Saga is the UK’s leading travel and lifestyle brand for the over-50s, and Indigo has produced their film and photography for over a decade, with me directing throughout: from launching their boutique ocean and river cruise ships to brand films, lifestyle photography, hotel guides and chauffeur-service work across most of the product range.
I directed and shot this aboard Saga’s Spirit of Adventure to put a face on Boutique Ocean Cruises: what the facilities actually look like on board, and the standard of service guests can expect from the moment they step aboard.
For the launch of Saga’s new river fleet, we filmed along the Rhine with a carefully cast group of models, bringing the Boutique River Cruises concept to life and showing what the on-board experience actually feels like.
Saga and Indigo now go back more than ten years, covering most of what the brand makes: films, lifestyle photography, holidays content, hotel guides, even the chauffeur service. The biggest recent brief was launching Saga’s new fleet of ocean and river cruise ships and giving shape to their idea of boutique cruising. And because this was the first official imagery since the 2021 rebrand, whatever we shot would set the tone for Saga’s visual identity for years afterwards. No pressure, then.
I directed the campaign and worked directly with Saga’s marketing team to plan every asset as one unified family under the new brand, with model casting, animation, graphics and post-production all locked down before a single frame was shot. That groundwork mattered more than usual here. Filming on a working cruise ship gives you no room for wasted time, so the whole crew knowing exactly what we needed going in was the only way to make every minute on the water count.
A working cruise ship throws schedule changes at you constantly, and staying calm under that is half the job. We thought on our feet, adapted fast, and kept the pressure off everyone on set, including the guests, who were, quite reasonably, on holiday. The results landed well with Saga and their audience, and the work still anchors their visual identity across cruising, holidays and lifestyle today, with new commissions arriving as the partnership heads into its second decade.
A library of brand photography for Saga, shot across the boutique ocean and river cruise fleets. Twenty-six frames from the launch shoots, sized and licensed for every channel from print to social.
Saga brand photography shot alongside our travel video production, so every asset across print, social, brochure and web lands as one campaign under the new Saga identity.
From the boutique ocean and river cruise fleets to the wider Saga product range, every frame of travel and lifestyle photography is built to anchor Saga’s visual identity for years to come.