Social Media Case Study: Carnival Cruise Lines [September 22 2008] [Permalink] [Trackback

Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines has been a pioneer in leveraging social media to build customer loyalty and satisfaction. I interviewed Carnival’s Senior Manager for Interactive Marketing Strategy Jordan Corderra and Social Media Strategist Stephanie Leavitt about how they built such a successful and loyal online community.

Company Profile:

  • Employees: 81,200
  • 2007 Revenue: $13 Bn
  • 2007 Revenue Growth: +10.1%
  • Headquarters: Miami, Florida
  • Established: 1972
  • Type: Subsidiary (Carnival Corporation & plc)
  • Website: http://www.carnival.com/
  • Sources: Wikipedia, Yahoo Finance

Carnival Cruise Line’s social media components:

Targets

  • Travel agents
  • New customers
  • Past customers

Measurements of Success:

  • Site traffic (each of the three listed sites topped one million visits by February 2008, and over two million visits have been recorded for John Heald’s blog)
  • Bookings (over 20,000 generated by CarnivalConnections.com in 2006)
  • A 2008 cruise was organized for subscribers of John Heald’s blog, and over 800 participated


1. What were the specific outcomes and objectives you were attempting to reach with the blog, funshipisland.com, CarnivalConnections.com?

Each site has specific goals, but overall the objective is brand positioning.  John Heald’s blog is a communication medium that’s used for engagement.  We’ve changed the objective a bit since it first launched as it was originally intended to build buzz about our latest ship launch.

Funshipisland.com highlights our unique products/ship features and serves as a prospecting tool.

Carnivalconnections.com focuses on community and helps guests connect with other cruisers and to Carnival.  The original objective of the site was to increase bookings by encouraging guests to invite their friends and family to join them on their FunShip cruise.  The forums were an added bonus and we launched the Carnival Channel and the various blogs in Nov. 2007 as a way to “get to know” Carnival and the people that work here.

2.  What have been your ROI / measurements of success?

Because each site and each component of our social media strategy has different objectives, they each have their own success metrics.  We definitely track engagement, satisfaction, and leads/sales.  But to have a truly successful social media strategy sales shouldn’t be the number one measure of success.

3.  Did Carnival have any “false starts” initiating their social media strategy?  Did you utilize any consulting firms to assist your strategy and rollout?

Of course we encountered some “false starts” along the way.  We definitely eased into our foray in social media.  Carnivalconnections.com launched in Feb. 2006, John Heald’s blog launched in March 2007, Funshipisland.com launched in July 2007 and our Twitter, Facebook, YouTube activity launched shortly after.  Our interactive agency at the time, Avenue A Razorfish, helped with Funshipisland.com and Carnivalconnections.com.

As we mentioned earlier, John Heald’s blog started out as a very focused initiative.  Once John finished his time onboard the Carnival Freedom we had to rethink the strategy of focusing on a particular ship.

From launching a new site to simply opening a Facebook fan page, each and every one of these initiatives involved in depth discussions with our interactive team. For some brands it doesn’t make sense to participate in every social networking site available, so we definitely tend to ease into new applications.  But the great part about social media is that you learn something new just about every day, so you shouldn’t fear it.

4.  I see Carnival has some activity on Twitter and Flickr - do you have any significant plans for these or any other upcoming social media platforms?

Our Twitter and Flickr activity plays a role in our overall social media strategy.  As for significant plans, you’ll just have to follow us to find out.

5. I recently read about Carnival hiring SAS Marketing Automation ( to integrate and perform predictive analytics for their marketing and customer communication campaigns) - will that tie into your social media efforts, or is that a separate and independent initiative?

We are very excited about that partnership, however the interactive team will not be utilizing their services at this time.  It is certainly something we are thinking about for the near future.

6. Do you have any advice for other companies considering building their own online communities?

If your target audience isn’t there, rethink investing time/money into that platform.  Just because it works for another brand doesn’t mean it will work for you.

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