A brand new £500 million cruise ship is right now in Bilbao (Spain) boarding hundreds of tourists stranded by the Icelandic ash cloud.
Free.
The 122,000-tonne Celebrity Eclipse was to be in Britain for inaugural celebrations before a two-day launch cruise, but they changed plans.
Smart move.
They are getting now:
Hours and hours of free media coverage.
Including reporters that were invited aboard, like Jo Palmer that writes for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight BBC website and twitters from the ship.
Tons of free publicity, and the goodwill of cruise market costumers.
Bilbao pick-up will be restricted to customers of Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook and Co-op Travel Group who have been allocated a space aboard the ship.
Eclipse, which can carry 2,850 passengers, will get back to Southampton tomorrow and should dock at the City Cruise Terminal at around 6pm.
Brilliant!
Tags: BBC, Celebrity Ecliipse, Cruises, Twitter, marketing