Carnival Gives Teen Free Cruise In Exchange For Snapchat Handle
PROSPECT, Va. (CBSDFW.COM) - Carnival Cruise Line went on a full media blitz to track down a 15-year-old boy in the small town of Prospect, Virginia. It may sound rather strange, but the teenager had something that the company really wanted -- a Snapchat account.
Not just any Snapchat account, of course. Darian Lipscomb was the owner of @CarnivalCruise.
This name was going to be a vital part of Carnival Cruise Line's social media strategy going forward. So, the company put up a campaign to find Lipscomb, the handle's owner. They put up billboards, handed out fliers and even drove around trucks with signs on the back, asking if anybody knew the teenager.
And it worked. Carnival Cruise Line found Lipscomb in Prospect, a town of less than 2,000 people.
When the company offered Lipscomb a free trip on the inaugural voyage of the Carnival Horizon in exchange for the Snapchat account, he gladly accepted the deal. "Yeah, I was kind of unaware of all this happening," the teen said. "This is crazy. I wasn't expecting any of this actually."
As it turns out, Lipscomb only used the account name because he is a huge fan of Carnival Cruise Line. He set up the Snapchat account on the same day that he was going on a cruise. He never expected that it would all pay off like this, but he seems to be thrilled with the result.
