Over the years, we’ve come across some exceedingly interesting and truly unique companies and products. One such example is AmaThambo, a specialist jewellery and design firm with a product offering like no other.
AmaThambo (which translates to “bones”) manufactures jewellery inspired by Africa’s magnificent biodiversity. Each piece is cast from the actual remains of animals that perished from natural causes and also includes gemstones and precious metals responsibly sourced on the African continent.
As you might imagine, this range features incredibly unusual yet highly authentic jewellery pieces, from ghost crab chain earrings, rhinoceros beetle cufflinks and snake vertebrae bracelets to Cape sugarbird pendants and even rat skull rings. And unusual products sometimes require unusual PR techniques.
Our method was twofold. Firstly, we went about positioning AmaThambo products as both one-of-a-kind artworks and strong statements of personal style, each featuring a distinctly African flavour. We achieved this using seeded content carefully placed with specific publications.
Furthermore, in a broader push to raise awareness about the company, tell its story and more specifically garner exposure for its unique range of personal ornaments (as well as inform the public of exactly where they could find these products), we ran a series of competitions with select media titles, giving readers the opportunity to win high-end pieces worth thousands of Rands. The response was fantastic.
Where we went off script was by identifying and reaching a very precise set of prospective clients that agencies lacking our personal touch just wouldn’t have considered. Yes, we simultaneously targeted a specific niche market, using a number of baby publications to position certain of the AmaThambo jewellery pieces as the ultimate range of “push presents” (gifts given to mothers to mark the occasion of the birth to their children).
While the typical push present is indeed a piece of jewellery, there’s nothing typical about the AmaThambo line. And we’re proud to say it was an approach that delivered resounding success.
