We’re no strangers to brand shoots with P&O Cruises music director and singer-songwriting legend Gary Barlow. However, delivering a campaign of content for the P&O Cruises Talent of Tomorrow competition has been a challenge – and thrill – like no other.
Think X-Factor. Fronted by Gary. Playing out on digital and social channels. A genuine talent contest to find a rising star who, after live auditions to shortlist a final three, wins a mentoring session with Gary and a gig as a guest artist at The 710 Club, Gary’s live music venue on board Iona. Think big!
It was uncharted territory – for P&O Cruises and Sunday. A bold and ambitious vision to take the partnership with Gary and his musical engagement with the brand to its apotheosis. And what a fantastic content story to tell.
Here’s how we did it…
Military planning and multiple shoots
We plotted an 8-month campaign of asset-gathering with our usual military precision.
Working around Gary’s Take That European Tour schedule, we organised five shoots to gather film, stills and editorial, building the narrative and cementing Gary’s investment in the project.
The ‘talent’ shoots were incredible: an auditions day at The Academy in Southampton, where 10 shortlisted entries performed live before a panel of judges headed up DJ and presenter Dev Griffin; a Gary mentoring day on Iona with the three finalists; and a grand finale in Lisbon, where the winner was introduced by Gary on stage in Iona’s Headliners Theatre.
None of us, including Gary, could have anticipated the quality of the contestants. After the live auditions, the names of the three finalists going through to be mentored by Gary were called out in dramatic style. Mercy Levett, Ky Lewis and Faith Simon, blew them (and us) away: their original compositions, performances and personalities were distinctive, mesmerising and joyous in equal measure.
How would Gary choose between them? Luckily, he didn’t have to. After sharing his words of advice and encouragement, the ultimate winner was decided by a public vote – a key feature of our campaign to get audience buy-in from the get-go.
When Gary video-called 19-year-old Faith Simon to crown her the winner, emotions ran high. They peaked a week later, when Faith was introduced on stage by Gary to perform her winning song, London Leaver, live in front of 900 guests.
Prioritising paid and reaching new audiences on organic
Paid media was our priority to achieve audience reach. Using authentic human stories and Gary’s A-list appeal, we engaged with the talents’ journeys and established an emotional connection. This also provided a unique entry point for the target audiences and a first step to building a customer journey with P&O Cruises.
On organic channels, we drove over 1 million views, creating unprecedented levels of engagement, particularly with the winner announcement (achieving our highest ever video views on a single post to date). And a unique strength of the campaign was its power to reach new audiences, notably on Instagram.
Through all social activity, blog posts and CRM emails, we drove viewers to the Talent of Tomorrow hub on the P&O Cruises website, where the story evolved in more detail through features, hosted videos and Q&As – gaining momentum as the competition progressed and establishing deeper human connections.
The whole package created a powerful story: of inspiring and authentic young talent; of musical hopes and dreams; of starstruck celebrity encounters; and, ultimately, of an opportunity of a lifetime in the toughest industry of all. Courtesy of P&O Cruises.
Did it work?
It sure did.
KPIs were smashed on paid social media, exceeding impressions targets by 189% and beating reach projections by 311%:
- 6.3 million impressions achieved
- 4.9 million people reached
- 53k link clicks
One million views on organic social, beating all channel KPIs:
- Channel KPIs exceeded by over 700% on Instagram alone
- New audiences reached – on Instagram, 56.8% of views were from people not following P&O Cruises
9,759 visits to the blog and counting… So far:
- 53% of this traffic came from paid social; 47% from organic
- 50% (4,869) of this traffic is new to site
Marketing opt-in leads
- 82% of 399 competition entrants
- 54% of the public vote
But on a personal level, this all-consuming project has celebrated the extraordinarily talented young people who dedicate their lives to music. At a time of devastated arts funding (since 2017, arts funding from UK arts councils has been cut by 16% in real terms) and the ongoing closures of grass-roots music venues (a further 125 closed for good last year), it has been a humbling experience. If, by sharing their stories, we’ve helped these creative spirits take a further step along this precarious road, it’s worth every shoot plan, project meeting, asset spreadsheet, script outline, copy deadline, delayed flight, working weekend and late night.
Client testimonial
The P&O Cruises Talent of Tomorrow competition has been an enormous undertaking, the like of which we’ve never done before. We had an amazing opportunity to leverage our partnership with Gary Barlow and really authenticate our relationship in a project that we were mutually excited about. So much collaboration and hard work went in to delivering this hugely successful project that I’m so proud of. Thank you to everyone involved at Sunday!
Abi Winfield, P&O Cruises Manager, Brand and Product