Government of the Northwest Territories · Diamonds Projects
How a government certification program for northern Canadian diamonds found its way to the Ellen Show, the Golden Globes, Diana Krall's Christmas album, and Bryant Park — by building a cultural identity, not a campaign.
Major cultural moments activated
Countries reached organically
Paid media placements needed
Campaign. Endless rooms entered.
What They Thought
The Government of the Northwest Territories had built something genuinely exceptional — a government-certified diamond industry, with cutting and polishing taught at Aurora College, producing stones of traceable northern Canadian origin. The region also offered extraordinary tourism potential.
But nobody outside the north knew. The brief was simple: create awareness. The budget was not. Low resources, heavy global competition from established diamond brands, and a government client not accustomed to thinking like a cultural actor.
What KITI Saw
The diamonds were not the product. Rarity was the product. Canadian diamonds — traceable, ethical, northern, hand-crafted by artisans trained in one of the most remote regions on earth — carried a story that no advertising budget could manufacture.
The insight was this: in a world saturated with luxury goods and contested ethical claims, provenance is the new luxury. A diamond from the Northwest Territories is not competing with De Beers. It is in a category of one.
You don't have an awareness problem. You have an untold story living in one of the most compelling landscapes on earth. Our job is to walk it into the rooms where it belongs.
What We Built
We built a single narrative thread — Rare in Nature — and then identified every room in culture where rarity, craft, ethics, and Canadian identity intersected. Then we walked the story into those rooms, one relationship at a time.
The campaign did not advertise. It associated. Every activation was chosen because it put northern Canadian diamonds in the company of things the world already agreed were extraordinary.
The Cultural Moments
Northern Canadian diamonds reaching one of the world's most watched daytime audiences. Rarity, humanised.
Cross-promotion with Diana Krall's debut Christmas album. Canadian craft meeting Canadian artistry.
NWT diamonds placed in the hands of Hollywood. The ultimate room to walk a rare story into.
Rare in Nature diamonds on the runway. Northern craft entering the fashion conversation.
Collaboration on a tree topper for Kenneth Cole's AIDS charity initiative. Ethics meeting craft.
Pop-up diamond cutting and polishing display. A children's book reading. The north, in the heart of Manhattan.
The Rare in Nature diamond jewellery collection — artisan craft elevated to editorial.
A feature that put the NWT diamond story in front of the global luxury consumer on their own terms.
An experiential moment that turned passive awareness into active engagement in the world's most competitive city.
The KITI Insight
Rare in Nature was not a campaign. It was a cultural identity that travelled. From a college in Yellowknife to a gift bag at the Golden Globes — not because of budget, but because the story was true, the positioning was precise, and every room we entered was chosen deliberately. That is what cultural strategy looks like when it works.
Work With KITI
The Work · Rare in Nature · thekiti.com