Situation Analysis
After the Asian financial crisis, Korea emerged as one of the strongest economies in the world, and its people had buying power previously unknown on the peninsula. Diamonds, however, had not become popular in Korea and were seen as a traditional wedding gift, and little more. The program devised by Burson-Marsteller for De Beers set out to use the Diamond International Awards Seoul 2000 to reposition and promote diamonds as being fun, hip, exciting and trendy. The goal was to then leverage the publicity around the event to create a desire to own diamond jewelry among Korean women. A second objective was to promote awareness and elevate the international prestige of Korean jewelry designers, laying the foundation for future Korean Diamond International Award winners.

Implementation & Strategy
Invitations to the event were sent out to approximately 250 people, including media, VIPs and influencers, including celebrities, stylists, fashion designers, and PRADA ladies. The event was designed to be fun & exciting as well as stylish and to appeal to the young, hip & trendy set. The event also had to capitalize on the euphoria surrounding the dawn of the new Millennium.

Although Burson-Marsteller Korea worked closely with the event company to ensure that the entire event echoed and reinforced our message, the Burson-Marsteller team was the brains behind the creativity. We also coordinated with our other regional offices to examine the possibility of attracting attendance by international and Asia-Pacific celebrities to encourage participation by TV entertainment shows.

A media press package was developed covering the event and diamond information in general and commitments to attend were sought and obtained from key media. Interviews were arranged in advance with the winner and the sponsor of the event to ensure maximum exposure. A high-class fashion magazine was selected to provide exclusive coverage and photos and story ideas and angles were developed to ensure participation by newspaper photographers.

TV entertainment programs that might be interested in covering the event were identified and attendance and coverage was negotiated ahead of the event. Interviews with the winner and the sponsor and guest appearances on morning talk shows were also arranged.

Results
The event was enormously successful. Burson-Marsteller Korea attracted more media to the event than any of the competing companies. Celebrity attendance proved very effective in securing media participation and generated significant coverage in print and broadcast media. The event significantly raised consumer awareness of diamonds as everyday fashion items and created potential for a new market targeting Korea’s younger generation.