Sailing away on a dream cruise.
Costa Crociere introduces traveller to the magic of cruises with personalised web experiences built on Adobe Experience Manager.
13%
Increase in web sales through new website using analytics and testing.
Objectives
Stand out in a competitive market that includes established cruise organisations by offering new digital holiday and transportation services
Reach customers in multiple countries, languages and markets
Improve agility of websites to deliver more relevant messaging and deliver personalisation across properties
Results
Reached customers in 19 markets and 12 languages using flexible components to scale the website
22% increased average NPS through designs that focus on creating compelling customer experiences
Created attractive websites that decrease bounce rate by 12% and increase cruise booking by 10%
13% Increase in web sales through new website using analytics and testing
“One of the biggest achievements of Adobe Experience Manager is how we can create one website structure that we can scale across markets and deliver tailored experiences to different types of traveller.”
Alessandro Casellato
eCommerce and Digital Director, Global and Strategic Marketing, Costa Crociere
Attracting traveller with superior services
Consumers today have a multitude of options when planning holidays. They can book directly with hotels and airlines, compare prices on travel aggregator websites, talk to travel agencies or even design a cost-friendly holiday using ride-sharing and homestay services. With so many options for traveller, travel operators must push the limits of customer experience to offer more value and attract more vacationers.
Costa Crociere operates cruise holidays in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, South East Asia and South America. As part of the Carnival Corporation, Costa Crociere delivers high levels of hospitality to more than one million cruise traveller annually.
“Many people view cruises as a once-in-a-lifetime holiday,” says Alessandro Casellato, eCommerce and Digital Director, Global and Strategic Marketing at Costa Crociere. “We want to show traveller that there’s a perfect cruise out there for anyone. Whether they want to relax with the family, party and eat great food with friends or explore treasures around the world, there’s a fantastic cruise experience waiting for them.”
For customers who have never been on a cruise before, Costa Crociere wants to show traveller all of the fun, excitement and adventures that await them on a cruise holiday. For traveller who have already been on a Costa Crociere cruise, the company wants to help expand horizons by showing traveller all of the different cruise destinations available—from the Caribbean to Northern Europe to the Far East—and encourage more frequent cruise travels.
“We chose Adobe Experience Manager as our new digital platform for its ability to bring together data and experiences across channels.”
Alessandro Casellato
eCommerce and Digital Director, Global and Strategic Marketing, Costa Crociere
The key to attracting audiences and boosting revenue is personalising messaging, offers and content to show traveller exciting new cruise experiences at every step. To provide tailor-made offers and services at each stage of the guest lifecycle, the company decided to transform its digital strategy from siloed teams to a single integrated platform.
“Experience is everything in our business,” says Casellato. “We don’t sell physical products or services; we sell memories. That fantastic customer experience should extend to researching and booking a cruise. We want customers to keep in touch to us on any touchpoint they desire and in their native language. We chose Adobe Experience Manager as our new digital platform for its ability to bring together data and experiences across channels.”
Adobe Experience Manager, part of Adobe Marketing Cloud in Adobe Experience Cloud, allows Costa Crociere to deliver dynamic websites to almost any device. By deploying other integrated Adobe Experience Cloud solutions, such as Adobe Target and Adobe Analytics, Costa Crociere can personalise experiences and encourage traveller to create their own cruise memories.
Scaling website to traveller in 19 markets
The new website design focuses on emotional stories and beautiful imagery that makes audiences want to read more about all of the experiences cruises can offer. People who have never been on a cruise are encouraged to dream about the potential of a cruise holiday. Frequent cruise goers are invited to explore a completely new sea or experience from the wide variety of cruise options that Costa Crociere offers. By encouraging traveller to dream and explore, Costa Crociere can increase revenue through sales of inclusive offers.
Unlike many cruise brands, Costa Crociere doesn’t just work to attract customers in one country or region. Instead, its five global brands keep in touch to customers in 19 markets and a dozen languages. To be competitive, Costa Crociere needed a scalable structure and governance model that would allow it to effectively roll out and maintain a consistent online presence across multiple countries.
With Adobe Experience Manager Sites, Costa Crociere leverages templates and components to quickly build and localise dynamic web pages. Costa Crociere worked closely with Adobe partner Reply to deploy Adobe Experience Manager Managed Services and develop reusable templates and components. Rather than creating static HTML pages, web teams can easily rearrange assets within templates to create new web content.
Teams can copy and reuse the structure to quickly scale the websites to 12 languages. While the structure allows Costa Crociere to create global websites quickly, Experience Manager is flexible enough that local teams can adjust messaging, pricing displays and assets to better meet local regulations or cultural trends.
“One of the biggest achievements of Adobe Experience Manager is how we can create one website structure that we can scale across markets and deliver tailored experiences to different types of traveller,” says Casellato. “This is essential for maintaining consistency across the brand without affecting website agility.”
Since redesigning and replatforming its website on Adobe Experience Manager, Costa Crociere has decreased the website bounce rate by 12% and increased bookings by 10%.
“This renewed focus on customer experience is delighting our passengers, which has increased our Net Promoter Score (NPS) about 10 points to an average NPS of 55 across brands.”
Alessandro Casellato
eCommerce and Digital Director, Global and Strategic Marketing, Costa Crociere
Reaching cruise traveller across touchpoints
Working with Adobe Experience Manager, Costa Crociere can better reach consumers with tailored offers across digital touchpoints. Experience Manager Sites supports responsive templates so consumers can browse the website on a desktop, mobile or tablet, without Costa Crociere needing to support and maintain separate mobile websites. The company also worked with Adobe Experience Manager to create a new mobile app where guests can see live itineraries, book unique excursions or subscribe to the Loyalty Costa club while they’re onboard their cruise ship.
The ability to create and manage all digital content in one platform allows Costa Crociere to create more targeted experiences and offers for its audiences, which helps the company extend its reach and increase ticket sales.
“Adobe Experience Manager allows us to create and manage unique customer experiences that extend across channels,” says Casellato. “This renewed focus on customer experience is delighting our passengers, which has increased our Net Promoter Score (NPS) about 10 points to an average NPS of 55 across brands.”
Using data to drive customer-first design decisions
With Adobe Experience Manager providing a new foundation for digital experiences, Costa Crociere is building strong customer-first designs using Adobe Target, part of Adobe Marketing Cloud and Adobe Analytics, part of Adobe Analytics Cloud.
Before working with the solutions within Adobe Experience Cloud, web teams often made their creative decisions based on the preferences of designers or executives. Using the data from Adobe Analytics, Costa Crociere can understand audiences based on fact and determine the best ways to improve design and enhance customer experiences. The web team can measure how people are consuming content and understand what types of content attracts visitors. By following customer behaviours throughout the booking funnel, teams can narrow down what types of campaigns or content encourage consumers to eventually book a cruise.
“With Adobe Analytics, we’re no longer guessing what customers want,” says Casellato. “We can listen directly to customers and use their preferences to drive experiences on websites.”
Working with Adobe Analytics also helps web teams analyse consumer behaviours to define different audiences and personas. By understanding how different audiences react to campaigns, content or web design, Costa Crociere can start to personalise experiences to deliver the best possible experience for each audience.
Using the AB testing capabilities in Adobe Target, web teams are also starting to test and optimise experiences. Currently, tests on the mobile sites help web teams find the right balance between giving consumers all the information that they need while making the best use of space on a small screen.
“Thanks to the new website powered by Experience Manager and continuous AB testing with Target using data from Analytics, we were able to increase our web sales by 13% in few months,” says Casellato.
Developing personal experiences for cruise traveller
Costa Crociere plans to continue expanding analytics and testing to drive fantastic customer-first design and personalised experiences. The company is also considering adding to its Adobe Experience Cloud footprint with Adobe Audience Manager, part of Adobe Analytics Cloud. Audience Manager will not only improve audience segmentation, but it will help to create look-alike audiences. This allows marketers to predict what types of offers and experiences new customers will want by comparing traits from a new customer to the traits and preferences of known customers.
“Costa Crociere is all about customer experience,” says Casellato. “With help from Adobe Experience Cloud, we’re learning how to delight audiences through our websites and help people book the holiday of their dreams.”
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