Bateaux London B2C SEO
& Content Campaign

Creating Memorable Experiences Aboard Bateaux London

Bateaux London, an owned business of Sodexo, required a strategic marketing partner to help increase seat covers for their London cruises and drive enquiries for group bookings too. As a part of POLARIS partnership with Sodexo, the agency worked with Bateaux London to achieving these objectives.

Business Case

The cruise experience business had gone through some change in the last 2 years. From boats being off water for renovation to operational stop-start periods due to the pandemic, the business needed a partner that was nimble and able to plan activity that could drive performance quickly as circumstances developed.

POLARIS worked with the team at Bateaux London to organise a digital marketing strategy that focused on driving seat covers for cruise experiences through various formats.

Targeting Users

Working with the client, a series of cruise experiences were ideated that appealed to different audience groups, targeting demographics more accurately based on their interests and life circumstances. We took the cruise experience and ideated how we could target:

• Families
• Corporates
• Couples
• Groups of friends
• Londoners
• Nationals
• Tourists

Pop Up Events

To broaden the exposure of the offering, a series of pop-up events were discussed and launched, allowing for further user groups to be targeted to come onboard the boats. The marketing goal was to increase awareness of the cruise experience and offer a low commitment way to get onboard and learn more about the experience.

With data captured, these users were then able to be retargeted by the business and through marketing, offering them the opportunity to commit to the target product of a cruise experience for lunch or dinner down the Thames.

SEO Goal Setting

The SEO team worked with the client to determine a series of topical keyword groups that are relevant and require targeting as a part of the SEO Strategy for the business. We concluded to target a series of core topic areas, such as cruises and experiences in London, as well as further groups based on user interest and demographic profiling against our user groups.

Launching a new experience to drive more SEO traffic and bookings. Like many hospitality businesses, Bateaux London took the opportunity during the pandemic to review their digital position and take to market a new and improved website. The aim of the new website was to improve customer experience, providing a more seamless booking experience and also showcase the experience in a more realistic manner.

Presenting new opportunities to the business led by user and competitor insights. An extensive search landscape audit was conducted into user behavior, user demand, competitor positioning and seasonality that could drive relevant SEO traffic that would transact with the business.

This audit fueled the start of a content ideation and mapping process which then helped to determine what content was required to be migrated for SEO traffic retention but also what content needed to be created to increase the business’ SEO footprint online. As a result, 4 new keyword groups were identified, and content created around these keyword groups which was built into the site.

“POLARIS is a fantastic agency that will stick to the business’ objectives and advise clients accordingly. They’ve shown great professionalism since they’ve worked with us and resilience due to the ‘covid-19’ situation.”

Claire Bedouin
Bateaux London

Match Made in London Campaign

During the pandemic, whilst hospitality and public events were closed to the general public, weddings were allowed to continue, with a maximum attendee pool of 15. POLARIS ideated a series of campaign concepts and presented them to the client. The London cruise experience company selected our “match made in London” campaign to launch.

This campaign was aimed at couples that were engaged, with the goal of communicating the potential of having their wedding aboard Bateaux London. We wanted to connect with engaged couples and remind them that love doesn’t need to wait.

A campaign schedule was created which aimed to take couples through 3 phases of the buying journey. Awareness, initially exposing Bateaux London in all it’s glory. Engagement, bringing their dreams to life by reminding them to let there be love, after lockdown. Commitment, by details the vows that the business would make to create the most special day for the couple.

A series of creatives were designed using the clients branding and agreed messaging, which were then launched through all channels including SEO, PPC, and Social, particularly Instagram.