Lessons from 'Pandora do': How one campaign can suit the world

'Pandora do', a vibrant new advertising campaign by the international jewellery maker Pandora, has been brightening billboards, TV screens and Instagram feeds across the world for a little over a month now. 

The campaign marks a departure for the brand in that it hopes to inspire positive change in the way its customers think about themselves, as well as promoting its latest collections.

Leading the charge are the women cast in the new television advert, 'Craft of You'—successful leaders from different walks of life who describe what their jewellery means to them—and the diverse key opinion leaders the brand has teamed up with around the world, including personalities from the travel, food and activism worlds as well as beauty and fashion bloggers. 

Pandora has a hugely varied customer base in both geographical and demographical terms. Its Asia-Pacific market is the fastest-growing, achieving a 19 percent profit rise last year, but also the smallest, compared to the well-established American and EMEA markets. Yet Pandora's marketing board still gambled that one approach for 'Pandora do' would suit the whole world. Campaign Asia-Pacific took a trip to the company's largest Hong Kong store, in Nathan Road, to meet Isabella Mann, the company's vice president of marketing for APAC, to find out more about why this strategy is working for the brand. 

The Asian consumer is surprisingly not very different from other consumers, explained Mann. The products that sell out in the Americas and EMEA are largely similar to those that sell out in APAC, she continued: therefore one campaign, with one message, really does have the most impact.

However, while the marketing materials may remain the same, Pandora's communication methods do vary region by region. Out-of-home and digital are both powerful marketing vehicles for Pandora in Asia, Mann said. Over 60 percent of Pandora’s media budget in China is spent on digital, for example. And Pandora has recently taken tentative steps into the Asian e-commerce world with a store on Alibaba’s Tmall—partly an attempt to try and combat the “grey market” for copycat products, said Mann—as well as its own e-stores in China and Hong Kong. 

In terms of social media, Pandora has a global Instagram account, meaning any posts by local ambassadors or KOLs that the APAC region has worked with will be communicated by the global team on their behalf. Hong Kong has its own Pandora Facebook page, however, and the brand uses WeChat extensively in China. The secret to effective marketing on this platform, said Mann, is a combination of colour and being natural. "[Communications on WeChat] have to be very visually impactful and that’s why our 'do' campaign is working so well, because it’s so colourful," she said. "The model poses particularly are very energetic, they’re unposed. There is a sense of authenticity. And the message needs to be short, sharp and to the point."