De Beers spends $20m on ‘A Diamond is Forever’ tagline

Some De Beers’ natural diamond engagement rings are sold for tens of thousands of dollars. But its famed tagline ‘A Diamond is Forever’ is worth $20 million in 2023.

The artwork for De Beers' new advertising campaign

The promise of lifelong love is a powerful proposition and few companies leverage the commercial potency of this emotive message more overtly than diamond company De Beers.

The brand has returned to its creative advertising roots with a $20m media investment in reviving its A Diamond is Forever tagline and Seize the Day campaign to “support consumer demand in natural diamonds for the 2023 holiday season”.

De Beers is also retiring its lab-grown diamond engagement ring “test”, which came in the form of a brand called Lightbox.

That brand will instead focus on fashion jewellery and loose stones – rather than engagement rings – where the company says it sees the “most promising future opportunities in the sector”.

The media investment has been allocated to the Chinese and US markets and the campaign will be rolled out across print, out-of-home and digital media, as well as influencer content.

According to De Beers’ own consumer survey data for China and the US, natural diamonds are preferred over lab-grown diamonds among its audience.

It found that natural diamonds are among the top three “most desired luxury items for women to acquire”.

It also found that in the US, four in five women view “natural diamond as carrying significant meaning and being the perfect way to mark an important moment in a relationship”, while the primary motivator for purchasing lab-grown diamonds is their lower price point.

De Beers’ advertising has been imbued with that “significant meaning” for more than seven decades since the A Diamond is Forever tagline was created.

It was first introduced to consumers in 1947 and was written by a copywriter named Frances Gerety, who worked for renowned US advertising agency NW Ayers & Son at the time. The agency was tasked with renewing interest in diamonds after the Great Depression had crippled the industry.

Advertising Age also called it the “No.1 slogan of the century” in 1999. But it was also a line that was much celebrated outside of adland.

Over the decades, the line has made its way into culture, too.

James Bond fans will be familiar with Ian Fleming’s 1956 novel, Diamonds Are Forever, and Shirley Bassey’s accompanying tune, written by lyricist Don Black for the 1971 Bond movie.

David Prager, chief brand officer of De Beers Group, said in a statement: “For more than 75 years A Diamond is Forever has perfectly encapsulated the symbolic promise of a natural diamond.

“Through our category investments in both traditional media and influencer-created content, we will reintroduce the highly successful Seize the Day campaign, modernised for a new generation. De Beers is committed to supporting retailers to unlock the strong underlying desire for natural diamonds this holiday season.”

This creative “modernisation” for the 2023 campaign comes in a few forms – most notably in marrying the historic slogan with more contemporary phrases.

The artwork for De Beers' 2023 holiday season advertising campaign

One of the new advertisements reads “Nature’s mic drop”, which runs alongside an image of an engagement ring with a natural stone.

Another advertisement featuring a diamond eternity band is accompanied by the line “Every great love story has a beginning, middle and no end”. There is also a version that reads “Artist credit: Mother Nature”, reinforcing the focus on natural diamonds.

Sally Maier-Yip, a London-based luxury marketing adviser on the Chinese market and managing director of 11K Consulting, said the campaign’s focus on promoting natural diamonds, rather than lab-grown diamonds, would resonate with Chinese audiences.

“In China, De Beers’ old slogan and reputation of A Diamond is Forever’ has a long-lasting impact until today. It is equivalent to Nike’s Just Do It for Chinese people. With the new campaign messaging, it gives people a fresh perspective.”

Ms Maier-Yip said De Beers’ iconic tagline still has potential for success in China.

“In my view, it is one of the greatest advertising and marketing cases in China to date because it deeply implants diamonds in people’s minds and closely links diamonds with marriage and love,” she said. “As a country that is strong in manufacturing almost everything, Chinese customers appreciate natural and rare products, and craftsmanship. That makes it luxurious.”

The decision to focus on natural diamonds rather than lab-grown could also be an effective message to convey, as Chinese consumers value authenticity and provenance when it comes to luxury goods.

“Although most of the Chinese consumers are not well informed about the ‘lab-grown diamonds’, many would simply consider them as ‘fake diamonds’. The target diamond buyers would spend more to buy a natural one,” Ms Maier-Yip said.

“Most Chinese customers dislike artificial products, not to mention luxury products. For example, every 15th of March is called Fight Fraud Day or The Annual World Consumer Rights Day, when most of the unnatural or artificial products will be reported in the national Chinese media.”

In the US market, group vice-president of strategy at Interpublic Group-owned advertising agency Huge, Michelle Campbell said the updated campaign indicates De Beers’ marketing goals go beyond driving sales during the holiday and engagement season.

“Initially, when this campaign came out, it was very much about creating a behaviour. It wasn’t common to buy diamond engagement rings,” she said.

“It seems almost too transparently obvious that this time around, it’s much more about shifting perceptions of natural diamonds against what’s happening with the influx of lab-grown diamonds.”

Ms Campbell, who has also advised other luxury brands on their marketing such as Hublot and Gucci, said the new De Beers advertisements were a “bold” attempt from the brand. She said it not only prompted consumers to buy diamonds from De Beers, but to buy into the “idea” of diamonds.

“This feels like very much a category leadership move where they want to elevate the perception of natural diamonds overall,” she said.

De Beers Group chief executive Al Cook also alluded to longer-term ambitions. He said in a statement, “By investing ahead of the holiday season, we aim to support the industry, drive consumer demand and underline our confidence in the future of the diamond dream”.

The holiday (and engagement) season in the US usually takes place between the months of November, starting with thanksgiving and ending around Valentine’s Day in February.

In recent years, some jewellers in the US have benefited from the pent-up wedding demand post-Covid, however Ms Campbell said she has observed this trend dissipate.

She said that may have influenced De Beers’ strategy. “I could see this being a year where they knew that they needed to make a big splash because they weren‘t going to benefit from that pent up demand like they did in the previous couple of years.”