Tom Stieghorst
What can you do with $250?
That was the challenge presented to seven of the top cruise industry sales executives at the recently completed 25th Cruise Planners annual convention in Hollywood, Fl.
Cruise Planners CEO Michelle Fee and COO Vicky Garcia asked each of them what use they would make of just $250 in marketing money, with a particular focus on attracting new millennial clients.
Up first, Carnival Cruise Line senior vice president of sales and trade marketing Adolfo Perez picked the low-hanging fruit and said he would spend it to boost posts on social media: "That's a real way to make your money stretch."
Holland America Line vice president of sales Eva Jenner opted to use the money to join a low-cost community group that an agent could use to expand their networking efforts.
Camille Olivere, senior vice president of sales at Norwegian Cruise Line, suggested finding a partner that has an Instagram presence. Pay for a series of posts from the Instagramer. If it leads to five bookings, let the Instagrammer lead the group on a cruise (leveraging Norwegian's current 5:1 tour conductor credit). Then hope that seeding that Instagrammer evolves into a longer-term partnership.
John Chernesky, vice president North America sales at Princess Cruises, suggested funding $1 deposits for 250 clients in a Princess $1 deposit promotion, an idea that produced a few audible groans from the audience.
Lori Sheller Ousley, senior vice president of strategic sales at MSC Cruises, honed in on "skip generation cruising," the trend of grandparents taking grandkids on a cruise without the parents along. She suggested agents plant a seed with clients by urging them to open a $250 savings account for a future skip-generation cruise. But she also recommended Facebook as a great place to look for grandparents, and opted to spend her $250 on boosting Facebook posts.
Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales, trade support and service at Royal Caribbean International, came up with two unconventional responses. First, she said, agents should pocket the $250, provided they leave the convention and call 10 clients from 2018, compliment them on what a fun vacation they took and thank them for the opportunity to plan that vacation.
"You've earned that $25 per call," she said.
Freed's other idea: donate $25 each to a charity meaningful to 10 of your best clients.
Michelle Homoki, director of East Coast sales for Celebrity Cruises, said she would spend the $250 on Facebook advertising. "It's emotional, it's visual and travel is an emotional decision," Homoki said. She also put in a plug for Linked-In and YouTube videos.