Brand Relevance - Angela ahrendts & evan davis at european zeitgeist 2011

Evan Davis: I want to start with you, Angela, because not everything changes in the world of social media and digital advertising. The essence of the Burberry brand, it's kind of young and yet it's old, isn't it. What's the personality? >>Angela Ahrendts: Well, I mean, you know, we've always had to have a core of the business, so when Christopher and I started working together five years ago, we said that we're quintessentially British. You know, we've got to get that message out all over the world. We are luxury. We did coin, though, that we wanted to become a democratic luxury brand and that would then permeate everything inside and outside of the company, but we also said that we were born from a coat, and as you looked across all of our luxury peers, none of them were, so we said, you know, those were key core attributes that had to live because this company was 155 years old and our goal was to make it relevant for another 150 years. >>Evan Davis: This is the trench coat, core -- >>Angela Ahrendts: Absolutely. >>Evan Davis: -- never going to go away. Give us some examples of some of the things Burberry's been doing to project itself. What, 70% of your marketing is digital marketing? >>Angela Ahrendts: Uh-huh, uh-huh. >>Evan Davis: Give us an example of something you're proud of, taking perhaps the trench coat to start with. [Laughter] >>Angela Ahrendts: Not that you're leading the witness or anything. [Laughter] >>Angela Ahrendts: We've -- I mean, everything we've done, we've led with the trench coat. So, you know, be it Burberry World, which is the new website we just launched recently, whether it's every ad campaign, every runway show. I mean, it's not a coincidence that everything begins and ends, typically, with outerwear. It is the core. It is the backbone. But from a social media standpoint, about a year ago we launched artofthetrench.com, which is a site that over 5 million people have visited. They hang on the site an average of five and a half minutes because we do believe that to be a great brand, it's got to be emotive, it's got to be engaging. And that's not a commerce site. That is simply to -- you can take a photo of yourself in your Burberry trench coat anywhere in the world. It's not dissimilar to Facebook. You can share it, you can comment on other people's, you can ask them where they got it, et cetera, but it has been a huge success and you can get there on your own. You can link back to the Burberry World site, in case you'd like to buy your trench coat. >>Evan Davis: A coat fetishist, it's been a tremendous resource. How many of you have seen art of the trench? Have any of you visited? A few of you. A handful. >>Angela Ahrendts: Thank you. >>Evan Davis: But what are they're doing in the five minutes they're there? I mean, they're just looking at -- because there are so many pictures of people just picturing themselves in a trench coat. What is it doing, do you think? Just take us through the -- deconstruct the value of that. >>Angela Ahrendts: Well, I think it's -- and again, we've uploaded a lot of things. We hired a photographer. We sent him to big cities all over the world to also shoot. So we uploaded the original 5,000 images. We've also worked with galleries around the world to buy old celebrity images. So you can go on for the art purpose, you can go on for the social media purpose. You can go on -- and it was funny, we have clients and customers going on in Nordstrom large department store group. Pete Nordstrom had a little baby and e-mails us a couple of weeks later and says, "She's up," she's on Art of the Trench, so the little baby on the cover page was his. So it's multiple, but it's people engaging with the brand. And I think even more importantly, it introduces our iconic product in a very relevant, very cool way for an entire new audience that, you know, may not -- I sit with investors constantly and they remind me that they have a trench coat that's 25 years old. And we're supposed to try and grow the business double digits; right? So it's so important that we not walk that core customer but we that we do invite a whole new younger customer into the brand and make them understand this is a very cool item that's authentic, historic, et cetera. >>Evan Davis: Let's talk about the company and how you organize yourself in this environment. Who is more important, you or the chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey? >>Angela Ahrendts: The chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey. And, you know, what is -- what is -- In order to have execution, you have to have vision. And Christopher and I, this is not our first time working together, so we had worked together before. We divide and conquer. And basically, we say that anything the consumer sees, he has to push us to the next stage. But by the same token, he has to be free to dream, be it product, be it digital, be it store design, be it advertising and marketing. He has to be free. No one -- you know, no one confusing him with too many facts. So there are merchants who handle the facts. There are supply-chain executives. No, but in this world, if he is not dreaming and he is not, you know -- and he is not protected and enabled to dream, then we will not move forward as fast as we need to.