HAVILA VOYAGES

EMBARK YOUR ADVENTURE

Briefing

We've all dreamed of this: time off on one of the most beautiful cruising routes, surrounded by nature, along the pristine and breathtaking coast of Norway. Now imagine that you can make all this happen in the most sustainable and luxurious way possible. Sounds impossible? Not for Havila Voyages. While that may sound dreamy, there are some challenges Havila has had to face, including climate change, the Corona pandemic, and stiff competition on the traditional Norwegian mailboat route. How did we manage to raise Havila's profile and communicate its unique selling points? A press campaign with a press trip was our answer. The performance and pictures speak for themselves.

The challenge

Since the beginning of the year, the shipping company Havila Kystruten has been entrusted with providing the so-called mail line service to the cities along the Norwegian coast. From the very beginning - almost 130 years ago - at least two shipping companies competed on the so-called "Hurtigruten", as it was popularly called in Norwegian. For the last 17 years, however, there has been only one shipping company on the legendary route, which changed its name during its monopoly and now also claims the name "Hurtigruten." So how do we position a new player against a competitor that still seems to have the monopoly in its name? How do we position the four new ships that meet the highest environmental standards and on which sustainability plays the most important role? How do we show the press the electric propulsion with the world's largest battery packs for cruise ships? The regional culinary highlights and the breathtaking nature of Norway?

Strategy

Our answer? Public relations! There is no better way to convince the press of such a breathtaking cruise than to let the addressees experience it themselves. So we invited the most important trade media of the tourism industry, the biggest weekly and daily newspapers in Germany as well as the Deutsche Presse-Agentur to a cruise from Bergen to the North Cape.

Climate-friendly cruising is no longer a dream of the future! Despite the strictest Corona restrictions, a visit to the bridge and an extensive tour of the engine room were on the agenda to give the media representatives a close-up look at the hybrid propulsion system, which runs on environmentally friendly LNG and electric power.

Just sitting in the cabin? Not at Havila. With a colorful program and many interesting discussions, we took a total of 15 journalists on the six-day tour from Bergen across the Arctic Circle to Kirkenes. The brand essence of sustainability was made tangible and the "Havila" story was told in a lively way. Enriched with interesting background information and an unbeatable food concept as a highlight, this trip became a real story that successfully spread throughout the German press landscape.

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Experience Norway #zeroemissions

Our solution

In order to write about such a trip in an emotional and activating way, you need real-life experiences to tell about the experiences with heart and soul. Accordingly, we invited the most important media representatives of the travel industry to accompany us on a press trip aboard the Havila. Besides great experiences, we also managed to convince the media representatives of the service and of this uniquely sustainable fleet of ships. Thus, we managed not only to create memories, but also to build a great reach and reputation across platforms. And what can we say? The results speak for themselves.