World's largest leisure travel company partners with leading media buying firm, PHD, to consolidate and strategically coordinate global media buying for seven of its 10 brands in North America and the UK
Consolidation from six agencies to a single firm for the two regions expected to drive higher demand for cruising and generate significant savings on the company's more than $100 million annual media spend
MIAMI, May 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure travel company, today announced it is partnering with PHD, a leading Omnicom advertising agency, to handle all media planning and buying for seven of its 10 global cruise brands in North America and the United Kingdom.
Following an extensive agency review and media buying analysis, Carnival Corporation is consolidating from six agencies to a single firm, awarding PHD its media planning and buying business based on the firm's global expertise, capabilities and purchasing power for North America and the UK.
PHD will handle media planning and buying responsibilities for Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, P&O Cruises UK and Cunard Line in the North America and UK markets. PHD currently supports media planning and buying for Carnival Cruise Line and Cunard Line.
The move leverages Carnival Corporation's scale as the world's largest cruise company to improve the strategic coordination of media buying across multiple brands in two of the world's largest regions for cruise vacations. It is expected to help generate awareness and drive increased demand for cruising, while creating multi-million dollar savings in media costs. In 2015, Carnival Corporation's six brands in the two regions combined for $116 million in media spend.
"We are excited to partner with the team at PHD across our leading portfolio of cruise brands in North America and in the UK,"said Josh Leibowitz, chief strategy officer for Carnival Corporation. "Bringing together our brands to work with a world class agency like PHD enables us to further enhance our digital and traditional media strategies to grow demand for cruising as the world's best vacation choice."
Leibowitz added: "As part of our ongoing efforts to leverage our scale across 10 global cruise brands, this agreement enables our brands to work together in a completely new way. We appreciate everyone on our collective teams for all the hard work that made this possible."
PHD will use its significant purchasing power, sophisticated research resources and advanced business intelligence tools to provide Carnival Corporation strategic expertise and support for its marketing programs. PHD will work closely with the company and its brands on a framework that enables strategic coordination for media buying across multiple brands and regions, which will create efficiencies in media spending and help unlock demand for cruise vacations.
About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation &plc is the largest leisure travel company in the world, with a portfolio of 10 cruise brands inNorth America,Europe,AustraliaandAsiacomprised ofCarnival Cruise Line, Fathom,Holland America Line,Princess Cruises, Seabourn,AIDA Cruises,Costa Cruises, Cunard,P&O Cruises(Australia) andP&O Cruises(UK).
Together, these brands operate 101 ships visiting over 700 ports around the world and totaling 225,000 lower berths with 15 new ships scheduled to be delivered between 2016 and 2020.Carnival Corporation &plc also operates Holland America Princess Alaska Tours, the leading tour companies inAlaskaand the Canadian Yukon. Traded on both theNew Yorkand London Stock Exchanges,Carnival Corporation &plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P500 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, www.pocruises.com and www.fathom.org.
