Majestic America Line Cruises retained Ruf Strategic Solutions, a database marketing company, to establish its brand through a targeted e-marketing campaign after the merger of American West Steamboat Company and Delta Queen Steamboat Company in 2006.

Olathe, Kan. January 15, 2008 — Majestic America Line Cruises retained Ruf Strategic Solutions, a database marketing company, to establish its brand through a targeted e-marketing campaign after the merger of American West Steamboat Company and Delta Queen Steamboat Company in 2006.

Majestic utilized Ruf Strategic Solutions’ Customer Relationship Marketing tool, Navigator, and database intelligence. The objective was to generate leads, reach customers, facilitate inquiries and communicate with travel agents.

The cruise line launched more than 100 e-mail campaigns during a year, sending more than 1.5 million messages in the second quarter of 2007. Highlights from these campaigns included the following results:

* 27.1 percent e-mail open rate, 7.1 percent higher than an average campaign, according to Jupiter Research.
* A/B split test for e-mail copy that opened at a 9 percent higher rate.
* A/B split test for personalized messages that demonstrated a 20 times higher open rate and a 447 percent increase in the click through rate.
According to Kim Leaming, director of marketing of Majestic America Line Cruises, Ruf Strategic Solutions’ ability to segment consumers and travel agents and consolidate multiple data sources from passenger bookings to Reader Service Leads (RSL) into one location was incredibly attractive to the cruise line. “When we launched Majestic America Line, we faced a big challenge in finding a cost effective way to reach out to potential cruisers, agents and partners. E-mail quickly emerged as a key part of our broader marketing initiative and Ruf has been a partner from the start, assisting us in creating a sustainable, successful campaign.”

Ruf’s Navigator provided an integrated Campaign Management System (CMS) for Majestic. According to Jake Ruf, principal of Ruf Strategic Solutions, CMS enabled the cruise line and their advertising agency to control the creation and distribution of highly-targeted e-mail messages to online prospects, past customers and travel agents. “The cruise line could view the number of messages sent, bounced, opened, clicked through and the open and click through rates of all messages, as well as compare the results to past campaigns,” said Ruf.

The Navigator program allowed the cruise line to quickly and easily load and deploy e-mails at a moment’s notice. Majestic could select from any combination of variables including past cruise behavior, geography, number of times inquired, last inquiry data and mail preference to allow advance targeting.

Ruf Strategic Solutions delivers a full suite of marketing intelligence solutions to help organizations acquire new customers, retain existing customers and develop one-to-one relationships to maximize profitability. Founded in 1976, Ruf Strategic Solutions helps organizations maximize the return on their marketing investment through superior customer intelligence. Ruf’s unique ability to integrate vast arrays of data, technology tools and 30 years of expertise, empowers organizations with truly actionable and measurable intelligence. Through Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM), Ruf’s clients are able to use consumer insight to reach their target audiences through multi-channel marketing. Ruf currently services many market leaders in a variety of industries. For more information, visit www.ruf.com.

Majestic America Line is the premier river and coastal cruising company in the United States, offering uniquely American cruise itineraries that provide an extraordinary travel experience. With a fleet of seven U.S.-flagged and built ships, Majestic America Line travels America’s great rivers and coastal waterways from Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to the Heartland and the Lower Mississippi. The company’s specially designed ships deliver an unequalled boutique cruise experience that combines an unmatched attention to quality with deluxe comfort and warm, attentive service from an American crew. Based in Seattle, Majestic America Line is a division of Ambassadors Cruise Group, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ambassadors International, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMIE).

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