Cruise West
PRINT / DIRECT MAIL / DIGITAL
Project: Reinvent the brand personality of Cruise West – a small ship cruise company – on a very tight advertising budget.
Challenge: Cruise West needed to make a splash in a category where every player looked and spoke the same in their advertising. They needed to create a new look and attitude that would stand out, while also keeping costs to a minimum and driving sales.
Solution: We waged this marketing battle on two fronts simultaneously. In terms of messaging, we took on the mega-ships by explaining to potential clients that Cruise West would bring them a closer, deeper, and richer cruising experience – one that could only come via a smaller, more maneuverable ship. We then reinvented the media being used to convey our messaging, in order to stand out from the competition on a budget.
My Role: Acted as Sr. Art Director on all Cruise West projects. This included contributing to and overseeing the design of printed pieces, as well as doing some of the actual production work. I also helped in the creation of concepts, design, headlines and visuals for printed pieces and emails. Press checked all printed material.
We created a series of 20-page newsprint tabloids that unfolded to give readers a large, extremely colorful, and unexpected way to discover Cruise West itineraries. Each edition gave readers a more up close, tactile experience while offering big savings in printing and mailing costs.
Each tabloid was mailed at 6x9 inches, unfolding to the size of a newspaper when opened.
The printing process for the pieces pushed the limits of how much ink could be applied to newsprint paper. The company that printed the pieces ended up winning industry awards for the work.
Single page versions were created to help sell specific voyages.
Postcards offered frequent and humorous reminders that small ship cruising offers travelers a more authentic and less status quo experience than that provided by the big ships.
Emails were created with eye-catching imagery, engaging headlines, and valuable information on each itinerary.