Cruise

New Avalon Campaign Cruises into Canadian Households

Avalon Waterways is cruising into Canadian households with two commercial spots on 16 national and regional TV channels, including HGTV, Gusto, The Cooking Channel, Bravo, TSN and CBC News Network.

Avalon’s New Year advertising initiative invites travellers to see the rivers of Europe their way – to look deeper, to see what others miss, to find views as expansive as their own.

View https://players.brightcove.net/1530993051001/SyeAVfkjW_default/index.html?videoId=5986016967001 or https://players.brightcove.net/1530993051001/SyeAVfkjW_default/index.html?videoId=5986024301001.

The river cruise line also launched its The Suite Life Sales Event to entice travellers to book their 2019 European river cruise now.

“We’re inviting cruisers to live the ‘Suite Life’ in 2019 and beyond,” said Pam Hoffee, managing director of Avalon Waterways. “For the first time, our entire Avalon fleet in Europe is all Panorama Suite ships so our advertising initiative places a spotlight on these signature ships with Open-Air Balconies which blur the lines between outside and in. Even better? Avalon’s balconies do not sacrifice room space. In contrast, they invite guests to enjoy 100% of their Panorama Suite, 100% of the time.”

Avalon Waterways Suite Ships offer guests two full decks of Panorama Suites with the widest-opening windows in river cruising, the industry’s only Open-Air Balconies and beds that face the views for which river cruising is famous.

“Beyond our wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling windows is a world waiting to be explored – your way,” added Hoffee. “Whether travellers want to walk in the footsteps of legends, walk down the street with the locals or accelerate their walk into a jog, our new Avalon Choice program presents our guests with the opportunity to go their own way each day of their cruise.”

Avalon’s new Avalon Choice program is featured in its television ads that showcase “Classic,” “Discovery” and “Active” excursions, in addition to the company’s Suite Ships.

To ensure agents don’t miss the boat on this opportunity to educate and inspire travellers to choose river cruising for their next vacation, Avalon has also launched The Suite Life Sales Event and trade campaign with the following promotion (the biggest savings all year): $499 air and $1,200 off per couple on select 2019 European sailings; $2,600 off per couple on select luxury expedition cruises on the Mekong River in SE Asia; $400 Air Credit and $1,300 off per couple on India sailings.

“Travel agents are key partners in every aspect of our marketing,” says Stéphanie Bishop, managing director of the Globus family of brands (Avalon’s parent company) in Canada. “Not only are these ads targeting Canadian clients just when they are thinking about travel, but every commercial asks viewers to contact their travel agent.”

As part of the promotional campaign, Avalon is arming agents with a Consumer Marketing Kit, available at Agentlingo.ca, where they can access the new advertising spots, e-mails, social media posts, images and more to help them ignite river cruise sales for 2019 and beyond. With the launch of this television advertising campaign, Avalon hopes to inspire more travellers to ask for – and book – river cruise vacations with their travel agent.