Jerne partners with Virgin Voyages to connect over 9,000 influencers, driving significant cruise bookings through social media promotion and referral incentives.
Jerne, leading platform connecting social media influencers and content creators with experience providers, is celebrating its innovative social media sales partnership with Virgin Voyages through connecting over 9,000 influential creators in 102 countries with incentives to promote the brand’s cruise offerings to those creators’ 3.3 billion followers.
“As arguably the most creative new entrant in premium ocean cruising in recent years, Virgin Voyages is no stranger to innovation,” said Tim Morgan, CEO, Jerne. “We are thrilled to celebrate the success of Virgin Voyages in hosting dozens of creators on their ships in 2023 and 2024, where they create and share inspirational content, resulting in referral bookings from their followers that continue to build with every hosted experience.”
The companies’ partnership had a strong start to 2024, with the January to August dollar value of new cruise booking referrals by Jerne creators (the term for the wider grouping of influencers, content creators, bloggers, and more) outpacing the same timed period in 2023 by 271%, resulting in hundreds of qualified leads and bookings across individual and group bookings. Showcasing the growing opportunity of social media sales for travel products, new leads are placed in Jerne’s proprietary B2B2C re-marketing engine for Virgin Voyages to take advantage of on-demand sales and marketing efforts to build an evergreen funnel of new consumer bookings.
“We are no stranger to leading the industry in sales and marketing innovation, particularly for new-to-cruise travelers who are looking for a different experience at sea,” said Lauren Goerl, Manager, Influencer & Celebrity Partnerships, Virgin Voyages. “Jerne makes it easier for us to reach, scale, and manage this incredible opportunity to showcase our stunning ships and turn sailors into sellers.”
A study by Stelico Consulting Group found that 76% of luxury travelers selected their hotel brand, cruise line or airline based on social media, while 60% said they had purchased travel based on a social media post by a creator such as a celebrity or influencer.
“The global opportunity to work with influential creators is through millions of people around the world producing all types of marketing content for Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, blogs, and other platforms,” said Morgan, “and our partnerships with companies like Virgin Voyages are increasingly providing marketing cost savings and driving bookings to retail channels including travel advisors and direct sales.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
