[00:00:00] Donny Dvorin: Modern marketing changes fast and great marketers needed edge marketers from challenger brands need to be especially brave. This season. All our guests are from challenger brands. Join us as they unveil the strategies and tactics behind the risks that they’ve taken. They’ll talk about the biggest coldest marketing campaigns that got their brand noticed and made an impact in the industry hosting.

[00:00:30] Brief software in me, Donny Dearborn, head of sales at breathe. Join me to get fresh new perspectives and the inspiration to say yes to brief marketing moments. So with that intro, we’re doing something different. We’re doing a live audience. And today we’re speaking to two amazing marketers. One is Marianna Fonseca.

[00:00:54] Marianna is the vice president of digital experience and loyalty at Virgin voyages.

[00:00:59] So we’re talking to [00:01:00] Virgin today, the cruise ships and Marianna oversees the teams that can. Irresistible digital journeys for its sailors on web, on app, on digital properties. And she works across different teams to drive brand loyalty by leveraging all the customer touch points and experiences. And before Virgin, she had spent 10 years at American airlines, so she knows the travel industry quite well.

[00:01:23] And she was in different positions. Not only is marketing. She was in finance and alliances, planning, and even product. And we are also special because we usually just interview one person, but this is another way that we’re doing something special. We’re talking to Justin Terry and Justin serves as the senior director of growth at Virgin voyages.

[00:01:42] In this role, he leads a team responsible for introducing the world to Virgin new cruise brand and driving growth through a data-driven sailor centric and fun approach to paid media. Organic social partnerships and brands work. So we’re really excited to talk to both you, but [00:02:00] before we go there, we have to do one thing.

[00:02:02] We have to do our pick of the week. So every episode we choose a brand that has run an ad campaign with brave. And today we’re talking to NIR protocol and just see if anybody doesn’t know near think of them as a Ethereum Solano layer, one, they’re a blockchain, designed to be fast, secure, and scalable, and they’ve run the gamut with us.

[00:02:23] They’ve run sponsored images, push notifications, brave news, and their goal was to increase awareness and to educate the masses about near. Unique layer one POS and their open community, and the results are fabulous. 13% click through rates on the push 4% click through rates on the, other, units.

[00:02:43] And we usually average 9% on the push and 1% on the other units. So they crushed it. So with no further ado here is now this week’s episode of the [00:03:00] brief.

[00:03:04] why don’t we just start really broad. And I think everybody knows the Virgin brand, many people may not be familiar with all the different subsidiaries.

[00:03:14] and maybe the older folks, you may remember Virgin records, but, can I have a voluntary Marianne or Justin take us through the current, Virgin brands, the size of them, and then how the voyage has kind of fit in through the whole portfolio.

[00:03:27] Guest 1: We would need a full episode to go over that portfolio, Donnie, but

[00:03:31] Donny Dvorin: I’ll give

[00:03:32] Guest 1: you the highlights though. so as you know, we have the Virgin group who owns the brand agreement for the majority of Ebony Virgin brand, actually for all of the Virgin brands. And our key market is the UK. So where you will see the largest concentration. Uh, Virgin brands is going to be in the UK where you see Virgin Atlantic, obviously, the beautiful airline, that travels the world.

[00:03:53] You have a Virgin money, which is a banking. You have a Virgin,holidays, which is also [00:04:00] another travel brand. And then when you have a long tail, Virgin media, Virgin music, many other brands within the UK family in the us, you see some of the newer brands. So you see Virgin galactic, which has hit the news quite heavily.

[00:04:11] You’ll have Hyperloop, which is based out of. And they’re working to design a Hyperloop process. And then of course you have Virgin voyages and Virgin hotels also launching hotels throughout the country. we do have Virgin Australia and then we have some other properties other parts of the world, but maybe not as big,

[00:04:27] Donny Dvorin: Got it. And tell us about the boats. How many are there? What makes them unique? I know they’re adults only. can you go into the voyages a bit more?

[00:04:35]

[00:04:36] Guest 1: the ships are amazing right now we have one ship on the water Scarlet lady, and she is just fabulous, very different to other ships out in the water.

[00:04:45] It’s a medium sized ship holds about 20. A hundred sailors. And, what’s different about it. As you mentioned, one is definitely adults, only adults by design 18 plus. so that allows us to have a very different value proposition and very [00:05:00] different entertainment on options on board for our sailors. I would say the key differences are we blew up a lot of things by listening to what sailors wanted when they traveled one of those.

[00:05:09] normal legacy cruise last typically have a single restaurant. And I’m pretty sure Donnie that when you go on vacation, you do not want to eat at the same place every night, even if you pick a different thing from the menu. So we blew that up and we have six main dining, restaurants, essentially that are only inclusive.

[00:05:26] And you get to pick every night where you want to go. And beyond those six, we have smaller venues where you can get pizza or hamburgers or all day breaks. so from that perspective on the food is very unique. The other unique aspects, I would say it’s entertaining. we also heard from research that people don’t want to go on a cruise ship to see Broadway shows that are watered down.

[00:05:44] They want to go to New York to see Broadway shows. so what we did is every entertainment on board, the ship is bespoke to us. It’s actually, tailored to the venue on the audience. So it’s very unique and wonderful. If you ask me, and then I would say the third big differentiator is [00:06:00] our approach to, how we.

[00:06:02] Go to port typically on a cruise ship. Yeah. So we’re rush back to the ship at 4:00 PM. So you really don’t get to explore the city. We have very late nights stays. And in many cases we have overnights because honestly, if you’re going to Mykonos or Ibiza, you want to explore that over and had situation there.

[00:06:19] So very unique, it’s an area for us as well. And I could go on, but I would say those are the three main ones.

[00:06:24] Donny Dvorin: And how long has that.

[00:06:26]

[00:06:28] Guest 1: skylight kicked off in August 20 21 this year. So essentially four months we’re brand new.

[00:06:34] Donny Dvorin: What’s it been like to launch a ship during COVID when. You mean, probably cruising was one of the hardest, industries headed at the beginning. What’s that been

[00:06:44] Guest 1: like? I want us to talk about brand awareness perspective as well.

[00:06:48] Because we’re on that journey, but I would say operationally even, it’s took a little bit of a pivot for us to be able to, for example, we were going to launch out of the UK. And then the U [00:07:00] S would see the guidelines was a little bit more and more difficult for us to do that. So within a matter of months, literally in April, we decided that in August, we were going to change our strategy and launch out of the UK.

[00:07:11] So it’s taken a significant amount of, flexibility and resilience from our team to be able to find those opportunities where available. we had fabulous activations that we have attached because,the traditional way of doing things, of putting a product out in the market and expecting people to buy travel, specially for cruising, where there’s been so much negative connotation around it, wasn’t working.

[00:07:33] it’s been exhausting, but exhilarating at the same time.

[00:07:37] Donny Dvorin: Got it. Got it. So just in the, why don’t we switch over to you? What’s the most exciting thing that you’re working on?

[00:07:42] Guest 2: Uh, well, we’re kind of go through like a relaunch phase where we’ve done a lot of work in the company’s been around for quite a few years, but a couple of stalled launches over the way, just due to the nature of, the pandemic and things like that.

[00:07:55] So we’ve had a couple of bumps and now that we’re relaunching, in a new country. And there are [00:08:00] certain, consumer habits that have changed and there’s a lot of, attitudes and behaviors that have changed and we have to, act accordingly in that context. So the most exciting thing though, is,when we’re reentering, people are coming back, things are happening.

[00:08:10] If you want to get back to liveliness and feeling like that full sense of life there, you’re going out adventures. Again, people are moving around and so there’s still, the apprehension you deal with what people are doing. they want to be safe and they want to feel secure and where they’re going, then it’s a safe place for them that their health is going to be considered well accounted for.

[00:08:26] But at the same time, people are ready to let loose and to be working here during that moment in time,

[00:08:32] we’ve had now a couple of sales, it’s been a couple months and seeing people on the ship, seeing how they’re reacting to it, seeing them, like we have a lot of great safety protocols and we test it, the terminals and me, we are, we have vaccinations and there’s a lot of things that we do to ensure that safety, which allows people to feel more comfortable, to let a little looser, to interact with people in different ways, to interact with our crew and our happenings to crewAnd it just a more relaxing, powerful ways that they can just have a good time. So I [00:09:00] get it’s just the privilege of working with such an incredible group of humans to go ahead and bring that product to market and bring it to people at a time. It really speaks to what they’re yearning for, which is a rare moment in time.

[00:09:12] joining during a pandemic is an interesting thing. Joining a cruise line, in the midst of all that,it’s a challenge and we have a lot of things to overcome.

[00:09:19] I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else where it just so excited to relaunch the brand, bring it to you and really show people what the product is, who we are as a brand. cause we have those associations with Virgin, but we’re our own distinct animal.

[00:09:31] Even within that big umbrella, we have lot of connectivity, with our brothers and sisters in the Virgin group at large, but we definitely have our own take and. to how we do things as well.

[00:09:40] Donny Dvorin: got it. So, you know, the whole Genesis of the podcast is a brave marketing moment and I think yours is the new brand campaign that you just spoke about.

[00:09:49] is there something specific that you want to mention or talk about that made it the way you took a specific risk that made it risky with that new brand?

[00:09:58] Guest 2: Yeah, I think risk is just in [00:10:00] the DNA of this place. I think,the way we’ve approached it, working with our investors, with our executive teams, we take chances on things, how we speak to things, the experiences on the ship.

[00:10:09] there’s a lot of aspects to. Oh, the way we cruise,we have a void, right? Like we speak about it in that way. And so there’s definitely some specific risks around how do we go about saying that, like, there’s a lot of ways to frame,how we approach the market.

[00:10:23] And some of the risks, things are moving fast, which is just associated with risks, where we have to make some really quick decisions who we work with. What are the decisions we make? How do we go to market? Who do we talk to? Where. as well. And I think it’s something that shouldn’t be come into an industry with a lot of legacy competitors who have been around for quite some time.

[00:10:40] They’ve been approaching the market and have fairly well-established, positions in that market. And we don’t. And so I think risk is basically built in the brand campaign in particular and just the brand in general. the work we do, Mariana and the web team and the onboard team and the crew, like, we all take these risks.

[00:10:57] In terms of, the types of entertainment we bring on the ship, the [00:11:00] types of ways we engage with people, but being bold, because we are that upstart in this industry that has been around for, out with very entrenched competitors. We have to take chances because there is always a risk that this industry has been around for quite some time.

[00:11:13] There are a lot of preconceived notions and how we speak to that market. has some inherent risks when we come forth as who we are. We’re a new entrant and something very different for people. And I think there’s always a risk with difference, whenever you kind of introduce something try to breathe.

[00:11:29] Into an industry, there’s that excitement, but at the same time, there’s that balance of fear and apprehension. that’s out there, we just finally are sailing now, but our competitors have been around for a very long time.

[00:11:37] And given the current market conditions, we were really diligent about trying to find when and where, like the market returning and like people coming back to cruising,

[00:11:45] So yeah, risk is built into basically every day here and we encouraged to do that as well.

[00:11:51] we encourage each other to do that, and I think, what the biggest part of that is, is having this. of the team, the people you’re working with, your investor is the, the executives across the board, that support [00:12:00] helps create a culture where risk is welcome.

[00:12:03] there’s accountability always, but it’s definitely, it’s encouraging. And we take some of these shots and they work. I mean, we just launched our ship, in the U S and we parked that September in New York and through a huge event, celebrities. And we have, our investors and we have, musical acts.

[00:12:19] We had major laser there. We had Trixie Mattel. we’re inviting people to have come dine on the ship at a moment in time. That was still like, that was people were still just getting used to coming back. and experiencing the world in that way. And we took a risk and there’s a lot of costs there’s a lot of labor and crew and a thousand people that work on that thing that has to make that floating city

[00:12:38] This incredible thing, come to life. And, you take a risk on that, but it was incredible. And so ever since that moment where you take the risk and say, how do we go about launching this. So we’re going to do a big moment. We’re going to park it in New York. We’re going to throw a party.

[00:12:52] We’re going to show people who we are and just be who we are. And the payoff is we doubled bookings after that, right? it’s super [00:13:00] risky because it’s also coming to New York where they’re still logging a lot of protocols. We put together excessively, even stringent COVID precautions that we check.

[00:13:09] And we worked with clear and we had testing to get on board and the terminal. There’s so many things. but I think the most important part is just that willingness, that support. Cause it takes an entire organization to do mostly anything that we do across the board from ship side, shore side. and when you’re aligned on it, it just that’s when it comes to.

[00:13:27] lots of risks.

[00:13:28] Guest 1: yeah, I would say Virgin brands is known for being a disruptor Adani. So we are risk-takers by nature, right? Like I just told you three very different things that we were willing to go on bet on the fact that they were going to be different. yeah, risk is not unknown to us.

[00:13:43] Risk is what we thrive on.

[00:13:45] Donny Dvorin: what were the elements of the brand campaign? You just talked about parking in New York. What else did you do to really get the names?

[00:13:50] Guest 2: There’s a lot of components here and it’s a lot of it is being really smart and tactical about like how we’re approaching the market.

[00:13:56] where do you show up? but what are those moments? our social media team has done [00:14:00] some pretty phenomenal work and it’s how we approach the market and who we. I think because we’re known as, the upstart, we’re scrappier or hungry, but also like we’re exciting and energetic.

[00:14:10] And so that has to come through. and a lot of the work that we do and that comes through, whether that’s, in our social feeds in our teams, just basically showing that experience, but also in the website and where we’re going. We have mermaid in sales, those are our maiden voyages.

[00:14:23] And how we go about that? Getting, adding just so many flourishes and I can let Mariana chalk to how we do mermaid Inn, which is just the attention to detail, and like the focus of the group, but also just the focus on people and our job is to just make the most fun experience possible for people when it’s a pretty great job to have.

[00:14:41] Guest 1: let’s take that one as a use case. I think it highlights one of the things that’s critical. Which is how we approach things collaboratively. We do not believe in isolated things that we do. There’s not like a single social post. there’s a couple of those things, but as it pretends to big initiative, we work very closely to.

[00:14:59] [00:15:00] Mermaid and voyage is what we call our maiden. Boys is every ship has them. you slap a bottle of champagne and I guess the ship you call it a day. what we decided to do is we decided to turn it into a key brand moment. Mermaids are important to us there on the side of our ship, we name our ships around them, ride Scarlet ladies, a beautiful, lady that you can see on the side of her.

[00:15:20] So we decided to coin our maiden voyages, the mermaid invoice. And what we did is we all coalesced around this beautiful activation of a vanilla event that was very traditional and cruising, but it turned into our own, we branded, we have a special field for it. We have a special creative around it. We have a beautiful photo shoot of mermaids across Miami and across our ship that we leverage in terms of creative.

[00:15:43] And then we activate until the world that is had. We call that sailing. I’m her maiden voyage. We, have social media, that supports said, we have a special media banners that supported. We make sure that there’s a web banner, that it is presented across the experience. So we carry that through.[00:16:00]

[00:16:00] So it’s not like a nice related thing that you have to search, but we actually coalesce around it and it doesn’t, and which is unique to us. If it doesn’t. when the sailing starts, it actually continues there because one of the key success indicators of a mermaid and voyage for us is social shares.

[00:16:16] We want to make sure that everybody has FOMO so that anybody that lives cruising will absolutely go to the next mermaid and voyage. So we do activations on board. We partner with a house of, yes, we turn you into a mermaid. We have mermaids on the pool. We have mermaids on the bitch to take pictures with our sailors.

[00:16:34] we have special mermaid food that you can go on hunt around the ship. so we provide a photo opportunities for people to share and we all again, coalesce around it in a very non-traditional. Because we have this component that some other brands do, where if we don’t deliver a product to you in a moment of time, you actually live the product with us for a very long period of time.

[00:16:55] So we use in squeeze every moment that we can to make sure that we’re creating that engagement [00:17:00] with our sailors in a very unique way. That’s beautiful.

[00:17:03] Donny Dvorin: That’s beautiful. Yeah. So how do you keep in touch with the sailors after the.

[00:17:10] Guest 1: I’m not going to be shy about this. We are in the process of starting, what is our retention and loyalty program? We did launch a program called sea blazers. So we wanted to encourage people to come and still with us in 2020. When we knew it was a Rocky year, it was a Rocky year because there’s still COVID risk.

[00:17:27] It was a Rocky year because we’re a brand new brand. so they had to bet on us. so we created the seed blazer program to incentivize people to come to try this new product out, to be, a C place around adventure. and it also gave us an opportunity to talk to them a little bit different, which is, we asked for feedback, we did give them incentives, so they got special flag and they get some bartend bonus for live.

[00:17:47] And they now belong to this, founders club, almost type of group. as we launch a loyalty program in the future, we will find different opportunities to do this. For now we thank them [00:18:00] for coming along with us. We keep them engaged. We follow them through their life cycle, but I think a lot of how do we talk to Sanders after they bleached with us will be developed as part of our loyalty strategy later next

[00:18:12] Donny Dvorin: year.

[00:18:12] I want to make sure that we leave time for questions from the people that are joining live. but why don’t I ask a question that came in from Carollee. She asked working across so many teams and with multiple digital tactics, how big a role does attribution modeling play in evaluating campaign perform?

[00:18:31] We have a

[00:18:32] Guest 2: very holistic view on this. I think the greatest part about this too, is we were talking about collaboration or. Mariana’s team had digital experience. I loyalty program is that there’s so many different touch points that we have to consider. And we think about in-market activity as well.

[00:18:45] So I run the growth team, which is mostly, related more in-market activity. but also there’s our PR team. There’s there’s this coordination. We know. I have a traditional media background, which we like to look at the last click of something. And we like to give that a lot of, you know, it’s, [00:19:00] attribution is difficult in the post cookie world or like near post cookie world.

[00:19:04] It gets even more problematic. but with the important thing is for us, it’s making sure that we know. intrinsic to who we are, that we understand that it is all the things that are combined that make it work. So when I know I get a search click coming in, but like we know, our PR team has done, these press releases are served.

[00:19:20] Richard was just here with us. We have partnerships that are lifting those shifts. We have, programs on the website. We have,the more media and experiences that people are sharing and then people see those. It’s making sure we take into account those things. And it’s also integrated data systems.

[00:19:34] So we have analytics teams that sit across both Mariana’s team and my team, they are interconnected. They work together. We use the same platforms we use Tableau for some, integrated dashboards. And so everyone can get visibility into that impact, but it’s also looking at it holistically.

[00:19:48] So when I pull up and say, It’s easy to silo. And so when you saw it, you can say, how has media performing? how’s this performing. And really, you have to look at all those things together because the reality is we work a lot with, we call them [00:20:00] first mates, but that’s travel agents and understanding the impact of the brand work we’re doing in.

[00:20:04] optimizations, we’re making to the website that are making their jobs easier, that all work together to make the best experience and to grow the business as much as possible. So it’s more just having that mindset constantly being pretty vigilant about it and making sure it starts with, leadership as well and having agreement that this is how we do things.

[00:20:22] It is not anyone working in like their thing is success is seen as a team. No matter what initiative we’re working on. And I think having that as the foundation of what we do makes giving that attribution much easier, because it’s a lot about communication and constant.

[00:20:37] Talking about it, understanding what’s happening. When, so when I see a spike on the media side, it doesn’t necessarily come from me. And if I’m not communicating with the rest of my team, then that’s the case. And the same thing when I’m pushing a couple million dollars in market, and all of a sudden the web is exploded.

[00:20:51] If I’m not communicating, that’s the web team, we’re going to have trouble there as well. So it’s that back and forth, that make it easier and just make it more engaging and [00:21:00] fun to work with. We have a lot of smart things going on at any given time. So making sure we’re giving the right. attribution is as a way of think about, but just making sure the credit isn’t taken and that has implications.

[00:21:10] if you have one team taking credit for something that means you’re underfunding something else, and you’re going to actually move resources to that thing, if you don’t look at it holistically. So we know that it’s a totality of experience that. I was going

[00:21:20] Guest 1: to say as was a fun fact, Donnie.

[00:21:22] We know that it takes about 30 days in consideration for someone to shove a cruise, because it is such a complex product that includes destination and hotel and the type of cabin you’re doing on the exclusions you may want to get. so if you take those 30 days into consideration, relying on something as a last click for attribution, it’s really not productive.

[00:21:39] Not specially when we’re in big growth mode, NPR is such a big part of a strategy. So I agree with everything, Justin just. We look at things more holistically and we’ll look at the macro indicators. There will be a point at which we would look at attribution, more granularly, but at the stage that we are right now, it is just not as valuable.

[00:21:57] Donny Dvorin: Got it. So we have Jared that’s [00:22:00] joined us life. Jared, why don’t you unmute yourself and please introduce yourself. Where do you work and what is your. Hey guys, I’m Jared.

[00:22:08] Guest 1: I live in Squamish, Canada, which is a smallest

[00:22:11] Donny Dvorin: mountain town near Vancouver. And

[00:22:13] Guest 1: I work for a company called safe doing, which is working on, global products for remote workers.

[00:22:17] been very interesting so far. thanks for your time

[00:22:19] Guest 2: on the podcast. So the question I have for

[00:22:22] Guest 1: you is, early on, and especially in COVID, some of the main,

[00:22:25] Guest 2: outbreaks happened on cruises and maybe that’s changed people’s views of cruises. And whether there’s. how have

[00:22:31] Audience 1: you layer that into some of the marketing that you’ve done and what are some of the creative things you’ve done to try to reshape people’s minds?

[00:22:37] If you do think they’ve got.

[00:22:38] Guest 1: so we track that sentiment era you’re spot on, right? as you saw more people, especially Incruse one of the things you’ve got going on is that if something happens on one cruise line, everybody thinks poorly of every other cruise line, right? if there’s an outbreak in a Hilton and your hometown, like nobody cares about that Marriott and that others, but Incruse is very unique where we do.

[00:22:59] Bad [00:23:00] by association. so what we did, and this was before my time, and honestly, before Justin’s time, as the company was really proactive in launching, what’s called our voyage initiative where we actually listen to sailors are there and their concerns, and then pillar what we’re doing both operationally as well as how we’re communicating to them in terms of keeping them.

[00:23:20] But it is all based on a survey that we do to our leads, a sentiment survey where we ask what’s important to them for their safety and this voyage. I would say it, it is a campaign in a way, but it’s this umbrella communication platform that we use. We carry even now as we’re sailing to keep them informed of we’re going to test you at the term.

[00:23:41] we’re going to make sure that you’re vaccinated. This is what the protocols are on board the ship, but we’ve used them now under this umbrella campaign.

[00:23:48] Guest 2: I think it’s really an interesting thing we’re even discussing now as we’re coming out and, you know, it’s a evolving pandemic.

[00:23:53] And so we were launching Delta, all of a sudden hits. And so there, we still know it’s something that’s top of mind for folks, but as we’re new [00:24:00] and people don’t know much about us when we’re working on building our awareness and just having, introducing the product to the world, having that messaging included in there.

[00:24:06] what is the balance between that? Cause we’re selling phones. Incredible experiences. but there’s something you can’t not acknowledge that thing. And so it’s really important as we bring that to market. How are we threading that through our messaging?

[00:24:17] but also not making it so like, you can’t have it, it gets real, real heavy, real. once you started dressing that kind of elephant in the room and acknowledging, but that’s one of the biggest factors, you know,the survey or research, that Mariana’s talking about. Like, we know it’s partly for our people, but also one of the things we’re trying to do choose we’re speaking.

[00:24:35] there’s a lot of cruisers that are going to be super interested in what we do, but we’re made, it’s not solely for cruises for people that just want to have an amazing holiday experience. And so there’s a whole set of people that we’re going to be speaking. that don’t necessarily have preconceived notions have watched that documentary on HBO.

[00:24:50] And, it’s very much something I watched it before came and worked here. So it’s people will have that in their minds. but it’s really how we reassure that voyage while program and having it, making sure it’s easily navigable as [00:25:00] people are going through their booking journey and just exploring the ship

[00:25:02] definitely incorporated into how our presence in market, but it’s very much a deciding, like figuring out that fine line where we’re really accessing, like, don’t worry, you’re safe, but also that you’re safe. So now you can have a really great time and it’s a bit of a balance, but it’s something that we address it across every medium.

[00:25:19] We have. Awesome. Thanks a lot.

[00:25:22] Donny Dvorin: Yeah, thanks for coming on. Live Jared. Now we have a question that’s actually asked by two different people. Lizzie, submitted this earlier and, Coralee asked this question as well. Now, Justin, you talked about the brand strategy a lot and the branding and the branding.

[00:25:35] Now the question that keeps on coming up is Virgin is such a well-known brand. Does that mean that you could spend more of your money on bottle of the mother funnel tactics? Because Virgin is already out.

[00:25:46] Guest 2: Yes. I mean, there is a halo effect.

[00:25:47] Virgin has that allure even from just a career perspective. but also in the market, you know Virgin is in the UK was in Canada is not, what is it in Canada? It’s not what it is in the U S and what that brand halo is.

[00:25:58] The Virgin Atlantic approach. And that [00:26:00] disruptor approach is something that people are familiar with. They have expectations around us. And it’s funny because there’s lots of people that we talk to, remember branding, to that don’t necessarily have that notion.

[00:26:11] So we can also assume that people know and understand. So when people come to the. our experiences and how we do cruising,what our voyages are. People sometimes push some preconceived notions just for them from the brand on us. And like, how do we live up to that when we’re our own entity as well, we have our own approach to what we do.

[00:26:28] it’s very much tethered. the light, elevated fun experiences that kind of Virgin is known for. but there’s a lot of work being done. We work with a lot of the other Victoza and Mariana and her team are doing a lot of work there with the Lord’s Bruins working with the expanded network.

[00:26:43] We get a lot of benefit from that, but that being said, we have to let your people know who. utterly in front of that. There’s another thing too, where even in the UK, that’s something we’ve been talking about quite a bit here. We’re launching a ship in the UK, Valiant and March. It’s going to be amazing.

[00:26:58] The itineraries are beautiful and we’ll [00:27:00] be around the visa and the Canary islands. it’s just funnel. And, but their version exists there it’s much more prevalent. it’s ubiquitous, sir. Richard Branson. carries that weight to it, but that being said,our person market, we’re just a different animal where, you know, what is our experience?

[00:27:15] How are we Virgin? There’s a lot of different ways. Virgin manifests itself in the world and how companies imbue those values and that culture. on themselves and we have our own unique style to it. It’s, marrying the two. I think we do get quite a bit of bump from it. but if people aren’t just gonna come and just buy the product, just because it’s Virgin,it definitely gives us a lot of good ones.

[00:27:35] And we get a lot of, probably, quite a bit more than a lot of other companies will get because of the Virgin brand and because of our relationships there. but definitely it’s more about the experience and like what really matters to people too is what does it feel like to be on the ship?

[00:27:49] How do those cultural things, how does it affect them? How does it change their experience and their enjoyment? And I’m sure Mariana probably has some good thoughts on this as well.

[00:27:56] Guest 1: [00:28:00] Yes. Some people are like, oh, Virgin exists. So great. You guys just need to go and sell cruises. The reality is we also have to educate them then yes. While Virgin exists, Virgin voyages is a cruise company owned by. And we get those benefits by it by association. But a lot of the times where like Virgin voyages, I thought they were just an airline or I thought they were just sending rockets to space.

[00:28:23] So there is a level of training that needs to happen a little bit more on the awareness level, on the upper funnel, that Justin is very hard working on, making sure that people understand our value proposition. And then cruising is also a very unique segment, right? So the people that know about Virgin because they follow Hyperloop and they like, all of the innovation side may not be the people who are looking for a cruise.

[00:28:46] So then there’s a level of, awareness teaching that has to happen for other cruises, right? People who are going on some of the competitor brands. so we get some value. We get more value in the UK than we get in the U S but there’s still a level of education that [00:29:00] needs to happen. So there is no freebie for us yet.

[00:29:03] We’ll get it. Once we get the value of the network of the loyalty

[00:29:06] Donny Dvorin: program. So broader picture outside of Virgin, how do you think you would market this brands 10 years ago? That’s different than today. And how do you think you would market this brand in 10 years from now? Like just kind of big picture thing.

[00:29:19] Guest 2: Travel is a really interesting space in cruises in particular because the industry has a history of, we work a lot with travel agents and there are really important, audience that we need to work with. And they, they work have a lot of access to consumers and they understand consumer needs on a different level that we do.

[00:29:34] But also, the direct to consumer approach where a lot of people do their own. And so a lot of people are coming directly to us and they want us to give that information to them. And so like even the nature of how people travel over time,

[00:29:45] Making large-scale purchases online is obviously being a growing thing culturally. but COVID obviously expedites that quite a bit, right? it elevates and amplifies the impact that’s going to have where people are definitely used to making these decisions on their own, going ahead and [00:30:00] making those purchases and building their trust themselves.

[00:30:02] and having way more control over that. So in 10 years from now, like that might change as well. I mean, the context too is. Our messaging has to be adaptive. We have to, you were just talking about how do we talk about. and kind of bridge that with just talking about what the product is and what the brand is, but also acknowledging the context of this situation in 10 years.

[00:30:20] Hopefully I’m never talking about COVID or safety protocols in the way that I’m talking about them now. and it’s more an acknowledgement of that, but it’s a lot based in like, we use a lot of research and data to make decisions around here. The nice part about being a startup, some of our competitors.

[00:30:35] they have existing systems and going about things, so how do we market now? 10 years ago, we would’ve had a very different data infrastructure than we have now. And we’ll have a very different one in 10 years.

[00:30:46] Guest 1: I would add that, travel is a different animal. we’re not selling a mattress where you likely either go to a mattress store or buy a mattress online.

[00:30:54] If you were asking this about mattresses 10 years ago, you went into a mattress store. Now you could do a lot of online and [00:31:00] get a box outside of your house 10 years from now. I dunno, whatever the next evolution you push a button in your house and a mattress appears. travel is very unique because 10 years ago, the majority of cruise bookings were happening via travel agents.

[00:31:11] You were calling someone up, you are receiving a brochure. You are going to your local travel agent and sitting down at their desk probably still. And I’m talking to them because Cruz is such a complex purchase.

[00:31:23] So then 10 years ago, Justin would have had to put a billboard out there because we need the travel agents to know about the product. We would be very deep in B2B, and that would be the bulk of our impact. Now, a lot of people are gravitating to direct. We’ve made the book and experience for travel, not to toot my own horn, but it’s a lot easier to book a cruise online today than it was 10 years ago.

[00:31:45] there’s a lot of more investments on diversification. Yes. We still love our travel agents and we care for them, but we’re also doing a lot in the direct to consumer space and we’re talking to you directly and because of the situation we are right now, we’re leveraging activations. And because we’re a new brand, we’re [00:32:00] getting people on the.

[00:32:01] So the event that Justin talked about in New York and Miami, that patient spades, because when they see the experience,they don’t want to get off the ship. We had two back-to-back events in New York, the people that came on day one, they’re like, I want to come back on day two and we were sold out and they couldn’t.

[00:32:16] So we have to leverage the heart’s product to be able to drive that message. 10 years from now, there may be a boomerang people like to be handheld for certain purchases. So maybe we are investing in people getting the word out. Maybe it’s more experiential because people are sick of digital. I think rather than speculating, what’s happening 10 years from now, it’s more always being ready to listen to the sailors and seeing how people are purchasing and adjusting our strategy based on that, because we know that at that moment, that’s, what’s more.

[00:32:45] Yeah,

[00:32:46] Donny Dvorin: I guess the last question for you and you just touched on it. What makes a bold marketer

[00:32:51] Guest 1: at a listener? In my opinion, number one, skill, number one, be a listener because the old stuff doesn’t work anymore and it will [00:33:00] not work tomorrow. so I’ll give you the example again, but we know that people like to come on board the cruise to see the ship and that.

[00:33:08] People’s willingness to buy the product more than anything else. Justin touched about our exciting next year, which is we’re launching not one, but two new ships, one out of Portsmouth, then Barcelona down in Miami on one that have assets and then someone, and what we’re doing has had every opportunity when that ship hits a new Newport.

[00:33:27] We are trying to get people on board, come for the day, have dinner. Right. We couple that with PR we couple that with getting special guests, we go to our friends in the Virgin family and bring them on board as well and get their top customers on boards with them. So we’re looking for this very unique.

[00:33:44] I think being brave means, listen, draw outside the lines, be willing to disrupt what was a, maybe more traditional model. and see what’s takes try a lot of things.

[00:33:55] Donny Dvorin: Love it. So why don’t we pause there? where can our audience get in [00:34:00] touch with both of them?

[00:34:01] Guest 1: they can find me on LinkedIn and I am very responsive there.

[00:34:04] I am pretty active on LinkedIn. So they’ll find me on there, Marianna from Sega Medina, because I am from Mexico. So of course I have a gazillion names. so they are happy to find me there and they can find more information about Virgin on our beautiful side, Virginia voyages.com or our amazing social media.

[00:34:21] That team is,the. As well,

[00:34:25] Guest 2: and same here. You can find me on LinkedIn as well. Mostly you can find me at our offices in plantation. I’m here quite a bit, but, I would say, come find me on the ship. Cause I’ll be there next week, with Mariana and a lot of our other colleagues and then a bunch of happy sailors.

[00:34:37] we spent a lot of time on there. A lot of work done on the ship surprisingly, but also a lot of fun. yeah, you can find us, floating around the Mediterranean next year.

[00:34:44] Guest 1: on that note. Thank you so much for coming on. And that is a wrap of our brave marker episode for today. Thank you so much. Thank you, Donna.

[00:34:53] Thank you, Donna.

[00:34:55] Donny Dvorin: Thanks again for listening to another episode of the brave marketer [00:35:00] podcast. I have a question for you. Do you want to stay on top of everything that’s going on with brave ads?

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[00:35:54] So again, we’re going to send you swag. All you gotta do is write a review, an email. A [00:36:00] D S a L E s@brave.com and finally musical credits go to my older brother, Ari and special, thanks to Sam and Chez for all their amazing production work. And until next time .

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