How Circle Line's 80th Birthday Became Its Biggest Press Year Ever

Summary

Circle Line has been sailing around Manhattan since 1945. But 80 years in, the challenge wasn't survival. It was relevance. As Marketing Director I conceived and drove the full PR strategy for the 80th anniversary, pitching every angle and initiative to our agency partner 5WPR and serving as the brand's on-camera spokesperson throughout the year. The result was Circle Line's biggest press year in recent memory. 131 earned media placements. A live TODAY Show segment with Al Roker that syndicated to 11 NBC affiliates. Two New York Post features. An AP News story that reached over 400 million people. And $14.6M in estimated earned media value. All for a brand that's been sailing since 1945.

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The Challenge

Circle Line is one of the most iconic attractions in New York City and also one of the oldest. In a city that's always chasing what's next, being 80 years old can work against you as much as for you. Newer experiences were competing for the same tourist dollars and the same media attention, and a lot of them had the shiny new thing going for them. The challenge wasn't convincing people that Circle Line was good. It was making it feel like something worth talking about right now.

Anniversaries don't generate press on their own. You have to give media a reason to care, and then keep giving them reasons throughout the whole year, not just a single news cycle in January.

Objectives

Primary objective: Turn the 80th anniversary into a sustained media moment that ran from January through December, not a one-time press release.

Key goals:

Land at least one national broadcast placement
Drive feature coverage in major New York outlets
Build a narrative that tied Circle Line's history to what the brand is doing right now
Create promotional hooks specific to the anniversary that gave media fresh reasons to cover us across every season

Strategy

I kept coming back to the same thing: Circle Line's age wasn't a liability. It was the whole story, if we told it right. Eighty years of sailing around Manhattan means this brand has been present for nearly every chapter of New York City's modern history. That's not a tourism angle. That's a New York City angle.

So I built the year around three things. The people behind the brand, specifically the captains and crew members who had given decades of their lives to this boat and this city, including Captain Michael Duffy who happened to be on duty the day US Airways Flight 1549 went down in the Hudson. The celebration itself, with promotions I developed specifically for the milestone, including a Born in 1945 Go Free program giving anyone born in Circle Line's founding year a complimentary cruise all year, and throwback $2.50 pricing on the original Best of NYC Cruise. And new programming that showed the brand wasn't just celebrating its past, including Sip N Groove, The Beast 2, 4th of July Fireworks Cruises, and fall foliage programming.

The goal was to pitch different angles to different outlets so we were generating coverage in January, April, July, and October. Not one wave. A whole year. I conceived and pitched every single one of these to 5WPR.

My Role & Execution

Miracle on the Hudson: The first big pitch of the year. I brought the story of Captain Michael Duffy to the New York Post. Duffy was two weeks into his role as port captain when he gave the order to rescue passengers from Flight 1549. The Post ran it as an exclusive in January 2025 with a reach of 53M+. It set the tone for everything that followed, human stories first.

AP News: In April I secured a full AP News feature on the 80th anniversary, filmed aboard the Statue at Sunset Cruise. The story syndicated everywhere. Yahoo (201.9M reach), MSN (122.3M reach), CNN News 18, National Post, Yahoo Canada, World Is One News, and dozens of regional outlets. One story, 400M+ people.

TODAY Show: This was the one I really wanted. I pitched and landed Al Roker aboard Circle Line live on July 29, 2025. The broadcast ran teasers across multiple morning hours, a full five-minute feature with archival footage, a live weather report from the boat, and an on-camera interview with Captain Ken Corcoran who has been steering Circle Line for 30 years. 18.9M viewers. Syndicated to 11 NBC affiliates across the country. Al Roker posted to his personal Instagram (1.1M followers) and the @todayshow account posted a Reel to 5.3M followers.

New York Post Crew feature: I pitched a second Post story in July, this time a deep profile on Circle Line's multi-generational crew. The lifelong New Yorkers who have spent decades guiding tourists, responding to emergencies, and keeping this brand alive. It ran online and in print with a combined digital reach of 43M+.

PIX11: Coordinated an on-site broadcast segment in July including multiple teasers and a full segment. PIX11 on-air talent covered behind-the-scenes content across their personal channels including @pix11news (254K followers) and @benaarontv (125K followers).

Born in 1945 Go Free: A yearlong promotion I developed giving anyone born in 1945 a complimentary cruise. It gave media a warm, human hook and drove pickup in The Independent, Yahoo Australia, and others well into the summer.

Throwback $2.50 pricing: Offered the original 1945 ticket price on the Best of NYC Cruise as a limited moment. Simple, nostalgic, and very easy for media to write about.

Results

1.58B+ Earned media impressions

$14.6M+ Estimated earned media value

131 Earned media placements across broadcast, print, online, radio, and social

511M+ Organic social media impressions

82 Organic social posts

18.9M TODAY Show viewership on segment day

11 NBC affiliate markets for TODAY Show syndication

400M+ Estimated reach from AP News story and global syndication alone

2 Major New York Post features in a single calendar year

12 Radio markets reached through Pup Cruise syndication

Outlets: TODAY Show, AP News, New York Post, Cosmopolitan, National Geographic, The Independent, Gothamist, Time Out New York, PIX11, Fox 5, Broadway World, PureWow, Sherri Show, TripAdvisor, AOL, and more