Hasta La Creative!

After cruising in troubled waters for the past couple of years, Carnival is boosting its marketing budget and unleashing a new ad campaign, in the hopes of convincing travelers to book vacations with the company.

The campaign is the first big ad push since Carnival’s been embroiled in a myriad of PR problems. The cruise line says it will spend more than $25 million on the campaign between September and December — a figure it says is “substantially higher” than is typical. Indeed, in all of 2012, the company spent $27 million on measured media, according to Kantar Media. And in the first half of this year alone it has spent $15 million. The campaign is slated to continue through the first quarter of 2014.

The new marketing effort is a major departure from the brand’s past ads. Notably, the new campaign — which is called “Moments that Matter” and was handled by the cruise line’s longtime agency, Havas-owned Arnold in Boston — does not take place on a cruise ship. Rather than touting cruise-ship staples such as pools, water slides, fancy drinks with umbrellas and dinner buffets, it tugs on the heartstrings and focuses on the lasting memories created by families on vacations.

Continue reading at AdAge.com