Burberry holiday film gives Regent Street store an animated festive spin

 

Burberry is wishing its fans a”magical festive season” with the release of a short animated film set atop London’s snowy rooftops.

“A festive night at Burberry 121 Regent Street”, as it’s called, sees a silhouetted couple travel by umbrella to the doorstep of the new flagship store where a party awaits.

Accompanied by the soundtrack “Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)” by Laura Marling, it sees them dancing on the second floor while a fox and an owl, both central to Burberry’s autumn/winter 2012/13 collection, dart across the screen. Even the Burberry festive van pulls up, before the couple depart, catching a giftbag floating down on a balloon as they do that opens up to a coat for the woman to wear home.

Housed on holiday.burberry.com, the film ends with the closing of the greetings card, social icons to encourage fans to share and the festive message that it’s celebrating the season by donating to the Burberry Foundation, which helps young people realise their full potential through the power of their creativity.

Cinemagram’s crowdsourced GIF content could prove viral win for fashion brands

Rodarte

There’s no denying the unfathomable appetite online for GIFs at present, or Graphics Interchange Format images to use their full name. Although the simple animated pictures (made up of multiple frames on loop) are about to celebrate their 25th anniversary, they’re being feted across the web now more than ever.

Within the fashion industry, what’s followed of course is bundles of beautifully creative work – pioneered by blogger Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg with their “Cinemagraphs”, as reported here, and since carried on by all manner of Tumblr stars, including the likes of Mr Gif and FashGif.

In fact, on Tumblr, GIFs are hands-down the most successful posts. As Rick Webb, Tumblr’s revenue consultant explained at an event in New York recently it’s these that result in the most engagement actions – likes, reblogs and follows.

Needless to say therefore, fashion brands have cashed in on them too; Burberry, Oscar de la Renta and Calvin Klein as just a couple of examples. Below meanwhile is a recent tribute to the late Lee (Alexander) McQueen created by Nick Knight, and above another created by Rodarte, both of whom are part of the selection committee for a forthcoming GIF exhibition at Art Basel Miami created by Tumblr and Paddle8 called Moving the Still.

Over the past few months, Cinemagram is a name that keeps popping up in relation to all this. One of a number of apps dedicated to the GIF, it essentially simplifies the whole process for individuals to do themselves by using film, while simultaneously tapping into a sense of community once more (think Instagram for GIFs – grainy filters and all). It launched on the iPhone in March 2012, and reportedly has over two million users already.

Referred to as “a fun and beautiful way to animate your photos”, it has caught the eye of a number in the fashion industry especially. It’s interesting to see who is, or has been, on there already – the usual (largely New York-based) digital crowd when it comes to individuals, as well as the industry’s most tech-savvy brands, including Nicola Formichetti, Bergdorf’s and Rebecca Minkoff.

What seems to be the most interesting part of it, however, is nothing to do with corporations having to manage yet another social media outlet, but being able to use it to crowdsource content from their followers.

Brands such as Red Bull and music stars like Pink and Linkin Park have partnered with the platform to offer users the ability to remix official videos and create their own interpretations of the work. The sharing features built into the app then help spread it.

An original post introducing the “Remix” feature, reads: “For the first time, users can engage, interact, and be creative with official video content in a way that has never existed before. Companies want more exposure for their video content… We view cines as tweets for videos and therefore potentially a unique opportunity for Cinemagram to achieve their goals.” Users were doing it already, now they can do so legitimately, and directly from the source.

While a number of fashion brands told me they don’t see uploading their own content on Cinemagram to have too much of a future for them, one e-commerce site in particular said they’re excited to look at how to make use of this new crowdsourcing opportunity. Sending snippets of content out to fans and using it is as a teaser for a then full campaign video is enormously appealing, they explained.

Watch this space…

Nick Knight’s GIF tribute to Alexander McQueen

Calvin Klein partners with FashGif for fun Tumblr images

Calvin Klein has enlisted Tumblr blogger FashGif to create a series of animated images of its new spring/summer 2013 womenswear collection.

The initiative sees still catwalks shots from the recent NYFW show brought playfully to life through added interest and detail, thanks to the signature work of FashGif’s Greta Larkin. As her page reads, it’s all about “making fashion move”.

Each image is appearing on Calvin Klein’s own Tumblr page every day this week. Below are two more examples of those released so far.

The company is also continuing its relationship with blogger and model Hanneli Mustaparta, focused on behind-the-scenes images from fashion week.

FashGif also created this exclusive image for trend forecasting site WGSN’s Tumblr last week, inspired by the Proenza Schouler SS13 show:

Nina Ricci handbag campaign turns artsy with GIFs

Nina Ricci is the latest fashion house to turn to animated GIFs in its advertising, launching a beautifully artistic campaign for its new La Rue bag.

There are a total of four images seen brought to life by the handiwork of British artist Jo Ratcliffe. Each is reworked into what the brand refers to as “a series of modern, poetic illustrations”.

Set in iconic places in Paris, the nature of each ad is said to illustrate the different characters of the bag.

“[Within] the Promenade Plantée – Paris’s answer to the High Line – it appears soft and romantic, while on the Rue de Verneuil on the Left Bank, it is bewitching and bold. Chic and charismatic on the Avenue Montaigne, it becomes mysterious and elusive at Pigalle,” reads the write-up.

The three other images are shown below…

Calvin Klein to reveal interactive digital challenge for new fragrance

Calvin Klein is set to launch an interactive digital campaign to help celebrate the release of its new men’s fragrance, Encounter Calvin Klein, this September.

“Dare to Encounter” as the initiative is called, encompasses a virtual journey and a series of challenges for users to unlock and engage with on a dedicated website.

Fronted by True Blood actor Alexander Skarsgård, who was announced as the face of the scent in June, it follows a tale of desire with the brand’s other campaign star and supermodel muse, Lara Stone.

It uses animated GIFs (as shown) to “capture moments from the television advertising shoot and bring them to life in an unexpected way”.

All those who complete the challenge will be granted access to watch the Encounter Calvin Klein short film, and be entered into a prize draw.

The campaign was created by Fabien Baron of Baron + Baron, alongside Calvin Klein’s in-house advertising agency CRK, and interactive media and technology agency AKQA.

CR Fashion Book teased with animated editorial shot

Carine Roitfeld has unveiled an animated GIF to promote her new magazine, CR Fashion Book, which is due to launch during New York Fashion Week on September 13.

The image is the first revealed from the actual publication. It features model Juliet Ingleby (photographed by Sebastian Faena and styled by Roitfeld) walking through a graveyard covered only by a floating sheer purple scarf. It is this that blows in the wind in the animated version of the shot.

There was previously a behind-the-scenes video that accompanied a preview issue released.