New WGC Ad Campaign Launched

The World Gold Council unveiled its fall 2003 advertising campaign Sept. 10 in New York during a special presentation in the secret wine cellar at the 21 Club.

Michael Barlerin, World Gold Council managing director for the Americas, said the location was particularly appropriate because the ad campaign theme is “Speak Gold”—and 21 was a former “speakeasy” during the Prohibition era. The WGC has committed more than $4 million to the campaign, which broke in October.

It appears in a variety of fashion and lifestyle magazines including Glamour, Vogue, Self, InStyle, Harper’s Bazaar, Lucky, BonAppetit, House Beautiful, Elle, Jewelry Connoisseur, Marie Claire, and FACETS, the new consumer jewelry magazine published by The JCK Group.

These magazines deliver a high percentage of the kind of readers the WGC identified as “Passionate Indulgents” and “Chic Stylists” in global research it conducted late last year. The WGC commissioned Roper ASW to explore female purchase behaviors and motivations for buying gold jewelry, all around the world. The research identified several universal brand values that are distinct to gold, as well as the best consumer targets for gold jewelry advertising in each of the WGC’s operative markets. In the United States, the key gold buying segments were named “Passionate Indulgents” and “Chic Stylists.” The lifestyles and attitudes of these key consumer groups helped identify an appropriate media mix and the appropriate product to feature in the campaign.

The campaign was developed in cooperation with Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) Advertising in London. The “Speak Gold” concept, featuring lifestyle photos and a special font created to look like “liquid gold,” tested positively in the United States. Building on the idea of a gold vocabulary, the ads’ headlines are drawn from many of the words women used to describe gold during the council’s research—”love,” “desire,” “cherish,” “hot,” and “treat.” Gold jewelry items were worked into the tagline font to resemble letters.

Furthering the “Speak Gold” platform, the WGC has formed strategic alliances with some key jewelry retailers including Sterling Jewelers, Zale Corp., and Finlay Enterprises. A variety of the “Speak Gold” print, broadcast, outdoor, and point-of-sale materials as well as specially developed sales training programs are being produced for such retail brand names as Bailey Banks & Biddle, Jared’s, Kay, Bloomingdale’s, Marshall Field, and Lord & Taylor.

The ad campaign is supported by a Web site, www.speakgold.com, to encourage readers to go online to learn more about gold and see all of the jewelry featured in the campaign. The site also has links to the World Gold Council’s online consumer magazine, www.goldinspirations.com, as well as its home page, www.gold.org.

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