Creative Agency: IQ Interactive; Arnold Worldwide
FreedomoftheSeas.com was created by Arnold Worldwide and IQ Interactive to introduce the June 2006 launch of a new family of ships and to educate consumers about Freedom of the Seas' many exciting and innovative features. Through frequent microsite updates, consumers are kept up-to-date on the ship's progress under construction as well as on the latest features and amenities onboard the ship as Royal Caribbean slowly reveals them to the public in the year leading up to the ship's launch.
The single biggest challenge in conveying all of the new and exciting things that travelers can experience, was showing it. How do you allow users to experience a ship that is still under construction?
This challenge proved to be quite difficult, but by utilizing 3d architectural renderings supplemented with full motion video, seamlessly composited into the scenes, we have been able to create an unprecedented, fully immersive experience that literally puts viewers on the ship.
The most important metric for Royal Caribbean in launching Freedom of the Seas is that consumers become aware of and educated about all the amazing things they can see and do onboard the ship. From a marketing and advertising perspective, it's all about engagement. How deeply can viewers become immersed in the Freedom experience? The Freedom of the Seas microsite has succeeded in that goal based on the following success metrics:
- More than 17 percent of visitors click to view Freedom cruises
- Average time spent on site is more than 5 minutes
-- Adam Boozer, vp of creative, IQ Interactive; Stephen Potter, interactive creative director, Arnold Worldwide
The rushing water on the Flowrider looks spectacular!
In addition to integrating video content into a virtual cruise ship environment, the messaging is very clear and very inviting, speaking directly to different subsets of the audience, and emphasizing that cruising can be about a lot more than pina coladas and shuffleboard.
I do think, however, that the characters could have been a little more diverse in their positioning. Where are the parents talking about a family friendly cruise? It's implied when the young boy wants to get his dad to take his picture, but that point is countered when the mom talks about leaving her kids at another activity so she can watch her husband take in some waves. The Flowrider could be more of a main attraction rather than just another activity on the boat to pre-occupy the kids.
The only wipe-out here is that only one character -- the surfer dude -- even mentions the name "Flowrider." Royal Caribbean is branded very well, but with such a distinguishing feature, I think some stronger branding was in order, similar to how Six Flags markets their individual roller coasters.
Visually, though, this unit is the Big Kahuna. -- Corey Kronengold, account executive, Soho Digital
Mon Dieu! I definitely feel I’ve seen something new with the high bandwidth execution (the low bandwidth version is decidedly steerage in comparison). The flawless full-screen video took my breath away. The clues to interact are subtle, so they don’t take away from the scene (and it is a scene), yet I appreciated the direct prompt, as I was rather awestruck (perhaps like the person moving too slowly through the dessert line). There are a lot of very clever touches to this site that convey your every desire is being interpreted and fulfilled, so that one can only imagine the pampering the actual cruise would provide. The designers have a good sense of pace and present pleasant distractions, from water rising in the background as the movies load, to a very rich soundtrack. It’s a nice touch that the latter plays while accessing other parts of the site -- conveying the illusive, hoped-for feeling that your vacation will stay with you even after it ends. I liked that requested links (reservations and the like) appear in windows on top of the primary backdrop, so the sound keeps playing and the virtual cruise continues.
Perhaps the branding could be stronger -- I forgot this was for Royal Carribean -- and there’s a noticeable lack of diversity. I would appreciate oblique reassurances to the water quality of the Flowrider, and the likes. It’s hard to trust the heavenly scene of an empty deck while such tantalizing fun awaits. Altogether, though, it’s thoroughly memorable and convinces me there is at long last something new under the sun.
-- Priscilla Eshelman, manager, site representation, Tribal Fusion
Before I'd been on a cruise -- although one not nearly as lavish as what is represented on this site -- I'd always presumed that being trapped on a ship for several days would bore me into a coma. The cruise I went on was great fun, but I suspect that many people share my pre-cruise qualms. This site does a remarkable job of answering the "what is there to do on the ship?" question. The plenitude of different content modules is surprising, and the production values are extremely high. It's a hard sell from perky spokespeople once you get into the site, but the sheer amount of information that the site needs to convey is at least a partial justification.
Indeed, my biggest critique of the site is that it does not make clear from the get-go just how much exploration can be done. If you haven't looked at the creative yet, dive in and click "Explore Freedom." That's the gateway to the real content, but it's not called out in any particularly effective way, and I worry that cruise customers will click away to something else before giving this long-to-load site a fair chance.
Parents reading this, don't miss the "Experience the H20 Zone!" module: I'd have trouble tearing my four-year old away from the computer if she got a look at it.
-- Brad Berens, executive editor, iMedia Communications, Inc.