The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has launched a powerful new marketing channel for the dissemination of industry news to promote diamonds in a tie-up with the  diamond Producers Association (DPA). WFDB President Ernie Blom said the new initiative would help spread positive news about diamonds and create a unified response to help counter negative advertising by the lab-grown diamond sector and prevent confusion among consumers.

"We have set up a WFDB Whatsapp group of all the directors of the WFDB's 29 affiliated member bourses," explained Blom. "If every bourse director broadcasts the content to all of his/her many contacts, we will have an initial target of 25,000 people who are active in the diamond trade, which is an excellent start. From there, we expect
to see the figure to grow organically and to rise extremely quickly." He added that the aim was to rapidly find a convenient way to share DPA’s digital content – starting with its work in the US – on a weekly basis that allows for broadcast to the global trade. All the content created by the DPA for digital use will be shared on
Whatsapp initially, though this could move to a different social media vehicle if it is considered more efficient and provides for greater dissemination. At that point, it would
be copied for other markets.

"Due to the urgent need of increased marketing, the WFDB and DPA have entered into a cooperation agreement to share key messaging to create alignment within the midstream," Blom wrote in the latest Blog article from the WFDB President which is part of the organization's new communications strategy.

"The emergence of laboratory-grown diamonds (LGDs) in global markets, especially in the US, has created a need to clearly differentiate natural diamonds from LGDs in the minds of consumers through targeted communications and education. Moreover, many LGD marketers have been communicating deceptively about their product and natural
diamonds, which warrants a collective industry response as the consumer is becoming increasingly confused. The debate on LGDs should in our case become a 'unifier'.

The whole trade, from small to medium to large corporations including miners, should stand together. "We are exploring how to better collectively align our communications around diamonds, LGDs, and the key differentiators for messaging, content development and sharing. Distribution focus will be through digital/social channels and through wide trade
distribution)," he concluded.