The Royal wedding in 2011
Many PR specialists define the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton and prince William as the PR event of the year. It is a proof that a well- managed event can resonate for months or even years. It has set the beginning of the reputation building of this new family.
As Pagefield's founder and senior partner Mark Gallagher argues, the event not only promoted the young couple, but also gave the monarchy, London and the UK a boost.
Before the event, there was an estimated number of 8500 journalists expected to arrive in London from abroad. More than 36 broadcasters, such as BBC, Sky News, ABC, NBC, CBS, Al-Jazeera etc.; were housed in a special structure, built close to the Westminster Abbey, where the wedding took place. Apart from nearly 2000 guests, 40 broadcast cameras, 12 photographers and 28 reporters from national, international and regional media were expected. More than 100 overseas broadcasting organizations were transmitting the event. BBC had the biggest broadcasting presence with around 550 people staff at a cost of £2 million. The US networks have begun their coverage at 3 a.m. on the west coast. 64% of Americans said that they believe that the event has received too much attention in the media, however 28% of US citizens have admitted that they have followed the wedding very closely. The wedding’s audience has reached 2 billion people worldwide.
According to Google, there are over 162 million web pages mentioning the wedding. It was estimated to bring £630 million into the economy. All these facts are a proof that the event has received great, or even excessive media & editorial coverage worldwide and has reached a huge number of people. This has probably turned it into the TV (PR) event of the century.
An example of the number of articles that only CNN has concerning the Royal wedding: http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2011/royal.wedding/ .