Mar
9
A Royal deception
Filed Under Cruise industry issues
Last week it was confirmed that a group of online posters and bloggers have been part of an organized viral campaign related to Royal Caribbean 
International (RCI) cruise line. The campaign, which has been in operation since 2007, was created by an online marketing firm to positively influence opinions about RCI.
Some 50 people were originally invited to join the group, which RCI dubbed the “Royal Champions.” They were chosen to participate because they had frequently posted positive comments about RCI on various online travel boards in the past. The group’s members were told they would be rewarded for the quality and frequency of their online posts, and indeed various perks were handed out, including all expense paid trips to pre-inaugural sailings of selected Royal Caribbean ships.
The campaign was developed in tandem with Nielsen Buzz Metrics, who helped to identify online supporters of Royal Caribbean. Using data mining software, they identified themes on blogs, travel forums, and online boards to gain a better understanding of how consumers discuss Royal Caribbean cruises. They then invited 50 people to be part of the group, some of whom had posted over 10,000 comments about Royal Caribbean on various message boards, primarily on Cruise Critic. Some had also posted comments on travel blogs and personal journals.
Since this practice was made public, it has received lots of criticism, especially from people it’s designed to influence – those who surf travel boards in search of genuine consumer opinions about cruise lines and their ships. But is the criticism warranted? How much influence did it really have on the purchasing decisions of consumers? And how much damage has it done to the credibility of both online travel boards and to RCI itself?
In my view, some of the criticism is warranted because RCI’s campaign was based on deception. While the “Royal Champions” were already big fans of RCI before being recruited and may still believe every positive word they’ve written, they and the cruise line never voluntarily disclosed the nature of their relationship in any of their comments. By not doing so, they misled consumers with respect to the independence of these comments. In addition, now that the true relationship is public, they have certainly cast a shadow over the integrity of those comments, and perhaps on any that appear in future.
Did these actions influence cruise purchasing? I doubt it. The comments came from people who were already singing the praises of RCI long before the campaign started. And just about every cruise line has fans who consistently post positive comments and stories, so the discussions tend to be very balanced.
But what about the impact to the credibility of online travel boards and RCI? Well, just about anyone who surfs online for travel recommendations looks at more than one or two comments before making a purchasing decision. And most 
people are quite good at sniffing out comments that appear too rosy and positive to be genuine. So I don’t think it would shock many people to know that some people use message boards to promote their own product.
The situation for RCI is different. This is a cruise line with a great product, competitive pricing, and hundreds of thousands of loyal fans. They didn’t need to engage in this kind of misleading viral marketing campaign to sell cruises. By doing so, all they’ve accomplished is to ensure everyone will be suspicious when reading positive comments about RCI in future on message boards or blogs.
While this situation is likely a temporary tempest in a teapot, I’m sure executives at RCI are still wondering how they could get caught up in such a negative story. The answer lies in the old PR rule which states, “If you’d feel embarrassed reading about your plans in tomorrow’s newspaper, it’s probably the wrong thing to do.”
Let’s hope RCI and others remember that rule.
Comments
6 Comments so far
So hamfisted! It reminds me of Yelp’s paid producers. Still, consumers should expect this sort of thing.
Obviously, someone didn’t think this out enough..
This is just one more feather in RCCL’s bad PR cap.
It was so unecessary, as you say for the most part they have a good product.
Personally, when we decided to create our online travel journal.
One of the 1st things we decided was NO ADVERTISING…
and no reviews of a particular ship or hotel unless we did it on TripAdvisor and they vetted it kind of a checks and balances for anyone who reads our little website.
As you know I linked your blog on our website because I think it’s excellent..but no where do I say they should book Trip Harbour….especially since you people haven’t offered my a free cruise anywhere that the Pacific Princess sails…
hahhhahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahha!
Just kidding!
Bon Voyage
K.
The PR person in me cringed and clucked her tongue when first hearing that my beloved Royal Caribbean got caught with its hand on the keyboard. After all, Internet users have zero tolerance for corporations that are less then transparent when “co-opting” social media. It’s all about perception, of course. Organizations have been doing more or less the same thing off the web since the earliest days of marketing (but none of our clients, of course)! Viral marketing wasn’t born with the Internet…
Essentially, RCI identified a group of loyal, vocal advocates and incented them to keep doing what they’d been doing all along. While I’m not saying that they made no missteps with this program, I would be far more perturbed if they hired a bunch of posers who incessantly posted truly hollow words.
Similar practices used to be rampant in the print media - was that glowing story in the Travel section an objective piece of journalism, or was it the product of the reporter being wined and dined by the resort’s PR person? Was that story in the Real Estate section written by a journalist, or by a developer’s PR agency? Most North American newspapers have developed policies to avoid the most egregious conflicts of interest (although the press junket is still alive and well in many European countries), but in this respect the Internet is still in its infancy. The RCI campaign is exceptional, I would submit, mostly because it became known publicly — many other similar campaigns are probably underway about which we are blissfully ignorant. Commodore Dave is probably right that most people will look for comments from several sources before making a buying decision, but this incident certainly drives home the importance of seeking out information from trusted sources…
“including all expense paid trips to pre-inaugural sailings of selected Royal Caribbean ships.”
Dave, I know for a fact this is not true. Whilst the 2 day-one night cruise to nowhere is no expense, the airfare, any pre cruise hotel expense, food, etc is paid for by the person.
RCI did this even before they developed this Royal Champions thing. Some years ago a friend of mine was invited for the sail out (it was called something like that) of a new ship. He’s not a travel agent, nor involved in any cruise business but is an avid cruiser. He lives in Germany and had to fly to whatever country this event took place. He had all the expenses to take care of except the overnight stay, food, and drink on the ship.
Was it right or wrong for RCI to do what they did. Not for me to judge. In all honesty, it really doesn’t make that big a difference to me. When one looks at the number of cruisers around the world, which exceed several million, the 50 or so on a cruise board that has a half million members doesn’t really determine what the majority does.
Hi Micki. Thanks for the comment and the clarification on how much was given to RC’s.
I agree that the RC posts did little to influence buying decisions, which is why RCI should never have tied their RC perks to level and quality of posts. When this kind of arrangement is not disclosed publicly in advance, it’s always going to appear suspicious when it does becomes public. In retrospect, I’m sure RCI now wishes it had set the RC program up a bit differently.
In any event, this tempest in a teapot will blow over soon, and it should not keep anyone from choosing to sail with RCI as they have a terrific product and great staff. They can certainly count on my future business.