Burberry’s new autumn/winter 2012 campaign launched today, as previously reported allowing consumers to shop directly from the creative on the brand’s website.
Here are some of the videos released, including the soundtrack, “Indigo Home” by campaign star Roo Panes. Check them out:
Burberry is inviting consumers to purchase directly from its autumn/winter 2012 campaign and ahead of store delivery, through a series of short films and imagery.
In a continuation of the brand’s Runway to Reality concept, which allows consumers to pre-order items straight from the catwalk, fans will be able to buy straight from the campaign gallery on Burberry.com for the first time.
The campaign – starring up-and-coming British actress Gabriella Wilde, alongside musician Roo Panes – will break on June 1, with new creative rolled out on a monthly basis thereafter. Referred to as the brand’s “most cinematic shoot to date”, it was captured by Mario Testino at the Royal Naval College in London at night.
“We wanted to play with everything that’s at the heart of the Burberry world – celebrating our brand and London through imagery, film, music, weather and our iconic outerwear, all in a very poetic and British way,” said chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey.
Panes has written and recorded a track called “Indigo Home” exclusively for Burberry, due to be released on iTunes also on June 1. The campaign will also be pushed across international platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Sina Weibo, Douban, Kaixin001 and Youku.
Here’s the behind-the-scenes film of British band The Feeling discussing their recording of Rosé, the soundtrack to the new Burberry Body fragrance campaign starring Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
A lovely tribute to “the fabric” of Abbey Road, it was posted last week ahead of the single’s release tomorrow, October 10, alongside its exclusive music video, also recorded at Abbey Road.
To give it its full title, Rosé Unplugged at Abbey Road for Burberry Body, is said to be the first official release of a single by a luxury brand. Burberry has partnered with Shazam, Youtube and Facebook to enable its connection with multiple global audiences.
“Music is a hugely important facet of the Burberry world and with the launch of Burberry Body we wanted to create an iconic soundtrack that reflects the sensuality and attitude of the fragrance. We worked with The Feeling, a band that I have long admired on a unique recording of Rosé at Abbey Road. This exclusive string version captures the mood and spirit of the Burberry Body campaign perfectly,” said chief creative officer Christopher Baliey.
Watch the full Burberry Body campaign film here, or listen to a full-length version of The Feeling’s Rosé, here. Below too is the behind-the-scenes of Rosie’s actual shoot with Mario Testino, released back in August:
You can also buy the single on iTunes, here.
Burberry has partnered with Twitter for its spring/summer 2012 show due at 4pm today, providing fans with a backstage Twitpic of every look before it hits the runway.
The “Tweetwalk”, as it’s been named, will allow @Burberry Twitter followers to see the collection moments before anyone else and in so doing once again confirms the luxury label’s status as a digital innovator.
Twitter’s new media gallery photo functionality also allows all of the images to be viewed in full – click here to see.
“We are thrilled to create the first ever ‘’Tweetwalk show’’ in partnership with Twitter. Twitter is instantaneous and I love the idea that streaming a show can be in many different forms. This collection is all about the most detailed hand crafted pieces and fabric innovation, creating a beautiful physical experience that is communicated digitally in dynamic and diverse ways and I love balancing those two worlds,” said Burberry’s chief creative officer Christopher Bailey.
“Burberry was one of the first brands to truly understand Twitter’s ability to connect people all over the world with what’s most meaningful to them. Thanks to their creativity, fashion lovers everywhere will be able to see the new Burberry collection even before those in the front row,” added Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter UK.
The initiative comes as part of a move to offer fans the experience of the show from start to finish, providing them with greater access than ever before – in fact more so than those present – to enable them to feel a real part of the story.
Accordingly, the live-stream continues as per previous seasons with coverage of the red carpet in the build up to the event. It can be seen on various media partner sites as well as on Burberry.com and the brand’s YouTube and Facebook pages. For the first time, the brand’s 8m Facebook fans are also able to stream the show on their own page.
Meanwhile, the brand’s Instagram account is also joining in the action, this time with British photographer Mike Kus, the most followed user in the UK, at the helm.
And for those interested in buying spring/summer 2012 immediately, the brand’s runway to reality concept continues this season too – offering consumers the ability to purchase items from the collection exclusively online and at in-store events worldwide for one week for delivery within just eight weeks.
Meanwhile, those lucky enough to have a ticket to the show, will also be welcomed by “an immersive, multi-faceted experience” surrounding the brand’s new Burberry Body fragrance.
A 4-D hologram of face Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will be showcased in a scented room using innovative virtual imagery first pioneered by the brand for its Beijing store launch earlier this year.
Check out Bailey’s intro to today’s show, below:
I was one of those 250,000 or so people to sign up for a sample of the all-new Burberry Body fragrance, as first introduced by chief creative officer Christopher Bailey via YouTube (as below).
Even after reading this FT story, saying it would be “expensively packaged”, I still wasn’t expecting very much, so I was wonderfully surprised when what arrived was as beautifully done as the above picture demonstrates.
Included was a miniature (4.5ml) version of the new bottle design, and a postcard featuring model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley alongside the words “Thank you for being a Burberry Facebook fan”. It also encourages those on Twitter to share with “#Body” written simply underneath.
Expensive would be the right word, but then doing so took a significant portion of the brand’s anonymous online fans and gave them an identity. One complete with full address. Very clever.
According to the FT, the promotion also boosted the number of Burberry fans on the social networking site by 500,000 in just a week to over 8m.
Burberry now dedicates over 60% of its annual marketing budget to digital media – more than three times the market average.
The June issue of UK Wired magazine landed on my desk this morning and in it the second annual Wired 100 list, featuring the most influential people in digital Britain.
It’s worth a read. First off, a woman took the top spot – Joanna Shields, vice president of EMEA Facebook – but most pleasing was the representation of fashion throughout.
Number 20 went to Natalie Massanet, founder of luxury etailer Net-a-Porter. Up from spot 72 last year, Massanet was highlighted due in the main, and rightly so, to the launch of the site’s menswear equivalent, Mr Porter, in February.”We felt men’s shopping offline and online is a subset of the female shopping experience, and that wasn’t doing justice to men. We thought they deserved their own space,” she says.
The way in which she provides content alongside commerce was also highlighted. “We… entertain you, hopefully, and educate you, and inspire you like a weekly magazine, but everything is shoppable,” she says.
Net-a-Porter Live, through which users can see what others are buying in real-time around the world, is due to launch next.
At number 32, is Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer of Burberry. What digital list would be complete without him? As Wired puts it, this is a “rare luxury brand that ‘gets’ digital.” More importantly, this is a man who does.
He says: “I often describe Burberry as an old, young company. It’s 155 years old, but technology, digital communication and social media is embedded and integrated in the company.” Asia is also a focus for the brand, with recent representation on Chinese social media sites including Sina Weibo, Kaixin001, Youku and Douban.
Also on the list is Chris Muhr, UK managing director of Groupon at number 35; Nick Robertson, co-founder and CEO of ASOS at 42; and Laura Wade-Grey, executive director of multichannel e-commerce at Marks & Spencer at 79.
YouTube make-up sensation Lauren Luke even makes an appearance at number 89, for the instructional videos that have transformed her into a multimedia brand.
Check out the full list in the magazine, or keep checking back to the website for its online reveal throughout the month. Numbers 100-80 can already be found, here.
Burberry's new flagship store in Beijing
Burberry is set to celebrate the opening of its new flagship store in Beijing with its most immersive experience to date, combining music, fashion and technology.
Live-streamed from the Beijing Television Centre on April 13, the event will see ground-breaking virtual image technology placing live models against animated footage and life-like holograms. British band Keane will perform throughout.
A sensory element is also supposed to feature, with rumour of the weather playing a part.
“I love the creativity, vibrancy and history of China with its exciting and dynamic energy and it is a huge privilege to be flying the flag for Britain in the magnificent city of Beijing connecting all of our global communities to celebrate everything Burberry represents today from music, to heritage and innovation,” said chief creative officer Christopher Bailey.
The event will welcome 1,000 VIP guests, but as usual with Burberry, also be live-streamed online and to 50 stores around the world.
At the new Beijing store, a 12,500sq ft space at Sparkle Roll Plaza (as pictured), the extravaganza will be viewable on the giant flat-screen LED video walls.
On Keane’s participation, lead singer Tom Chaplin, said: “I met Christopher Bailey a few years ago. He’s a big fan of Keane and I’m a big fan of what he does for Burberry, so we hit it off. Christopher suggested that we should team up to create an incredible event combining music, new technology, and fashion in one of the world’s most vibrant and exciting cities, Beijing.
“It’ll be our first trip to China, and we hope to put on a show that will surprise and delight the folks of that fascinating and brilliant country.”
He announced the band’s participation in the event through a short video on Facebook, as below:
Photo by Nick Knight
My obsession with Burberry in relation to all things digital continues, and gets further satisfaction from this profile of Christopher Bailey in American Vogue.
In it, writer Robert Sullivan refers to Bailey as a pioneer in this space: “To Bailey, designing a trench and designing a Web-savvy business fall along the same lines—each creates a place for his customer to live.”
Bailey’s focus on this hybrid world, has resulted in a real change in what luxury today actually means.
“Slowly, with a meticulous assuredness, [Bailey] has traded in the traditional idea of luxury—status as defined in large part by exclusivity—for something that is cool because it’s thoroughly global and modern, modern in the sense that it thrives at technology’s leading edge,” says Sullivan.
In so doing, Bailey acknowledges he’s not just aiming to appeal to his current customers, but to consumers at large.
“Brands are more and more multidimensional,” Bailey says. “It’s about an experience as well as buying a product. And I think what we’ve found is the more we entertain, the more we allow people into our brand. Then maybe one day they’ll buy. And then… who knows?”
He also suggests plans with mobile and location could be a next step for the brand. “I love the idea that if someone is part of our Burberry community, they can be fed content based on where they are… So if I’m in London and I’ve been interested in this bag, these pants, this coat, and I fly to New York and I pass our window on Fifty-seventh Street, something might pop up that says, ‘You’re at Burberry, and this product is in this size’.”
The industry could learn a lot from Bailey. As Sullivan puts it: “He has positioned Burberry as fashion’s leader on the next frontier, a global digital frontier that many of the largest fashion brands have watched while standing nervously behind their just-cracked penthouse doors.”
Read the full article here: Christopher Bailey: Tech Mate
Yesterday’s Burberry show, though perhaps not a favourite-ever collection from Christopher Bailey, nonetheless stole the London Fashion Week limelight hands down.
Once again proving itself as a digital leader within the luxury sect, the brand live-streamed around the globe through 40 in-store virtual trunk shows, as well as on the mega 32m digital billboard in London’s Piccadilly Circus.
A total of 11 cameras as well as a live text feed, provided viewers with both pre-show content – featuring A-list guests including Rachel Bilson and Kate Bosworth as they arrived at London’s Royal Park of Kensington Gardens – and full coverage of the collection as it came out.
While this is the seventh season the brand has live streamed its show, which was also available online, it’s the first time it has done so on an outdoor digital screen at Piccadilly Circus. In fact, it’s a first for any brand.
The aim was for an immersive, interactive and entertaining experience, said chief creative officer Christopher Bailey. “We have always used digital communication to deepen our connection with the customer and allow people all over the world to experience Burberry no matter where they are. Whether you are at home online, watching in Piccadilly Circus, using a mobile device or in our store in Beijing everyone will be able to feel the energy and attitude of the brand and the excitement of the show,” he added.
The brand also continued with its runway to reality initiative, allowing consumers in store – via iPads – as well as online, to order items of outerwear or bags for delivery in seven weeks.
Those with the cash to splash are still able to pre-order until February 28, while the full collection will otherwise be available from August.
An on-demand version of the coverage is also now available online, which includes footage of the collection being put together and red carpet interviews.
Not forgetting the importance of music to the brand, viewers can also download the tracks featured in the show, including You Don’t Own Me by Dusty Springfield and Someone Like You by Adele, through iTunes on the Burberry.com site.
Yesterday’s Burberry show, though perhaps not one of my favourite ever collections from Christopher Bailey, stole the London Fashion Week limelight hands down.
Once again proving itself as a digital leader within the luxury sect, it live-streamed around the globe through 40 in-store virtual trunk shows, as well as on the mega 32m digital billboard in London’s Piccadilly Circus.
A total of 11 cameras as well as a live text feed, provided viewers with both pre-show content – featuring A-list guests including Rachel Bilson and Kate Bosworth as they arrived at London’s Royal Park of Kensington Gardens – and full coverage of the collection as it came out.
While this is the seventh season the brand has live streamed its show, which was also available online, it’s the first time it has done so on an outdoor digital screen at Piccadilly Circus. In fact, it’s a first for any brand.
The aim was for an immersive, interactive and entertaining experience, said chief creative officer Christopher Bailey. “We have always used digital communication to deepen our connection with the customer and allow people all over the world to experience Burberry no matter where they are. Whether you are at home online, watching in Piccadilly Circus, using a mobile device or in our store in Beijing everyone will be able to feel the energy and attitude of the brand and the excitement of the show,” he added.
The brand also continued with its runway to reality initiative, allowing consumers in store – via iPads – as well as online, to order items of outerwear or bags for delivery in seven weeks.
Those with the cash to splash are still able to pre-order until February 28, while the full collection will otherwise be available from August.
An on-demand version of the coverage is also now available online, which includes footage of the collection being put together and red carpet interviews.
Not forgetting the importance of music to the brand, viewers can also download the tracks featured in the show, including You Don’t Own Me by Dusty Springfield and Someone Like You by Adele, through iTunes on the Burberry.com site.
Could this be the year fashion makes its mark at Cannes Lions?
15 MayThere was a great article written by Rei Inamoto, chief creative officer of AKQA, for AdAge last year about why Cannes Lions, the international festival of creativity – otherwise known as advertising’s biggest global awards – trumps SXSW in terms of content.
“At events like SXSW, there is a lot of information. And information can become useful knowledge for marketers. However, what really moves people is inspiration. And that’s where Cannes keeps its edge for marketers. While SXSW may be about informing and finding that Next Big Thing, Cannes’ focus has been about pushing this industry of ours forward,” he says.
It reflects my own sentiments exactly. I’m well versed in both, but Cannes likewise wins for me* largely because of both the curation and the quality of its content. This is the place where true leaders come together to share not only best in class work, but overarching ideas and thoughts for the future of this space.
It’s a week where inspiration is utterly abound (alongside copious vats of rosé of course). Speakers over the last couple of years have spanned former US president Bill Clinton, Malcolm Gladwell, Robert Redford, Sir John Hegarty, Alain de Botton, Patti Smith, Aaron Sorkin and more.
Yet it’s SXSW that the fashion industry has managed to get a good grip on in terms of its relevance to them – all manner of luxury brands and major retailers have been in attendance these past couple of years, as I’ve previously covered, to source both content and opportunities for partnerships within the largely tech-focused world. Of course at SXSW there are now huge volumes of agency folk too, and at Cannes an increasing number of technology companies.
Two years ago I wrote this article about the significant lack of fashion presence throughout Cannes. It focused on the fact that fashion communications remained largely about print ads selling product over campaigns selling ideas, a viewpoint I still hold at large, but certainly one that is beginning to shift. In doing so, it’s sparking more relevance than ever for these brands to start making an appearance at Cannes, both on the delegates list and in those nominated for awards.
The great news is, 2013 looks like the year that might take shape.
Just announced is news that Burberry CCO Christopher Bailey will take to the stage on the Friday of the festival (it runs from June 16-22) to talk about “digital’s creative revolution” with Google’s head of marketing, Lorraine Twohill. From the write-up, as well as prior news from Google, that event will be the kick off for another impressive digital project from the brand.
Burberry is one of a number, alongside adidas and Volkswagen, involved in Google’s Art, Copy & Code initiative, a follow-up to its Project Re-Brief last year. This is “a series of projects and experiments to show how creativity and technology can work hand in hand”.
The write-up for the session at Cannes adds: “How do you engage your audience when ad views are voluntary? What happens when the physical and digital worlds intersect? How can data enable creativity? What if ads didn’t have to look or feel like ads? The only way to find the answers is through risk taking and experimentation.”
[Side note here as to Google's subtle but increasing infiltration into the fashion industry across all aspects of its business - way beyond just search].
Elsewhere at Cannes there are other fashion types in attendance too – Vivienne Westwood speaking with SapientNitro to “de-construct the narrative behind some of the most innovative stories of all-time”, and photographer Annie Leibovitz as part of a panel discussing the “genesis, evolution and continued success of the global ‘Disney Dream Portraits Series’.”
Watch this space…
And do also keep an eye out for the free daily live-streams being offered from the festival for the first time this year… there will undoubtedly be some good ones to choose from.
*Full disclaimer: I am employed by the same parent company as Cannes Lions. My opinion would stand regardless.
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