First consumer colored gemstone ads celebrated Year of the Ruby, 1996

The International Colored Gemstone Association sponsored the world's first institutional consumer colored gemstone advertisements in November and December 1996. The ads were the culmination of the Year of the Ruby promotion organized by the ICA for the 1996 holiday selling season in the United States.

The ICA consumer advertisement for ruby is a striking four-page preprinted insert. The advertisement, created by Brown Productions of Dallas, positions ruby as rare, desirable, and a symbol of romance and passion. Each page features a few pieces of ruby jewelry with another natural wonder: the first page, tropical fish; the second, butterflies; the third, a lizard; and the fourth, a woman.

The text of the consumer advertisement emphasizes the emotional content of ruby jewelry and the significance of rubies as a personal statement. The photographs are of very high quality. The colors are crisp and brilliant on a bright white background so that the images will stand out in the context of the magazine.

The insert ran in the November issue of Town & Country. Town & Country has a circulation of 425,000. Town & Country readers spent $1.3 billion on fine jewelry in 1995. The insert also ran in the November/December issue of Departures magazine, a publication of American Express publishing which is sent to the 300,000 American Express Platinum Card holders. These readers have a median household income of $185,448 and a median net worth of $1,057,432. Half of the readers are millionaires.

A variety of styles of ruby jewelry were shown in the advertisement. The four jewelry manufacturers featured in the national ad were: Ambar, Oscar Heyman, Jewels by Star, and Charles Krypell.

The advertisement identified participating retailers across the country who hosted special ICA ruby events and a toll-free number for consumers to call ICA for a retail store in their area which carries ruby jewelry.

The special ruby promotional events were held by six leading retail stores during October, November, and December 1996: Fortunoff's in New York, Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Lee Michaels in New Orleans, Hyde Park in Aspen, Ben Bridge in Seattle, and Schwarzschild in Richmond, Virginia.

ICA produced a variety of ruby promotional support materials for the stores, including ad slicks, counter cards, invitations, media kits, and display materials. The ruby promotional events had a ballet theme and with a promotional tie-in to the local ballet company in each market.

To support the promotional tie-in to the local ballet companies, ICA created The Ruby Red Shoes, a pair of ballet shoes with ruby beads sewn on them and ruby and diamond bow accents. The Ruby Red Shoes are based on the movie The Red Shoes, the 1948 academy-award winning ballet movie. A ballerina from the local ballet danced in the Ruby Red Shoes at the events. A ruby pin depicting the Ruby Red Shoes was donated to each store by ICA member Swarogem to benefit the ballet.

In addition ICA produced a "How to Buy a Ruby" brochure in conjunction with Jewelers of America which was available for the participating retailers and all JA member jewelers to give to potential customers and use as a direct mail piece.

The 1996 ICA ruby promotion was funded in cooperation with the Department of Export Promotion of the Royal Thai Government. The ruby promotion was also sponsored by ICA members around the world, in particular ICA members from Thailand and the United States.


Ten-million dollar ICA Ruby Collection

The International Colored Gemstone Association celebrated the launch of the first promotional campaign to promote colored gemstones with a spectacular ten-million dollar museum-quality exhibition of rubies and ruby jewelry at the Couture Collection and Conference in May 1996, an exclusive by-invitation-only show for the top jewelry retailers in the United States. The ruby exhibition then traveled to the JCK Show in Las Vegas, which is the most important U.S. jewelry show.