Titanic Two Marketing Strategies to Live By!

By Michael D. Russo

Taking on an Icon!

Image this conversation. You get approached by one of Australia’s richest people, a billionaire in his

own right, mining tycoon Clive Palmer, who asks you to be part of a project the like of which only

comes along once in a lifetime. He asks you to be part of the next stage in history, to become the

Global Marketing Director for the Titanic Two!

Now I’m only guessing here but I’m sure your head would be spinning, your palms sweaty and your

breathing short as you try to visualise how you’re going to take, arguably the world’s most icon ship

and easily one of the most tragic stories in history, and build a new ship and new story for a new

generation!

This is the position of my newly acquainted marketing associate who was responsible for the launch

and marketing of this gigantic story.

Building on the Brand

At first glance you might be forgiven for thinking that this would be an easy campaign. I mean how

hard can it be to market something that has already captured the hearts of some many people? This

is one of those stories that can be a massive winner or a colossal failure because of how people

already view the story of the original Titanic!

And for those of you living under a rock we’re talking about a ship which was first class in the early

1900s and the largest ship ever built at that time. It sank on its maiden voyage after hitting an

iceberg causing the deaths of over 1500 people. That alone was enough to make it go down in the

history books but in 1985 the remains of the wreck was finally discovered and in 1997 James

Cameron released his blockbuster movie which broke all box office records at the time staring

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

So here you have a situation where your efforts to launch the Titanic Two could easily backfire if you

take the wrong approach because it’s a story that many people hold dear. Thankfully they did their

research and are giving it the respect it deserves.

World Wide Launch

Considering the scale of the project and the amount of money that is being poured into it you would

expect that our new Global Marketing Director would have a substantial budget for marketing? Not

so, in fact when I commented on it he just smiled at me and pointed to his chest and said, ‘I am the

marketing budget’! He was kidding of course but not by much.

What I was really interested in was how he took on the challenge of the initial launch with a very

modest budget.

Here’s what they did, they hosted a series of exclusive invitation only events in five cities around the

world including Macau, New York, London, Halifax and Southampton. This consisted of three gala

dinners and two breakfast events. They provided the ticket cost which included the meal, drinks and

entertainment, and entertainment was sourced from across the world.

Invitations were sent to people from all walks of life including royal families, presidents and prime

ministers (they had a large turnout of former presidents and prime ministers eg Ireland, Latvia,

Columbia, Mauritius, Bosnia & Hertzagovnia, Romania etc), business people, charities, chambers of

commerce and socities such as British Australian Society.

They then re-created the 11 course dinner menu that was served in first class aboard the titanic, the

night the ship tragically sunk. Their chef worked to research the items and re-create the menu as

close to possible as it would have been done. To keep with the theme they commissioned the

replica of titanic cutlery and crockery which they rebadged as Titanic II and Blue Star Line (instead of

White Star Line) and transported these to all of the events.

What would a Titanic event be without some amazing entertainment including Celine Dion’s famous

song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from the feature film?

Titanic Results

Here are the results of this amazing marketing launch.

The day they launched their plans in New York they were the number one trending name on

twitter for the day.

They finished the week with more media coverage in the USA than any other topic that

week, coming second only to the Oscars!

Globally the launch generate over half a billion dollars in television, radio, print media and

online coverage for the events!

To date they have had in excess of 40,000 people register for tickets on the ship (it can only

host 2500 at a time)!

They’ve had more than a dozen individuals offer up to one million dollars to secure a cabin

on the first voyage of the Titanic Two!

There has also been a huge interest in Port Authorities from around the world such as in Halifax,

Belfast and in Brazil that all want to see the ship visit their places. Obviously the exposure and

interest that the ship will create will add enormous benefits to tourism in those places.

For more information on this project, including photos, videos and updates you can visit the

following links:

Website: bluestarline.com.au

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/bluestarlines

My Top 3 Tips Dealing With An Icon Brand

1. Make sure you respect the history and personal value the project holds in people’s hearts.

2. Use the existing themes where possible to bring back the nostalgia and feel of the project

people are expecting.

3. Ensure you provide plenty of materials for the media to use so that they get the new vision.

If you don’t do this you risk having your story miss-represented which can be disastrous for a

re-boot of an icon brand!

Michael D. Russo built his fist multi-million dollar enterprise in his mid 20’s. He is a Marketing

Strategist and four-time Author including “Why Bankruptcy Rocks and Success is Over-Rated!”

He is the host of ‘Bankruptcy Rocks TV’ (due for launch in late 2011) – The ultimate resource

for the new entrepreneur. He created the ‘Oprah in Oz National Welcome Campaign’ for

Oprah Winfrey’s visit to Australia in 2010. Read His Story at www.MichaelDRusso.com or visit

the pre-launch site at www.BankruptcyRocks.com. ‘LIKE’ us on facebook.

This PDF download is sponsored by ‘Experience Pros’ Radio Show. Weekday

mornings from 10am MST with your hosts Eric Reamer and Angel Tuccy. Check

them out at www.ExperiencePros.com or visit www.560TheSource.com. Call in and

chat on (720) 344 2446.