Royal Caribbean has selected Agency RPM to handle its family-focused experiential activity, which launches this week in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The two-month long campaign aims to encourage new-to-cruise families to consider Royal Caribbean as their vacation option.  The heart of the effort will use an interactive experience that brings to life the family-friendly facilities and activities available through a Royal Caribbean holiday, both on-board and on-shore.

Using green screen technology, families will be able to create their ideal holiday photo album choosing from a number of activities that they would like to do together and immerse themselves directly into the action.

The new campaign will tour theme parks and shopping centres such as Bluewater in Kent, Manchester’s Arndale and Glasgow’s Silverburn.

Jo Briody, head of marketing UK & Ireland at Royal Caribbean International, said: "Cruises are often associated with an older demographic but this thinking is outdated. Our holidays are incredibly family-friendly and RPM’s idea of using green screen technology to literally ‘put people in the picture’ gives families a chance to experience how a cruise would feel, whilst additionally providing an opportunity to interact with our brand."

Royal Caribbean is kicking off its biggest marketing campaign in Australia this week as part of National Cruise Week.

The "Designed for WOW" campaign is being rolled out across magazines, weekend newspapers, cinema advertisements.  

According to Royal Caribbean Cruises Australasia marketing manager, Rosie Rissetto-Spiers, the new brand campaign shows passengers enjoying WOW moments, such as sky diving, rock climbing and surfing.

Royal Caribbean is also offering a special sale starting today through September 9, where guests can get US$100 in onboard credit for each stateroom they book on select 2014 cruises. This offer is applicable to all ships except Quantum of the Seas, for all 2014 cruises of 5 nights or longer departing between January 1 and December 31, 2014.

You may have heard of a new marketing term called PANK, which stands for "professional aunt, no kids".  It's a new term for single working women that are embracing their career and don't have any kids of their own, but enjoy spoiling their nieces and nephews.

A survey by KRC Research shows that 23 million American women are PANKs and will spend about $9 billion a year on nieces, nephews and other children with whom they have a special bond. For Royal Caribbean, this is an area the company has already identified as part of their overall strategy to bring families to their ships.

Royal Caribbean executive vice president for global sales and marketing, Lisa Bauer, is a PANK and knows the value this demographic has for the cruise line, "When targeting women with family themes, you don't have to be that granular if the marketing is good."

Bauer says the KRC study "reaffirmed" how Royal Caribbean markets their cruises to families in that there are many forms of what a family is these days.  As a result, she said, the cruise line, "always a family brand," has recently adopted an advertising template that, when featuring women with children, doesn't call the woman Mom. Each person who sees the ad determines the woman's connection to the children, Bauer said.

Bauer points out that her own family is an example of that because members of her family travel in different groupings, and "that's how families act." It's not just two parents and two children.

Royal Caribbean has contracted Circle Agency to design and manage a new experiential marketing campaign that aims to promote the cruise line's onboard partnership with DreamWorks Animation.

The new campaign kicks off at the Shrek the Musical theater in Dury Lane, London and offers theater goers the opportunity to have an exclusive photo taken that drops them into a scene onboard a Royal Caribbean ship.

In addition, representatives from Circle Agency will be on hand to encourage customers to share their image via Facebook, or email it to themselves.  People that participate in the campaign will also be entered to win a free Royal Caribbean Mediterranean cruise for four aboard Liberty of the Seas.

The marketing campaignis scheduled to run during every matinee and evening performance until November 3rd.

Royal Caribbean Launches & Events Senior Executive Hannah Simpson commented on the new promotion, "The Dreamworks partnership is now going into its third year and continues to add to our already extensive family offering onboard our ships. We wanted to highlight the various experiences available for families onboard.

The activity we have created alongside Shrek the Musical highlights why a Royal Caribbean cruise is an ideal holiday choice for families and starting a dialogue with this highly targeted audience is extremely valuable.”

Royal Caribbean is preparing to launch a £2.5 million fall marketing campaign, which will be the biggest yet by the company in the UK.  The new marketing push is aimed at "nearly cruisers" - people who have not yet cruised but are actively considering the option.

The new campaign also features a host of interactive games, state-of-the-art technologies, branded merchandise and lucrative incentives to get trade partners excited about Royal Caribbean. The autumn campaign. This is the first of its kind for the travel trade and uses an innovative new technology that reinforces the cruise line’s history of staying one step ahead of the cruise industry.

UK and Ireland associate vice president and general manager Jo Rzymowska said, “This brand campaign is all about what makes us so different regarding what we offer on board/ The Blippar smart phone app brings the whole experience to life.”

Royal Caribbean launched a new brand campaign that looks to tap into consumers connection with the sea to help escape to a new vacation.

The campaign is aimed at "reawakening consumers" to the idea that being on the ocean is relaxing, rejuvenating and romantic when on a Royal Caribbean cruise.  The new advertising plan will start off with a conch shell acting as a phone, called a "shellphone" to communicate the decree "The Sea is Calling. Answer it Royally."

The idea behind the campaign comes from research through focus groups in 16 countries that resulted in a sense that people feel a connection to the sea and that being on a Royal Caribbean cruise is a great way to "get away from it all".

Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President of Marketing described the new campaign, "We are tapping into the sea’s powerful, emotional force to reframe the context of cruising for consumers who don’t understand what a Royal Caribbean cruise vacation offers.  The Sea is Calling’ is a global-scale campaign that will resonate with people no matter where they live, what language they speak, or whether or not they’ve cruised before. And we want vacationers everywhere to know that Royal Caribbean’s distinctive and innovative ships, personal service and breadth of destination experiences is how we ‘Answer it Royally.’”

The new shellphone advertisements will begin appearing on December 19 in major cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston and Miami.  The campaign will officially kick off in January 2012 with a focus to drive consumers to http://www.theseaiscalling.com.

New 30-second and 60-second commercials on television will begin on January 9, 2012.

Design Squared, the marketing firm Royal Caribbean hired to make Crown and Anchor Society promotional materials, was in search of a family to put on an upcoming promotional material for Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor Society during Allure of the Sea's inaugural cruise.  They found their match in Scott and Terri Lynn Crutchfield of Sebring, Florida.

Kathy Watrous, Design Squared's managing partner, approached the couple and asked them to be in a photo shoot. After signing media release forms, they were told they would be contacted if and when their photos were selected for use.

After combing over 15 other couples that Waltrous took photos of, the Crutchfields were selected.

"This was fun and we were kind of caught up in the moment," she said. "We never thought we would hear from them again."

The Crutchfields were notified via email and were sent photos that would be in the brochure for the Crown and Anchor Society.  About one million brochures have been created and will be distributed around the United States and Canada.

"We were happy they chose us," Terri Lynn said. "It is kind of an honor."