According to the BBC, 13,4 million people in the UK connected to watch Saturday’s platinum party at Buckingham Palace on BBC One. This marked the biggest audience of the year, surpassing both the Eurovision Song Contest and the Queen’s Christmas message.
Celebrations were held all around the country, including 1,458 public events and 1,775 street parties or private gatherings which took place from the 2nd to the 5th of June.
Part of the success of the event can be attributed to the brilliant digital marketing strategy adopted by the royal family to involve more and more people in the celebrations. In fact, the royal family did not only perform an extensive social media campaign, but also offered a Toolkit To Plan Your Jubilee on the official Jubilee website. The free kit included pictures of the queens, games, recipes, templates and even playlists featuring artists like the Spice Girls and Ed Sheeran.
This way, people were encouraged to participate in the festivities, and could even add their own event to the event map on the official website by submitting a request through a simple form.
The Toolkit wasn’t the only initiative to involve the public in the celebrations of the 70 years of the Queen’s service. The website also featured a challenge to design your own jubilee crown from a template available on their page. To enter the challenge, people could post their creations on social media using the dedicated hashtag #PlatinumJubilee and tagging the UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). This is an effective way to make use of user generated content, which is cost free, to generate buzz and reach a bigger audience. The strategy was also used for big successful campaigns like Apple’s #ShotOnIphone.
Social media obviously played a big part in the promotion of the Jubilee events. The official royal family accounts kept the audience engaged by constantly uploading Jubilee related content. From memories, interviews and preparations photos, the variety of the content posted ensured the public remained curious and involved in the process. The Royal Family Instagram account in particular launched a series of posts starting 70 days before the Platinum Jubilee Celebration Weekend. The account shared one image a day, “each representing a year of Her Majesty’s 70-year long reign”. This consistent countdown served both as a reminder and as a tool to build sentiment and excitement about the celebrations.
Many celebrities were included in the celebratory events as well. Big names such as Elton John, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys, Duran Duran and Andrea Bocelli performed on stage in front of Buckingham Palace on Saturday June 4, the penultimate day of celebrations. Ed Sheeran also made his appearance on Sunday at the evening finale. The presence of so many big celebrities ensured the events received even more attention both from the British and foreign public.
Members of the royal family also showed their involvement. Prince Charles and Camilla showed up to a Big Jubilee lunch at south London’s Oval cricket ground, while the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge’s official Twitter account posted pictures of Kate and their three children baking cakes for people to enjoy at a Jubilee street party in Cardiff.
All of these factors combined made the Platinum Jubilee festivities the most important event of the year in the United Kingdom, bringing the entire country together to honor their queen.
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