P&O CRUISES ‘BRINGS US ALL TOGETHER’ WITH LAUNCH OF NEW BRAND PLATFORM VIA SUPERMASSIVE
P&O Cruises Australia has unveiled a new brand platform, ‘Brings Us All Together’, marking a significant transformation for the 91-year-old company. Developed in partnership with independent creative studio Supermassive, the new platform aims to be a testament to the meaningful connections cultivated on a P&O holiday.
Tasked with articulating what makes a P&O cruise such a special and unique experience, Supermassive highlighted the cruise line’s ability to deliver ideal conditions for quality time, connection, and togetherness, fostered through P&O’s welcoming and inclusive service and a range of onboard experiences designed to create meaningful and lasting memories.
To unveil the new platform, Supermassive engaged Cameron Bruce, musical supervisor on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis and member of the Paul Kelly Band, via Sonar and Sonar’s music producer Josh Pearson, to create a new choral arrangement of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’. The re-imagined version was sung en masse by a 300-strong choir comprised of local singing groups, past guests, and brand fans while onboard the Pacific Encounter in November off the coast of Queensland. Directed by Justin McMillan, the live performance forms the heart of P&O’s new brand campaign which is live across TV, cinema, digital and social media as of today. The track will also be available on streaming platforms and integrated into all future “Sail Away” parties, which brings all guests together to celebrate the start of their voyage.
The project also saw Supermassive overhaul the brand’s visual and tonal identity across all paid, owned and earned channels, as well as onboard P&O ships. Designed in collaboration with Common Design, the new brand identity centres around the sweeping arches of the brand’s ampersand – a symbol of inclusivity and connectedness.
Out-of-home, print and digital photography: David Maurice Smith
In addition to this, the team engaged the talents of Walkley Award-winning photographer David Maurice Smith, renowned for his impactful work featured on the covers of Time, Rolling Stone, and National Geographic. Smith’s captivating visuals will form the brand’s new large-scale out-of-home, print and digital campaign, showcasing connection in its rawest form.
“Sometimes, you have to search high and low for a brand truth, but with P&O, it hits you as soon as you get onboard. On land, rather ironically, we pass each other like ships in the night. But out there, on the only holiday experience that quite literally carries everyone in the same direction, guests find themselves open to connection like never before,” said Supermassive.
“We saw that magic happen in real time when we brought the world’s largest floating choir together on the deck of the Pacific Encounter. Families sang arm in arm, phone numbers got exchanged, people who boarded as strangers disembarked as mates.
“What an exciting privilege it is to be able to explore new – and celebrate existing – ways that P&O brings us all together.”
Says Kathryn Robertson, Chief Commercial Officer P&O Cruises Australia: “P&O has long enjoyed unparalleled awareness, consideration, and preference in the Australian cruise market. ‘Brings Us All Together’ presents an exciting opportunity to further differentiate P&O across the cruise and travel landscape by welcoming new guests onboard our cruise ships who are searching for an authentic and connected holiday experience.
“Like all great brand platforms, ‘Brings Us All Together’ is much more than a marketing tagline. It’ll inform our service proposition, onboard guest experience, and internal culture as it continues to build momentum across our business.”
Client: P&O Cruises
Agency: Supermassive
Production Company: Austin Studio
Director: Justin McMillan
Edit: Arc Edit
Post-Production: Blockhead
Musical Director: Cameron Bruce
Sound: Sonar Music
Photography: Flint
Design: Common Design
Media planning and buying: CHEP
Social: Bread
Performance: Yoghurt
33 Comments
Yeah, nah. Not the brilliant creative debut you’d hope for from a flashy new Indy shop.
no mean feat to carry off a brief of this scale on board a cruise ship …. some serious production miles .. well done @austin studios. hats off. and love the human connection slant @supermassive
“Something happening, happening to me. Friends say it’s gastrointestinally”
Hahahaha
nailed it
I have second hand cringe
How much does it cost to license a track like that for this btw pls – ballpark even
Flawed insight. The last thing you want to be doing is “being together” on a covid cruise ship.
What a stinker.
Inexcusably awful on so many levels.
What a howler.
Unbranded gunk – cramming everyone together in forced fun
Exactly what people fear about cruising
Honestly, what self indulgent tripe is this. It’s one thing to license a song for an ad – but do it with a creative storyline. There’s no storyline here. Just a bunch of archetypes singing together. Sonically the version isn’t interesting at all. This is honestly one of the most embarrassing uses of money i’ve seen in awhile. It also does nothing for P&O. If you’re going to nail being together, why don’t you tell real stories of connections and moments that are meaningful, made on a ship.
so let’s try to solve it with a song and hope by using a choir, it conveys ‘togetherness’.
Diverse, tick. Inclusive, tick. Boring, tick. I was waiting for a twist, like the conductor falling off the back of a boat. Sadly just absolute wallpaper.
P&O Booze cruises, worst line in the world. Cheap & Nasty.
I like the ambition here. It’s trying to sell us a feeling, like qantas did back in 98 when they did the kids choir thing. Whether you find it cringe or not is just a subjective experience. A simple idea, a nice headline, and selling what some would call the ‘unsellable’ after the Covid cruises debacle. Bravo.
You can tell this had production issues, perhaps last minute they couldn’t afford the original song so had to do re-record? Also assume they couldn’t show experiences because they vary, would have had limited time on the back of the boat (likely filmed in a dock) – this is so cringe, I know a bad prod situation when I see one. Feel sad for all involved…i can only assume this promised so much at concept stage.
I think they’ve just hit an iceberg.
Cadbury sold feelings. They did it with a gorilla playing drums.
This is wallpaper. And offensive, honestly
Wow, what an incredible waste of money.
The last time I saw violins on the deck of a ship was, well, never mind. But it didn’t end well.
Let’s get some balance here. And some support for a new indi agency that is adding to our industry. This is way better than a lot of other forgettable advertising (actually, pollution) in Australia that has the usual tropes, archetypes, and boring crap that some brands want to talk about. Which people don’t give a crap about. So, at the least, this is not a wall-to-wall VO with 3000 proof points shoved in. I think this deserves a nod for that. Let’s support each other on the good things in what we do, and hopefully, we can raise the bar, get clients to see the possibilities, and try to keep our creative industry relevant instead of ripping it to shreds.
1. ‘Brings Us All Together’ is an incredibly generic line. It could be for a telco or a brand of tea.
2. The ads are doing a category job. There are multiple cruise brands in Australia. This film doesn’t tell me why to choose P&O.
3. Misattribution will be considerable. You’ve showed smiling people on a big white ship. Punter’s will misattribute this to other cruise brands. You need to be more distinctive.
4. The film is a 90″. But there’s no story. There’s no beginning, middle & end. The film is the same at 10″, as it is at 80″. It doesn’t go anywhere.
5. The tone is ‘cheesy’ and feels ‘cheap’. You want people to aspire to the brand. Do people aspire to a cheesy high-school-musical sing-along?
6. There are no ‘feels’. It’s too contrived for me to feel anything.
1. Most lines are generic at first
2. It’s got the logo
3. see above
3. true
4. that’s an opinion
5. see above
I don’t think you know how advertising works
Blink twice if you want me to call a rescue boat.
So you want praise for ‘having a go’? That’s not how effective creative works.
I’ll support any new indi agency that is adding to our industry. Whoever concocted this sadly is doing the opposite.
I can see how this could work with a British budget, British director and a British audience. I don’t think Australians lack sophistication, but we don’t like ads like this, plain and simple. Make us laugh or make us cry.
From reading the comments, this might be controversial, but I really like it.
As an industry, we make ads, to sell stuff to real people and I think this will actually work.
It’s a feel good piece of work and it made me smile.
Hats off to Supermassive and Austin Studios.
The last decent advertising for P & O was done by Bevins . This is ordinary. But, to be fair when you look at the people who cruise these days it might just be inspired.
Yeah I was shaking my head even before watching the video. Why would you go with a line like that, which ambiguously highlights the #1 hesitation against cruises? It was gastro before it was COVID, guys. You’re not over the hill.
I can imagine the parody:
‘brings us all together!’ – ‘Aww’
‘brings us all together…’ – ‘Eww’
Don’t know if it’s the edit but no one is singing that song in any individual shot. Some mouths randomly opening, tied together with a way-too-long shot of a conductor to hide it. Really weak concept as it stands – sympathy if this was something that had to be changed post-shoot, but oh boy. I’m asleep by the overlong shot of the back of the boat.