JA to Launch Consumer-Facing Jewelry Campaign in 2019

New York—Jewelers of America has announced that it will coordinate the launch of a consumer marketing program next year.

The digital advertising campaign will be a collaboration among the industry to increase consumer demand for jewelry and drive sales by promoting the unique and emotional aspects of jewelry ownership as compared with other disposable income purchases, JA said.

“The jewelry industry has voiced their needs for a generic consumer campaign that speaks with actionable, yet sentimental messages about jewelry,” JA President and CEO David J. Bonaparte said. “We are excited to be moving forward with the campaign that our industry has been so passionate about. We also are calling on all levels of the supply chain to band together for this initiative that will truly be by the industry, for the industry.”

The association currently is raising funds for a test campaign, slated to run post-Valentine’s Day.

The campaign will run primarily on social media in a targeted region first, allowing the industry to see the campaign creative in real time and “establish key learnings.” JA said its goal will be to show a return on investment by measuring pre- and post-campaign awareness and jewelry perception among consumers, monitoring traffic to the campaign's website, press coverage, jewelry influencer coverage and more.

It will then likely launch nationally some time in 2019, targeting the non-major jewelry buying holidays to capture the attention of the female consumer who buys jewelry for herself.

To raise funds, JA has created a “Pioneer Program” for the companies that want to contribute to the campaign.

Pioneer companies will be recognized through press coverage, inclusion in trade advertising, in all digital content related to the program and during the 2019 Gem Awards in New York.

Companies that already have signed on as part of the Pioneer Program are: American Gem Society, Emerald Expositions, Forevermark, Gemological Institute of America, Gumuchian, Jewelers Mutual Insurance Group, JCK Industry Fund, Rahaminov Diamonds, Royal Chain Group and Greenland Ruby.

JA announced in August it had hired longtime publisher of JCK magazine and JCKOnline Mark Smelzer as a consultant to assist in the strategic development of the consumer marketing initiative.

To learn more about JA’s jewelry ad campaign and the Pioneer Program, visit Jewelers.org.