P&O Cruises marketing director Christopher Edgington spoke to HOLLIE-RAE MERRICK as he completed his first year in the cruise sector
Christopher Edgington describes his first 12 months at P&O Cruises as a “whirlwind of excitement”.
Edgington joined Carnival UK in July last year having previously worked as commercial director of betting company Gala Coral Group. His appointment represented a changing of the guard at the UK cruise operator as he was one of three new directors brought in from outside the industry following the departures of high-profile industry stalwarts Peter Shanks and Carol Marlow. Prior to his arrival, the P&O Cruises and Cunard brands had cut commission to 5%, straining relationships with agents. Now Edgington believes P&O has come to the end of a year of “real change”, and that those changes have helped the Carnival brands get agents back on side by winning their support.
Year of change “It has been a year of real change for me, P&O Cruises and Carnival UK as a whole,” he said. “We did need a step change with our trade partners and we’ve introduced new things through our Agent Matters programme. “It was important for us to be
engaging more with the trade and I have spent a lot of time meeting with the trade to see how we can better work with them. “The Agent Matters project is
really important and it does have some credibility and helps what
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we do in the marketplace. When it comes to how we work with the trade all I can go on is the reaction we get from agents and that is becoming increasingly positive.”
Brand positioning During his first year at the helm, Edgington has repositioned the P&O brand, which he believes previously lacked clarity. “Our marketing has really changed. P&O Cruises lacked a sense of clarity. It didn’t really know what it was and who it should be for,” he said. “We needed our story to be
clearer and more compelling, because we haven’t always had a clear message.”
The new P&O Cruises team
ran a market-profiling exercise to assess exactly who the typical cruiser was; as a result all marketing is now aimed at empty- nesters, the retired, and families. Edgington’s team has introduced
more trade incentives to help push its fly-Med offering. And when its latest ship Britannia went on sale the dedicated agent call centre opened early and closed later to help take agent bookings.
Agency project His latest project is to encourage all 1,200 Carnival UK staff to ‘adopt’ a travel agency (Travel Weekly, September 4). The idea came about as a result of an in-house brainstorming session. Edgington said the scheme would help all staff understand
SPECIAL REPORT
P&O completes ‘year of change’
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