Burberry’s Snapchat Takeover

Is Burberry the trendiest social media brand in the world? If the last five years are anything to go by, I’d say there’s no question about it!

From Art of the Trench, to Tweetwalks and early access to Apple’s latest gadgets, Burberry’s fashion show is the must-see event every season. It’s no surprise that two of the brand’s best talent now reside at Apple.

This year, however, Burberry looked to a whole new demographic for its 2016 Spring and Summer Collection show in Kensington Gardens, London. The fashion brand partnered with Snapchat, a platform frequented by 18–24 year olds, and where women heavily outweigh their male counterparts. Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s Chief Executive, stated:

With Snapchat, Evan Spiegel has created a phenomenal platform that captures the spirit of a moment. We are excited to be working with him to launch the Burberry Snapchat Show allowing a unique, real-time view of the creation of our show which will include an unprecedented collection premier hours before it hits the runway.

Not only did Burberry deliver a behind-the-scenes look at how the Burberry show is brought together. It did so in a manner which was true to the premium reputation of the brand. Its content was carefully choreographed, models were captured in perfect lighting, even Christopher Bailey and Anna Wintour appeared ahead of the show itself - it was a masterclass in Snapchat Stories.

Fans of the brand were given an exclusive look at the collection before it hit the runway, with Burberry models modelling a number of looks for those following the Burberry Snapchat account. Burberry drove discussion through Twitter by using the hashtag #SnapchatShow, which was mentioned on 202 unique instances. Burberry’s top tweet almost surpassed this tally, with 173 retweets and 268 favourites of just one update.

The day itself, Monday 21st September, saw Snapchat flooded with content. Those following Burberry on Snapchat were granted an all-access pass to the S/S16 show, before Snapchat curated its own story within the Live tab for everyone to view. These were filled with occasional ads too, which were beautifully polished and promoted the new line. If you follow other British celebs such as Tinie Tempah, Burberry would also have creeped in to your Snapchat - there was simply no escaping the brand, as you can see below.

It’s early days to discuss whether the campaign has been a success in terms of revenue, but for online buzz, it appears to have done the brand a world of good. Burberry was mentioned 32,000 times between 14th - 21st September, and more than 7,500 times on the day of the show itself.

Burberry will be hoping to surpass its previous success on Snapchat, which was on a far smaller scale than its most recent effort. Burberry’s use of Snapchat to promote a menswear show delivered over 100m impressions, but with Snapchat now boasting of 2bn video views per day, this figure could be easily eclipsed with its latest 24 hour offering.

With 40% of Burberry’s site visitors coming from mobile devices, placing this exclusive content in the hands of millennials is a stroke of genius. Ultimately viewers can’t go directly to the Burberry website, but if they are captivated by the blanket coverage, it only takes a matter of seconds to visit the Burberry website, or one of its hugely popular social media accounts.