NCL Reports ‘Overwhelming’ Consumer Response To YouTube Vacationer Channel

Norwegian Cruise Line’s new YouTube consumer travel channel (www.youtube.com/vacationer) received more than 200,000 views in its first eight days, but whether that counts as an online success depends on the story behind that traffic.
 
YouTube Vacationer includes prominent links to NCL’s online booking engine. NCL did not say how many online bookings the branded channel has generated thus far.  (NCL Launches Consumer Travel Channel on YouTube)
 
An NCL spokeswoman called the early response to its interactive YouTube channel “overwhelming.”
 
Douglas Quinby, senior director, research, for PhoCusWright, called 200,000 views a “pretty good” response, but only if they were generated virally, that is through online sharing via social media, blogs, etc. If NCL spent beaucoup marketing dollars to drive that traffic, then that response “wouldn’t be so good,” Quinby told Travel Market Report. In either scenario, YouTube Vacationer may drive incremental brand awareness and bookings for NCL, he said.

NCL’s Vacationer – YouTube’s first travel specific channel – is also an indicator of the importance of online video in travel marketing today. Expect to see more travel company activity in the online video space, including “very innovative ways of mixing in functionality or features that we’re used to seeing on a website,” Quinby said.
 
Terry Dale, president and CEO of Cruise Lines International Association, said that new social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube are, “viable channels that cannot be ignored. These new channels should be viewed as an opportunity by the distribution system,” including agents, Dale said. “There is no doubt that the travel marketing tool kit has changed.”
 
Nearly everyone who books a cruise now does online research, Quinby noted. “Travel agents are still playing a key role in closing that sale and completing the transaction, but they do need to stay current, because the online shopping experience is getting better, even for cruises.”  To keep up, agents need to “provide customers with the best possible selling experience and shopping experience.”
 
The Conversation Counts

Quinby cautioned that to succeed in online environments such as YouTube, marketers must find a way to participate in online conversations without making a sales pitch. “Consumers are very sensitive to advertising and commercial ploys, especially in a socially-oriented web environment,” he said.
 
Offering kudos to NCL for “taking the leap,” Quinby commented that YouTube Vacationer is “so heavily branded with NCL messages that it runs the risk of being perceived as pure advertising. The non-NCL content is key.” YouTube Vacationer incorporates destination and often humorous how-to video from sources such as Lonely Planet, eHow, Concierge.com, and the Travel Channel.  However, he added, “as major online video outlets such as YouTube increasingly commercialize their online real estate, consumers may become more accustomed to the tight blending of ads and content.”
 
One in three consumers regularly watch travel videos online, according to Quinby, and YouTube is now the number-two search engine, after Google, YouTube’s parent company.