MIAMI, Feb. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival
Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's
largest travel and leisure company, today announced that Bette
Shapiro from Red Bud, Illinois, is the official
winner of its World's Leading Cruise Lines Marketing Challenge.
Selected randomly from over 115,000 people who participated in the
contest, Shapiro's prize is a yearly cruise for life onboard her
choice of three of Carnival Corporation's global cruise brands in
North America – Carnival Cruise
Line, Holland America Line or Princess Cruises.
Shapiro won the contest by participating in Carnival
Corporation's recent marketing challenge that gave consumers across
North America the chance to
provide input on the company's new TV advertising concepts, one of
which debuted on NBC-TV's broadcast of the Super Bowl on
February 1. Hosted by comedian
and actor Cedric the Entertainer, the interactive crowdsourcing
contest let people "join the company's marketing team" and vote for
their favorite of four potential TV commercials to be used
throughout 2015 with a chance to win the grand prize.
Carnival Corporation also announced today that Sherry Laemmle, a realtor from Bella Vista, Arkansas, will receive 100 days
of free cruising as the official winner of its #LoveCruising
Twitter contest that asked consumers to tweet about why they love
the cruise experience.
Launched as part of the company's 2015 marketing initiative to
grow awareness and demand for cruising, the Twitter contest
generated thousands of entries from people who eagerly expressed
their passions for cruising. This included one of Laemmle's tweets
that read "@CarnivalPLC no place else we'd rather be as a family!
#LoveCruising" and featured a family photo in front of the Carnival
Cruise Line ship Carnival Elation, which sails out of the Port of
New Orleans.
Additionally, Carnival Corporation gave away a free cruise to
Richard Vronman from Escondido,
California, and Carolyn
Benson from Cape Coral,
Florida, as part of a contest rewarding select lucky
guests-to-be who have used the company's popular new
"CRUISE-A-NALITY" tool. The tool helps people decide what type of
cruise vacation and brand experience is right for them based on a
series of personality-focused questions that generate a cruise
"persona" for all types of travelers.
"We are excited to give the grand prize of cruising for life to
Bette, and we are thrilled that more than 115,000 consumers chimed
in over the past 10 weeks to provide valuable input on our
advertising and marketing messages that will be used throughout
2015," said Ken Jones, vice
president of group marketing and insights for Carnival Corporation.
"We were able to hear both from avid cruisers and also those who
have never cruised to see what types of messages resonated with
them in telling the story of cruising. The feedback directly from
consumers is extremely helpful to us as we look to generate broader
awareness of why cruising is a great vacation option, at a great
value, and why people should consider cruising as they make their
upcoming vacation plans."
These various contests and components from Carnival
Corporation's new marketing initiative all led to the company's
first-ever multi-brand TV commercial, "Come Back to the Sea," a
60-second spot that aired during the Super Bowl – timed with the
cruise industry's yearly first-quarter surge in bookings, known as
"Wave Season."
The multi-phase marketing initiative targeting new cruisers will
build on the success of these initial efforts and continue
throughout 2015. Thus far to date, all the various integrated
elements of the campaign have driven significant consumer and media
engagement including:
- 4,000+ media placements resulting in more than 10 billion media
impressions
- 18,000+ social mentions reaching over 80 million in social
audience
- 6.46 million views of the commercials on YouTube and other
platforms
- More than 115,000 votes in World's Leading Cruise Lines
Marketing Challenge
Consumers will continue to be able to use
WorldLeadingCruiseLines.com, the online home of the larger
marketing initiative, as a hub for new tools, functionally, news
and content from the company's nine global cruise brands, as well
as information on future developments related to the ongoing 2015
marketing efforts of Carnival Corporation.
About Carnival Corporation
Carnival Corporation &
plc is the largest cruise company in the world, with a portfolio of
cruise brands in North America,
Europe, Australia and Asia, comprised of Carnival Cruise Line,
Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises,
Costa Cruises, Cunard, P&O Cruises (Australia) and P&O Cruises (UK).
Together, these brands operate 100 ships totaling 212,000 lower
berths with 10 new ships scheduled to be delivered between now and
2018. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates Holland America
Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both
the New York and London Stock
Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the
world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100
indices. Additional information can be found on www.carnival.com,
www.hollandamerica.com, www.princess.com, www.seabourn.com,
www.aida.de, www.costacruise.com, www.cunard.com,
www.pocruises.com.au and www.pocruises.com.
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SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc