FUMBLE: ROYAL CARRIBEAN CRUISING FOR TROUBLE

Veritas Team Huddle Compiled By Kathy Barnett

Cruise industry titan Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL), admits to having solicited a group of “influencers” to talk up the cruise line in online forums. Separate from their loyalty program, RCCL flagged and proactively engaged these individuals, dubbed “Royal Champions”, solely for their online prowess. In a fitting twist, the existence of the Champions was made public by a blogger attending a recent marketing conference, where RCCL loyalty marketing manager Rachel Hannock boasted that "The key to success in viral marketing is to subtly influence the influencers without them overtly realizing they are being influenced." The blogger goes on to quote Hannock as saying that Champions "are regularly leveraged for ongoing marketing initiatives" and that their reviews "are carefully monitored during events and on a regular basis to ensure that posts remain positive and frequent." To make matters worse, RCCL AVP Bill Hayden came clean by admitting that the Champions have been getting perqs from the line, including free mini-cruises, but stressed that Hannock’s statements were "a poor choice of words” and insisted that RCCL has never in any way indicated what Champions should write, nor (despite the fact that they have never mentioned it publicly before) did they mean for the program to be secretive. Competitors have quickly distanced themselves from the PR disaster on the seas by emphatically stating that they do not engage in paid influencing, and important stakeholders like the CruiseMates forum have stated that Champions program violates their user agreement. Besides the obvious lack of transparency exhibited, RCCL committed a fatal error by attempting to bend the social media code of ethics to its advantage. There’s a term for it, in fact: It’s called “astro-turfing” – or fake word-of-mouth – and it can be wildly damaging to a brand. Building a brand is, first and foremost, about building trust. On where the RCCL brand stands after this incident, this quote from USA Today says it all: “Can you trust what you read about Royal Caribbean at online message boards?”