Marie Lee, CMO of Princess Cruises: Building Demand in a Changing Travel Market

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Marie Lee, Chief Marketing Officer of Princess Cruises, about leading marketing during a period of brand evolution, leadership change, and shifting traveler expectations. Drawing on a long career across Disney and travel marketing, Marie shares how she balances short-term demand with long-term brand building in one of the world’s most recognized cruise brands.What the Conversation Covers • Marie’s career path across sales, strategy, guest experience, direct marketing, and media leadership, and how those roles shaped her approach as a CMO • What it took to leave Disney after a long tenure and step into a growth opportunity at Princess Cruises during a major transformation • How Princess is balancing the heritage of The Love Boat with a more modern, premium, experience-led brand story • Why video, strong creative, and a balanced brand-and-performance media strategy are central to driving both demand and long-term loyalty • How Marie thinks about agency partnerships, team leadership, AI, and building marketing around the guest experience from first impression to onboard deliveryGuest BioMarie Lee is Chief Marketing Officer at Princess Cruises, where she leads the brand’s marketing strategy during a period of new leadership, new ships, and brand evolution. Before joining Princess, she spent most of her career at Disney Experiences in a range of roles spanning sales, international marketing, merchandise strategy, guest experience, direct marketing, media, and customer engagement.About the PodcastCMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.