Carnival Cruise Lines and Razorfish Launch Innovative Social Media Application for Planning Cruise Vacations
New application allows consumers to shop for cruises and share with friends without leaving Facebook
MIAMI, August 19, 2010 – Carnival Cruise Lines and Razorfish today announced the launch of a groundbreaking new social commerce Facebook application that allows users to easily view, compare, select and share Carnival cruises with their Facebook friends. The application, the first of its kind in the cruise industry, allows users to engage their social network in their vacation planning through personalized newsfeed updates and even invite friends to book the same trip.
The application, available on Carnival’s official Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/carnival), enables the user to explore all available Carnival cruise options without leaving Facebook by providing the functionality to sort cruises by date, duration, port of call, and accommodation type. Once users decide on a particular cruise, they can share the detailed cruise information with their Facebook friends by simply clicking a button. Users can also customize their newsfeed messages, which include a link to the cruise, to invite friends to book the trip as well.
“A Carnival cruise is a very social experience and this application is a natural extension of our efforts to engage our nearly 250,000 Facebook fans in a unique and exciting way,” said Jim Berra, Carnival’s chief marketing officer. “By allowing our customers to share their cruising plans with Facebook friends, we are making it easier for them to plan group trips and encourage others to join in the fun.”
Digital marketing agency Razorfish sought to tap into the power of the online community to drive engagement with the Carnival brand. As a result, the agency helped conceptualize, create and design the application as a way to offer the cruise line’s products and services in native locations for consumers.
“This is a great example of how a brand can create a meaningful, relevant and social experience that enhances an activity consumers are engaging in anyway, in this case sharing their vacation plans on Facebook,” said Cristina Lawrence, director of word of mouth and social media marketing at Razorfish. “Carnival realizes people’s passion for cruising is ‘socially’ contagious, which is why we helped them design an application that enables consumers to share the real-time excitement of the booking process and the opportunity to invite friends to join them.”
Once users have taken advantage of the Facebook application to choose and share their Carnival cruise plans, they will be directed to the appropriate shopping cart page on Carnival.com to finalize the transaction.
About Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Cruise Lines, a unit of Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), is the most popular cruise line in the world with 22 “Fun Ships” operating voyages from three to 16 days in length to The Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexican Riviera, Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New England, Europe and Bermuda. The line currently has two new 130,000-ton ships on order – Carnival Magic, set to debut in Europe May 1, 2011, and Carnival Breeze, scheduled to enter service in spring 2012. For additional information and reservations, contact any travel agent, 1-800-CARNIVAL or visit carnival.com. Carnival also can be found on Twitter: www.twitter.com/carnivalcruise, Facebook: www.facebook.com/carnival, Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/carnivalcruiselines/
About Razorfish
Razorfish creates experiences that build businesses. As one of the largest interactive marketing and technology companies in the world, Razorfish helps its clients build better brands by delivering business results through customer experiences. Razorfish combines the best thought leadership of the consulting world with the leading capabilities of the marketing services industry to support our clients’ business needs, such as launching new products, repositioning a brand or participating in the social world. With a demonstrated commitment to innovation, Razorfish continues to cultivate our expertise in Social Influence Marketing, emerging media, creative design, analytics, technology and user experience. Razorfish has offices in markets across the United States, and in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sinagpore and the United Kingdom. Clients include Carnival Cruise Lines, MillerCoors, Levi Strauss & Co., McDonald’s and Starwood Hotels. With sister agencies Starcom MediaVest, ZenithOptimedia, Denuo and Digitas, Razorfish is part of Publicis Groupe’s (Euronext Paris: FR0000130577) VivaKi, a global digital knowledge and resource center. Visit www.razorfish.com for more information. Follow Razorfish on Twitter at @razorfish
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