PARIS — Pandora is expanding its lab-grown diamond category with three new collections and a star-studded campaign launching Thursday in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia.
“This is an important moment in diamonds and we see an expansion of what is possible in terms of people being able to enjoy and love these beautiful stones,” said Pandora’s chief marketing officer Mary Carmen Gasco-Buisson.
To mark the occasion, the Danish jeweler called on model and actress Pamela Anderson, American Sign Language interpreter and performer Justina Miles, former model and Vogue creative director at large Grace Coddington, actress Amita Suman, model Sherry Shi and musical artist and dancer Vinson Fraley to be the faces of the campaign.
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Titled “Diamonds for All,” it “celebrates breaking out of conventions,” Gasco-Buisson said. “There’s a lot of tropes around how diamonds are perceived and who are they gifted to, and one of our commitments from the beginning of Pandora is that we really want to bring amazing jewelry to everyone.”
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The sextet of talents picked by Pandora are “icons in their own way,” she continued. “They have their unique personalities. They come from different places, they have different life paths, and we think they all contribute to style and culture in a unique way. Together they reflect the sentiment of diamonds for all kinds of people for all occasions and for all dreams.”
The new campaign, helmed by the Baron + Baron agency, photographed by Mario Sorrenti and with Gordon von Steiner directing the video side, serves as the first move in a brand refresh that aims to “bring Pandora to a new level of desire, along with our strategy of expanding,” Gasco-Buisson said.
“Part of [this] is that we’re becoming a full jewelry house in the eyes of consumers. We already are but we are mostly known for the charm bracelet that we created 40 years ago,” she noted.
In particular, the jeweler is sharpening its messaging around the lab-grown diamond category by renaming it “Pandora Lab-grown Diamonds,” a move chief executive officer Alexander Lacik described as representing Pandora’s journey into the category. “We are learning our way into this, this is also why we started small,” with the U.K. as a first market and one design proposition, he told WWD in an interview.
Unlike the “defensive play” adopted by other companies in the space, the executive felt lab-grown diamonds were “a great innovation, a breakthrough technology that [Pandora] is bringing to consumers, so there is no reason to be shy about it.”
“We have taken the opposite view, saying why don’t we try and own that territory from a conceptual standpoint, which is why we put [the material] together with the brand name, associating a very strong brand with a segment that we believe is going to be very important going forward,” he continued.
According to Lacik, the three additional collections are “putting a wide selection and very attractive value proposition to the audience that we already have in Pandora today.”
Feedback from customers had shown that, although they liked Pandora’s prices for diamonds and also enjoyed the brand’s narrative around the diamonds, the designs up until then had not appealed to everyone. “The new collection has a broader appeal,” Lacik said during a call with analysts on Pandora’s second-quarter earnings.
In addition to the 36 designs of the initial lab-grown diamond offering, expanded into a collection now known as Pandora Infinity, a further 57 items will be added.
The 22-piece Pandora Nova will be the first outing of the jeweler’s proprietary four-prong setting and will focus on brilliant- and princess-cut diamonds, while the Pandora Era collection will offer variations on classic styles. As for Pandora Talisman, its 10 designs are a nod to the brand’s famous charms.
“When you look at the offering together across categories — rings and pendants and bracelets and all — you’ll see Pandora playing in diamonds as a full jewelry house,” Gasco-Buisson said.
Prices will start around $290 for a sterling silver Pandora Era ring set with a 0.15-carat lab-grown stone and $390 for pendants from the Pandora Talisman line, up to $3,950 for a pair of 14-karat gold stud earrings with 1-carat gems and $4,450 for designs in the Pandora Infinite line.
As previously reported, the lab-grown category will make its debut in Mexico and Brazil by the end of October.