Rio Tinto’s ‘As real as you’ campaign add sparkle to the glory of Australian diamonds

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Diamonds are real, as real as the emotions of today’s empowered Indian women, their beliefs, expectations and ambitions.  To drive home the point, mining giant Rio Tinto launched its latest campaign for Australian Diamonds titled ‘As real as you’ at Taj Hotel, Santacruz, Mumbai.

The campaign, based on insights from consumer research, throws new light on the rapidly changing role and mind set of contemporary Indian women. The campaign highlights their resilience, accomplishments and growing financial independence that enables women to be the decision makers in jewellery purchase for bridal as well as spontaneous self-gifting.

Emceed by Bollywood actress Suchitra Pillai, the event started with an inaugural speech by Josephine Johnson, Director, Global Marketing, Rio Tinto Diamonds. “Everyone wants to know the origin of the products they consume and demonstrating provenance runs in the DNA of Rio Tinto.”

“For more than 30 years, Rio Tinto Diamonds has been at the forefront of the industry, pioneering initiatives in every part of the supply chain. This engagement has enabled us to develop a downstream Chain of Custody program that is increasingly sought after by industry and retailers.” said Johnson.

Thereafter, Vikram Merchant, Director of Rio Tinto’s Diamond Sales and Marketing activities in India said, “Today’s consumer wants to know where their jewellery comes from and the Australian Diamonds programme celebrates Rio Tinto’s diamond heritage and pedigree from a clean, traceable source of diamonds. The importance of provenance in the diamond industry has never been stronger and today the biggest opportunity for change lies in developing diamond jewellery offerings that track the diamonds from the mine to the market.”

Merchant drew attention to recent headlines on regulatory compliance, financial scrutiny, synthetic diamonds and ethical business practices, emphasising that businesses can add value by demonstrating the origin of their products and mitigate risk by operating a transparent, responsible supply chain.

Talking about their Chain of Custody (COC) programme, Merchant said the Australian Diamonds initiative is underpinned by a leading edge tracking system for monitoring the movement of Rio Tinto’s rough diamonds from its Argyle mine in Western Australia through to finished jewellery. The chain of custody system enables Rio Tinto to provide assurance that the diamonds in the jewellery are of natural origin from the Argyle mine in Western Australia. The chain of custody programme is independently managed and verified by a third party, RSM Astute Consultants and the system has also been audited by RCS Global, an international supply chain and best practices specialist. Merchant drew attention to the robust processes in place by pointing out that an estimated 1200 verification and 680 responsible sourcing audits will be conducted in 2018. The large number of manufacturing entities in the programme, currently 493, ensures the entire range of Argyle products are delivered through this supply chain.

Apart from verification of provenance, the chain of custody also ensures that all manufacturing units operate certain responsible standards of health, safety, environment and human rights. Rio Tinto has also developed a synthetic testing protocol for all diamonds conveyed through the chain of custody offering the highest level of assurance to retailers and their customers.

 Finally, Merchant also introduced Rio Tinto’s new film-based learning application for retail store staff. The film ‘Circle of Confidence’ is a first for the industry. The impactful film based learning can be used for offline and online training. The online training will be accessed by retail store staff via a mobile application.

Ameer Ismail, Chief Growth Officer, Point 9 Lintas, then launched the new campaign for Australian Diamonds titled ‘As real As You’. The campaign, built on recently conducted consumer research, equates “real” contemporary Indian women with rare and natural “real” Australian Diamonds. The campaign creatives were unveiled followed by the screening of 3 TVC’s supporting ‘As Real As You’.

The TVC’s depicted 3 “real” moments of love between a married couple. The first TVC shows a spontaneous moment that supports impulse diamond gifting, the second supports the anniversary diamond occasion and the third supports the all-important bridal purchase. Developed as a series, the TVC’s follow the same couple through these key milestones in their life. The story is told with humour and each film ends with the message “our love is as real as rare and natural Australian Diamonds!”

The stage was then set for the presentation of Rio Tinto Diamonds Brand Ambassador for Australian Diamonds, the Captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, Mithali Raj. Talking about the campaign, Raj said, “I am delighted to be a part of this Australian Diamonds campaign.”

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“Diamonds were once only accessible to kings and queens and Hollywood royalty. A campaign such as this makes these sought-after diamonds far more affordable to a broader range of consumers across India.”

She then shared her challenges as a budding cricketer. “I started playing cricket after my father, also a cricket lover, encouraged me. Initially it was a hobby but then the struggle and the zeal for excellence kept me going and I’ve arrived at this stage of my life because I’ve earned it through my hard work,” she said.

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Raj went on to describe the bias and lack of adequate training facilities which she overcame by becoming professional in 1994. “While I trained initially, I was the only woman in a field full of male players. After the response we got for our performance in the World Cup, I see women have an equal occupancy on the playground now. I see mothers taking a serious interest in the nuances of cricket, for the sake of their sports-loving daughters. The current generation is very lucky,” she maintained.

Raj ended by saying, “the smile you see on a woman’s face when she wears diamond jewellery can’t be recreated with anything else. Diamond personifies purity and I feel if I’m paying a handsome amount for a luxury item, I’d want to verify its origin and that’s what Rio Tinto has been doing through its latest campaign. I wish all the best to this endeavour.”

Courtesy: The Retail Jeweller News Service

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