On April 29, 2011, millions of people around the world saddled up next to their tv sets tuned to CNN in their finest pearls and formal garb to witness the closest thing to a real-life, modern-day fairytale. The Royal Wedding was one of the most highly watched live broadcasts of 2011, and also one of CNN’s top ten days for its video stream in 2011, with nearly 10.3 million people clicking on related videos in a single day across the globe. In addition to live streaming the nuptials on CNN.com, the build up to the wedding was arguably as exciting as the wedding itself. CNN.com launched the 'Unveiled' blog, a one-stop wedding shop of CNN.com’s best videos, articles and photos. Unveiled captured videos of the dress rehearsal & creative features such as “What Not to Wear" to the Royal Wedding, a feature on wedding souvenirs in London, and a cab driver’s take on the Royal Wedding. On iReport, the Royal Wedding contest winner was flown to London and captured the entire experience on video. Before the live broadcast of the Royal Wedding, CNN.com created a pop-up blog just for the event to capture the best videos and fun features leading up to the wedding, which received a great deal of comments and “engagement" from CNN.com users. On the day of the ceremony, CNN’s live coverage of the Royal Wedding brought the world together as 699,000 people were live streaming the event (not including people who watched it on CNN television). Nearly 8 million people clicked on Royal Wedding-related videos, which increased CNN’s video streams by 318% compared to its prior four-Friday average. Across CNN’s mobile platforms, more than 90 thousand people watched videos related to the nuptials, which was more than 700% of the previous 4-Friday average. CNN also received 300 submissions via CNN iReport’s Open Story, and nearly half were approved for use on CNN’s network. (Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst) (Source: Bango Analytics) Even after the ceremony concluded, CNN live streamed encore presentations of the event every three hours that day for those viewers who missed it (or wanted to watch it again!) at the link www.cnn.com/royalweddinglive. CNN went above and beyond to provide CNN.com users with a comprehensive video experience to households, computers, mobile phones and tablets to give them a front row seat to the Royal Wedding. Additionally, the Royal Wedding contest winner shot over 25 video iReports and gave the man-on-the street point of view to CNN's audiences for a once in a lifetime event. He and his girlfriend were interviewed live on both CNN and HLN from London for the ultimate trip of a lifetime for Jason and Nancy.
iReport Royal Wedding Contest Winner: http://ireport.cnn.com/people/jasonsauter Royal Wedding: Open Story: http://ireport.cnn.com/open-story.jspa?openStoryID=594362#DOC-599867 CNN.com 'Unveiled' pop-up blog: http://unveiled.blogs.cnn.com/ Social Times: http://socialtimes.com/cnn-details-online-coverage-of-royal-wedding_b13147 CNNPressroom blog: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/27/royal-wedding-communique-tuesday-26-april/
