Shortlisted 2019

Lifestyle, Luxury and Fashion

Brand

Gemfields

Entered by:

LuxHub, Havas Media International

Credits:

Adam & Eve

Gemfields: Show Your True Colours

The Challenge

Gemfields is an emerald and ruby sourcing company on a mission to become the global leader in precious coloured
gemstones – a position which is currently unoccupied.

The coloured gemstones category and Gemfields suffer from extremely low awareness (outside of a close-knit B2B
audience). That said, Gemfields is an under the radar leader and benefits from responsible brand principles.
However, ethics aren’t top of mind in the coloured gemstone industry with all the focus bestowed on diamonds –
aided by the larger size of the market and perhaps Leonardo DiCaprio and his unforgettable Rhodesian accent in
Blood Diamond.

Ask any discerning fine jewellery consumer to divulge their favourite diamond supplier and you’ll receive a confident
response listing well-known mine owners, regions and/or diamond traders. Ask the same consumer to name their
favourite coloured gemstone suppliers and they’ll struggle. Although he/she may blurt out praise for Colombian
Emeralds and Pigeon Blood Rubies from Burma– the knowledge is limited if not superficial.
On the other hand, trade audiences and end-user brands are familiar with Gemfields but their loyalty is flimsy whilst
the stone selection process is based on appearance vs quality and authenticity. Gemfields never uses chemicals to
enhance colours or brilliance unlike many other competitors.

Our challenge, therefore, was to establish a fame for Gemfields’ uniquely responsible and sustainable brand story, in order to grow demand with two different audiences: end consumers and trade.

The Strategy

To become the authority in the coloured gemstone industry, Gemfields would also have to raise demand for
coloured gemstones. Our strategy would need to stimulate desire for responsibly sourced coloured gemstones with
a campaign that is both aesthetically rich and educational.

After studying both our end consumers and trade audiences’ attitudes to ethics and diamonds vs precious
gemstones, we landed on a succinct but telling media activation strategy ‘Show Your True Colours’.
The strategy sets out to build Gemfields’ brand fame but speaks specifically to our two audiences – leading to a
targeted awareness campaign. This required an omni-channel approach, leveraging mass media formats for a lasertargeted audience—such as high impact OOH in specific HNW locations and right time/right space publisher
takeovers, through to exclusive content partnerships and selective SmartTV buys.

The Implementation

Our media approach was empowered with creative from Adam&Eve – rooted in Gemfields’ key topic areas:
transparency, conservation, sustainability, education, livelihoods and health. To stay on strategy the implementation
was divided into three objectives.

1) Stimulate Desire for Coloured Gemstones: Across the US, UK, France, Italy, Middle East and India, a mixture of
push and pull media channels were utilised to maximise top of mind awareness, including a focus on digital display
and print. We partnered with publishers like Refinery 29 to release an array of jewellery issues showcasing jewellery
from brands featuring Gemfields gemstones. The content was multi-market and multi-language. The audience here
was relatively broad with the intention to encourage buzz, however the communications were highly contextual
ensuring prospects were in a luxury consumption mindset.

2) Build fame for Gemfields: Adam&Eve’s bold creative assets were leveraged across similarly bold media formats.
High impact activity launched with an October burst to immediately boost awareness, bolstered by a 30” video with
Sky Adsmart (UK HNW households), Teads video, premium site direct display and paid social, and a huge multimarket print push. A partnership with British Airways spoke to trade and HNWs with print and video in moments of dwell. All digital activity was continuously optimised towards best performance via ongoing conversations with publishers and reporting.

However, OOH activations in London and Manhattan – key locations for our HNW’s jewellery purchases, were the
ultimate jewels in the crown. In London, a fleet of 30 fully wrapped new electric black taxis took to the streets for 3
months, timed at the start of Frieze week and dedicated to luxury shopping areas of Knightsbridge and Mayfair. We
also took over the Brompton Road Banner with a billboard employing technology to treat and purify the smoggy
Chelsea air. In New York, we took to Manhattan’s NOHO area with a wall-to-wall mural, painted with environmentally friendly linseed oil paint.

3. Instil Understanding for the Gemfields Story: Educational storytelling required a commitment to persuasive and
credible content. This was achieved through collaborations with authoritative entities such as Garage Magazine
and The National Geographic, speaking to sophisticated style influencers and trade. Developing bespoke content
with publishers’ own taste-makers, such as artist Francesca DiMattio and wildlife photographer Shannon Wild,
allowed us to educate with trustworthy partners. Additionally, our partnerships with Hearst and Refinery 29
included informative native articles speaking to end-consumers both HNW and affordable premium audiences.

The Result

Prior to the launch of our campaign, Gemfields media had been traditionally print and display. Introducing a
comprehensive and objective-driven media strategy led to a highly diversified but impactful campaign.
In regards to awareness, we have achieved huge numbers within a selective luxury targeting approach:
• 92,183,362 social impressions
• 16,867,458 digital impressions
• 11,612,536 OOH impacts
• 7,406,362 youtube TVC views
More impressively, however, the combination of high impact advertising and tactical PR support drove a+ 300% rise in organic Gemfields search within the first month of the campaign in October. What’s more, October also saw to a 268% increase in site traffic compared to October 2017.

Thinking of our educational ambitions, we saw a 4% social ad recall lift rate, demonstrating that not only are we
reaching our audience, but that they are remembering the message. Secondly, we saw a 53% decrease in the
bounce rate of site traffic from October to December 2018 compared to the same months in 2017, showing how the campaign drove a more qualified and engaged audience to discover more about the Gemfields proposition.

Finally, considering the trade audience, Gemfields have noted that they are seeing an increase in trade
demand, meaning our campaign is truly cutting through to our business audience who will influence long-term
business results. Although we cannot define results by sales, the mission at hand is to assume category leadership
with a responsible positioning, so while the campaign is still going, current results reveal that we are making
headway and thanks to a dynamic channel mix, strategically chosen media formats and of course engaging content
with our creative and publisher partners.