Helen Mirren, Simon Cowell, Benedict Cumberbatch and the cast of Monty Python (dead and alive) may be national treasures, but when it comes to guaranteed bang for your buck, no one beats Wills and Kate.
According to the Centre for Retail Research, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding was worth an estimated £527.1m to UK retailers, while the birth of Prince George saw cash registers ringing to the sound of £247m.
The royal couple’s global appeal is also staggering. An impressive two billion people worldwide tuned in to watch the royal couple tie the knot in 2011 and almost every item of clothing or accessory the Duchess so much as glances at sells like hot cakes, or is furiously copied by fashion outlets around the world. The dress she wore when she announced her engagement sold out almost immediately in the US – it even has its own Wikipedia page.
The export value of brand Wills and Kate hasn’t gone unnoticed by small business owners, who have been keen to capitalise on the couple’s international popularity. Artist Lydia Leith found overnight success around the world after designing an unusual souvenir to mark the wedding.
After feeling increasingly queasy from the non-stop media coverage of the event, Leith created a commemorative sick bag as an antidote. It wasn’t long before the novelty souvenir, featuring an illustration of the couple in the outfits they wore when they announced their engagement, was noticed by the international press – and the first batch of limited-edition Throne Up bags sold out immediately. Much to Leith’s surprise, what started out as a joke around the dinner table was now a thriving business.
Since then, the accidental entrepreneur has continued her range of royal-themed products, from more sick bags to mark the birth of Prince George and the Duchess’s new pregnancy to tattoos and a jelly mold of the Queen to mark her jubilee in 2012. Her main markets outside of the UK are Germany, Canada, the US and Australia. The secret to her products’ success, she says, is that they appeal to royalist and republican alike.
She says: “People like the funny side of it, saying the royal family do actually make them feel sick, or think ‘I’ll make a jelly of the Queen and chop her head off’. For others, it becomes part of a celebration.
“People around the world like to follow the stories of the royal family and the humour that is in some of the products makes them stand out, no matter where you happen to live.”
Officials at the time of the wedding were keen to crack down on unofficial souvenirs, which weren’t seen by Buckingham Palace as “permanent and significant”. While the royal family may have seen the funny side of Leith’s quirky products, it is wise to tread carefully if trying to sell something off the back of the monarchy’s soaring popularity.
Jenny Mclaughlin, director of Gemious Ltd, has been using the hype around the royal baby and the Duchess’s current pregnancy to sell teething products. The company, which has seen sales rocket in America and Australia, got its big break after showcasing the best baby buys for the royal birth on daytime TV show This Morning. But while one of Mclaughlin’s biggest selling teething necklaces, The Duchess, has been popular thanks to its royal theme, she admits they are wary about associating it too closely with the Wills and Kate brand, despite the obvious boost in sales any direct link to the couple would generate.
“Even before the baby, anything that Kate wore was sold out in seconds,” she admits. “If she was to get hold of our products and be seen with them, that’s it. I could retire to the Caribbean.
“But you have got to have a level of ethics about you, and I would certainly never overstep that mark. Our new baby teething ‘crown’ will say it is inspired by the royal birth but we certainly won’t say that Buckingham Palace love it. I wish we could, but we can’t.”
The Queen’s diamond jubilee proved to be the most successful commemorative event for British ceramics manufacturer Emma Bridgewater, with retail sales at £3.25m and more than 50,000 mugs flying off the shelves. The royal wedding also brought in more than £1m. Co-owner Matthew Rice says the two combined events generated 20 or 30 jobs in their Stoke-on-Trent factory.
He explains that the ceramics industry has a long history of creating items that celebrate royal events: the appeal of the Duke and Duchess at home and internationally has helped commercially. The US has taken the biggest interest in their products and the Netherlands, which has its own monarchy, is another popular market.
While souvenir shops and online retailers are saturated with kitsch mugs and keyrings featuring the Duke and Duchess, Rice says Emma Bridgewater’s tasteful designs stand out because they are a British brand. “Internationally, it should be one of the many reasons why people buy products such as ours,” Rice says. “Too many English brands are made elsewhere and there’s no point in saying ‘England’ on the product if you don’t mean ‘Made in England’.”
Small businesses around the country have been quick to take advantage of the international popularity of the royal family, in particular the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, whose recent visit to the US raised millions for charity and further boosted brand Wills and Kate across the pond. And their appeal looks unlikely to wane any time soon, with another little prince or princess on the way. If the thought of another year of royal gushing makes you gag, though, Leith’s latest creation might come in handy. Pass the sick bag please.
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