JEWELERS ARE ALWAYS FACED with walking that fine line between trying to inject a bit of fun into their brand message and coming up with the kind of experiment that gets half the town to call with “I’ll never shop there again!” complaints.
One question from Big Survey 2017 was: “Describe the edgiest advertising campaign you’ve done. What was the reaction to it?”
“Many of our billboards are edgy but in good taste,” one respondent says. “Two studs and one lady raised some eyebrows.”
Below are some of the responses we received. Where do you draw the line? Look out for all the results of the 2017 Big Survey in the upcoming October edition of INSTORE.
- When gay marriage was still a hot button and in the courts, we ran an ad featuring two grooms showing off their bands at the altar. The text read, “We can’t make the laws but we can make your day. Everyone is welcome at Drummond’s.” We got backlash from some self-described conservatives, but we got a lot of praise, and new customers, too.
- Print campaign: “Put a little ice down her blouse.” We had calls about it being inappropriate.
- My wife said, “This’ll blow her pants off,” in a radio spot. People thought it was funny.
- “This ring will make her clothes fall off” (our college rep ran it without permission). No one was really thrilled about that.
- A TV spot targeting young men featured a young lady in underwear crawling over a young man’s lap because he gave her a piece of jewelry. Reaction from the intended audience was good; we seemed hip. The spot mistakenly aired during an NFL game and we received calls about the ad’s inappropriateness from middle-aged conservative women.
- We did a commercial with a lady, and I asked to see her diamond. She said, “It’s a half-carat and we’ve been married 25 years. “My daughter-in-law has a 2-carat.” I say, “It’s time to trade up the diamond or trade up the husband.” Male customers called me with all kinds of hate.
- We utilized one of our pear-shaped diamonds and a hand-fabricated copyrighted ring design with a stunning Coke bottle-like silhouette and the tag “pear shapes are sexy no matter the medium.” We enjoyed the chance to be cheeky.
- A picture of a guy wearing only a dresser drawer. He had a bubble above his head that said, “Do you have valuables in your drawers?”
This article originally appeared in the October 2017 edition of INSTORE.