Increasing exposure of P&O Ferries online

Client

P&O is a very well known and trusted travel brand. P&O Ferries offer a range of ferry routes and mini cruises travelling in Europe.

Objectives:

• To drive cost effective sales for P&O Ferries through TradeDoubler’s td Pull (Affiliate network)
• To launch and promote P&O Ferries new mini cruise product
• To increase exposure of P&O Ferries in the online arena giving customers an easier way to access their ferry crossings and mini cruises online

Strategy:

P&O Ferries used TradeDoubler’s knowledge and experience to develop an online marketing strategy for 2005. Tradedoubler and P&O Ferries devised a commission structure based on publisher performance. To maximise sales it was vital to concentrate on building strong relationships with super publishers.

Description:

A daily dialogue between TradeDoubler’s consultants and the super publishers enabled a partnership to develop where the publishers were given frequently updated P&O Ferries user offers along with individual commissions to suit the publisher’s marketing model. Publishers from a range of sectors from keyword buyers, ferry specialists to loyalty sites like Nectar were added and optimised with monthly incentives. Three publishers were recommended for brand-related pay per click search activity. Each publisher built a dedicated landing page promoting the P&O Ferries sailings and worked together to help P&O Ferries maximise search engine exposure on brand and generic terms while keeping the costs low. On feedback from the publishers, P&O Ferries improved their creative to focus on stronger call to actions and user offers. Monthly competitions and incentives were run for publishers. Public incentives were communicated to the TradeDoubler network of 100,000+ active publishers. Private incentives were tailored to individual publishers, setting them bonus commissions on hitting sales targets.

Results:

P&O Ferries and TradeDoubler were short listed for a 2006 NMA Travel Effectiveness Award.
A combination of P&O’s website upgrade in quarter three and proactive management of their affiliate program (td Pull) from both TradeDoubler and P&O resulted in the volume of sales growing by over 670%.

For every £1 invested, P&O ferries earned back £12.26.