awareness and retaining customers.
One such campaign which I thought deserves the spotlight was a campaign by Starling Bank. #MakeMoneyEqual campaign which was launched in 2017. It tackles the issue of how women & men are spoken to differently in media on financial matters. Read the full blog post here.
This blog post covers one such campaign launched recently by Celebrity Cruises. We will cover the below topics in this blog:
- About the company
- About the campaign
- Feedback on the campaign
About the company
Celebrity Cruises is a cruise liner based in Miami Florida. This company is owned by the parent company, Royal Caribbean Group. The company was formed in 1988 and then later merged with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 1997.
Celebrity Cruises have won awards like the 2020 Gold Award Best Premium Cruise Ship, 2020 Gold Award Best Cruise Line in Europe, Time World's Great Places 2021. Clearly displaying it's commitment to quality service and becoming an employer of choice for candidates looking to join this sector.
The value of the company includes to provide best vacation experience to all it's passengers and help make positive changes in the life of their employees and guests. Their Diversity & Inclusion agenda aims to bring people from different cultures and experiences together.
The President and CEO of the company Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, is dedicated to elevating the presence of women in the travel industry and shares her perspective on this topic using various platforms. In 3 years they have boosted the number of women working on their fleet from 3% to 32%. This show's the brand's integrity to support and promote the issue of gender equality.
Another initiative which focusses and promotes inclusion & diversity is the "All-Inclusive Photo Project" (AIPP).
About the campaign
The All-Inclusive Photo project Celebrity Cruises is trying to tackle the lack of diversity in the travel marketing photos used within their sector. They plan to change the narrative and the meaning of the term usually used in the travel sector "all-inclusive".
They have decided to do this by partnering with famous photographers from all-around the world to create an open-source photo library featuring people from various groups representing LGBTQ+, disabilities & ethnicities.
Photos in this library includes actress, model, former paralympic athlete, Hispanic community members, production make-up artists, actors, Filipino, queer black photographer, indigenous women from Australia, same-sex couples, domestic violence advocate, youth-worker, filmmaker, documentary makers and many more.
Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Scheiner says, " As global brands, we have a platform to act as a catalyst of positive change. We know we have more work to do and we hope we inspire others to join us on this important journey."
Feedback on the campaign
- This campaign is imaginative, inclusive, inspiring, fresh and challenges the norms in the travel industry to make it truly inclusive for all.
- It uses a combination of photos and videos to promote and raise awareness about this campaign. The video showcases behind the scenes and the process of converting an idea into a real campaign.
- These videos provide an opportunity for all participating photographers and artist to explain on why it is important for them to be a part of this campaign and how they think the world needs to evolve and be inclusive.
- The photo gallery has a collection of over 100 photos to choose from. Link to the photo gallery: https://allinclusivephotoproject.com/gallery
- However you need to sign-in to be able to download the photos(screenshot below), which makes you wonder if this was part of a lead generation or brand awareness campaign? Or did the brand need to collect names and emails to be able to measure campaign success. Or would it not be better to let all visitors download these images for free and let them use it on their blogs, campaigns, websites, social media printed collaterals. Helping these photos to reach a wider audience and not just the travel industry.
- Having the trademarks on the photo is a good idea to help the brand measure the campaign effectiveness. Other parameters like number of downloads, instructions on using the photo for users would be more user friendly. Users could relevant hashtag like #AIPP or #CelebrityXCruises provided by the brand. It would help the team measure the impact of this campaign and also help find it's social media reach.
- The photo gallery gives you the option of filtering photos by photographers, if you wish to see photos from a specific photographer
- There is also a dedicated section on the landing page to help you know more about the photographers, their motivations and also read their full bio.
Source: https://allinclusivephotoproject.com/gallery
- The landing page does an amazing job of splitting the three areas which should go behind planning any campaign; the problem, the research and the solution.
- Audiences have an ability to stay-up-date on this campaign by providing their first name, last name and email.
- They have also included links to their social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & Instagram. Helping them grow their social media audience, follower counts, social media engagements.
- Other elements that would make this landing page more authentic would be to add statements from CEO, Marketing Team or it's own colleagues perspective on this campaign.
- Including real life examples of how these photos have been used in cruise brochures or magazine would help the readers see the real life impact of this campaign.
Sources:
https://www.celebritycruises.com/blog/video/all-inclusive-photo-project
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/all-inclusive-photo-project-celebrity-cruises/index.html
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