P&O Cruises

Leveraging behavioural insights to amplify engagement, excitement and purchase intent in the lead up to departure.

Prior to its redevelopment, the P&O’s Cruise Control function was reduced to simply verifying passengers details for their upcoming cruise and communicating basic administrative updates about check-in and departure time.

Driven by last minute deals and increasing price parity across platforms, most forms of tourism booking have seen lead times reduced over recent years. Cruising has bucked this trend, often seeing many passengers book travel months in advance.

Working with P&O, we capitalised on the opportunity to drive and leverage passengers’ collective enthusiasm for their upcoming cruise and channel this towards revenue growth in the lead up to their departure.

Our new Cruise Control takes perfect advantage of our lengthy lead time and by leveraging social feeds, harnessing the collective enthusiasm of our passengers, to drive a sizeable shift in revenue

Simon Cheng - Marketing Director, P&O Cruises

To ensure we built the best possible product, we conducted extensive user research, both qualitative and quantitative, to uncover customers’ latent needs in the run-up to their departure.

Allowing the user to login via social authentication starts to build a picture of the greater audience undertaking the cruise, as well as allowing customers to link their Cruise Control to other existing friends. The tool still contains elements of core utility, such as scheduled check-in information, but it also speaks to the passenger’s sense of anticipation on an emotional level.

The tool also starts to surface available Shore Tours, allowing the customers to book and pay for touring options at each port, well in advance. This not only drives incremental revenue for P&O but also allows for better scheduling of suitable resource for the company at each port. These bookings are then saved to a virtual calendar, allowing the customer to share their itinerary socially, and drive further bookings and interaction.

Creative

Technology

Data

The design focused on harnessing social interaction and amplifying excitement in the lead up to departure

Most customers are likely to use the tool in moments in downtime, as they daydream and get excited about their upcoming cruise. As such, mobile responsiveness is key.

The tool allows users to login via social authentication, which presents them with a current list of passengers - adding to their excitement and anticipation.

Creative

Technology

Data

Web Services developed in service of better customer experience

A standardised web services layer was constructed to surface available Shore Tours and other customers’ specific information for integration into Cruise Control.

Via social media integration, a visualisation of passengers who have booked the same cruise harnesses collective excitement and drives further interaction with the Shore Tour inventory.

Creative

Technology

Data

Behavioural insights shaping the feature set and solution

Exit surveys conducted with site users showcased some key deficiencies of the current site content, particularly day-by-day itineraries.

A review of internal search revealed that many onsite users are well beyond booking and looking to plan the activities within the context of the cruise.