The Challenge
The House of Graff wanted to build relationships with new customers outside of its traditional consumer base. The iconic jeweler was keen on making a splash to generate meaningful brand awareness among a new audience.
The Idea
With Graff’s goal in mind of reaching new customers, we conceptualized a disruptive partnership between the most unlikely of brands: Graff, a world-renowned, well-established, iconic luxury brand, and Beats by Dr. Dre, a lifestyle brand on fire among celebrities, athletes, influencers and millennial consumers. In order to make the splash Graff and Beats craved, we developed a product unlike any other: an extraordinary $1 million pair of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones featuring 112 carats of Graff Diamonds.
The guiding principle of this creative strategy was that each brand has credibility in a growth market for the other: For Graff, Beats represented a partner that could help the jewelry company access potential customers in the sports, entertainment and urban markets; for Beats, the partnership with Graff was the foundation for the entry into the ultra-luxury market.
The headphones became an immediate sensation when Sky Blu, a DJ and rapper with the group LMFAO, wore them on America’s biggest stage: the Halftime Show at Super Bowl XLVI.
Complete with a world tour, the Million Dollar Headset activated Beats’ extraordinary relationships in the sports and entertainment industries, allowing Graff to reposition itself to a new audience and acquire customers in key markets.
The Results
In addition to generating tens of millions of dollars of brand exposure for the companies, both Graff and Beats saw incremental sales from this innovative marketing tactic. Spurring social conversation, press and media mentions, the one-of-a-kind product undoubtedly made a splash.
The headphones were such a success that Graff and Beats did it again in 2014 with the launch of a Super Bowl-inspired limited edition headset, valued at $25,000 per pair. Players on each team received a pair of the yellow and white gold-encrusted headphones to commemorate the game.