Jewelry

Selling Jewelry With a Crowdfunding App and Dash of Social Sharing - New York Times

David Yurman is donating jewelry, including one bracelet design in the brand’s signature “cable” style, to Elbi’s rewards program, 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, the chief marketing officer for David Yurman. “You don’t just give money, but you give part of your time.”

By nature, fine jewelry 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 jewelry company. “When you’re generous to yourself, it’s much easier to be generous to others.”

Shane O’Neill, vice president at the jewelry 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 jewelry brand more exposure among young adults. Elbi’s users, who skew about 60 percent 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 Ms. 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,” Ms. Vodianova said.

Mr. O’Neill said: “It gives the consumer the ability to really identify the charity of their choice, and they do identify that with the brand. Because there are so many charities out there, so many different types of things people connect with that are important to them, from a social standpoint, I definitely think it gives a richer experience.”

The Elbi partnership is paired with a digital, print and social campaign, featuring photography and six videos, which include Ms. Vodianova and were shot by Bruce Weber.

The campaign includes print ads running in newspapers and magazines, as well as a special catalog insert. The videos are running in movie theaters and on the brand’s social channels.

“People look at jewelry and, most of the time, it’s in a case and you can’t touch it,” Mr. Weber said. “I really tried to make the jewelry touchable.”

Mr. Weber said he had taken inspiration from old home movies. The stories depicted in the campaign evoke old-school vacation activities: painting with watercolors, dancing in the grass, lounging in a rowboat, making costumes out of paper for a backyard performance — with both children and adults adorned with the brand’s jewelry. The overall effect is a sort of haute whimsy.

The campaign’s focus on family and togetherness connects back to the emphasis on children’s causes in the brand’s partnership with Elbi, Ms. Galfo said. “Family is good,” she said. “It’s the human family, especially at the holidays.”

Mr. Weber said his goal was capturing the free-spirited conviviality that took place on-set. “Sybil and David had a really bohemian background when they started,” he said. When the photography and filming took place, he added, “we were kind of like a bunch of friends.”

Reminding customers that there are unique people and personalities behind the brand is important to capturing younger consumers, marketing experts say.

“That’s one of the aspects people want when it comes to a luxury brand,” said Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing, which focuses on the luxury market. “What I’m seeing with young people and young affluents is craving for the real, authentic story.”

Ms. Yurman added, “It’s really important for us that people know we exist and we’re alive and we’re real people.”