Finding a New Setting

The Challenge

In today’s modern culture focused on experiences over possessions, the diamond industry was losing relevance to a younger generation — and sales — at a staggering pace. We were enlisted by the diamond producers association to explore why diamonds might matter to a Millennial generation that’s delaying marriage… or not getting married at all.

The Approach

To start to understand a fresh positioning for diamonds, we first took a step back to thoroughly explore the dynamics of modern-day love, intimacy, material goods and relationships in the lives of young people.

Through both online and in-person ethnography, we started to unpack existing worldviews around love as a whole and perceptions of diamonds, speaking to both Millennials who had recently gotten engaged and Millennials who were in proudly non-traditional relationship structures. In addition to our consumer research, we did a series of interviews with future-focused relationship experts to get a progressive view on the nuanced tenets of modern-day love … and how it’s continuing to evolve.

The Impact

At the apex of the consumer and cultural work that we did came the insight that the idea of ‘forever’ in relationships feels unrealistic, and that perfection is no longer the ultimate goal. Rather, Millennials are rewriting the rulebook on relationship traditions, prioritizing a fluid approach, a celebration of the journey, and small, joyful milestones along the way.

Our work led to a fresh new positioning “Real Is Rare” — addressing Millennials’ pushback against inauthenticity, both in synthetic diamonds and picture-perfect relationships. Out of this came a creative campaign focused on couples going through pivotal moments in non-traditional trajectories … who are making their own unique promises to each other, and celebrating a version of love that makes the most sense for them.

The campaign was lauded as fresh, groundbreaking and genuinely strategic, with us receiving press on our insights from Forbes, Quartz, AdAge, Adweek and The Economist and the Diamond Producers Association seeing a significant increase in the consideration of diamonds for purchase, as well as favorable opinions of diamonds.