Here Come the Brides
It’s that time again: wedding season. Doubtless you know at least one blushing bride-to-be who has spent the last year combing through stacks of wedding magazines and logging countless hours on wedding sites to compile pictures of flowers, dresses and cakes while simply glowing with anticipation.
Between exhausted sighs and during the course of her planning, this bride will make an average of 177 decisions about her special day and spend about three hours researching and thinking about it daily. She’s so engrossed in the process, in fact, that while she’s engaged, she’ll reduce her non-bridal media consumption by 40 percent.
She’s probably quite young (27 on average), with a household income hovering around $75,000. And she’ll spend her share of the more than $161 billion spent yearly on wedding-related goods and services. All of this is according to the “American Wedding Study 2006,” which estimates there are roughly 2.3 million weddings every year.
No wonder marketers are so eager to target and entice this cluster of consumers.
Increasingly, online is the place to do it. A 2006 Questus research study found 97 percent of brides now use the Web in their planning, with 93 percent saying they find ideas and brands there they wouldn’t have otherwise found. Cue the advertisers, who are flocking to wedding sites to promote their bridesmaid fashions and honeymoon travel packages. There’s an opportunity for all of them, almost regardless of their product segment or category.
These Sites Have It All
“Bridezilla” takes on a new, more positive meaning when you consider the monstrous amount of bridal content wedding sites now offer. Networks and properties like Brides.com, WeddingChannel.com, and The Knot offer access to millions of brides and wedding planners, but these days they’re even more appealing for fashion, beauty, style, local vendor, and travel information. Pick a topic and you’ll probably find it there.
Aside from these typical wedding-related themes, these properties can help consumers create their registry, select music for the service and reception, and conceptualize wedding favors. If the likes of Dyson, iTunes, and custom printed M&M’s aren’t already advertising there, they should be. Your clients probably should be, too.
In addition to display advertising, sites offer sponsored vendor listings to promote hotels, restaurants, and reception venues. Cobranded contest and special-offer pages are popular as well and can blend nicely with editorial content for a seamless transition from article to ad. Paid-search-style advertising is also routinely available, with properties like WeddingChannel.com offering Sponsored Links (powered by Quigo’s AdSonar technology) that place text ads on contextually relevant pages.
When the Honeymoon Is Over
Being a newlywed is the second phase of the wedding process. Wedding sites go to great lengths to retain their users once the weddings are over. The Knot even launched a new site specifically for newlyweds called The Nest. With information on house hunting, organizing one’s finances, cooking, relationships, interior design, and more, advertising opportunities that cater to this tangential audience allow planners and buyers to extend their clients’ presence — as well as their relationship — with brides.
Think of it as a form of manual retargeting. Exposing newlyweds to the same products they saw while planning their event on a wedding site can clinch their dedication to your brand. Also consider offering tips on how to use the products within your ads. Appealing to this time of excitement and discovery can make a lasting impression, whether your audience already received your product as a wedding gift or not.
When marketing to brides online, remember: start early and be creative. These consumers know what they want, but it isn’t too late for your client’s product to make their wish lists.
[Source: Tessa Wegert - www.clickz.com - May 2007]
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