A Royal Bonanza

The wedding of William & Catherine. That’s basically ALL we’ve heard about for the past couple of weeks. As regal and, some might say, pompous as the whole thing is, why would any American care beyond it being a fairytale story?

Let’s look at the numbers. The wedding itself cost an estimated $40 MILLION dollars! In a time of economic hardship around the globe—and especially in the UK—how can any country justify spending that kind of money on a wedding involving family members who are largely ceremonial at best? I’ll tell you…

In America alone, they’ll have 10 hours of continuous coverage of the wedding. Multiple channels will carry it live, along with repeats, dissections, insights and magazine-type shows. All total, it’s an advertising bonanza that would cost (as some estimate put it) somewhere in the neighborhood of $1-2 BILLION if advertising were bought. And that’s just in America. Count up the other countries and that figure skyrockets. Now, add to that the fact that the Olympics are coming to England and William & Kate have just put together an unprecedented marketing campaign to the world, telling people to “Visit Britain,” and ensuring that tourism dollars, hotels, travel, souvenirs and businesses prosper in the wake.

A $40 million worldwide ad campaign that generates once-in-a-lifetime social media attention, and translates into billions of dollars in sales and revenue? Sounds like a successful and prosperous “wedding” to me!