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.
