With Out of Home, Celebrity Captivated "The Cruise Capital of the World"

March 4, 2025

They call PortMiami “The Cruise Capital of the World.” In fact, it’s a trademark. But it’s also the truth.

Last year more than 8.2 million passengers boarded ships there – a 12.8% jump from the year prior and a record high. It really is the world’s busiest port, with nine sleek, modern terminals serving nearly two dozen cruise lines (SOURCE: PortMiami).


Needless to say, cruising is booming and competition is fierce. So in the city the world’s four largest cruise line companies call home, how do you get passengers to choose you?

This was the challenge for Celebrity Cruises. While its competition was running $8 million Super Bowl ads, Celebrity resisted the “pier pressure” and instead used out of home to successfully break through the noise, stand out from the crowd, and drive real results.

How do we know? We worked with our independent third-party OOH measurement and attribution partner Reveal Mobile to evaluate the impact the campaign made on visits to Celebrity’s website.


But first, let’s talk about the campaign itself – because it was spectacular. In addition to strategically located traditional and digital billboards around Miami, Celebrity went big and bold on two massive wallscapes. The first towered over the constant sea of brake lights known as the Dolphin Expressway (SR-836).

The second was an OUTFRONT PRIME unit we call “The Iconic.” And that’s also the truth. This 7,080-square-foot landmark is located along I-395 right where it crosses Biscayne Boulevard (U.S. Route 1). If you’re not familiar with the turf, that billboard is pretty much the last thing you see before arriving at PortMiami and the first thing you see when you leave.

Out of home ads in marquee locations like this make an especially oversized impact on consumers: nearly four in ten say they make a brand seem more trustworthy, memorable, and desirable. Even more – 48% – say that an OOH ad in an iconic spot makes them more interested than other forms of advertising (SOURCE: The Harris Poll).


Of course, a great OOH location is just a canvas – success also requires compelling creative. This campaign put the boats in the background in favor of smiling passengers frolicking front and center. Focusing on people instead of products is a best practice on a neuroscientific level, proven to drive 40% more brain response peaks, 40% more long-term memorability, and 15% more personal relevance (SOURCE: Australian Advertising Effectiveness Rules).

That combination of high-profile location, well-targeted audience, and creative best practices proved a powerful motivator over the course of the two-month campaign. For a cruise line, the next step in the buyer’s journey is visiting the website, a form of digital activation OOH is proven to drive 4.9x more effectively on a dollar-for-dollar basis compared to other advertising (SOURCE: Comscore).

That efficacy was reflected in the outcome: a 32.4% lift in overall website visitation. Those who were exposed to Celebrity Cruises’ campaign were 40.8% more likely to visit its website than those who weren’t.


Even more impressive: traffic to the cruise itinerary page lifted 30% among those exposed to the ads, making them 35.6% more likely to visit that page than those who weren’t. These results showed little drop-off from the homepage to the itineraries page, illustrating that the “ooh, pretty billboard” to “picturing the trip in my head” pipeline remains undefeated. In fact, a previous footfall attribution study for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater proved that when it comes to vacations, the action influenced by OOH ripples even further (SOURCE: Reveal Mobile).

It's closing in on summer vacation planning season. Now is the time for travel advertisers across land, sea, and air to capture some of this magic for themselves. Contact us today to find out how.

Author: Jay Fenster, Marketing Manager @ OUTFRONT

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