Milan: The Emmy Awards, the U.S. entertainment industry’s annual celebration of excellence in television, took place virtually on September 20 this year and featured the launch of the first-ever celebrity campaign by the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), the industry body dedicated to promoting the natural diamond category in consumer markets around the world. The star of the series of video clips aired that night was Ana de Armas, a Golden Globe Award nominee and the female lead in the upcoming James Bond film, No Time to Die.
For many in the industry, the evening marked the welcome return of a high-profile advertising campaign, generically promoting diamond jewellery. Twenty years ago, television and print ads marketing the diamond jewellery category were regularly seen. Financed by De Beers for more than 60 years, they were terminated early in the new millennium, when the diamond mining company decided to concentrate on the promotion of its own products.
After years of searching for a platform through which generic advertising could be managed, in May 2015 the Diamond Producers Association was established for that purpose by seven of the world’s leading diamond mining companies – Alrosa, De Beers, Rio Tinto, Dominion Diamond Corporation, Lucara Diamond Corporation, Petra Diamonds and Gem Diamonds. It was rebranded earlier this year as the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), with the mission of investing in advertising globally, as well as being the go-to digital publisher for innovative content about diamonds.
NDC’s “Only Natural Diamond” campaign has rekindled the discussion in the jewellery industry of the necessity of generic advertising, particularly in a luxury market where the competition for the consumers’ discretionary income is increasingly strong, and in a new media environment where all companies are constantly searching for fresh and enticing content with which they can appeal to their target audiences.
But can a business model, by which an effective generic marketing platform is financed solely by rough diamond producers, remain sustainable over the long term, or is a broader industry investment required? This and other related issues will be tackled in the next Jewellery Industry Voices webinar on Thursday, October 1, 2020, entitled “Cultivating demand for natural diamonds: How to do it & who should pay.”
The blue ribbon panel that has been gathered to discuss the issue includes Stephen Lussier, Forevermark Chairman and Executive Vice-President, Consumer and Brands, De Beers Group; David Kellie, CEO, Natural Diamond Council; Caryl Capeci, CEO, Chow Tai Fook North America and Hearts On Fire; Edahn Golan, Owner, Edahn Golan Diamond Research & Data; and Gaetano Cavalieri, CIBJO President.
The seminar will be co-moderated by Edward Johnson and Steven Benson.
The webinar is sponsored by the Natural Diamond Council, which is also the Diamond Sponsor of Jewellery Industry Voices Season 2.
