The internet and social media is now a solid advertising platform. Today, big brands and companies invest a hefty portion of their marketing budgets on snagging casual web surfers. With reports now suggesting that people spend on average over 5 hours a day online, it’s clear to see why. Many more people spend time on online devices nowadays than they do watching television, making online content a top priority.
Many brands will have a Twitter account, Facebook profile and the standard social media connections for distributing their promotional material. Companies such a Blinkbox and GoPro cameras as discussed in previous blogs have led the way in brand marketing, but these companies were established more or less entirely through an online medium. How do brands with a history manage to convert their image online?
In this list we’ll look at six successful examples of historic businesses going digital. Be it a rebrand, revitalisation or continuing the same brand image as before, each entrant on the list has carved out their own legacy online. Starting with the oldest company, we’ll see how these exemplary brands brought their heritage to the digital age.
Burberry – 1856
The oldest company on the list is UK fashion house Burberry, notable for its check pattern and trenchcoats. Whilst the internet can be a playground for companies that want marketing full of gimmicks and humour, it is a substantially harder ocean for luxury brands to navigate.
Striking the right balance between elegance and class to sit alongside an interactive element is something that various other high end fashion companies have tried and failed to manage. Thanks to 2001 appointed Chief Creative Officer Christopher Bailey, however, Burberry has flourished in the digital world. This is due largely to its embrace of technology. First, let’s look at the brand’s marketing situation before the brand went digital.
In the early 2000s the company was undergoing an image problem in its original home, the UK. The trademark Burberry check pattern had become the laughing stock of the high end fashion world, being associated in the media and popular culture with anti-social yobs. The derogatory image of working class ‘Chavs’ were typified sporting its famous beige checked pattern on baseball caps.
Understandably for such a distinguished and quintessentially British brand, this wasn’t doing it favours as a modern fashion designer with a traditional aesthetic. Towards the end of the decade, Burberry decided to combat this by promoting its brand image through breakthrough online content.
2009 saw a drastic change in Burberry’s digital marketing campaign. Rather than focussing on the notorious pattern, the company released the art of trench; a social media platform that invited users from around the world to showcase various trench coat styles. Currently on the page are examples of trench coats being modelled in Shanghai, Turkey and across Europe.
With the opportunity for users to upload their own photos, Burberry has produced a way to celebrate its heritage and history in a thoroughly digital way. Burberry hadn’t finished there though.
The next year, Burberry acoustic debuted as a website that presented up and coming British music talent on its site. The project has been a huge success, and Burberry have released an album of some of the most popular songs on iTunes. This has allowed Burberry to promote itself further as a lifestyle brand, and it’s become a staple of the fashion industry’s music scene.
Now, the Burberry website features online countdowns to new line releases, and shop openings are streamed live, using state of the art holograms at its private fashion events. Burberry has established itself with the image of a fashionable, top of the range company that combines the traditional with the contemporary.
It’s clear that these digital efforts have been a huge success. Burberry was one of the top 100 most valuable companies of 2013 and is an industry leader in terms of online and digital marketing.
Dos Equis – 1890
It may surprise some readers to discover that the beer brand Dos Equis is the second oldest company on our list. Beginning with humble origins in 1890, up until 2006 the Mexico based company had received the majority of custom from its home country. With over 200,000 beer brands in the world to compete with, they needed something big to break through.
The move to digital was a way to impact countries that the brand had previously never reached. Even in neighbouring USA, the reputation of Dos Equis only went to states close to Mexico and spring breaker tourists. Entering a global market would mean taking on the premier Mexican beer brand, Corona.
Market research had shown that Dos Equis’ brand imagery contrasted with Corona’s in a number of ways. Whereas Corona had an image of beaches, partying and vacations, Dos Equis was considering to be darker, with a more genuine Mexican taste. What the brand did next wasn’t exactly a deliberate move to go ‘digital’, rather an illustration of fan brand power.
In 2006, Dos Equis debuted an official spokesman character, The Most Interesting Man in the World. Played by the actor Jonathan Goldsmith, he’s a smooth talking elderly man rich in stories and experience with one message: be interesting. The TV adverts were well received, with the slogan ‘stay thirsty’, but the reaction online was even bigger.
The Most Interesting Man in the World was embraced by the online community, and was quickly appropriated as a meme. Pictures of the Man alongside the phrase “I don’t always [x], but when I do I [Y]” spread across social media like wildfire. As with the beer itself, the appearance of the meme intrigued viewers as to its origins, leading them to discover the Dos Equis social platforms.
From here, the most interesting man was featured on the incredibly popular Reddit thread, Ask Me Anything. Since beginning the campaign Dos Equis sales have increased by over 22% in the US, whereas imported beers sales have dropped by 4%. It placed Dos Equis on the map and showed that many brands didn’t need to move to digital platforms themselves, others will do it for them.
Rolex – 1905
Rolex is well known for producing some of the best quality watches in the world; items that remain elegant and stylish when being pushed to their very limits. With such a reputation for precision and understated design, if Rolex were to go digital, they wanted to do it properly.
Amazingly, it wasn’t until 2012 when Rolex decided to enter the digital world. We’ll repeat that. It was only, two years ago when Rolex, one of the world leaders in luxury watches, entered the digital world. Even now they’ve joined, they’re still bucking all the trends of digital marketing.
With a firm philosophy of ‘no random acts’, Rolex only releases content that has been meticulously reviewed, edited and checked before release. Whereas many digital brands believe that more content means more traffic and a more successful brand, Rolex only posts around two things a month on its Facebook fan page. Despite this, they have 3 million likes as of writing.
The brand’s first social media platform was Youtube, where, rather than releasing brand adverts, it posted documentaries about mountain climbing, skiing and other extreme sports associated with the watchmaker.
Another key feature of the Rolex brand campaign has been the use of social listening. By scouring forums, its social media replies and interactions, Rolex have produced specific content in response to online queries. The ‘did you know’ series, explaining why Rolex use the IIII clockmaker’s mark instead of the IV Roman numeral, is one of its most popular pieces of content to date.
The Rolex product is so well known through its brand history that simply mentioning the name is advertisement enough. Through this clever online marketing, Rolex has been able to expand on its customer’s understanding of the brand, its universe and its values.
Burger King – 1953
Whilst the youngest company on the list, Burger King were one of the first brands in the world to move to digital, with phenomenal success.
Burger King has always suffered from chasing McDonald’s. As the second largest burger restaurant in the world, the fast food chain has struggled to distinguish itself from other world leaders. In 2003, company profits were down and Burger King was in need of a new way to establish itself as a top burger company.
This has been achieved through a series of game changing and innovative online campaigns across countless social media sites. By choosing playful and slightly darker imagery, Burger King have come out as internet royalty.
One of its first moves to digital was with subservientchicken.com, an understated web site that featured a video of a man in a chicken suit. Through typing in commands, the chicken would perform a number of tasks including dancing, jumping and sitting on the couch. The website was a massive hit, with very little media marketing or fanfare on its release.
So popular was the site, that this year Burger King produced a video continuing the legacy of the character, which can currently be seen on the site. After 4 minutes of story with an original character, an advert for the brand is finally revealed.
In 2009, Burger King made online history again with the Facebook campaign Sacrifice 10 friends. Here it gave visitors the opportunity to earn a free ‘whopper’ by deleting ten friends (who were informed of this) on their Facebook profile. With a specific knowledge of the social media platform they gave away 20,000 burgers before being shut down by Facebook 10 days later.
Burger King were also pioneers of Myspace social branding, offering users the chance to design their own adverts amongst other interactive features. By setting themselves up towards the young teenage market, Burger King managed to carve a niche for itself in the market; in an area that other brands are now trying to follow them in.
History brand going ‘digital’
The brands mentioned here each had to bring their already established image to a digital world. Whether it was through specific platform knowledge, as with Burger King’s interactive content, or Rolex’s almost stubborn refusal to conform to the norm, each brand have enjoyed a great deal of success.
Looking at these examples, it’s clear to see that the world of online branding is still a wild new pioneer for the content makers of the future. With more brands wanting to convert their prestigious images and sensibilities to a digital audience, it looks as if we’re set to reach a golden age in the new few years.
Do you have any examples of great historic brands going digital? Are there any that you think should have already moved over? Let us know in the comments below, or join the conversation on twitter @theukseo.
