Hitched at Helzberg
What do you do with a 100-year-old jewelry brand that’s losing relevance and foot traffic? We ordained their associates and offered real, legal weddings in stores. Yes, now you can get the ring and get hitched at any Helzberg Diamonds location nationwide.
Case Study
To make it happen, we entered into a first-ever brand partnership with Universal Life Church, one of the world’s largest online ordination sites, to ordain over a thousand Helzberg associates. Then we worked with their retail opperations team to provide toolkits containing detailed legal requirements for each state and vow options so that associates would be ready to officiate on the spot.
Ordination Hub
Pins to identify ordained associates in stores
Toolkit
The program launched in the fall of 2019 to huge success. In the first three months, Helzberg hosted over 75 weddings across 21 different states and it quickly become a standard part of their business.
Valentine’s Day 2020
So, for Valentine's Day, we decided to celebrate the program and all of the love happening at Helzberg Diamonds over the past few months.
Covid-19
Just a few weeks later, Covid hit and many couples’ traditional wedding plans were decimated. We quickly responded by reaching out to newly engaged customers and offered up free wedding ceremonies to those looking for an alternative. Hundreds took advantage.
The campaign generated more than 550.4 million earned impressions (1.4k placements). Highlights included The New York Times, Adweek and NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.”
Recognized by The One Show and Communication Arts.
✎ Made at Carmichael Lynch with Alison Dunning, Veronica Kraus & Annika Lapakko.