David Yurman Partners With SCAD For a Tech- forward Holiday Campaign
David Yurman's chief marketing officer, Carolyn Dawkins, chats about partnering with SCAD to push the boundaries of fashion marketing with their new holiday campaign.
To celebrate the magic of the holiday season, David Yurman's latest campaign continues its partnership with the Savannah College of Art and Design and its SCADpro collaborative design studio to create the brand's first extended reality, or XR, project.
Diverging from the traditional video series often featured in fashion marketing, David Yurman's new holiday campaign titled “Create Joy, Give David Yurman” uses computer-generated imagery and XR camera tracking with real-time rendering technology to merge real and digital worlds together.
In doing so, an immersive virtual world was created as the setting for the campaign and to pay homage to the brand's continued inspiration of New York City. The goal of the campaign was to capture the captivating and visually sensorial experience of the joy and magic of the holiday season. Carolyn Dawkins, chief marketing officer at David Yurman, told WWD that the campaign invites viewers to experience the wonders of the city with the crowded shoppers and snowy streets under the New York skyline.
“Create Joy, Give David Yurman” features the iconic collections from the brand including the Sculpted Cable, Petite Pavé and Starburst for women, Spiritual Beads, Tags & Chains and Chevron for men,” Dawkins said. “Notable fashion stylist George Cortina worked with set designer Stefan Beckman on the project.”
Moreover, she said, the company “looked to SCAD and the SCADpro studio, a high-performance boutique design consultancy within SCAD, to help us achieve a new approach to our campaigns. We guided the team through our campaign concept, unique elements of the brand and product and various storyboard environments. Working with 36 undergraduate and graduate students from across 15 SCAD degree programs, including Film and Television, Sound Design, Visual Effects, Production Design and Graphic Design, we were able to bring the holiday campaign to life.”
Notably, SCAD and David Yurman have been partners since 2021, having created the David Yurman Endowed Scholarship for Jewelry Design. The company also donated gemstones from the brand's private collection to the university's Jewelry Design degree program, the largest in the U.S.
“SCAD is delighted to continue its synergistic relationship with leading luxury brand David Yurman and this latest SCADpro collaboration,” said Paul Stonick, vice president of SCADpro.
“SCAD produces the world's most inventive creative talent and SCADpro is the stepping-stone into their creative professions. Our students are transforming the world by leveraging powerful technologies and tools to push the boundaries of artistry. We are proud to see our cutting-edge LED volume, fueled by our creative students, showcased in this magical holiday campaign.”
Dawkins said this is the first time
David Yurman has combined XR and
CGI technologies in the same campaign, which the jewelry brand plans to continue using in future campaigns. Leading software platform Unreal Engine was originally created to make 3D elements of video games and now is used to make photorealistic environments for film sets.
Furthermore, Dawkins said that alongside the company's constant innovations in the creation of jewelry, they are also embracing new technologies when it comes to all areas of business. Through utilizing the immersive content's creation, David Yurman has been able to personalize at scale. While the inspiration and creativity vision continue to be human-driven, the company is embracing technology to help push the boundaries of ingenuity.
“Our campaign is focused on taking viewers on an adventure through Manhattan at the most magical time of the year, using a fusion of creativity and technology that pushes our artistic boundaries set by David, Sybil and Evan Yurman,” Dawkins said. “With the power of XR real-time technologies and software found in LED Volume, such as Disguise and Unreal Engine, there is no limit to how our consumers can experience David Yurman. It's pretty spectacular and we're thrilled that we had the opportunity to partner with [SCAD], both to merge real and virtual environments and to create the world of David Yurman's holiday season.”