WGC unveils $6 million holiday ad campaign

Carrie Soucy, JCK Senior Editor -- JCK Online, 9/14/2004 2:00:00 AM

Taking their “Speak Gold” advertising efforts to the next level, the World Gold Council unveiled a $6 million holiday ad campaign that aims to stimulate consumer demand for gold jewelry in the United States.

The two-part campaign, which features both generic ads aimed at emotional response and more product-specific ads that focus on the World Gold Council’s manufacturing partners, carries the tag line “There’s One Language Everyone Understands.” The photography depicts and targets both gift purchasers and self purchasers.

Unlike traditional advertising campaigns that feature glossy fashion photography, the World Gold Council took a fresh approach—hiring National Geographic photographers for a more photojournalistic approach. The “models” are everyday women, rather than professional models, and the settings range from New York to the Midwest to Italy to India. The result is realistic photography that captures both the spirit of women who love gold jewelry, and various cultures around the world.

Michael Pace, the new vice president of marketing for the World Gold Council’s U.S. arm, calls the ads and evolution of the Speak Gold campaign, one that is based on two years of consumer research.

Playing on research that shows gold jewelry competing not only against other jewelry, but all luxury products, the campaign aims to capture the history, symbolism, and expressiveness of gold jewelry.

“This campaign is all about trying to get those emotions across,” Pace says.

The product-specific ads depict both those real-life scenes and detailed jewelry photographs. The manufacturers and designers participating in the campaign are Charles Garnier, Mattioli, Roberto Coin, SeidenGang, Yvel, Aurafin-OroAmerica, Atasay and Bel Oro.

Retailers range from national jewelry specialty chains like Bailey Banks & Biddle to regional jewelers like Fortunoff to department stores like Saks.

The ad campaign, which focuses on the generic ads in October, followed by a mix of generic and jewelry-specific ads through the holiday season, launched in 19 fashion and lifestyle magazines, including InStyle, Vanity Fair, Vogue and W.