If you are British, or have lived in a country that is part of the commonwealth, then Christmas Day means watching the Queen giving here annual Christmas Day speech. Expect this year instead of watching the speech on BBC America, I opened up my laptop and went online to watch the speech on YouTube.
The British monarchy has launched its own YouTube channel called The Royal Channel. The Royal Channel was launched on December 24th and it includes footage of royal-related events, including garden parties, funerals and a documentary called “Long to Reign Over Us,” about the monarchy. There is also the queen’s first-ever televised Christmas message, which took place 50 years ago, in 1957.
A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace was quoted as saying:
“If you look through the years, the queen’s always kept up to date with changes in technology. In fact, the monarchy has had its own Web site for the past decade, and the queen made her Christmas message available as a podcast for the first time two years ago.
The Royal Channel has been a huge success so far, drawing 891,124 viewers by Wednesday. The Queen’s speech has been viewed 822,038 times already and the 16,831 subscribers make The Royal Channel the 2nd most subscribed channel in December.
So why is this important? Because the British Monarchy is using social media tactics to repair the luster that has been lost from its crown (pun intended). It is a brand that has been tarnished over the last ten years and who has a demographic base (fans of the monarchy) that are aging. The Queen had to repair the image of the British monarch (reputation management) and also reach out to a younger audience (through social media tactics).
Instead of relying on traditional television to distribute its message, the monarchy is repackaging its message into what ever format that users want. Do you want to listen to the speech on a portable devise? Great, they have a podcast available for you to use. Do you prefer to watch the video online or want to learn more about the monarchy? Then The Royal Channel on YouTube is what you need.
The Royal Channel has links to the Queens Web Site, as well as the sites for the Prince of Wales and the Queen’s “ecommerce site”.
Note that these sites are all linked together, enabling users to easily move from one to the other, regardless of where they started. The only social media tactic that is missing is a blog, and I would not be surprised to see the Royal Family add that feature in 2008.
Many companies could learn a lot about social media marketing simply by looking at how the Queen is using social media to reach out into different communities and to rebuild a damaged brand. Having a network of interlinked sites helps great its own royal network. Is a Facebook page next?
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Doug Kyle 12.27.07 at 1:39 pm
As a proud Canadian and member of the commonwealth I can honestly ask “The Queen gives an annual holiday speech?”.
The monarchy is an interesting thing in that it holds little sway here in Canada, especially to newer generations. Lady Dianna seemed to be popular, and the Queen as well, but beyond that it seems that the only time any of the royal family was when one of the prince’s got in trouble chasing a waitress while here with the military (I can never remember which one is which though).
It’ll be interesting to see if our currency continues to have the monarchy on it after Queen Elizabeth and what ties remain to the royal family. While I’m proud to be part of the commonwealth, I don’t see any connection with the monarchy as the commonwealth to me is a connection amongst many countries with each other, not through the crown.
Not able to speak on behalf of other countries, I think the tie to the crown grows lesser in Canada as time goes on as we rapidly become more and more multi-cultural. The population here continues to grow, but it is the result of immigrants and as a Canadian, I am proud of our diversity. I hope the commonwealth continues to hold strong ties across our countries, but I wonder if it will as what the UK holds dear and what Canada does are in some cases quite different.
Case-in-point, a number of years ago (and possibly still occurring) federal jobs in Canada “required” people to swear fealty to the Queen and an oath on the bible. I declined both without any fuss… I wonder if there would have been a fuss had that happened 20 years ago? Will it still be “required” in 20 years?
…then again, perhaps I’m simply one member of the younger audience that will be regained with the crown’s move to social media.
Happy holidays and may the new year be a great one for you!
geri 01.03.08 at 2:58 am
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marianne mcdougall 01.11.08 at 9:57 am
Hi Braveheart,
I stumbled on your site and thought t that you should have a link to the real Braveheart of Scotland - Sir William Wallace
http://nationalwallacemonument.com