Royal Wedding Shows Love Reigns for People
As Prince William and Kate Middleton tied the knot on Friday, April 29, PEOPLE magazine made a Royal splash of its own – in print, digital, and at retail outlets.
The magazine moved up its on-sale newsstand date from Friday, May 6 to Monday, May 2 so consumers could take full advantage of the coverage in the magazine’s Royal Wedding special collector’s issue – which features a 72-page Royal Wedding album – just days after the historic event.
The issue contains 105 ad pages in a total of 220 pages – the most in one issue of PEOPLE since 2007.
[ Also Read: Releasing the Royal Wedding Official Album ]Last year, USA TODAY, a leading print newspaper, announced the availability of A Royal Wedding. It is a 100-page glossy publication, commemorating the engagement of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. (Read: A Royal Wedding Gets Covered in a Publication)
Traffic on April 29 to People.com, a leading celebrity news and entertainment website, hit a staggering new record of 162 million pageviews in one day – more than double the amount the website tallied the day after the Academy Awards last February, which also set a record, it was claimed.
People.com’s Royal Wedding portal featured a live blog where users were invited to talk with editors and each other about the wedding day events as they were unfolding on April 29; a ranking tool, “25 Fantasy Gowns for Kate – Choose Yours,” where users selected their five favorites in order of preference and shared them with friends on Facebook.
[ Also Read: Who Made the Earrings of Catherine Middleton? ]It also included an interactive Royals A-Z encyclopedia and interactive map of London hotspots frequented by William & Kate; a “Royal Tribute” app at Facebook.com/Peoplemag, where users were invited to load their image onto a Royal stamp, save it as their profile photo, post it to their wall and share it with their friends; a two-minute review of Royal Wedding highlights, and much more.
Custom signage began being displayed in April to ensure that retail consumers were aware of PEOPLE’s Royal Wedding special collector’s issue.
This included branding on checkout pockets, special post-purchase messaging delivered in select stores, advertising in the magazine, and awareness generated on select retail partners’ websites.
