Burberry boosts digital approach with interactive campaign

by Nicola Clark, 29 May 2012, 12:01am

Burberry is to embrace '"fast fashion" by allowing consumers to buy items from its next collection online and in-store ahead of traditional drop dates.

Burberry: ad campaign stars actress Gabriella Wilde and musician Roo Paines

For the first time, consumers will be able to purchase its autumn-winter collection directly through a campaign gallery and short films on Burberry.com.

The campaign will also run across digital platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and Pinterest.

The news follows the launch of the brand's 'Runway to Reality' strategy, which allows VIP consumers to buy items from its runway collections immediately, via an iPad app.

The campaign, which will go live across all platforms on 1 June, will also focus on Burberry's British heritage, in an effort to capitalise on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the build-up to the London 2012 Olympics.

Shot in Greenwich, London, at the site of the Games’ equestrian competition, Burberry claims it is the brand’s biggest ad production yet.

The ads will star British actress Gabriella Wilde and British musician Roo Paines, who has written an exclusive track 'Indigo Home' for the campaign.

Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer at Burberry, said that the campaign "celebrates our brand and London through imagery, film, music, weather and our iconic outerwear in a very British way".

In depth: Burberry’s digital ‘Runway to Reality’ strategy

In danger of being consigned to history a decade ago, Burberry has undergone a creative and digital revolution under the direction of chief creative officer Christopher Bailey, who joined the company in 2001.

He believes the company is now "as much a media-content company as a design company". Recent digital innovations have included:
 

• Art of the Trench, the photo-sharing website, which enabled consumers as well as fashion photographers to document how they wear the iconic Burberry trench coat, has become a go-to case study for marketers looking to co-creation to drive brand awareness and engagement through user generated content.

• The brand live streamed its London Fashion Week catwalk to its 25 global flagship stores this year, allowing consumers to place immediate orders from the collection with a seven-week delivery. Shoppers were invited to place their orders via custom-built Burberry apps.

• Burberry continued its digital democratisation of fashion with itsTweetwalk, partnering with Twitter to post backstage Twitpics of every look before they were sent down the runway, meaning the brand’s Twitter followers saw its runway looks in advance of fashonistas in the front row. During the Tweetwalk the brand’s Instagram account was taken over by Mike Kus, the most-followed Instagram user in the UK.

• The brand was also cited in Facebook’s recent IPO documentation for its fragrance launch campaign which reached 10 million Facebook fans. When users Liked or commented on the Burberry Page or perfume story, the users’ actions were shared with their friends via News Feed, driving awareness to a wider circle of users.

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