Working in and with the media it was pretty hard for us to not get swept up in the Royal Wedding fever. We weren’t that excited about dresses, hats and celeb guests though, we were more excited about which brands had used the Royal Wedding as an effective PR springboard to catapult their brand or product into the sparkly ginger light. Here we have included a few of our favourite national campaigns as well as some local events that we felt hit the magic markle spot.
Ginger & Sparkle
Tyrell’s created a special edition flavour of crisps especially for the occasion calling them Ginger & Sparkle which we just loved, a really nice, light-hearted and funny stunt. And we say stunt as we can’t believe anyone could take the flavour seriously; they were parsnip crisps with a hint of ginger, sweet honey and edible glitter. We’re not sure if anyone enjoyed them but what we are sure of is how much Tyrell’s enjoyed their coverage landing on pretty much every page form The Sun, The Grocer, The Independent, Good Housekeeping, New Magazine, Huffington Post and The Cardiff Times.
M&S Rebrands Itself (and a roast chicken sandwich)
The bedrock of the British high-street gave itself a royal re-brand in honour of the weekend’s nuptials by changing its name to Markle & Sparkle. In celebration of the most anticipated wedding of the year, the chain’s Windsor branch unveiled the new name on Friday, May 18th which remained in place for the weekend. The store featured glittering new signage as well as windows adorned in Union Jacks in preparation for the newly appointed Duke and Duchess of Sussex to pass by the store following the wedding at St George’s Chapel on Saturday. Inside, customers experienced a dedicated Markle & Sparkle selfie booth where pictures were sent to M&S social media pages before being put in a virtual wedding album that will be sent to Kensington Palace.
In the run up to the wedding weekend, Marks and Spencer’s temporarily renamed its roast chicken salad sandwich ‘The Proposal’ in a nod to Prince Harry’s decision to propose to the princess during a roast chicken dinner. The store also offered anyone presenting an official wedding invitation a free Meal Deal. M&S’s wedding fever demonstrated a clever PR campaign which not only gained coverage in the national media, but ensured the retailer remains aligned with Britain’s establishment for generations to come. The royal re-name was featured in the Daily Mail, AOL, The Independent, Metro, The Sun, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, The Mirror, The Evening Standard, The Telegraph, Sky News and ITV to name a few.
Royal Lego Wedding
Legoland Windsor certainly made the most of the opportunity brought about with the Royal Wedding with a fun and fitting, yet time consuming build ahead of the weekend! The shrinking of the Royals was the work of 11 Model Makers at Legoland who spent over 750 hours and used more than 39,000 Lego bricks to build a replica of Windsor Castle and mini Lego versions of members of the royal family, including the Queen. Prince Harry was of course topped with an orange brick for his famous hair and the model makers attention to detail even saw a miniature Sir Elton John complete with tiny rose-tinted glasses and Ginger Spice dressed in her famous Union Jack dress within the line-up of guests.
Not surprisingly, the campaign achieved global coverage within TV, print and online and was dubbed one of PR Week’s top campaigns.
Coverage included National papers; The Metro, The Mail Online, The Independent, The Express, online news sites such as BBC News and ITV News, online media and global coverage including USA Today.
Royal Afternoon Tea
For those of us that didn’t make the trek up to Windsor, there were plenty of local hot spots showing the ceremony and getting into the party spirit. The Green House Hotel in Bournemouth is famous for its exquisite afternoon teas and Beth the pastry chef pulled out all the stops on the 19th May creating a special Royal Afternoon Tea. The hotel showed the whole ceremony in the bar area so lucky guests could sip on their Dorset sparkling wine and nibble on Beth’s Battenberg cake in luxury away from the crowds. The Royal Afternoon Tea not only created great content for their social media channels but also secured them coverage in the Bournemouth Echo.
Feeling Regal at the Regent Centre
Where better to watch the big wedding than on the big screen? The Regent Centre in Christchurch not only showed coverage all day but also decorated the 1930s cinema in style and encouraged guests to dress up with a competition for best dressed. It looked like they had a ball and created some great content for social media.
A Salon Fit for a Duchess
HNB, an exclusive hair and beauty salon in Canford Cliffs, transformed their salon into a royal wedding party with live streaming projected on the walls, a buffet banquet, balloons, decorations and everyone dressed in their finest wedding outfits. A party destination for some and a very exciting trip to the hairdressers for others, the superb hospitality from Stephanie made sure that her salon was a cut above the rest on May 19th. Stephanie told us why HNB got involved: 'For me it’s a British thing! Since 1919 when the first street party was ever held, we have always celebrated Royal events from Coronations to weddings and if we don’t teach our young people how to do it, we will lose these British traditions, there were 90% less celebrations for this event and so we wanted to remain British and proud, yes it takes effort but everyone loved it we had a fabulous day!'
