Virgin Voyages Trolls South Dakota With Branson at the Helm

It’s a great day to be from South Dakota!

When it comes to viral marketing, nobody does it better than Virgin Voyages. As the 2020 launch of the Scarlet Lady continues to creep closer, the team at Virgin Voyages booking department made a startling discovery: nobody from South Dakota had booked a cruise yet.

While other Americans from across the country gleefully booked their ticket on the most anticipated ship and cruise line in recent memory, South Dakotans were apparently not part of the frenzy and that didn’t sit well with Virgin founder Richard Branson.

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It Pays to Cruise in South Dakota

In letter addressed to all of South Dakota in the New York Times this morning (sorry to all the Yankton Daily Press readers), Sir Richard pointed out a few interesting facts about the work habits of the state. The average full-time employee in South Dakota uses only 26% of their vacation days to travel and about 73% of South Dakotans have left over days each year. Why waste those perfectly good vacation days when the cruise vacation of a lifetime awaits? 

Sir Richard and the Virgin team decided to give the first South Dakotan who books a cruise a prize package that includes:

• $605 in Sailor Loot to use on-board the Scarlet Lady
• 2 first class tickets from the 605 to the 305
• One-night hotel stay in Miami
• Limo transfer to the ship in Miami

Along with the letter, Virgin Voyages erected billboards across the state encouraging people to give cruising a try. Clever phrasings like “Sioux…ya gonna book or what?” emboldened on bright red billboards are hard to miss, but we’ll have to wait and see if the people of South Dakota are listening!

Scheduled for completion in 2020, Scarlet Lady is the first ship from the new cruise line and will homeport in Miami for cruisings across the Bahamas and Caribbean. A ship for adults only, Virgin Voyages has placed a focus on health and wellness for cruisers looking for a vacation experience that’s far from ordinary.

Are you excited to cruise with Virgin Voyages?  Let us know what you think about the promotion in the comments below!