Doctor Odyssey Sets Sail With Deluxe Marketing Campaign

Sail on, sailor

While the next few weeks will provide a clearer forecast of how long Doctor Odyssey’s voyage might last, Weir credits the show’s strong launch to ABC’s marketing efforts, which cast a wide net in terms of audience and platforms.

“We always want to make sure we’re meeting our viewers where they are with our marketing messages,” she says. “With each of our individual shows, we’re building off the strategy of finding people at their points of decision-making.”

Weir believes the show also benefitted from the general interest in the “cruise lifestyle,” an interest that’s only grown as the industry has found its sea legs again since the height of the Covid pandemic. That’s reflected in the #CruiseTok boom on TikTok and other social media platforms, and ABC enlisted several of those influencers—as well as medical stars in the #DocTok space—as another way to reach cruise-curious viewers.

“Big Deck Energy was the thing we kept coming back to,” Weir emphasizes, adding that you can expect “bigger deck energy” should the show return for a sophomore season. “We were going for a very broad target on this, and that very much delivered for us.”