NDC has positioned itself as the go-to publisher for natural diamond-related content. What prompted NDC to make content as the key-driver to garner more traction towards natural diamonds?

For us, the starting point was when the lockdown first happened in 2020. Our team was spending a lot of time speaking to the consumers. The last two years consumers’ way of thinking, their way of shopping and purchasing patterns have changed dramatically. So, we spent a fair bit of time to understand these changes, what their journey has been, and how the mindset has been changing over time. The consumer is not impressed by only one channel of advertising. They want to explore multiple channels of ideas – whether it is with friends, families, social media – the consumer is more involved in our communication. These days, consumers are gathering information from multiple sources.

So, every 2-3 days we are putting out a new piece of content. We have roughly about 110-112 pieces –where we talk about trends, about emotions, the red carpet, the history and more. We are not positioning ourselves in a definitive way – our brand is natural diamonds, so it is easier to bring forth content about creativity, sustainability and design. The same goes for our video content too, in a year, we plan to make around 200 videos.

After a year of collaborating with digital content creators in the jewellery space, and educating consumers with fresh yet informative content about diamonds and diamond jewellery, what kind of response did you expect to receive from consumers in India and did that translate into actual conversions - what feedback have you received from the retail network?

Today, we are crossing 30,00,000 visitors in India alone. People are curious about fine jewellery. We have crossed 2.6 crore people who have seen our website and about 620 million impressions on our social media channels. On YouTube alone, people have spent about 15 lakh hours watching our YouTube content. We have 52,000 followers on YouTube. So we know that so many people are viewing and reading our content which clearly means they are engaging with it meaningfully. It is important that our content is really qualitatively enriching and informative.

I cannot give you exact numbers of sales which have happened due to this content. We are working towards a long-term perception change. We take pride in the fact that high-jewellery houses like Bulgari, Chopard, Graff and the like invited us to show us the kind of work they are doing.

HIGHLIGHTS

For Moments Like No Other: The global campaign marked an industry first, with rising Hollywood star Ana De Armas being signed as the global brand ambassador for a diamond brand. Aside from generating 900 million impressions, it was highlighted on high profile TV shows such as Masterchef Australia, KBC and even IPL, premium TV channels, leading OTT platforms, full page ads in Times of India and page takeovers.

Online: The NDC website, an editorial first platform saw over 26 million visits in its first year of launch. Every article gets 190k readers on an average. Our social media activity haa gathered over 619M impressions, 1.5M hours on NDC's YouTube channel and a huge rise in followers across our social landscape – crossing over 30K and 50K followers on Instagram and YouTube respectively. 

Precious Gems: NDC collaborated with jewellery experts such as Katerina Perez, Nonita Kalra, Divia Thani, Nirmika Singh, Rhea Kapoor, Rahul Kadakia, Harakh Mehta, Rahul Desai, Abhijeet Borkar, Ishu Datwani, Rashmee Pai, Deepti Gujral, Kaustav Dey and more to translate the wonder of natural diamonds into well crafted, educative editorials.

 A Diamond Studded Journey: In the last year, NDC has had the pleasure of getting exclusive access to luxury maison houses such as Chopard, Graff and Chaumet, Mellerio and Bulgari. We also had the opportunity to cover stories of pioneers from the diamond manufacturing space such as Venus Jewel, Dimexon, Jewelex India and Mr Colin Shah, Chairman of the GJEPC. 

 The NDC Trail: With the launch of the retailer portal and e-learning portal, NDC has come a long way in integrating our retailer network this year.

What is next in store for NDC in India?

We are launching a campaign in September. Hopefully it will be received well. The test launch has been successful. We are going to soon announce a venture with Vogue India; you will know more about it when we make the formal announcement. More content-rich articles are on the pipeline.

Since you have considerably increased your retail network in India, what are some of the key insights you can give us regarding consumer mindset, their purchasing pattern and the kind of diamond jewellery they are into?

Indians want to celebrate small moments, not just the big moments. Say first day of school, buying a car, a promotion and so on. People are looking at celebrating all these milestones in their journey – the desire to express love is very high – that is a positive sign for us as an industry. They are looking to express their feelings for people. It is not just the romantic love alone; it is also expression of love for an aunt, your best friend, your classmate or your teacher.

Luxury is being redefined. Luxury was always about extreme quality – exclusivity in terms of design and craftsmanship. And people are appreciating Nature more than ever now. Naturality gets added to luxury. Gifts which are one-of-a-kind and are adding to the preservation of Nature – consumer is ready to buy these things. We have to tap into these elements.

NDC collaborated with Chow Tai Fook recently, any such similar plans for India? Also, in the US, NDC has tied up with Couture exhibition for the very first time, giving the end consumer an access to this exclusive industry event. Is tying up with, niche boutique exhibitions also an option in India?

When the partnership with Chow Tai Fook happened, many retailers in India expressed their interest to do something similar. So, we are definitely in talks with a few of them. As far as tying with B2B exhibitions in India, for now we are purely focusing on B2C. So, we will continue our collaboration with Lakmé Fashion Week. We want to directly target the consumer, so participating in events that will facilitate a one-to-one connect with the consumer will always be priority for us.

Are we going to see your campaigns more on digital platforms, or will you be paying attention to the traditional media as well?

For us, digital has become a stronger focus. A lot of discovery is happening online. While consumers still prefer to visit a store, they do spend a lot of time online. But, we will be coming back big on television as well. September to December we will on TV, you will hopefully see us on IPL finals. You will also continue seeing our presence in lifestyle, high-end, luxury publications.

Your first-ever Jewellery Trend Report 2021 was launched recently. Will this be an annual feature now?

Yes. We are contemplating whether we should come out with say two reports in a year. But, we had an overwhelming response. The report covered the best of talent. We got a lot of media mileage and we managed to create a lot of buzz around it. So, yes it will be a recurring affair without a doubt.