This V-Day, love your roomies, colleagues back, says CaratLane

The online jeweller encourages #EveryDayLove in its new ads created by Famous Innovations.

The definition of Valentine's Day in India until now was confined to love between couples and not celebrating the emotion of Love. Unfortunately, most brands too, talk about warm fuzzy love stories between a man and a woman around February 14. CaratLane, an online jewellery portal, however, has recently launched a digital campaign titled '#EveryDayLove' that aims to break the conventions.

Staying true to its proposition of fashion jewellery, the brand has come up with two digital films, which try to the break the shackles and stigma associated with the day. The campaign encourages people (not just man and woman) to gift each other on Valentine's Day. It further dismisses the theory of jewellery buying in India that has largely been an event led activity (either marriage, promotion, etc.), and creates multiple instances for the user to consider buying jewellery.

Conceptualised by Famous Innovations, the films showcase new-age relationships with a fresh approach to V-Day. While the first film - 'The Roomies' - explores the bond between two roommates who have become each-other's family away from home, the second one - 'The Colleague' - shows a warm relationship between two colleagues, and how their relationship grows stronger with a beautiful gift.

According to Atul Sinha, senior vice-president, marketing, CaratLane, the brand makes jewellery that's affordable and forever wearable, which one can wear every day and not just on specific occasions.

"We wanted to broaden the meaning of Valentine's Day, and get people to recognise the love in the most unexpected relationships - office colleague, roommate, neighbour, mother, sister or anybody. But on Valentine's Day people usually gift chocolates, flowers, and not-necessarily jewellery, although this is the most valuable gift you can give someone. So, through this campaign we wanted to convey the message that CaratLane jewellery is the perfect gift that you can give to your loved ones," says Sinha.

Although in August 2016 the online jewellery store entered into a formal partnership with Tanishq (a jewellery brand from Tata), in which the latter holds a majority stake, it only sells CaratLane jewellery at 15 retail stores spread across India, as well as well on the website. However, a lot of jewellery that was manufactured at CaratLane is now being manufactured in Titan's facility in Hosur. The films also show the CaratLane-Tanishq partnership logo.

"Titan has a loyalty programme called 'Encircle'. We will soon integrate with this loyalty programme, which will benefit customers of both brands," says Sinha, adding, "We've launched a new product for Valentine's Day, however, the jewellery pieces shown in the films are part of the existing range of CaratLane."

With a market size of $50 billion, India continues to remain the second biggest gold market in the world, China maintaining the top position. Out of this 20-25 per cent comprises of the jewellery market. The brand has registered a healthy growth from 2008, ever-since it came to existence.

"The proposition we have is very different from traditional jewellery. We focus on price-point and design which are far more affordable, and we want to make jewellery a part of our customer's everyday wardrobe. A bulk of our jewellery ranges from Rs 20,000 to 50,000. However, our range starts from as low as Rs 3,000."

The campaign was launched on February 1 on digital platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. Directed by Amit V. Masurkar, the films have been produced by QED Films, with a total budget of Rs 2.5 crore.

"We have worked on ad films for e-commerce brands such as Snapdeal and Jabong, so we have had the experience of working on this category. However, for us the challenge was to create a new market and consumers through these ad films. So we decided to talk about the love that we see and experience every day. This is a tactical campaign for Valentine's Day specifically, to tell people that on this day you can gift something to anyone who is close to your heart," says Raj Kamble, founder and CCO, Famous Innovations.

A Step Ahead?

According to Azazul Haque, executive director, Ogilvy Bangalore, creative head, Ogilvy South, encouraging people to recognise love in everyday relationships is expecting a bit much from the campaign. But the stories do clearly convey that in a simple and charming way.

He however says, "I don't think the purpose of the campaign is to generate purchase. As a jewellery brand, gifting inexpensive jewellery to another woman, who is a part of your everyday life, is a good space. It would for sure make them consider it as a gifting option, only if the products are not too expensive."

Nimesh Shah, head maven, Windchimes Communications, believes this ad campaign will get people to consider jewellery as a gifting option, so long as it fits the budget one usually keeps for such occasions. "As the intent is to showcase everyday scenarios that most of us relate to, the ad delivers on the brief. It brings in the subtlety in the blossoming relationship between two people. However, the ads are extremely long to hold interest till the end. Too much time is being used to build the relationship in the beginning, which results in a drag. A crisper version would have done the job," he says.