Margaritaville at Sea is a young challenger cruise line competing in behemoth-brand infested waters seeking a smarter, faster route to increased brand awareness, revenue, and market share. Late on a Thursday in early February, we received the invitation to submit a proposal. The proposal was due the following Friday. 

We never considered, “Would the juice be worth the squeeze?” Our approach was, “Let’s make margaritas!”

So, we did what any scrappy agency would do, and immediately booked four of our team members with zero cruising experience among them on a five-day research expedition aboard the Margaritaville at Sea cruiseship, Paradise.

Their maiden voyage into the world of cruising, and first-hand experiences aboard the Paradise, proved to be as invaluable as finding your lost shaker of salt.  

Our crew of intrepid cruisers (Okay, there was slight trepidation) explored, documented, and reported back their personal experiences, guest observations, crew interviews, and even industry insights from an onboard vacation-planner conducting her own field research. 

Sitting atop their stack of memories and souvenir photos was an all-new, highly informed perspective.

That perspective, combined with our agency’s years of tourism, destination, and resort experience, created the foundation of our strategic creative point of view, and agency proposal which was completed and delivered shortly following our nautical neophytes’ return to port.

Our bona fides, insights, and strategic creative POV resonated with the Margaritaville at Sea marketing team, and ultimately their CEO. 

This led to an invitation for our leadership team to join him aboard the Islander, docked in Port Tampa within view of our office. He gave us a tour of the ship, his vision of the company, and a handshake welcoming us aboard.

With creative and production in-progress, we look forward to launching the new brand campaign this May.