The Knot Worldwide Gears up for Wedding Season With Hiring of CMO Jenny Lewis

The wedding industry was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Nearly half of couples (47%) postponed their wedding reception to a new date according to The Knot, the 25-year-old media, commerce and technology platform that is all things weddings. Now, the industry is booming. 94% of weddings planned for 2021 successfully took place and 2.6 million weddings are expected to happen this year. With the wedding industry nearing pre-pandemic levels, The Knot Worldwide is hiring Jenny Lewis as chief marketing officer, Adweek has learned exclusively. Lewis will lead all marketing, insights, and editorial initiatives for The Knot Worldwide and its 19 global brands across 16 countries. Lewis comes to The Knot Worldwide after a seven-year stint at Uber where she rose from a marketing manager to head of marketing for Uber's U.S. and Canada operations. "We are in the fortunate position to have a suite of brands that consumers already feel connected to, but their relationship with us needs to evolve as our product offering evolves to better meet their needs," Lewis told Adweek. "My primary remit is to help accelerate that." Lewis fills a role previously held by Dhanusha Sivajee who left for internet services company Angi last September. Tim Chi, CEO of The Knot Worldwide, calls Lewis "a highly-experienced, seasoned business leader." We caught up with Lewis about her plans for The Knot's marketing just as wedding season heats up. Adweek: How does the current wedding boom affect The Knot Worldwide's marketing strategies? Jenny Lewis: In 2020, 93% of couples did not cancel their weddings, but rather postponed their celebrations or worked with their vendor teams to alter their festivities. 2022 is basically the Super Bowl of weddings. We pride ourselves on being a one-stop resource for all your wedding needs, and that will be more important than ever in the year ahead. As an example, we learned last year that life has fundamentally changed as mental health and personal connection matter more than ever. Addressing this shift, the team recently launched The Knot Wellness, a content resource that provides support and guidance around the most important wellness topics facing Millennials and Gen Z as they transition to the next stages in life. What makes you ideal for the role? As the leading global wedding company, The Knot Worldwide has achieved longstanding success in providing couples and guests with an unmatched all-inclusive wedding planning solution, while supporting small businesses through its global marketplaces. My expertise aligns with The Knot’s vision, having vast experience in scaling marketplace businesses and helping evolve brand strategy for more than seven years at Uber and Uber Eats. As The Knot Worldwide continues to scale in the eCommerce space, I look forward to helping drive its brand initiatives forward and growing its awareness and impact among couples and wedding vendors around the world. What are you most interested in at the start of this new role? The untapped opportunity that lies ahead of this brand, and category at large, continues to amaze me. The wedding industry is constantly evolving and I am drawn to organizations that have a propensity for innovation to better meet consumer needs. In my conversations with The Knot Worldwide leadership, it was clear that we share that spirit.Was there anything in your professional career that still shapes your marketing instincts to this day? Uber was an incredible place to grow as a marketer. There was no playbook to follow, and many decisions had to be made with relatively little information. I developed a strong sense of confidence in my instincts while navigating those uncharted waters that I will be eternally grateful for. Additionally, it takes a unique marketer to truly understand the dynamics of developing strategy for marketplace businesses. There’s a complexity in terms of message and positioning to various audiences that I’ve come to appreciate from my time at Uber. What did you learn from a marketing perspective working on UberPool and Uber Eats? I learned the importance of truly crystalizing your value proposition with your customer. When you’re dealing with products that mean so much to so many, it’s easy to fall into a “sea of sameness” by appealing to the masses. I’ve found what separates good from great marketing strategies is one that has a strong point of view that helps cut through the clutter. This is becoming increasingly important as consumer attention becomes more fleeting and scattered than ever before What marketing opportunities do you see for The Knot Worldwide? The Knot Worldwide has always been a digital-first brand and the company prides itself on being a change agent. From launching TheKnot.com in 1997 as the first digital wedding brand, to being the first wedding brand to openly support same-sex couples in 2000 and bringing the registry experience online, the possibilities for expansion to help grow its marketplaces are limitless at The Knot with strong growth potential in all areas. That said, I think there are great marketing opportunities in channel strategy, connecting both sides of our marketplace, pushing harder on social and diversifying our footprint there. TikTok & YouTube are the obvious moves but also video and advertising in general. Our brands have a strong heritage as the first movers in the category but ensuring we evolve as our audiences do will be key. Uber Delivers More Than Eats in Super Bowl Ad