It is the first time that Royal Caribbean has sought a standalone digital and social media agency. Until now, work has been split between its existing shops.
Creativebrief is running the process and has begun contacting agencies.
A WPP group comprising JWT and Mindshare, based in New York, has handled Royal Caribbean’s $90 million global ad account since 2007. It won the business from Arnold Worldwide.
In 2012, Royal Caribbean appointed JWT London as its first creative agency in the UK after a competitive pitch that also involved VCCP Blue and Isobel.
Before that, the company had adapted JWT’s global campaigns for local markets in-house.
Mindshare oversees Royal Caribbean’s £6 million UK media planning and buying account.
Most of JWT’s campaigns showed off the company’s cruise liners. The 2008 "why not?" activity, created by the London office, asked if consumers had ever seen a glacier while sunbathing.
Other creative work includes a 2010 campaign called "vacation daze", which had calculated that Americans waste almost one million years’ worth of holiday time each year because they are too afraid or too busy to take time off work.
Royal Caribbean, which has its headquarters in Miami, was founded in 1968 by a conglomerate of three Norwegian shipping companies. It has 21 liners in service.
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