Custard

Curious. Clever. Connected.

Regent’s: ‘Win Your Wedding’ COVID Marketing Campaign

Custard worked with Regent’s Conferences & Events to deliver a wedding marketing campaign at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic. A competition was constructed to reward some of the country’s unsung heroes with a dream wedding worth £20k for their commitment to helping others and as a gift for the hardship many engaged couples have faced in light of COVID.

The aim was to build a positive brand reputation through giving back, while making up for some of the lost exposure and heightened reach of the venue’s event offerings through cancelled trade shows and exhibitions. Activity was therefore plotted to raise awareness of Regent’s’ wedding offering, to stimulate bookings and grow their social media following.

Planning

Custard created a communications plan to ensure target audiences were reached, including key worker bodies in education, healthcare and emergency services. A timeline was plotted with potential partnerships, editorial angles to reach trade, wedding, regional and lifestyle press, and social media activity to encourage nominations.

The competition was open to all key workers and ‘unsung heroes’ that had gone above and beyond to help people during the pandemic. To ensure maximum reach, Custard negotiated a profitable partnership with leading wedding publisher Hitched, which included an online promotional story, two newsletter adverts and sponsored social posts.

In addition, Custard set up a dedicated webpage on the Regent’s website with an inbuilt entry form for data capture and appropriate permissions for promotion on social media, stipulating a 300-word submission to ensure quality entries.

Impact

  • Facebook followers doubled
  • Facebook reach increase of 25,210%
  • Social media engagement increase of 8,140%
  • 1,024 clicks through to the webpage from social media
  • 37% increase in visits to wedding information webpage year or year, despite dramatic industry drop due to pandemic lull
  • 130 quality entries
  • Increase in wedding enquiries for 2021/2022
  • Positive praise from industry and public across social media channels
  • Varied media coverage in trade, wedding, local London and lifestyle press
  • 1,650 visits to the website competition page
  • 56% increase in website dwell time year on year
  • A media partnership request from London Police and London Ambulance Service to continue the story of winning emergency service workers for 2021
  • A very happy couple winning their dream £20k wedding!