The Real is Rare campaign was launched in 2017 by the Diamond Producers Association — subsequently rebranded as the Natural Diamond Council — as a response to the rapid growth of the laboratory-grown diamond market. The campaign represented a strategic pivot away from the historical positioning of diamond as a category — most famously embodied in De Beers' A Diamond is Forever — toward a positioning specifically of natural diamond as the rare, geologically authentic alternative to a laboratory-grown product that could not match its provenance. The campaign ran in print, digital, influencer, and broadcast channels and targeted millennial and Generation Z consumers across multiple international markets.

Strategic context

The campaign emerged at a particular moment in the diamond market. Laboratory-grown diamond production had reached commercial scale by 2016, with HPHT and CVD processes producing gem-quality stones at increasingly competitive prices. The 2018 Federal Trade Commission revision of the Jewelry Guides — which redefined diamond to include laboratory-grown material and required origin disclosure — was on the horizon, and the natural-diamond sector recognised the need for a positioning that could survive the regulatory shift. Real is Rare was the campaign answer.

The strategic logic was to concede the gemmological identity of laboratory-grown diamonds — a battle that the FTC's subsequent revision made unwinnable — while differentiating natural diamonds on the dimensions where they would always have an advantage: geological age (typically over a billion years), rarity at the deposit level, and the irreplaceable nature of any specific stone's provenance. The campaign emphasised these qualities in language calibrated for a younger consumer base whose purchase considerations included sustainability, authenticity, and the emotional resonance of the underlying material.

Campaign creative

The creative direction of the campaign departed sharply from the conventional diamond marketing of the previous decades. Where De Beers' historical work had emphasised romantic occasion — engagement, anniversary, eternal love — Real is Rare presented natural diamonds in contexts of self-expression, friendship, female empowerment, and unconventional life moments. The visual style was contemporary, often showing diverse models in non-traditional jewellery formats, and the messaging avoided the prescriptive narrative of the older campaigns.

Print and digital placements emphasised the geological and provenance qualities of natural diamonds: the billion-year formation under Earth's mantle, the unique inclusions of each stone, the impossibility of identical replication. The campaign also leaned into the diversity and inclusivity messaging that defined much millennial-targeted marketing in the late 2010s, positioning natural diamonds as a product compatible with progressive cultural values rather than the conservative tradition the older campaigns had implied.

Channel strategy

The campaign deployed across traditional, digital, and influencer channels. Magazine and newspaper placements featured in publications including Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times; digital placements appeared on the publishers' online platforms and across the major social-media networks. Broadcast spots aired on cable and streaming services. Influencer partnerships paired the campaign with high-profile creators whose audiences fit the target demographic; the influencer roster shifted over the campaign's life as the Natural Diamond Council refined its targeting.

The campaign was supplemented by a website, marketing collateral for retail partners, and educational content distributed to GIA, the American Gem Society, and the major retail jewellery chains. The Natural Diamond Council also commissioned editorial-style content covering the geology, mining, and supply chain of natural diamonds, framed within the broader campaign narrative.

Reception and effectiveness

The campaign's effectiveness has been the subject of ongoing trade debate. Natural-diamond pricing came under sustained pressure in the years following launch, with significant declines in some categories driven by laboratory-grown competition; the campaign did not arrest the broader market shift. Supporters of the campaign argue that the rate of natural-diamond decline would have been faster without the differentiation effort, and that the campaign successfully repositioned the category for the post-FTC-revision market environment. Critics argue that the messaging was insufficient against the dominant pressure of laboratory-grown pricing and that the natural-diamond sector required structural rather than marketing-led responses.

The campaign was succeeded by further initiatives from the renamed Natural Diamond Council, including the Only Natural Diamonds campaign and various country-specific extensions. The strategic posture established by Real is Rare — emphasising rarity, age, and provenance over romantic occasion — continues to define the natural-diamond sector's positioning relative to laboratory-grown competition.

In the trade

For working retailers and dealers, the campaign's lasting effect is the vocabulary it established. The pairing of natural and laboratory-grown as the standard descriptive terms, the emphasis on provenance and rarity in natural-diamond presentation, and the framing of natural diamond as the rare alternative are all extensions of the campaign's strategic logic. Retailers selling both categories typically present them as distinct propositions rather than as competing options on the same dimensions, and the campaign's contribution to that framing remains visible in current trade practice.

Further reading

• GIA — Diamond reference
• GIA Gems & Gemology — diamond market and laboratory-grown articles
• GIA — Laboratory-grown diamond reference