When we won Holland America Line in 2022, people were just starting to travel again, but with less disposable income. Increased competition with large-ship spectacles AND small-ship niche specialties chummed the waters. Growing HAL’s social following by 28% YOY in 2024 meant a strong point of difference and meeting Holland’s audience where they are: Facebook.
Create an always-on social media strategy to win the hearts and wallets of Holland America Line’s most loyal customers: Boomers.
“With us, travel is personal” gave us a clear north star to follow creatively. Everything we create must convey not just how we make travel personal for our guests but why it matters in a distinctive way that ensures Holland gets credit. While other cruise lines offer a few big things, Holland offers a million little things that build up to something massive.
With HAL’s core audience skewing 55+, we knew filling ships wouldn’t come from launching a TikTok challenge or even tapping into Instagram stories. We also knew that Boomers are least likely to feel like ads represent them or trust brands that target them. We had to meet Boomers where they’re at: With 78% of Boomers on Facebook—averaging an 1 hour and 48 minutes a day on social—we had to craft a unique mix of content they’ll love from people they trust.
To earn the trust of Boomers on social, we had to post authentic content from the inside. That meant tapping Holland superfans, or “the Mariners,” for UGC. Known for sharing their love for Holland’s service, culinary experiences, and excursions without being asked, their contributions helped produce some of our top-performing content.
Next, we knew the Holland crew is such an incredible point of pride for the brand, and the main proof of the high personalization standards. To honor them, we tell their stories, and even launched an employee advocacy program allowing our crew to submit moments and content they capture while aboard.
We also leveraged Curiosity’s “Newsroom” twice a week to develop trend-heavy content to widen our reach and maximize social algorithms, ultimately getting our content in front of eyes we wouldn’t have reached otherwise.
While most brands are losing followers on Facebook, HAL’s spiked 28% YOY—plus our reach and engagement skyrocketed 66% and 48% respectively. Additionally, the brand reached a staggering 200k followers on Instagram, up 60% since 2022. But what does this really mean without a banging sales metric? Great question: Our efforts helped fuel the largest booking day in the company’s 150-year history, beating the previous mark by +18%.
