Welcome to our best-read issue of the year, the June issue of JCK!
If you’re reading this at JCK Las Vegas, I hope you’ve noticed the beautiful 150th-anniversary graphics located above our show distribution stands. The milestone is such an exciting reminder of what an institution this publication (and now its website) is!
We are thrilled that the JCK show has returned to the Sands Expo and Convention Center and The Venetian, and we’re sure that the show will provide the ideal mixture of selling, buying, education, networking, and just plain fun. I look forward to seeing so many friends from around the world this week.
Speaking of seeing industry friends, I’ve recently returned from this year’s very successful American Gem Society (AGS) Conclave in Seattle. What a terrific edition of this event! Congrats to Katherine Bodoh, CEO of AGS, and John Carter, president of the board of AGS, on a truly memorable event.
AGS also provided me and Jewelers of America’s Molly Fallon and Amanda Gizzi with a platform to present an update on the “Got Milk?”–style generic jewelry ad campaign on which I am consulting with Jewelers of America (JA). The organization has raised nearly $200,000 to date (with $100,000 to go) to create a digital advertising test in 2019. To spearhead the creative, JA selected the venerable agency Cramer-Krasselt—and its digital offshoot, CK—and the creative tagline they introduced, “Another Piece of Your Story,” celebrates the role jewelry plays in a consumer’s life. Check out the campaign’s progress at jewelers.org/consumercampaign.
Finally, thanks to super-host Monica Stephenson of iDazzle and Anza Gems, who held a Women’s Jewelry Association party at her family’s spectacular Seattle home. What an amazing evening of seeing terrific friends and making new ones, all in an inspirational setting. Such fun!
I’m sure I’ll have many similar stories from Vegas to share in my next publisher’s letter in JCK’s July/August issue. I’m already excited about the solid business—and solid fun—we’ll accomplish.
Best of luck at the show!
Top: The site of this year’s AGS Conclave, scenic Seattle
(Smelzer: Photograph by Nicholas A. Prakas; Grooming: Claudia Andreatta/Halley Resources; Seattle: Ferrantraite/iStock/Getty)