Carnival Cruises With Co-op Gift Packs

Along with the lavish meals, poolside fun and pleasure stops, Carnival Cruise Lines gives away a co-op sampling bag to each of its on-board vacationers.

Some 2 million passengers a year find Bon Voyage gift packs in their stateroom upon boarding. Carnival believes the bags provide a value-added service, says Ingrid Brown, vice president of promotional media at Response Media Inc., Atlanta, which joined the co-op program in January.

Unlike hotels, cruise ships don’t stock bottles of shampoo or bar soap. Plus, a Carnival study revealed passengers are most likely to overlook packing personal care items. So the giveaways feature those products. A recent bag for women, for example, had a Bic razor and trial sizes of Tylenol PM, Thermasilk shampoo and conditioner, Softsoap body wash, Lady Speed Stick deodorant, Phisoderm cleanser and Breath Savers mints. The men’s bag contained some of the same products and a bar of Irish Spring soap with aloe.

The trial rate is about 75% immediate usage, according to Market Connections International of Montclair, NJ, which manages the program for Carnival. Conversion rates have been as high as 35%.

“When the passenger gets in the room, the sampling bag products are the only option they have,” says Francis Martin, a director at Market Connections. “So the trial rate is extraordinary. They are not at home with their ordinary set of products.”

Also, advertisers believe consumers associate the brands in the bags with pleasure. If a perfume is included, for instance, “Every time you smell that scent, you remember being on the ship in St. Thomas,” says Martin.

Passengers fill out a questionnaire while riding on a bus from the airport to the ship terminal. The data collected, mostly on product usage, is used for future targeting of sample bags. “The response rate is [about] 90% because they have nothing else to do on the bus,” says Martin.

Carnival’s customers are an attractive demographic for direct response advertisers. Ranging in age from 24 to 45, their average household income is more than $84,000, reports Brown.

This spring, one-product event samplers will be added. Passengers will be given a trial-size coffee at breakfast or a nutrition bar in the ship’s fitness center. “We know 67% of cruise passengers actually visit the fitness center,” remarks Brown. “So can you imagine a power bar delivered right there in the fitness center? I think it would be very powerful.”