Burberry's "Art of the Trench"

Burberry introduced last week a social networking site, artofthetrench.com, to encourage people to share their own trench coat stories.

The street-style formula is simple: users post pictures of themselves looking as chic as possible in a Burberry trenchcoat and wait for others to cast judgment.

Those judgments are invariably positive, giving the users an ego boost. Burberry reaps free advertising and a new source of brand loyalty.

For the launch of the site, Bailey commissioned The Sartorialist, street style photographer Scott Shuman, to snap uber-stylish Burberry trench coat wearers from Berlin to Sao Paolo.

Brands such as Gucci introduced similar media in the past (guccieyeweb.com) and other (e.g., Louis Vuitton) are increasingly using social media such as Facebook to widen their reach. Artofthetrench.com currently has 700,000 fans on the site.

Burberry said that the site had caused a sharp spike in sales at its online shop, where the trenchcoats are priced from £395 to £895. (Luxuo)