The Knot Unveils Largest Marketing Campaign Ever to Reach Next Generation of Couples and Fuel Demand for Wedding Vendors

About Project

The Knot Worldwide’s flagship U.S. brand, The Knot, connects approximately 1 million engaged couples with more than 200,000 wedding vendors each year through its Vendor Marketplace. After joining the company in 2022, Chief Marketing Officer Jenny Lewis uncovered a key insight: despite The Knot’s established leadership position and high brand awareness as a top digital wedding planning resource, half of couples don’t use The Knot’s hero product—the Vendor Marketplace. She found that while most consumers know who The Knot is, they don’t know all the brand has to offer—representing an abundance of untapped potential.
The Knot realized it had to evolve and revolutionize marketing strategy to resonate with the next generation of couples, educate audiences about its suite of products and services, and significantly increase the adoption of the Vendor Marketplace.
Driven by this objective, Lewis spearheaded a relaunch of The Knot brand in July 2023 to differentiate from a saturated, traditional market and win loyalty from future generations. Throughout the process of creating the new brand identity, The Knot conducted user testing and made changes to align with their valuable feedback. For example, The Knot team learned the old branding appeared generic and the testing group reported the new branding helped the company stand out, evoking a sense of excitement and fun.
Under Jenny’s guidance, The Knot team produced a compelling ad showcasing its new look and feel, supported by the brand’s first-ever integrated marketing campaign. The ad showcased 16 real vendors who use The Knot Vendor Marketplace, and 48 in the campaign creative overall. The goal was clear: drive awareness of The Knot Vendor Marketplace, demonstrate the value of vendors and help the small wedding businesses that list on the company’s marketplace grow. The Knot showed an early version of the ad to a group of engaged and pre-engaged individuals and the majority found it to be fun, modern and inspiring. Respondents especially loved the diverse range of couples featured in the ad, noting that the focus on inclusivity and representing every type of wedding resonated with them. They said it made them want to learn more about the brand and find vendors through The Knot Vendor Marketplace.
Airing as both 30-second and 15-second spots on TV networks, connected TV, and various online video platforms such as YouTube, as well as on audio platforms including Spotify, social media, and Google Search, this marked a substantial strategic shift for The Knot. The approach mirrored its broader business objectives—investing in end-to-end marketing to meet couples where they are and attract new vendors.
The results have been impressive, with a significant surge in brand awareness and a remarkable 20% increase in marketplace sessions year-over-year in the past three months. Additionally, the integrated marketing campaign has driven strong year-over-year growth in signups, resulting in the most new couple registrations since 2019 for the same period. There was a 20% boost in Instagram users who remembered seeing The Knot Vendor Marketplace in the past month, as self-reported in a survey. The campaign also influenced approximately 11% of The Knot's direct digital leads, demonstrating the campaign's effectiveness in driving meaningful engagement.