MullenLowe’s Stunning Short Films for Royal Caribbean Serve Up Alaska’s Local Flavor

If you want to discover what makes a place special, hang out with the locals.

In a new series of short, documentary-style films touting Royal Caribbean’s Alaska cruises, three Alaskans—two transplants from the Lower 48 and one native—vividly bring the state they love to life.

Created by MullenLowe, the work to some extent mirrors Airbnb’s “Live There” experiential forays, stressing authenticity of experience and regional flavor over typical tourist fare. Each about four minutes long, these films display an assured sense of story and a keen eye for both sweeping scenic vistas and more esoteric visual details, like the texture of cedar sculptures and grilled golden goodness of traditional cuisine.

Though filmed over just a few days in August, each subject emerges as a fully formed character in intimate, picturesque dramas that viewers might enjoying experiencing by cruising to Alaska on Royal Caribbean.

In the first clip below, we meet Wayne Price, a soft-spoken but fiercely proud master carver, who teaches his craft to the next generation, and sums up the transcendent spirit of his people in profound fashion. “I live in 10,000 years of Tlingit history that is part of my life every day,” he says. “Our culture is important enough not to lose.”

“Ultimately, we wanted our audience to experience the content like they would a film,” Kara Wallace, vp of North America marketing at Royal Caribbean, tells Adweek. “We wanted them to get lost in the unique stories and perspectives of Alaska; to watch and think, ‘I want to go there, I want to do that.'”

Director Jacob Rosenberg’s style serves that purpose well, and his stories unfold in compelling fashion. He’s ridden the local before in spots for Heinz and Santa Margherita Wines, and this effort builds on that base to deliver compelling form and function. The Royal Caribbean work is quietly intense, vaguely dreamy yet grounded, and it really reels us in. (It’s a big change from some boisterous cruise-line campaigns, and that includes past ads from this particular brand.)

“We wanted to create a series that serves a bigger cultural purpose of revealing the truth of the place itself, which goes far beyond advertising,” says MullenLowe associate creative director Danny Streadbeck. “We wanted to make sure each person complemented the others and didn’t tread on similar territory. When we found our three subjects, there was a common DNA about being self-driven and making a life specifically within and through the Alaska backdrop.”

Next, food journalist Mary Smith serves up some local flavor, deep-dishing on Alaskan cuisine as she explores her enduring bond to this vast, diverse land:

“Our audience is someone who is very culturally curious,” says agency social media account director Stacy Carpenter. “They want to see and experience the world, but don’t travel nearly as much as they want to. They are part of the binge-watching culture and turn to platforms like YouTube to consume engaging travel content. So, when we released ‘The Local’ on YouTube, we made sure to do so Netflix-style, so that all of the videos could be consumed within the same browsing experience.”

One such curiosity seeker was wilderness explorer Dan Oberlatz, whose first Alaska experience proved so profound, he ultimately moved there, and now guides expeditions into the state’s rugged and frequently awe-inspiring backcountry:

Overall, each film does a fine job of conveying the essence of authentic adventure and personal growth, showing prospective travelers the kinds of people they could meet and the ways their lives might be enriched.

And as it turns out, one of the location shoots led to an adventure for the creative team.

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