Vendor Marketplace Celebration

The Knot, a digital wedding planning authority and one of the largest Vendor Marketplaces in the U.S., today announced its new brand look, direction and ad, which will be amplified in a national multi-channel campaign supported by the brand’s largest marketing launch of all time. After a year of economic hardship and pent-up demand following the pandemic, The Knot is transforming to increase its relevance with the next generation of couples, while driving growth for the small businesses within the brand’s Vendor Marketplace. Featuring more than 3 million reviews, The Knot Vendor Marketplace facilitates connections between more than 1 million couples and over 200,000 wedding professionals per year. The platform includes vendor listings spanning 25 categories, including DJs, venues, florists, officiants, planners and more.

Before reimagining its identity and marketing strategy, The Knot conducted extensive research to better understand common pain points and the needs of modern-day couples and the vendor community. The Knot found1 couples are increasingly relying on vendors, redefining wedding rituals and placing greater emphasis on in-person connection with friends and family after COVID-19 caused people to spend time apart. Looking ahead to the future of weddings, 81% of Gen Z are open to the possibility of getting married, with 1 in 2 saying they definitely see it happening, according to a new study from The Knot2. Regardless of their relationship status, 72% of Gen Z are looking forward to their wedding day and more than 75% have already taken at least one action related to weddings—from envisioning what their own wedding might look like (51%), to saving ideas/inspiration (32%) and even looking up the cost (32%).

New look and feel
This is the first step in The Knot’s journey to be the ultimate wedding partner and champion of celebration. By broadening audience appeal, The Knot will have a greater opportunity to support couples end to end during wedding planning, through the company’s digital Vendor Marketplace, Wedding Websites, Invitations and Registry. The Knot brand relaunch includes:

Refreshed Logo: The Knot’s word mark and logo, visible across the company’s website, app and social media channels, are more modern to reflect changing times—while retaining a script-style font to honor the brand’s legacy. A purposeful swoop to the lettering is intended to evoke the sensation of dancing, mirroring The Knot’s new focus on celebration.

Energized Colors: To differentiate in an industry that often uses similar traditional colors, The Knot’s new palette is grounded in black, white and cream, leveraging bold pops of contrast color including pink to add excitement and maximize relevance to the modern consumer.

Celebratory Illustrations: The wedding industry is highly dependent on photography of couples. In contrast, The Knot’s illustrations serve as another type of storytelling mechanism, incorporating a new signature confetti element to put celebration front and center.

Creative film and integrated marketing campaign
“We want consumers to be aware of all the products and services we offer to support them—but we’re betting big on The Knot Vendor Marketplace in particular. We’re focusing on the value of vendors in our new film creative and investing in marketing like never before to help couples and fuel growth for small wedding businesses,” added Lewis.
The Knot’s largest marketing campaign is focused on driving awareness of The Knot Vendor Marketplace. The Knot produced the new ad titled “Free Celebration from Expectation” directed by Marie Schuller to reflect the diversity of all couples, celebrate different wedding styles and feature a wide range of professionals who make weddings possible. The campaign features 16 vendors from The Knot Vendor Marketplace credited on screen, with three starring roles:

Amy Shack Egan, Modern Rebel
Justin McCallum, Justin McCallum Photography
DJ GBaby, Level Up Entertainment

For the first time, The Knot will invest in national video advertising to amplify the film creative. The national media buy launched today, encompassing TV and connected TV, YouTube and online video, audio, social media and more.