Smart Marketing Move By Oceania

[douganswerphone]

I was exercising this morning and watching "Regis & Kelly" (I know, I know, it's brain candy but anything to take my mind off the exercise).

They have some daily gimmick contest of the "spin the bottle" variety, where the prize that came up was a European cruise on Oceania. The "contestant" won, and a blurb played with lots of familiar still photos from Oceania's marketing library. Started making me wish I was still aboard. Anyway, apparently, the winner had a choice of several European itineraries, free air courtesy of cheaptickets, and the photos implied a PH cabin for two. Total value an alleged $17,000, but honestly the blurb was good enough to make that amount seem credible.

Needless to say, the winner was very excited, but more impressive was the audience reaction. You would have thought a million dollars was being given away. Prizes like this are still uncommon in these types of giveaways, and the audience knew it.

Not all of Oceanias' cruises are sold out, which means giving away a cruise now and then costs them very little. What a great way to get a 30 second spot on a leading daytime show. I'll suspect we'll see more of this type promotion as time goes on, and am actually looking forward to any future communications with Ed McMahon as a result. :O

Kudos to the Oceania marketing team.

Doug n Sherry