NEW YORK — Terri Eagle is getting down to work at John Hardy, with new ads and retail stores high on her agenda.
Eagle was hired as John Hardy’s president and chief executive officer in June after resigning as chief operating officer at David Yurman. She has tapped Radical.Media, the agency behind Apple’s iPod campaign, to create a new John Hardy advertising program.
The campaign is the first of her major plans for the 18-year-old firm, which specializes in silver and gold jewelry handmade at its home base in Bali. Eagle also wants to open an undetermined number of company stores in the U.S. The firm only wholesales to department stores and independent jewelers. In addition, she is repositioning some of Hardy’s offerings, like the fine jewelry collection called Cinta, which will be relaunched next fall, and focusing on categories like pearls and possibly watches.
“The collection has evolved,” said Eagle, referring to John Hardy’s revamped freshwater and cultured pearl collection that bowed exclusively at Neiman Marcus for this spring, and the introduction of brightly hued stones like amethyst and citrine. “My goal is to [boost] the marketing a little piece at a time.”
John Hardy’s previous campaigns sought to express a lifestyle message. For example, the ads launched in 2005 showed the firm’s founder and designer, John Hardy; his wife and business partner, Cynthia Hardy; their two children, and a model perusing a desert among a herd of goats in India. All of the women in the ads donned the jewelry.
The first leg of the new campaign is based on still-life images. Each features a closeup of the jewelry that accentuates the hand details, like filigree patterns, insect motifs on the back of pieces and intricate pavé diamond work. The jewelry is sometimes juxtaposed with a natural object, such as a fruit or bamboo plant. The images are laid out on a stark white background that bears an updated John Hardy logo.
Radical.Media chairman Jon Kamen, who is a friend of the Hardys and assembled the campaign in 30 days, said the old advertising was suitable in expressing the company lifestyle and mission, but the actual pieces of jewelry were hard to see.
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“The best way to pay homage to the brand was to show the piece itself,” Kamen said. “We’re taking it to another level.”
Hardy said the jewelry’s hand touches are key to the brand.
“We are manufacturing things with a great amount of hand in them, whether it be in the carving, the drawing or the finishing,” he said. “[People] are masters at evaluating, feeling and interacting with things that are made by hand. The jewelry calls back to that part of the brain and the heart, and resonates with many people.”
The national print campaign, with a total of 16 images, will bow in April issues of W, Vogue, In Style, Town and Country and Vanity Fair.
Radical.Media is also redesigning the firm’s Web site to elaborate on the ads and tell the John Hardy story. The Web site, which will have a soft launch in April to coincide with the rollout of the new print campaign, will not be an e-commerce site, but will direct consumers to their local retailers that carry a John Hardy assortment.
“The story of their brand is incredible,” said Kamen, who visited the firm’s compound with a camera crew to get footage for the Web site, as well as for future TV commercials. “From a consumer standpoint, [the Web site is] a very beautiful way to see the product, but also to know John and to understand and appreciate his philosophy and entire concept of sustainable luxury.”
Eagle, who was credited with helping to take David Yurman to the $500 million level by spearheading a rollout of signature stores and expanding into categories like men’s, children’s and gold and pearl jewelry, said she is bullish about 2006 at John Hardy.
She said the company came out of 2005 with “high double-digit increases” and projects significant boosts this year.