For brands obsessed with branded content Burberry has just upped the ante significantly.
English fashion brand Burberry has released a three-minute trailer for an epic but non-existent movie about the brand and it’s fabulous.
Burberry takes brand storytelling to another level. The faux trailer promotes a movie about its founder Thomas Burberry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5IZtDCS5c
This is an epic tale of Burberry’s obsession to create a new type of trench-coat, made from gabardine. Essentially, this is the story of what made the brand famous.
Part of the brand’s 160th anniversary celebrations, this is a powerful way for Burberry to reinforce its brand differentiation and its British fashion heritage status.
Directed by Academy Award winner Asif Kapadia, the tale of Thomas Burberry has everything you’d expect from a great movie. There’s romance, mystery, intrigue, betrayal and of course, triumph over adversity. It features well known actors Domhall Gleeson and Sienna Miller and Lily James, the face of the My Burberry fragrances.
The company has apparently invested close to $17 million in this production. While that’s a lot for an ad, this could do so much more for the brand. The trailer has already amassed more than four million views in a few days.
This has the potential to achieve to truly engage a whole new generation in the brand.
Unlike most ads, this feels like a real blockbuster movie that you want to watch. And it could be. Apparently, the company has enough footage to actually make the movie and many fans are already calling for it to be completed.
While most brands wouldn’t be able to invest like Burberry can, this still highlights the importance of brand storytelling.
Michael Hughes
Michael is Managing Partner and Strategy Director at Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years’ experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in unlocking the strategic power of your brand to create a differentiated, compelling and authentic brand proposition that will engage all your audiences. Michael has extensive experience working across Australia and the Middle East working with leading Australian and International organisations across just about every sector.
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I think the interesting aspect of this piece of brand story-telling is the level of production. At some point the story becomes so polished that it begins to lose its authenticity. For me the Burberry story has shifted from genuine and compelling to Hollywood drama which may as well be a work of fiction. At that point the brand value from the exercise becomes diminished.