• by Tanya Gazdik , January 2, 2023

In the world of marketing news, stories about new campaigns and studies always seem to attract readers.  

Surprisingly, the top most-read travel story in 2022 — Seabourn Cruise Line Targets Women Of-A-Certain-Age — was about a demographic that traditionally isn’t the focus of a lot of marketing. Maybe that’s why the campaign from Grace Creative for Seabourn Cruise Line stood out so much. 

While a lot of cruise line marketing focuses on ship amenities, this creative goes against the grain. It aims to take the perspective of the active middle-aged and older woman who is interested in seeking adventure, purpose and transformational experiences.

The second most-read travel story of the year features another woman, albeit not one as “mature” as in the Seabourn work. Priceline Enlists Actress Kaley Cuoco For Brand Campaign talks about how the 37-year-old actress edged William Shatner off the screen, at least for this particular effort. 

Veteran Shatner had been the face of travel deals as the Priceline Negotiator for 23 years. Cuoco was barely out of middle school when the "Star Trek" icon started pitching for the then-novel aggregator.  

Stepping away from travel, my third and fourth most-read stories were about products in categories that didn’t really fit into any other Marketing Daily reporter’s beat, but I knew they were likely to be “talkers,” which is to say, well-read.

Indeed, Weber Grill Apologizes For Meatloaf Recipe and Gannett Aims To Promote Local Journalism both were very popular with readers. 

Any time a company apologies for anything, it's likely to be of interest. In this case, the blunder involved the grill company not realizing the popular '70s singer Meat Loaf had died when they sent out their weekly recipe to email subscribers — for meatloaf. 

The brand quickly discovered its inadvertent blunder and sent a second email apologizing for any seeming insensitivity.  

There was also some irony with the timing of the Gannett activation, since the campaign broke right around the time the company was announcing layoffs at some of its papers, which was noted by a reader. 

Back to travel, my fifth (Booking.com, Expedia, Alaska Airlines Gear Up For Big Game), sixth (Booking.com Launches TikTok Account With Sweepstakes), and seventh (Vrbo Enlists Kermit For Sentimental Super Bowl Effort ) most-read stories focused on the Super Bowl and TikTok, always popular subjects.

Rounding out the top 10, two “listicle” stories (kind of like this one) were number eight (Carter's, American Family Insurance Deemed Most Positively Talked About Brands) and tenth (Dove, Olay, Lysol Tops In 'Brand Intimacy'). 

American Express Encourages Consumers To 'Shop Small' WIth QR Codes, a story about the financial service company’s annual feel-good efforts for mom and pop businesses, landed in the ninth most-read spot. Another popular subject this year — QR codes in marketing — might have helped generate more interest in it.