Using my new social media bookmarking site Digg (Tune in Oct. 6 for Jessica’s and my presentation on it!) I came across an article about London Fashion Week and social media. Before I read the article it was hard to picture the extremely wealthy, somewhat snobby (no offense) designers and participants of London Fashion Week using social media to engage the lowly fans…but I was wrong and Burberry proved that to me.
The high fashion line of Burberry thought totally outside of the box and decided to show their new 2012 collection by tweeting it! Before each look walked out onto the runway at London Fashion Week, Burberry took a picture of each look and uploaded it on Twitter. I thought this was an extremely genius idea for multiple reasons.
First off, the people who aren’t able to attend London Fashion Week saw the Burberry collection BEFORE all the high profile people who paid a lot of money to be there. That helped engage the fans and brought a huge buzz around the new line. Whether it was the best or worst line of the show, it was the line that definitely got the most attention.
Second, by tweeting every look, it became a trending topic on twitter and got huge exposure. People who didn’t even know it was London Fashion Week or would rather shop at Walmart than high end stores, knew the Burberry was doing something completely different and unusual.
Burberry found a way to use social media to actually interact with its fans and gain a larger scope of fans. Got to give them cudos for their creativity…in the design and in the social media.
Colleen's Class Blog 
Many blogs, editors, etc. out there are saying that Burberry is the #1 fashion brand in terms of social and digital media. In the last few years they have really done some incredibly fascinating things that set them apart from other luxury brands/Burberry’s competitors. A lot of critics thinks that social media initiatives such as the tweeting of Burberry’s 2012 Spring collection damages the brands exclusivity. But like you said, it skyrocketed their exposure to audiences they probably never even dreamed of reaching. In this social media age, high-end ($$$) luxury brands are being forced to choose between exclusivity and exposure. Which do you think is more important?
Also, what effect might initiatives like this one have on counterfeiting?