Outlook on Driving Diamond Desirability with NDC CEO, David Kellie
As we approach our three-month anniversary as the Natural Diamond Council I wanted to give you, our stakeholders, an update on our progress and a preview of our new Q4 2020 advertising campaign that we’ll be announcing in three weeks.
Dear industry colleagues,
As we approach our three-month anniversary as the Natural Diamond Council I wanted to give you, our stakeholders, an update on our progress and a preview of our new Q4 2020 advertising campaign that we’ll be announcing in three weeks.
In the eight months since I took over in this role, the world and our industry has lived through unprecedented challenges. Never before has our generation faced such threats to our health, the economy and the way of life that we are used to. I have been incredibly impressed by how the diamond industry has come together to support each other amid this crisis. More optimistically, it has also made me realize just how close we are to creating a new generation of consumers with a passion for diamond jewelry and the potential for our industry to grow significantly over the next five years.
Since launching the Natural Diamond Council on 1st June we’ve seen consumer engagement numbers on our new global websites (naturaldiamonds.com) considerably greater than our most optimistic projections. Daily traffic to our global websites in July peaked at a level 20 times higher than just a year ago. Engagements on our social media platforms are 30 times higher. We are now speaking to millions of potential consumers every day. The result is that more consumers are now spending more time shopping for diamond jewelry, particularly online, and the anecdotal evidence from brick-and-mortar retailers in many parts of the world is that, whilst footfall is lower, diamond investments have grown.
So, our learnings from the first three months as the NDC? That if we speak to our consumer in the language of the “emotional dream” and we maximize our opportunities in the many digital environments, then there are undeniably significant opportunities for future growth for natural diamonds.
Which brings me to the next phase of our relaunch as the Natural Diamond Council – the debut of our new global advertising campaign that breaks across international media in the middle of September. Filmed in July, the campaign features a Hollywood celebrity as the new face of Natural Diamonds. The campaign celebrates the many emotional connections created by diamond jewelry, something that research shows will resonate strongly as we emerge from the crisis. It also celebrates the wonderful innovation that is happening in so many diamond jewelry collections. Thanks to the continued commitment of our members, we are able to extend our advertising to include national TV campaigns in the United States, China and India, as well as across the full complement of digital channels. In research, the campaign performed in the top 10% of all luxury advertising campaigns for creating purchase intent. We look forward to sharing the campaign with you prior to the full launch the week of 14th September. We will also be working with key global retailers to ensure that the campaign is maximized in store and on their digital platforms.
Our confidence in the new campaign combined with the results we’ve had to date means that our traffic and engagement forecasts will be 40-50 times higher than in our recent history. Consumer demand for diamonds for the remainder of the year will continue to outperform the same period last year and we plan to maintain this growth in 2021. I believe that we’ll close out 2020 remembering the impact of the crisis and those colleagues that we have lost, but also celebrating the opportunities ahead of us.
With the crisis starting only three months into my short tenure, I’ve not had the opportunity to meet with as many of you in person as I would have wished. But, to those you that I have met (digitally if not in person), I’d like to thank you all for your tremendous support. And to those of you that I’ve not yet met, I look forward to meeting you in the future. We rely upon the whole of our industry to support our mission and, in return, we assure you that we’ll do our part in creating a successful industry both now and going forward.
I and all of my colleagues at the NDC wish you good health and we look forward to exciting season ahead!
