Ted Baker’s 'Redge Blaker' Speaks to Aging Hipsters
The fashion brand, Ted Baker, has launched a website with shareable content and a fictional brand ambassador.
Fashion brand Ted Baker London has teamed up with the so-called “Godfather of Hipsterdom” to reach aging hipsters, with StreetWinker.com.
The site invites visitors to “Spread the Ted” with a “Baker’s Dozen” of video shorts like How to Play It Cool, which has 1,600 views as of October 13, as well as: Winks, or gifs; Teditorials, or fashion spreads; and “gorgeously weird” fashion art.
The site debuted October 4. Ted Baker worked with design agency Hush to develop what it calls “hilarious digital content” on the site.
The campaign stars the aforementioned “Godfather,” Vice Magazine’s Gavin McInnes, who plays (and developed) the character Redge Blaker, which Ted Baker describes as “an effortlessly dapper and hilarious brand ambassador.”
According to the site, Blaker is “a sharp-witted British cultural adventurer.”
“Hush’s concepting and McInnes’ talent for physical comedy add a layer of refreshingly unpretentious slapstick to the proceedings, helping the work to stand out against the often dour and self-serious artiness of most fashion advertising,” a rep writes in an email.
Blaker offers tongue-in-cheek tips on style and etiquette, the brand says.
“Equal parts fashion anthropologist and style ambassador, Redge is always perfectly put together, a true British gent with a twist, epitomizing the exquisite attention to detail and the irreverent sense of humor for which the British brand is known,” the brand adds.
David Schwarz, owner and creative director of Hush, says the campaign is meant to be up for a specific duration, but will include several iterations.
Five of the Baker’s Dozen videos were available as of October 11. Additional videos will be up in a week to ten days from that point, says Craig Smith, brand communication director at Ted Baker.
“I think what we want to try to do is create the introductory chapter and first stages of what we’re doing into a broader piece of work, but we needed a strong platform to jump off from,” Smith says. “The content and microsite give us fantastic mechanics to really start to build out the world of Redge and where he sits between retail and online and how he starts to communicate on behalf of Ted. As you know, Ted is a very private individual.”
Smith also says the brand “loves Redge” and has “some nice ideas” about where he’ll appear next.
“It’s clear from looking in, we’re not a brand that does things in the traditional sense. It’s not something we really subscribe to,” Smith says. “Hence why we like more interesting ways of communicating online and offline.”
According to Smith, the brand did a lot of work to understand the nuances between its American and British audiences.
“I think we brought to light strategically some opportunities in the New York market, especially of a group of people who are so ripe for Ted Baker. We started talking about a creative class and the next iteration of hipster and what do people do when they realize they’re just enough more mature that it’s time to dress up and take fashion seriously and up their game?” Schwarz says. “The ethos woven into the films and gifs in some subtle and not-so-subtle ways is a nice call to action to the young reasonably well-off professional who hasn’t had to value his own wardrobe in the past, but now has a focus and interest in that, which is a good demographic for Ted Baker.”
The brand is working with bloggers, as well as digital properties like UrbanDaddy and Refinery29, to push the campaign.
Ted Baker London has over 200 locations on five continents.
