Ted Baker — Ted’s Drawing Room

Marking the launch of Ted Baker’s SS12 collection, working to the campaign’s theme of ‘The Great Exhibitionist and his Private Views’, on a Saturday in March 2012, Ted collaborated with a host of acclaimed illustrators to create a bespoke fashion portrait service called Ted’s Drawing Room.

The activity saw 111 lucky customers receive a signed, framed, original, one-off portrait created by one of 11 top illustrators that included Jacqueline Bissett, Niki Pilkington and Michael Frith.

Ted invited customers across 9 stores (7 UK, 2 NYC) to ‘put yourself in a picture’ and become a masterpiece. All they had to do was try on pieces from the new collection and pose for a photo in one of Ted’s ‘Exhibitionist’ photo booths. An image of their look was taken using Instagram and the photograph was beamed straight into the artist’s studio, Ted’s Drawing Room, situated at Ted’s London HQ.

Inside the studio, the illustrators were invited to ‘choose their muse’ and re-create their favoured photos from the hundreds of instagram photos submitted.

The 11 illustrators ranged from pure fashion illustration to watercolour portraiture to contemporary graphic art and were seen employing a broad diversity of techniques and styles throughout the day.
The studio, open for only 8 hours from midday to 8pm GMT, also hosted an artwork and framing service with the 111 portraits created uploaded to Facebook on the day and the original, signed portraits framed and sent to their subject in the post soon after.

A film crew were also on hand to capture the illustrators hard at work. Footage was broadcast live via Livestream back into participating stores and to Ted’s Facebook page enabling the public to watch the masters at work and the subjects of the portraits to tune in and watch their portrait being created! Over 2000 viewers tuned in across the day, spending on average 26 minutes each glued to their screens. The stream was viewed in over 23 countries ranging from the UK and USA to slightly further afield such as Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan.

The activity proved a huge success across social media with a 75% increase in Ted’s reach on Facebook and a 70% increase in people talking about Ted Baker on Facebook. Twitter mentions also increased by 1000%.

Customer responses to the campaign were also hugely positive:

“That is just an amazing drawing. It’s so original and I love the captions!! You made my day, Serge!” (Jale R)

“Love this!! STUNNING yay for Glasgow!” – Victoria B

“That is beautifully delicate Jo. I love it. ♥” – Nigel A

“Wow… Jacquline, I look amazing, thank you and thank you Ted” – Ivet D
“What a laugh… An afternoon in ted baker cracking day” – Willie S

“Didn’t expect this when I went shopping today, was great fun and real confidence boost, thanks TB xxx (also mum bought me the outfit as birthday present so win win)” – Emma W

The activity also featured in a diverse range of printed and online sources such as Look and Stylist to Mashable and Contagious to Notcot and Drapers.