‘And how the hell are we gonna afford Lana Cruise?’ Brooke guffawed. ‘She won’t be handing us her ten million audience for free.’
‘We can work on the influencer list depending on the budget. The most important consideration is landing on what Gen Z want in a holiday. What is the sell here? And the answer is simple. On a macro scale they want the same as we all do. Value for money, experiences they can boast about, and to make the most of their annual leave. On a micro level, they want to be with like-minded people andhave some guaranteed fun. Whatever fun looks like for them. The genius of cruising is that it gives them all of this and more. Like a skeleton key, it fits all locks, and our PR campaign will help them see that for themselves.’
I turned the next three boards over and propped them against some books.
‘Message in a bottle. We will ask our current customers to write a message to the cruisers of the future and put them in a small bottle. The first thousand people to find these bottles aged between twenty and thirty will get to go on a “voyage of discovery”. A free cruise where they can blog and post and share their journey. A viral campaign on a global scale to encourage a whole new audience that wouldn’t otherwise have considered cruising, to do so.’
Heidi joined in. ‘We wantEsmeraldato speak for herself. We don’t need to do a hard sell on cruising; we just need to turn the experience inside out. Most people see these behemoth boats on the water and have no idea of the box of delights inside. Of how delicious the food is, how friendly the team are, how much adventure you can pack into two weeks when you’re on the water. Excalibur are best in class after all, so why not let the product do the talking?’
Greg sat back in his chair, arms crossed, then slowly started to nod. ‘I’m an old man these days, and I know nothing about tikking and tokking, but I do know that we give our customers a damn good time at a damn good price. Our reviews tell us week after week.’
‘But they ain’t getting any younger,’ Brooke said. ‘We’ll take their dollars while they’ve got ’em, but we need to keep fillin’ that funnel full of fresh young cruisers. We must find a way to get a new audience in.’
‘And this could absolutely be it,’ Greg said with a snap of his fingers. ‘I’ll write one of the letters myself. As a top prize ticket. They can sit next to me at the captain’s table… or if that’s not exciting enough for them, next to Lana – whoever she is.’
‘The ultimate Cruise,’ Heidi said, turning over more boards. ‘Our crew, your Cruise.’
‘We plan to hide some of the bottles in the virtual world as well,’ I said, revealing the final board. ‘In the spaces where this audience spends their time. Fortnite, Minecraft, they will stumble upon the bottles with instructions on what to do with them. It will be like finding a VIP ticket to the Superbowl in your pocket.’
Greg slammed the table and stood up. ‘I love it. Brooke – I’ll leave you to wrap up and sort contracts.’ He shook my hand firmly, then Heidi’s. ‘Excellent stuff, ladies. Good to have you back on board.’
‘We never left,’ Heidi said, her voice trembling.
Brooke chuckled to herself as he stalked out. ‘Well, there’s your answer ladies. No room for misinterpretation there.’
‘Really?’ I asked, too scared to believe it.
‘Really. You’ve got yourself the Excalibur Cruises account back.’
Thirty-six
We stepped out into the fresh air grinning like idiots.
‘Thank fuck for that,’ Heidi said, giving me a high five. ‘Well done, Kat, you did an amazing job.’
‘So did you.’ I couldn’t help the tears of relief and exhaustion as I pulled Heidi into a hug. ‘What a journey, eh?’ I couldn’t believe it was over and we were finally on the other side of it. I felt physically and mentally spent. The non-stop adrenaline rushes had left me weak and tired, and I couldn’t wait to get home and crawl into bed. I hadn’t realised how much angst I’d been holding on to inside and now it was all finally done, I felt like I might collapse. I wanted to scream into the sky and then sleep for a week. This whole process had thrown my inner peace off kilter in so many ways, but it was worth it to eventually win. It had been a sharp lesson in staying vigilant and protecting what you’ve got. There was no room for complacency in PR.
‘I need a large… something to celebrate.’
I nodded at the pub over the road. ‘Bucket of rosé?’
‘Vodka.’
‘Sounds good,’ I said, picking the pitch boards up off the floor.
‘Two large vodkas, hold the tonic,’ a voice called behind us. Leo was stood on the corner of the street with his arms folded. ‘Celebration or commiseration?’
‘Celebration,’ I said, archly. ‘They came to their senses in the end.’
‘Thanks to you,’ Heidi gushed. ‘Resigning the account was a truly honourable move. Not many people would have done that.’
‘I can’t abide cheats,’ Leo said. ‘Without trust, what is there, really?’
Theaudacityof this guy. My goodwill towards him was dissolving now we’d taken back what was rightfully ours. I was so hurt and angry I could barely look at him.
‘How come you’re here, anyway?’ I asked. ‘Lunch date with Brooke?’
‘I wanted to buy you both a drink or two, or five,’ Leo said, tentatively. ‘As many as it’ll take to show there are no hard feelings – and to congratulate you on your win, of course.’
