Arts and Antiques Site Circline Starts Marketing Push

Circline, an online marketplace for arts and antiques, this week launched a four-month $4.4 million marketing push, which includes a Web site re-design, print advertising, and a direct marketing campaign.

The Web site re-design was done by ICON Icon/Nicholson NY. The company is spending $2.2 million on print ads, created by DDB Downtown. At the top of the advertisement, a picture shows a room with a blank white box in the middle. Below that, there sits a piece of art from Circline that would complete the picture. The tagline reads, “Locate, Live, Learn, Love.”

“The philosophy was that the piece makes the room,” says Rachel Meyer, chief operating officer for Circline.

The ads will appear in design-related publications like Art News, Art and Antiques, and Architectural Digest, as well as in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Forbes FYI, and W.

Direct mail and sponsorships will also be a big part of the campaign. The company is sponsoring galas at the International Art Fair and at the Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair.

“Our marketing can be very targeted because it’s such a vertical market,” says Meyer.

Circline is trying to reach a very upscale group of interior designers and collectors, and the company feels traditional direct marketing, rather than any online alternatives, will work best. The company’s average price-per-item sold is $25,000. Its online competitors include Sothebys.com, and, perhaps, art players like Guild.com and Artnet.com.