• by Tanya Gazdik , May 9, 2012

Crystal Cruises is launching an iPhone app to help travelers share customer postcard images of their journeys via social media, email and even traditional U.S. Postal Service mail.

In what the company is calling a “luxury cruise industry first,” the app incorporates the personalized memoir look and feel of the line's recently launched "Begin a New Story" brand campaign. "The Storyteller" photo-customization app is available for free download from iTunes.

The app invites travelers to snap a memorable moment, stunning view or new friend with their iPhone, and then use the app to add professional-style effects and share the image on either their personal Facebook page, Crystal Cruises' Facebook page, via email or U.S. mail. The “snail mail” option results in an actual paper postcard that can be personally signed and mailed to friends and family with the tap of a touchscreen. 

Users can customize their photos with color filters in black and white, sepia, high-contrast, or de-saturated; frames, with different black-and-white clean, classic, or more artistic border options; and captions, with choice of handwriting-style typeface, font color (white or black), and word positioning on the photo.

The app provides the perfect venue for “contemporary storytelling,” combining photography, technology and creativity, says Crystal's Vice President of Marketing Nitsa Lewis. "It's also a lovely nod to classically vintage travel correspondence and photos past, while celebrating the modern era of vacation storytelling.”

Crystal's Facebook fan page  at www.facebook.com/crystalcruises will have a "Never Ending Journal" section where all photo submissions will be compiled into an online group journal and categorized by cruise. 

To promote the app, upcoming guests will receive brochures with their cruise tickets. 

Crystal Cruises launched the "Begin a New Story" brand campaign in mid-April. It was the first work from Y&R California since winning the account in September 2011. 

The fully integrated campaign, which runs through 2012 and into 2013, positions the brand as a luxurious blend of discovery and adventure.

At the campaign's core is the notion of the travel journal, a personal set of reflections, memories and mementos that travelers collect to remind themselves of their treasured vacation. 

The campaign consists of print advertisements, online banners, brochures and literature, as well as a 60-second animated film that brings to life three individuals' personal experiences in destinations across the globe.

It also includes a 170-page Worldwide Cruise Atlas that shares personal travel stories, images, and mementos in journal-like form. Profiling 84 itineraries in more than 75 countries and 250-plus ports, the booklet shares story elements of sailing aboard.