Art of the Trench

The Art of the Trench

Burberry’s web 2.0 project, The Art of The Trench is now settling down to business as usual and it’s easier to see the true power of the project. For those of you who haven’t seen or read about it yet – and I am assuming you must have because boy has the Burberry press department done a good job on the launch – Burberry is the first luxury brand to explore social media and community platforms. Art of The Trench,  is an exploration of the role the Trench Coat plays in society today. Scott Shulman’s iconic photographic style launched the site with aplomb with dozens of shots of beautiful people in beautiful trenches, but now ‘real people’, (read the street style cognoscenti) are diving in and uploading their own favourite images. I can imagine there’s a fair amount of editing going on behind the scenes to make sure what appears on the site still feels like the Burberry brand, but I don’t care, the result is fabulous.

We’ve been writing for months about the importance of brands and retailers connecting emotionally with their customers. This project has encouraged Burberry wearers across the world to pull their Trench out of their closets, style it up so it says something about ‘them’, find the perfect location for their shot, find someone patient enough to take the shot, and then upload it. That’s a lot of time dedicated to one brand, and one small second of ‘branded’ fame.