Receive the latest articles for free. Click here to get the Luxury Daily newsletters.

David Yurman stretches confines of traditional love for Valentine’s Day

February 7, 2012

David Yurman Valentine's

U.S. jeweler David Yurman is using social media to stretch the definition of love and engage with a wider range of consumers during the St. Valentine’s Day season.

The label has created a special Facebook tab for the holiday and is asking consumers to share a picture of something they love, be it a person, place or thing. By going outside of the traditional ideas of love between a couple for Valentine’s Day, David Yurman is likely tuning in to a larger community than its competitors.

“With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it’s no surprise savvy companies like David Yurman are looking to make the most of it,” said Jeff Cohen, director of social media at MDG Advertising, Boca Raton, FL.

“Valentine’s Day is one of the biggest jewelry holidays, so this is the time to ramp up the promotions,” he said.

Mr. Cohen is not affiliated with David Yurman, but agreed to comment as a third-party expert.

Share the love
David Yurman’s Valentine’s Day Facebook tab is separated into three sections, two of which promote gift ideas and one that engages consumers through a photo sharing project at http://www.facebook.com/davidyurman.

The first portion promotes the jeweler’s new spiritual bead charm bracelets, which have been a large focus of David Yurman’s Valentine’s campaign.

The image of the bracelets links through to the David Yurman ecommerce shop.

The bracelets are available in various color and charm combinations that consist of mother of pearl, amethyst, rose quartz and blue chalcedony.

David Yurman’s spiritual bead bracelets start at $425 and go as high as $1,370.

David Yurman's Valentine's Day Facebook tab

The middle section takes up the most real estate of the dedicated Facebook tab and promotes the David Yurman gift-finder on its Web site.

A campaign image with the text, “Gifting, simplified. Discover curated collections that make choosing the perfect gift easy,” draws attention to the section.

Below the message is a screen shot of the various sections that the gift finder includes such as rings, bracelets, earrings, wedding rings, watches and gifts for him.

Consumers are able to click through one of the thumbnail-sized pictures to reach the particular gifting section on David Yurman’s Web site.

Below this section is where the interaction with fans really takes place.

Using a black-and-white campaign image, David Yurman invites Facebook fans to share their love with the text, “Who – or what – are you most passionate about? Upload a photho and our Facebook fans could be voting yours the best!”

By clicking on submit, fans are asked to provide their full name and email address and upload a picture from their computer.

Below the entry call-to-action, David Yurman posts icon pictures of the submissions and allows fans to vote on their favorite one.

David Yurman's Valentine's Day Facebook photo content

The big picture
David Yurman made a smart move by requiring participants to include an email address because this will let them reach Facebook fans on another platform.

In fact, the jeweler gives participants the chance to opt-in to the David Yurman newsletter.

Indeed, many brands are tapping their email databases to reach consumers during the important Valentine’s Day gifting season.

For example, diamond ring label Hearts on Fire got a head-start on competitors by sending out a dedicated Valentine’s gift email on Jan. 24.

Additionally, French fashion colossus Chanel has sent out two emails dedicated to the holiday since the beginning of February.

However, many experts believe that email efforts from brands should be mobile-optimized and link to an optimized landing page (see story).

By using Facebook, which is mobile-optimized for smartphones and accessible through an application, David Yurman does not need to separately optimize its Valentine’s Day efforts.

The jeweler also beats out competitors by focusing on love in a non-traditional way by letting it encompass passion for a product, place or person instead of just love between two people.

This helps the brand to engage all of its Facebook fans rather than just people who are in a loving relationship, a group that most marketers focus on during the holiday.

More fans will likely get involved with the photo project since they can post a wider range of pictures. This will help the David Yurman page pop-up on more consumers’ news feeds.

“Facebook photo [projects], like the one being run by David Yurman, are powerful ways to engage their customers and grow their reach through the social network,” Mr. Cohen said.

“Fans who submit a photo are immediately motivated to tell the world that their photo is in the running and to get as many votes as possible,” he said.

“Everyone they tell is now, potentially, a fresh pair of eyeballs and a new paying customer for the business running the [sharing project].”

Final Take
Kayla Hutzler, editorial assistant at Luxury Daily, New York

Kayla Hutzler is an editorial assistant on Luxury Daily. Her beats are automotive, consumer electronics, consumer packaged goods, financial services, media/publishing, software and technology, telecommunications, travel and hospitality, real estate, retail and sports. Reach her at kayla@napean.com.