On April 29, Prince William and Catherine Middleton (now the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge) said “I will” at Westminster Abbey—and the time ahead one of the biggest events in Great Britain was a very busy period for brands and advertisers, since each of the big manufacturers in the U.K. just could not miss the opportunity to congratulate the royal couple on their marriage. Multiple limited-edition sets and lines, hilarious advertising and tie-up with social media—all this preceded the big day. Let’s take a look at how brands tapped into the royal celebrations and paid homage to the event, which shook the nation and the whole world.
The buzz, started on November 16, when the couple announced their engagement, has been growing and over the past few weeks and reached the apotheosis last Friday. The wedding which cost £20m was definitely worth it, even though along with grandiose public excitement it managed to generate 6,765 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e), which is 12 times the annual emissions from the London palace or 1,230 times the annual emissions of the average U.K. household, as Telegraph reports. According to AdAge, last month JWT London conducted a survey with 300 U.K. consumers, and 80% responded that “they believe the wedding will have a positive impact on how the royal family is viewed,” and most of them, 60%, believe that William and Kate will never get divorced (with all the public congratulations and wishes delivered to the happy couple through social media, they definitely won’t), so everything here was not in vain.
The wedding was heavily discussed and covered on Twitter and Facebook and live streamed for 3 hours 37 minutes on the official YouTube channel of the monarch family with broadcast courtesy of the BBC, providing people from all around the globe with a unique opportunity to see the U.K.’s most-watched event of the past decade. They also could leave a video message in the Guest Book, congratulating the couple on the occasion.
The users of the micro blogging service were encouraged to follow the official @clarencehouse channels and read tweets using #RoyalWedding hashtag to stay informed on what was going around the ceremony (it was rumored that tweeting from Westminster Abby would be blocked, but it turned out to be not true). Brands also launched games and activities dedicated to the big date on Facebook—for instance, Tate & Lyle Sugars, a global provider of distinctive, high quality ingredients and solutions to the food, beverage and other industries, kicked off a competition on the social media website encouraging enthusiasts to create a cake that would fit the ceremony—the hilarious winning designs being on display from April 22 through April 25.
Image: apps.facebook.com/letthemeatcake
The funniest commercial dedicated to the event was released by T-Mobile—so far, the awesome spot has been viewed over 18 million times and counting. The awesome humorous video was filmed at the St Bartholomew’s Church, London and featured 15 royal family lookalikes and 130 wedding guests, performing a weird but funny dancing during the ceremony (Harry and William in RAF uniform were absolutely hilarious).
It’s just impossible to feature all off the memorabilia dedicated the big date, so we will showcase only some of them, primarily those released by global brands. As the Royal guidelines on souvenirs states, the memorabilia had to be “in good taste, free from any form of advertisement, and carry no implication of Royal custom or approval” and the devices involved had to be “approved photographs of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton” and “the full Coat of Arms of HRH Prince William of Wales.” Interestingly enough, Prince William ordered that “with the exception of carpets, cushions, wall hangings and head scarves, Royal Devices MAY NOT be used on textiles (which includes articles of clothing, including T-shirts, drying up cloths and aprons).” The manufacturers could do nothing but obey, and ahead of the date presented their commemorative items following the instructions.
One of them, Procter & Gamble, released ‘Fairy Tale’ edition of its Fairy dishwashing liquid. AdAge reported that, according to the company, the Lord Chamberlain’s office appreciated the nod and commented in the statement, «We know how much public excitement is already building and we are thrilled to have Fairy involved.» The next ‘female’ oriented memorabilia came from confectionary producers. Nestlé presented its well-known Quality Street wrapped chocolates and toffees in a special limited edition tin in pink and violet palette featuring a bespoke illustration by portrait artist Cath Riley. Kraft Foods added another sweet tone to the long-awaited event by releasing a lovely print for Green & Black’s Organic chocolate revolving round the old bride tradition of wearing something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue at the wedding—the brand suggested that Kate might use its bar to fulfill each part of the requirement.
Diageo GB and Coca-Cola Enterprises also celebrated the occasion by launching holiday editions of their iconic products and special marketing campaigns dedicated to the event. Schweppes, one of the best loved fizzy drink and cocktail mixer of the nation, brought to stores its Schweppes Royal Wedding commemorative packs featuring the Royal Warrant and a celebratory silver ribbon design of the bottle.
The Macallan whiskey brand, which released special edition bottle on the occasion on the wedding of the groom’s parents, Prince Charles and Diana Spencer 30 years ago, launched a limited edition of 1000 bottles to celebrate the Royal Marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton. As it was noted on the brand’s blog, the unique and collectable edition featured “exceptional single malt whisky taken from two casks, both filled on 29 April—one from 1996 and one from 1999.” For the wedding date of Prince William’s parents, the brand mixed spirits from two casks, one from each of their birth years, and it used 1996 and 1999 for this year’s limited edition.
Some of the memorabilia had a tongue-in-cheek twist as well. One of the brands which paid tribute to the big date was Crown Jewels Condoms of Distinction, which decided to celebrate the occasion with their Royal Wedding Collector’s Edition boîte de capotes. “Like a Royal Wedding, intercourse with a loved with is an unforgettable occasion. Combining the strength of a Prince with the yielding sensitivity of a Princess-to-Be, Crown Jewels Condoms of Distinction promises a royal union of pleasure and style. They are truly a King among Condoms,” stated the brand’s press release.
To toast to the couple, BrewDog, the notorious Scottish brewer, released a limited-edition Royal Virility Performance beer containing herbal viagra. The company made only 1,000 bottles of artisanal beer, each priced at £10.00, which could be ordered only on the manufacturer’s website and were shipped on April 28. As the Brew Dog noted in the description to the new beer, it is a 7.5% ABV India Pale Ale, which “contains herbal viagra, chocolate, Goat Weed and a healthy dose of sarcasm.”
Image: www.BrewDog.com
In commemoration on the big date, PUMA teamed up with WeAreHQ and six underground artists to develop absolutely wonderful and unique designs in the wedding style with a humorous touch. They created hilarious interpretations based on the iconic PUMA Suede Mid—while some of them can be worn every day, at least two of them are nothing but awesome collectible pieces (unless there is somebody who will dare to wear blue shoes with a veil on the cuff and two doves or put on trainers dragging some Coke cans along with him or her).
Image: www.hypebeast.com
Image: www.hypebeast.com
Four adult LEGO fans also made a bow to the couple and the grandiose event by constructing a replica of the wedding ceremony held at Westminster Abbey last Friday. To build the object, which weighs over 60 kilos and is 1×2.5 m in size, they used 180,000 bricks and about 400 LEGO figures. It was first unveiled at the UK and Europe’s first Adult Fans of Lego (AFOL) Convention and then will go on the Royal Tour across Denmark, Holland and the UK.
The advertising wave related to the occasion also included Ogilvy’s somewhat old-school prints for Kodak printers (featuring phrases including ‘Prints charming,’ ‘For richer not poorer,’ and ‘Say goodbye to Middle tones’), and the OgilvyAction’s much brighter outdoor advertising for Post-it taglined ‘May you stick together forever. Congratulation.’ plus ‘Holds Stronger and Longer’ and featuring a tattooed guy gluing the distinct canary yellow note to the wall.
Getting back to the digital platforms, let’s say a few more words about Google, which not only provided live steaming of the event on YouTube as mentioned above (the recorded video can be watched now as well), but also introduced a bunch of lovely features like a dreamy artwork on Friday’s Google.co.uk, which depicted a wedding carriage in front of Westminster Abbey, and for the occasion changed the yellow Street View man on Google Maps into a bride and groom.
The infographics below is demonstrating which of the social media platforms were the key ones in the Royal Wedding buzz and where most of the event-related conversations were started.
We hope, William and Kate will live a happy life together and wish them beautiful blessings!
More photos, videos and information on the event can be found at the www.officialroyalwedding2011.org website.