P&O Cruises launches ‘The best way to see the best of the South Pacific’ campaign via Bashful

Creative agency Bashful has revealed a new tongue- in-cheek campaign for P&O Cruises. While P&O Cruises has been pioneering cruising for the last 85 years, and continues to lead in uncovering new adventures and exotic locations, no brand goes to more destinations, has more knowledge or experience of the South Pacific.

From Papua New Guinea’s remote Conflict Islands through to Vanuatu and New Caledonia – the team took nine flights and two twelve-hour boat rides for 10 days of shooting, demonstrating how much easier it is to visit the stunning South Pacific cruising with P&O Cruises.

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The campaign, entitled “The best way to see the best of the South Pacific”, showcases the brand’s unchallenged credentials as curators of the ultimate South Pacific experience. The ad takes us through the journey of an overly confident adventurer who sets out to prove he can explore the beautiful South Pacific on his own. Eventually, our adventurer becomes a ragged castaway who slowly loses touch with reality, but all is not lost as he finds ‘Sharon’, a unique companion, along the way.

The campaign includes a 30sec brand ad and 6 x 15sec content series pieces which share a deeper insight into the Castaway’s journey – highlighting the benefits of P&O’s experience in finding unique locations and shore tours, and as the most enjoyable and convenient way to travel to the South Pacific. The campaign also includes 2 x 15sec retail ads conveying the latest P&O ‘Oh Ship’ promotion – which offers a $1 deposit, free room upgrade and free onboard spending money for bookings till 13th February, 2018.

This is the third major campaign for the brand since P&O joined Bashful. This truly integrated campaign includes a brand TVC, retail TVCs, press, outdoor, digital content and social media in Australia & New Zealand. As part of P&O Cruise’s new sponsorship of the Big Bash League, the campaign will be broadcast during the cricket on Channel 10 throughout the summer.

Says Ryan Taibel, vice president of sales and marketing, P&O Cruises: “Since P&O’s first cruise on December 23, 1932 we have been discovering new and exotic places for Australians to enjoy – including our latest, exclusive destination, the Conflict Islands in Papua New Guinea. In 2018 we want to showcase the hugely popular and stunning South Pacific islands and reassert that the best way to see them is cruising with P&O.

“We feel the campaign from Bashful achieves this with loads of personality and some really memorable content.”

Says Tim Chenery, CD, Bashful: “P&O Cruises make seeing the seriously exotic locations of the South Pacific easy. That fact got us thinking, if you wanted to see them all, but you didn’t go with P&O, just how hard would it be? If you tried to do it yourself it would be damn near impossible, so we had a bit of fun with this ad.”

Bashful was recently awarded the Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2017.

Client: P&O

Photographer: Tim Levy