Colossal Pinata + Giant Beach Balls= “Fun For All”

Carnival Cruise lines has a new campaign, and with the tag “Fun For All.  All For Fun”, you know it’s going to be something interesting.

October 26th 2008, Dallas, TX: Carnival broke the existing record in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the world’s largest beach ball.  Carnival released three of these giant beach balls in downtown Dallas, dropping them into the streets from high-rise buildings.  See the official commercial of the event below.

November 2nd 2008, Philadelphia, PA: Carnival made it into the Guiness Book of World Records for constructing the largest pinata EVER in downtown Philly.  See the official commercial below.

This campaign emphasizes two virtues I think we could all use a little more of: Common Ground and Laughter.  Find out how below….

Andy Sernovitz, one of the gurus of word of mouth marketing, gives companies four rules:

1. Be interesting, or be ignored: I’m not sure what can be more interesting than giant beach balls bouncing around and a colossal pinata standing among the high-rises of two American metropolises!?!

2. Make people happy: The genius of this campaign and what I think makes it work so well is that it brings people together in a shared experience, creating a community.  Hitting a beach ball around in the back yard or whacking a pinata at a neighborhood kid’s 7th birthday party are experiences that exist in the childhood memories of countless Americans.  By reconstructing remnants of childhood that are so “universal” in the American sense, Carnival not only took us back to those carefree summer days but did it in a setting that allowed us to feel united or as if we were a part of something bigger than ourselves.  It doesn’t get much happier than that.

3. Earn trust and respect: This is something I think we will have to wait and see if Carnival will achieve.  Their campaign is great, but will that translate onto each and every one of their voyages?  If they can translate the promise they make in their ads of “Fun For All. All For Fun.” onto their cruise ships, I think they will have a winner.

4. Make it easy for customers to share: Carnival has a new section on their site labeled “FUNVILLE” that provides an online playground of interactive games, towel animal theatre, and many “behind the scenes” videos of their campaign.  While the towel animal theatre may be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, and I can’t ever score more than a 6 on the volleyball game, no one would ever know it!  They DON’T have any share buttons.  How great would it be to compare your volleyball score with a friends?  Or laugh about which towel animal character you like the best (I personally like the swans!)?  If Carnival wants to keep the momentum going, they have to make it easy for people to keep talking about them and share with their friends!

This campaign generated a lot of publicity from local news stations in Dallas and Philadelphia.  Cops working the event are seen taking pictures with their camera phones of the giant beach balls.  Massive amounts of kids and grown ups alike got to play and laugh.  There are tons of YouTube videos shot by regular people passing by.  I wasn’t even there, andI feel happy when I see the commercials!  Carnival, THANK YOU for the Common Ground and the Laughter.  We loved it!