Cartier unveils latest ad campaign, concentrating on a Magnificent Seven

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jan 5, 2021

Cartier has unveiled latest ad campaign, entitled The Culture of Design, and concentrating on its Magnificent Seven, iconic creations by the famed jeweller.

The move marks a significant change in tactics by Cartier; instead of focusing of its latest new products, this campaign will be all about its historic best hits.

Culture of Design features seven key objects in the jeweler’s rich patrimony. They are
four noted watches: the Santos, Tank , Panthère and Ballon Bleu, the Love and Juste un Clou nail bracelets, and the Trinity triple ring.

“It’s the first time we have reunited all these iconic creations in a premier campaign. They are seven key objects in the history of the house. This is an homage to the culture of design central to Cartier. And an opportunity to celebrate creation that is trans-generational, in that they find an echo worldwide in different generations,” explained Arnaud Carrez, international marketing and communications director of Cartier International.

“It’s very hard to date our Cartier products – as even creations which are over 100 years old look contemporary,” added Carrez.

Each item has a long legacy, some of the truly venerable, like the Santos which dates back to 1904, when it was designed for the legendary aviator Alberto Santos Dumont after he told his pal Louis Cartier he had difficulty checking his pocket watch in flight. Like the Santos, the entangled Trinity ring in three colors of gold was fruit of the founding family’s imagination, again designed by Louis Cartier, in 1924.

Others reflect the artistic mood of their era, like the Juste un Clou, whose pure yet tough chic form were created by Aldo Cipullo, an Italian creator in New York.

“We have concentrated on our cult objects, since they are cultural references, admired throughout many decades,” noted Carrez, showing off black-and-white shots of famed thesps, starts and poets Charlotte Rampling or Jean Cocteau with a Trinity, or Rudolph Valentino or Romy Schneider.

Shot in a high-tech color scheme, the campaign highlights exact proportions and unity of line. Mono-product images – with an element of the detail of each creation, from the  screwdriver of the Love bracelet to the head and point of the Juste un Clou bracelet.
    
All told, it’s a strategic campaign that will appear in traditional media, from newspapers to magazines;  in Cartier store windows globally; extensively on social  media, including the house’s own website, and even on airport posters.

Carrez declined to provide a budget for the Culture of Design campaign, and noted that Cartier will create other parallel campaigns. In the past few years it has featured Jake Gyllenhaal as an ambassador for the Santos watch, and hired Sofia Coppola to shoot ads.

Like for many brands, 2020 was a very tricky year for Cartier, though the brand would appear to have weathered it better than most.  Last February, Cartier launched on T-Mall in China, “maybe at the worst possible moment,” conceded Carrez, however the rollout which included an ensemble of all categories “proved to be the point of rupture and the results have been incredible!”

For Cartier, which is the key watch and jewelry marque within the giant luxury goods conglomerate Richemont, the international lockdown was also a learning curve.

“We also discovered the force of these unique objects on social media; as in this crisis we have continually seen the greatest engagement with our iconic collections. Even in the worst moments, there was an acceleration in emotional commentary by clients who talked of the feeling evoked by these objects. From the feeling created by a purchase, or buying a present online for a friend or family member. Very marked testimony,” he stressed.

Another revelation was the fact that there was no real question of age when it comes to the magnificent seven, since the Cartier love bracelet is the most searched-for bracelet on Google.