Despite being established in 1856, Burberry is anything but old fashioned. Their digital marketing and engagement strategy is one of the most progressive of brands.  Burberry has proved itself as one of the leaders of digital media by obscuring the lines between it’s online platforms and its physical stores.

Labeling themselves as a “young-old” brand, they combine heritage status with innovative pushes.

Let’s take a look at what makes their digital strategy so great.

1. They perfected their brand

The first step Burberry took was to identify where they wanted to take their brand. In 2006, Christian Bailey, Chief Creative of Burberry, and Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry until 2014, stated, “the vision was to be the first company who is fully digital” and they wanted “to build a social enterprise” by focusing on digital and targeting a younger consumer.

Burberry put large amounts of time and effort into perfecting their brand.  To do this they needed to ensure the consumer experience in London was the same as in London.  They refocused their brand on their iconic pieces and moved away from products for the masses.

2. Created a digital culture

Burberry didn’t make major changes to their social media accounts, but they did want to seamlessly integrate Burberry into the daily lives of their consumers through social media.

Bailey stated:

“Technology is an intrinsic part of most people’s lives. All we’ve done is make sure to weave technology into the fabric of the company. This is how customers live, they wake up with a device in their hand and life begins.”

 3. Took advantage of social media

Facebook:

Twitter:

YouTube:

Snapchat:

Instagram:

4. Unique digital content

• Art of the Trench: One of the original digital campaigns Burberry launched was ‘Art of the Trench’ microsite.  It was virtually its own social platform that allowed Burberry owners to take photos of themselves wearing the iconic trench and share the photo.  It allowed users to slide their mouse around to view hundreds of others wearing the coat.  All while playing a selection of up and coming artists.
• Burberry Bespoke: This feature allows customers to customise their own trench coats for purchase.  It allows users to change everything from the colour, sleeves, lining, buttons, even a personalised monogram.  The customer can purchase online, request an appointment, chat with customer service (of course) and, share the design on their own social media platforms.
• Burberry.com: The Burberry website is known as one of the top fashion websites because of how hard they work to align the website with the stores.  If you’ve ever been to the flagship retail store in London on Regent Street you can see that is is inspired by the site map on Burberry.com.  The layout and architecture reflects that of the website.  The space in the store is divided into bespoke, ready to wear and acoustic – similar to the website.  To further engage the customer, Burberry embedded digital chips into its products which activated short films to bring the product to life, telling the story of creation, from sketches to runway edits.

Bailey’s social media vision was to not keep social media online, but to bring it to life. He explained to GQ:

Thanks for the help: We Are Social, Brian Solis, Digital Engagement, Mashable and Harris Associates.

I hope you enjoyed this read! Are you a fan of a different brand’s digital engagement strategy? I would love to hear your thoughts on what they do differently – Comment below!