Sally Morrison, former head of the Diamond Information Center, just got promoted to interim director of the De Beers account at JWT, replacing Richard Lennox, who is now at Zale. 

Morrison notes the JWT account she is now taking charge of will have a very different focus this holiday. Its Christmas campaign will revolve around its (not-yet-announced) “big idea,” which will be promoted on TV and in print.  This is similar to how it’s been in the past with JWT’s “beacons” – however, participation in this “big idea” is limited to the participating sightholders and the majors and independents they are signing up. (Here’s some background on how that will work.)

While the advertising arm will not do much “generic” promotion, its PR arm, the Diamond Information Center, (now headed by Jamie Cadwell) will still do some of the “traditional” generic work on behalf of diamonds. 

Morrison says her appointment “is an attempt to stabilize things and not introduce new people. We have a strong team of people and we wanted to keep the group together. It’s really going to be a challenging season and most of the creative and planning work is pretty much done.”

Morrison’s appointment is “interim,” but she notes: “The world is interim right now. Everyone is very focused on doing  the strongest possible job on this campaign. We feel we have some strong and very resonant messages to put into the market but there really isn’t a blueprint for a situation like now.”

Rob Bates

JCK News Director