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The Knot triggers wedding inspiration via local app features

Author

Lauren Johnson

Photo-based and recommended vendor information has been added to The Knot Wedding Planner app for iPhone devices. The app was originally launched in late January as a resource for couples to organize and find the right resources to plan a wedding.

?While our social networks are likely global, our needs for a wedding are local ? venue, band, photographer and the rest,? said Jeff Hasen, Seattle-based chief marketing officer at Mobivity.

?Of course, the ?get married right? app category is not new,? he said. ?It?s up to the content to provide value not available elsewhere ? offers, fashions, or maybe access to planners.?

Mr. Hasen is not affiliated with The Knot. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

The Knot did not respond to press inquiries. 

The Knot is media company XO Group?s flagship brand and includes Web, television, book and mobile resources for engaged couples.

Marrying up mobile
The new feature lets couples communicate with local companies that help plan their special day. More than 150,000 vendors are included in the app.

Users can also read reviews of companies and browse through photos of local weddings.

The Knot claims to include more than 50,000 ideas from real weddings, each of which can be filtered and sorted.

The Knot?s app leverages an account and log-in so that a user?s wedding preferences and plans are saved both on mobile and Web.

Budget-tracking tools and guest lists are also included in the app.

The Knot reports that consumers have spent more than three million minutes within the app since then and have looked at roughly 36 million vendor recommendations.

Targeting brides
The Knot is only one of many marketers that are honing in on mobile to win over brides who are increasingly opting to research and plan their weddings from their mobile devices.

For example, J.Crew and Kwiat aggregate wedding products into the Lover.ly mobile app to drive mobile commerce sales (see story).  

To keep up with wedding brands that are upping their mobile investments, The Knot is hoping to translate some of its print and Web credibility to mobile.

The Knot cites research from its 2013 Real Weddings Study that surveyed 13,000 brides to back up its recent moves into mobile.

Eighty-eight percent of smartphone users who are engaged use their mobile devices to help plan their wedding.

The focus of the app?s photo-sharing features is backed up by the same study that found 69 percent of brides-to-be use their mobile devices for photo-related activities.

More than 50 percent of brides use their devices to pull up information on vendors.

In addition to The Knot Wedding Planner, the publisher also has another app called Wedding LookBook, which aggregates 6,000 wedding dresses (see story). 

Wedding Planner integrates location and a search filter meant to hone in on dress designer, style, shape or price.

Although it can be challenging to get an app downloaded and used by consumers, wedding-aligned brands may have the benefit of word-of-mouth marketing to keep consumers interacting with content.

?While longevity is an issue given you get married and you?re done, hopefully a well-regarded app will get passed on to friends and others,? Mr. Hasen said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York