Bling my sell

All you need is love and MySpace

What?: Luxury jewelry brand Cartier is to promote its latest Love – By Cartier collection with a major music focus.

Cartier has set up both a microsite and a MySpace site to promote the new range with the help from 12 international artists. The multi-territory deal, brokered with MySpace France, spans eight separate languages. In the first few days, the profile logged 100,000 views.

Artists featured in the campaign include Lou Reed, Sol Seppy, Little Dragon, and Grand National. Songs from all artists are available as free downloads.

In addition to this, Janet Jackson, Fergie, Good Charlotte, Eve, Common, Hilary Duff, and Ashanti have all been named as ambassadors for Cartier’s LOVECHARITY bracelet. Rihanna performed at the annual LOVEDAY on 19th June, with 10% of bracelet sales gong to charity.

So what?: Has Cartier taken its high-end product to the wrong audience on MySpace? Anyone who has had to endure the heavily-laden, slow-loading pages of some MySpace destinations will be familiar with bling-encrusted sites from wannabe R&B artists. Cartier gets its
fair share of hip-hop name-checking, so maybe the fit is right. The problem here is the choice of artists; Lou Reed, for example, just doesn’t reflect this audience or age group.

“When an iconic luxury brand not only embraces social media, but also includes artists that are distinct within their campaign, this is an indicator that traditional bricks and mortar retailers consider these concepts as a viable promotional outlet and others will follow suit.”
Kimmie Smith, Editor, The Kitten Lounge

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