I grew up as a latchkey kid in the late 1980s, which meant I often watched way more TV than I should have. Oddly enough, it wasn’t only Land of the Lost, Power Rangers and The A-Team that piqued my interest, but many of the commercials that, at the time, you couldn’t fast-forward through.
I particularly remember a Nissan commercial in which GI Joe jumps in a car and heads over to pick up Barbie from her dream house for a date, much to Ken’s dismay, and a “Got Milk?” ad directed by Michael Bay way before his Transformers days, in which a history buff is trying to win a $10,000 prize in a radio station contest, but the peanut butter sandwich bite he’s just taken sticks to the roof of his mouth, and he loses out because he can’t speak.
You would think commercials would be a strange thing for a kid to remember. So why do I remember them? They were different, they were inventive, they were funny, and yes, a bit strange. But that’s what marketing is all about: grabbing attention.
Unfortunately I feel like this is what the diamond industry is failing to do right now. I pay particular attention to many of the ads that come out, and forgive me for saying it, but I often have to sigh. So many are very similar, with rehashed and repurposed messages from previous ads that didn’t do the job so well the last time.
While I have seen a few that are different, that catch attention, that use humor, mystique, glamour and even celebrity to sell, too many are flat-out boring. A couple in love, getting engaged, romantic and happy, all you need to complete your love is a diamond, blah, blah, blah.
We’re no longer those kids who couldn’t fast-forward. Today, people have the option to swipe past anything that doesn’t strike their fancy. And to grab their attention, an ad needs to be special. To find out how to make that happen, I spoke to luxury and marketing experts outside the diamond industry and asked them what makes a good ad, what today’s customers are seeking, and who’s doing it right, both within and outside the industry. You can read more about it in my cover story for this issue.
Main image: Rapaport Managing Editor Leah Meirovich. (Leah Meirovich)
