Burberry & Keane: OMG WHY?!
When bands and brands come together in a marketing partnership you usually ask how much were they paid. In the case of the brand partnership between Burberry and Keane, which kicked off last week in Beijing, the answer is a lot simpler. It was because Keane are part of Burberry Creative Director Chris Bailey’s music collection! I kid you not! Burberry has launched Burberry Acoustic featuring acts from Mr Bailey’s personal collection. Quite why he thinks his taste in music has anything to do with the consumer he’s aiming at is beyond me. It’s like the reason many brands sponsor their favourite football team…. No commercial reason whatsoever but it makes them feel good even if it screws the brand and does nothing for the consumer! Keane must have been delighted. They’re not exactly cool or cutting edge and yet Burberry flew them all the way to Beijing, they performed on the Great Wall of China and then in the new Burberry store opening in Beijing which itself was then broadcast to 50 other stores globally and they are now centerpiece to Burberry’s website: http://uk.burberry.com/store/content/experience/acoustic/index.jsp
Oh and they must have paid a shed load of money to do so too because Keane claim that they turned down previous offers……. Go on please name them! Louis Vuitton, Gucci….Wal-Mart, Pound Stretcher? Do Keane even know that normal people wouldn’t be seen dead wearing Burberry and that it’s the ultimate “chav” brand? Or were they paid so much that it became irrelevant as who really cares who Keane endorse anyway, they’re not exactly Lady Gaga?! Quite why Burberry did this beyond the Creative Director’s wish to have his entire music collection flown all around the world to perform for him is beyond me. Allegedly it was to lead the fashion world in the on line market but surely having Keane perform an acoustic version of an already terrible song and making it worse would only drive people away from his website not attract people to it. For full details of the Burberry Keane partnership see the FT Weekend or on line:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6b56247c-66e1-11e0-8d88-00144feab49a.html#axzz1JqUi2QsR
