Carnival sees huge savings by consolidating media buys with Omnicom's PHD

Following an extensive agency review and media buying analysis, Carnival decided to consolidate from six agencies to a single firm, awarding PHD its media planning and buying business based on the firm's global expertise, capabilities and purchasing power for North America and the UK.

PHD will handle media planning and buying responsibilities for Carnival Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, P&O Cruises UK and Cunard Line in the North America and UK markets. PHD currently supports media planning and buying for the Carnival brand and Cunard.

Carnival Corp. said the move leverages its scale as the world's largest cruise company to improve the strategic coordination of media buying across multiple brands in two of the world's largest cruise regions. This is expected to help generate awareness and increase demand for cruising, while creating multimillion-dollar savings in media costs. In 2015, Carnival Corp.'s six brands in the two regions combined for $116m in media spend.

Josh Leibowitz, chief strategy officer for Carnival Corp., said bringing together brands to work with a world-class agency like PHD enables the cruise giant to further enhance its digital and traditional media strategies to grow demand for cruising as the world's best vacation choice.

According to Leibowitz, the agreement enables the Carnival brands to work together in a completely new way, andhe  expressed appreciation to 'everyone on our collective teams for all the hard work that made this possible.'

PHD will use its significant purchasing power, sophisticated research resources and advanced business intelligence tools to provide Carnival Corp. strategic expertise and support for its marketing programs. PHD will work closely with the company and its brands on a framework that enables strategic coordination for media buying across multiple brands and regions, creating efficiencies in media spending and driving demand for cruises.