WiredCo. and THE ICONIC unleash The Shop That Stops The Nation

THE ICONIC and WiredCo. have redefined retail engagement by teaming up to launch ‘The Shop That Stops The Nation’, a birthday celebration for the platform.

Ahead of the company’s 12th birthday, the Australian and New Zealand fashion and lifestyle retailer has tapped into the strength of its app, which has become the most downloaded fashion app in ANZ (five million downloads and counting), to give its customers the ultimate birthday surprise – the opportunity to be gifted thousands of ICONIC birthday gifts.   

It was the idea of Wishlisting which became the impetus for the business and the agency to launch a true engagement experience for customers.

Joanna Robinson, CMO of THE ICONIC, said when she joined the business in April, she was looking for ways to turbo-charge its success. 

“With WiredCo. working alongside THE ICONIC’s brilliant team, we set about looking for the insights that would help us do that,” said Robinson. 

With the growth in Wishlisiting on THE ICONIC proving to be a key feature on the app’s experience, the business and WiredCo. knew there was something bigger at play here.   

In the last year alone, the company has seen more than 562,000 products Wishlisted a total of 111 million times, notes Robinson.  

David Kennedy-Cosgrove, partner at WiredCo., said the agency found some powerful insights working alongside Robinson’s team. 

“Wishlisting; 25% of revenue comes from Wishlisted items, and people who Wishlist, spend on average close to 7% more per transaction,” he said.   

Using THE ICONIC’s Wishlist feature means savvy shoppers can manage their spending and have full visibility on planned purchases before they add items to their cart. 

It helps shoppers prioritise what they buy and when, removing some of the impulsiveness of online shopping.   

Robinson said the feature gives shoppers more time and space to assess and consider their purchases.  

“I think there’s huge power in this. Shopping is emotional, budgeting is rational. Wishlisting gives you the best of both worlds.”  she said. 

THE ICONIC and WiredCo. took this as their starting point - using the Wishlisting experience as the core insight to ideate the campaign and support traffic and engagement metrics, combined with the well-known macro trend that people are the most time poor they've ever been.  

Michelle Hampton, managing partner at WiredCo., said it would have been easy to tell people how good Wishlists are and the benefits of them.  

“But that would have only gotten us so far. Joanna’s brief was to create a true engagement experience. So, we needed to go big,” she said. 

“We needed an action and an occasion. And with THE ICONIC’s 12th birthday coming up, we asked the question ‘What if we could stop time on THE ICONIC to give back to its loyal customer base in a way that also celebrated the brand’s key milestone?’”  

This lead the team to the idea of a landmark one-day event called ‘The Shop That Stops The Nation’, said Angela Hampton, founder & managing director at WiredCo.  

The idea is built around stopping time for two minutes every hour on THE ICONIC on their 12th birthday, said Angela Hampton, so customers could be in the running to be gifted a birthday surprise.  

“All customers need to do is add an item to their Wishlist and be on THE ICONIC when time stops. They then have a one in three chance to be gifted an item at random,” she said.  

Kennedy-Cosgrove said the campaign has been live for five days and the agency is already seeing a rapid increase in new users, Wishlisting events, and purchases from Wishlisting activities.  

“And that’s all before The Shop That Stops The Nation event happened on Friday,” he said.