H.Samuel: A content marketing campaign

Having been a content marketer for over 2 years now, I was so excited to be able to launch a content campaign for our client H.Samuel. We wanted to do things differently as we head into this unusual peak, and our first thoughts were instantly a campaign. Content campaigns are fun, exciting and provide an opportunity to think more creatively.

The Planning

As soon as we were able to go ahead and propose some ideas, I knew I needed to get my fellow content folk involved to brainstorm ideas that would make a successful campaign (I genuinely couldn’t have done this without the support of the team). And this is where the idea of engagement rings through the decades was born. We knew the campaign needed to have a focus on bridal, but we wanted to create something that would be interesting, unique, and most importantly, engage users.

We decided to look at different engagement rings throughout history, looking at how the styles have changed, focusing on the metal types, stones, and overall style of ring. Fashion and style are constantly evolving, and we often see this go full circle too, so we knew we would be able to find exciting facts and information on this topic. We thought an infographic would be the best way to bring the campaign to life, along with supporting articles, but we also wanted to make the campaign really unique, so we carried out consumer research on the future of engagement rings so that we could get some really relevant data.

After everything we’ve all faced with the pandemic in 2020, plus the wedding industry taking a huge hit, we thought this would be a great opportunity to lift people’s spirits and add that extra bit of hope for the next year.

Once we ironed out all our ideas, we sent this across to our client who loved the concept and approved it straight away. That is where the hard work began…

The Production

Research

First things first, research! We started by finding out everything we could about the history of engagement rings, looking at whether diamonds or gemstones were most popular, what metals people chose, what were the main influences of engagement ring styles and so on.

We found so much information, which gave us a real insight into the most prominent styles through the decades. We found a lot of ring-related and engagement facts about each decade too, such as celebrity engagements, why certain styles reigned and how different types of rings came in and out of fashion.

Consumer Insight

We wanted to incorporate unique data into the campaign, so decided to take the opportunity of working with the Client Strategy team to carry out consumer research.

Then we gathered our thoughts as a team, starting with noting down what we wanted to gain from the survey and then put together some draft questions. Beth O’Grady, Client Manager, then worked her magic.

We surveyed 500 people who had either got engaged in 2020 or are in the market to get engaged by the end of 2021, to understand the current and future engagement ring styles and so we could see what was trending and what we expect to see over the next year. The survey was a great success, and we got some really fascinating results to analyse.

I spoke to Beth about consumer insight and she said –  “Learning real consumer insight is not only super interesting, but it’s also one of the most effective ways to support content campaigns and other performance marketing initiatives. Even when using a small sample size, it’s possible to ignite conversation and see the first glimpses of trends through the results. They’re a great starting point for opening up the debate around, not just content strategy, but a full rounded customer experience for your brand”.

Design

Once all of our research was complete, it was time to brief this into our design team here at Summit. It was such a good opportunity to work alongside this team to create an infographic our client would love. Working closely with Design Manager, Emily Welham, she took on the project aligning with H.Samuel’s brand guidelines and created exactly what we’d envisioned. You can see her amazing work for yourself a bit further down the page, thanks Emily!

The Final Product

After a huge effort from people across the business we finally had all our campaign elements. We created an infographic that contains a timeline of engagement rings through the decades, highlighting what styles have been the most popular throughout the years, taking you from the 1940s, right the way through to the present day. We highlighted all the main engagement ring trends throughout the decades in the timeline and put together a supporting article to delve a little deeper!

At the bottom of the infographic we look at the present year and put in our predictions on future trends, again with a supporting article where we explain our thoughts in more detail.

We also got the chance to get some words from the stunning bridal brand Emmy London to get their insight and thoughts on what we’re likely to see over the next year which is highlighted in the infographic – again adding some really unique content into our campaign.

We spoke to Lead Senior Client Manager of H.Samuel, Georgina Farrow to get her thoughts on the campaign and here’s what she had to say – “It was great to work alongside both internal Summit teams and the Signet team to pull together this content campaign. It can often be easy to focus on the e-commerce and editorial e-commerce elements, however it has been great to be able to launch this content marketing campaign. It’s a really interesting subject that has some fantastic insight on engagement rings, with details I’m sure that everyone would learn something from. Well done team!”

You can see the infographic here, as well as the history of engagement rings article and future of engagement rings article – let us know what you think!

A lot of hard work went into creating the perfect campaign for our client and I’m really happy with what we’ve achieved, and now I’m excited to see the results! As mentioned throughout, I didn’t bring this campaign to life by myself. I had so much support and involvement from the wider teams in Summit and it was great to work closely with people I don’t usually work with day to day. Everyone’s support meant we delivered a great campaign for our client!

Now when can I get started on the next one?