Estimated to boost the UK economy by £1bn
Research from GoDaddy and YouGov shows that 3 million Brits will mark Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding day with a celebration, and that 1.5 million people will be looking to purchase Royal Wedding themed products or memorabilia online. GoDaddy is the world’s largest cloud platform dedicated to small, independent ventures, and the UK’s largest domain name registrar.
Brand valuation consultancy, Brand Finance, estimates that the wedding will boost the UK economy by a total of £1 billion. There is an army of entrepreneurs and plucky small business owners who are using their skills to capitalise on this national celebration.
From a Harry and Meghan themed beer, to community street parties adorned with red, white and blue bunting, these entrepreneurs have jumped at the chance to showcase their Royal Wedding themed ideas and help to prepare the country for the big day. Accelerated by the vast opportunities afforded to those who have an online presence, the internet has reduced the barriers for anyone to bring an idea to life.
Kate Cox, CMO EMEA at GoDaddy said:
“Building on the excitement and enthusiasm we have seen for the Royal Wedding from UK small businesses, we developed a Royal Wedding themed category as part of our crowdfunding campaign to find Britain’s quirkiest Royal Wedding inspired business ideas and help turn them into reality. GoDaddy customers we have worked with include HotTug, a unique floating hot tub business, and Four Kings Brewery who developed a special ale to mark the occasion. They are taking advantage of this special one-time event to help boost awareness of their businesses.
I don’t think there is anything quite as British as celebrating a Royal Wedding! GoDaddy supports plucky entrepreneurs, business owners, and side hustlers in choosing their domain name, creating their website, and managing their online presence to help them grow their ventures. We are really excited to help celebrate the biggest party of the year.”
Source: HotTug
HotTug is one such business and a GoDaddy customer. This North London based business provides wood-fired hot tub boats for a floating hot tub experience popular with the UK’s Stag and Hen party scene. To celebrate the Royal Wedding, the team of Tommo, Austin and Sophia sent one of their HotTug boats down the Thames, with Royal lookalikes celebrating Harry’s ‘Stag Do’. HotTug is also offering free trips for Stag and Hen Do’s to any couples named Harry and Meghan getting married this year. Sophia Wallace of HotTug explains more:
“The response to HotTug in London has been nothing short of exceptional, and we have seen even more interest after our excellent ‘Royal Stag Do’ down the Thames! Maybe we will even be able to tempt Prince Harry into hosting his real Stag Do in a HotTug!”
Four Kings Brewery is another example and GoDaddy customer. This Cheshire-based brewery will be making a specially brewed Four Kings Windsor Ale inspired by the happy couple. Brewer Paul Ashworth is looking forward to bringing his idea to life:
“Royal Weddings are a fantastic day of celebration, and having a Royal themed beer helps us stick out from the crowd, especially when so many people choose to go to the pub to watch the ceremony! For a small business like ours, the Royal Wedding is an opportunity to get creative with our products, and we have actually seen our website visitors boosted since we announced a Royal Wedding beer festival at our brewery and bar. It really does seem that the Royal Wedding will have a positive impact on our business performance.”
In fact, those with a big idea don’t even have to quit their day jobs in order to fulfill their Royal Wedding passions. “Side hustle” is the name for the growing trend of people kick-starting a personal enterprise or microbusiness during their spare time or time away from their day job.
Source: Mask-arade
Mask-arade, a company that provides printed face masks of the Royal couple, is one business benefiting from the Royal Wedding that began life as a “side hustle”. Ray Duffy, from Mask-arade shares:
“William and Kate’s Royal Wedding in 2011 was instrumental in making Mask-arade a nationally recognised business, and Harry and Meghan’s wedding is already having a positive impact on our sales. The Royal Wedding has created a buzz around several of our products – people can’t help but laugh with someone who is wearing a Mask-arade face mask.
We have had passion, self-determination and drive from the very outset in starting this business, and there are few things as rewarding as creating a viable business from nothing more than an idea.”
Research from GoDaddy has shown that “side hustlers” like Mask-arade are now a significant group – 20% of UK survey respondents said they are likely to start a “side hustle” alongside their job. This has never been easier, at a time when GoDaddy’s Website Builder tool allows people to build and publish their website in under an hour.
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