Cruise business sails into Mitchell Patterson

Mitchell Patterson Aldred Mitchell has won the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines account worth 2m, after pitching against Team Saatchi, Davis Little Cowley, Walsh Trott Chick Smith and specialist travel agency Giacometti.

The account includes press, posters and possibly a TV campaign. The agency’s work is scheduled to appear by the end of the year.

The company is understood to have deliberated between Walsh Trott and Mitchell Patterson for some weeks before making a decision.

Royal Caribbean’s former agency was BMP DDB, but there was a split in the spring.

The US-owned cruise line is already a major player in its home market, but is looking to take a larger share of the European cruise sector, which grew by 25 per cent in value last year.

The company is to add two new ships to its fleet and will offer cruises to the West Indies, the Mediterranean, the Far East and Alaska.