Cruise Line to Creature: 'Welcome Aboard'

LOS ANGELES Windstar Cruises, the Holland America-owned line of luxury vacation yachts, has partnered with independent Creature for an integrated brand-freshening campaign, according to the agency.Looking to highlight its significant recent upgrades, in December the line of motor-sail cruise ships launched a 10-shop review, said Windstar director of marketing services Tony Scoringe. The candidates, all Pacific Northwest boutiques, were contacted directly by the client, he said."We found that our agency relationship needed to be on a local level, with lots of face time," Scoringe explained. After narrowing the initial list of contenders, Windstar asked each shop to present its take on a specific creative task. "We saw some amazing stuff," Scoringe recalled. But it was work from Seattle's Creature that stood out from the others."It's an incredible product, a brand that deserves to have fantastic advertising," said Creature creative director Jim Haven. "Our goal was to form a great partnership, and bring new energy into the company."Creature creatives provided hints of that energy in their assignment, for which they designed a custom water cooler with a mini-Windstar ship floating inside. With a wink toward 9-to-5'ers break-room gossip sessions, text on the cooler's base reads, "Tell better stories." "That's the type of unusual and unique thinking that Windstar needs to take us to the next level," Scoringe said, adding that the company would send similar coolers as perks to its top-selling corporate and travel clients.Choosing to retain its established tagline, "180 degrees from ordinary," by independent incumbent KNCB/Dave, Seattle, Windstar asked Creature to come up with complementary text emphasizing brand enhancements. The shop's suggestion: "New degrees of difference."Calling both the agency and the concept "very open-minded, very creative," Scoringe said the sub-tag would relay improvements exactly as intended. "We're redefining what that means for them," Haven said. Yet-to-be-crafted ads would use the two-part slogan to spotlight Windstar's exclusive new features, he explained, including flatscreen TVs with DVD players in every suite, an overhauled wine list, and menus created especially for the cruise line by celebrated California chef Joachim Splichal. Creature's diverse project agenda would potentially include print, direct-response, point-of-purchase and "specialty product development," Scoringe said, as well as online and other non-traditional ad executions. Media planning and buying is handled in-house; print placement will cover both consumer and trade-oriented publications including Travel & Leisure, Islands, The New York Times, Departures and TravelAge West.In 2004, Windstar spent $300,000 on advertising, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Scoringe would not reveal a projected ad spend for 2005, but noted that the company would rely on a "several-million dollar budget"—enhanced with numerous co-op and trade agreements—to serve all its marketing needs. "It does the job," he said.

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Cruise Line to Creature: 'Welcome Aboard'

Randi Schmelzer

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