New York: What happens when you throw together an entrepreneurial supermodel, a charitable crowdfunding app, lots of glittery gems and the odd paper-flower crown? David Yurman is hoping the answer will be holiday brand-building magic.
David Yurman, the New York-based jewellery brand, has long cultivated a boho-chic image, and its current holiday advertising campaign, “The Gift of Love and Light”, features an array of influences from artsy to altruistic.
One of the more unusual elements is a partnership with the crowdfunding app Elbi. The brainchild of Natalia Vodianova, one of the primary models in the Yurman holiday campaign, Elbi uses the principles behind social sharing to promote micro-donations to various causes.
The app’s users can create small projects in support of causes, which are then up-voted by donations, a dollar at a time. Users get points they can cash in for luxury-brand rewards, such as headphones, handbags or jewellery.
David Yurman is donating jewellery, including one bracelet design in the brand’s signature “cable” style, to Elbi’s rewards programme, as well as donating $1 per transaction that takes place on its website during December. Customers can choose from one of seven causes selected for the brand partnership.
“It’s a way of engaging millennials in a playful way and the way they consume today and the way they use their smartphones,” said Silvia Galfo, chief marketing officer for David Yurman. “You don’t just give money, but you give part of your time.”
By nature, fine jewellery is a discretionary purchase, which means that integrating a philanthropic element has to be done with a deft touch. “When you give yourself something, you’re being generous to yourself,” said Sybil Yurman, a co-founder of the jewellery company. “When you’re generous to yourself, it’s much easier to be generous to others.”
Shane O’Neill, vice-president at the jewellery marketing agency Fruchtman Marketing, said, “It does put a face of social awareness on David Yurman that they care about social giving.”
Marketing experts say Elbi’s partnership with David Yurman could give the jewellery brand more exposure among young adults. Elbi’s users, who skew about 60 per cent female, are at the younger edge of Generation Y, according to the app’s head of partnerships, Carly Buckingham.
“We’re looking at 16 to maybe 30 or 32 is the target age for us,” she said.
By contrast, David Yurman’s core customer is roughly in the 35-to-45-year-old range, although Galfo said the brand was also making efforts to reach professional millennials. And that is part of the reason that the combination of technology and social philanthropy seemed like a good idea.
“They’re definitely a generation that wants to effect change and wants to be in charge of the change,” Vodianova said.
The Elbi partnership is paired with a digital, print and social campaign, featuring photography and six videos, which include Vodianova and were shot by Bruce Weber.
“People look at jewellery and, most of the time, it’s in a case and you can’t touch it,” Weber said. “I really tried to make the jewellery touchable.”
The campaign’s focus on family and togetherness connects back to the emphasis on children’s causes in the brand’s partnership with Elbi, Galfo said. “Family is good,” she said. “It’s the human family, especially at the holidays.”
