What The Iconic’s partnership with Cancer Council signals about retail’s power

The Iconic has partnered with the Cancer Council with support from the Australian Government to promote sun-smart dressing as part of a joint cancer prevention and advocacy effort.

The first-of-its-kind collaboration demonstrates the influence retail has on consumer behaviour beyond just checking out.

Bringing its fashion lens to the Cancer Council’s research, The Iconic aims to motivate consumers to make more informed and healthier styling choices.

Inside Retail spoke to The Iconic’s chief marketing officer, Joanna Robinson, to unpack the strategy that propelled this successful campaign.

“As Australia’s leading online fashion and lifestyle platform, The Iconic works with fashion and lifestyle creators on an ongoing basis; however, this was the first time we worked alongside the Australian Government to brief influencers on a campaign that straddled fashion and sun safety,” said Robinson.

The influence of retail

The Cancer Council chose to partner with The Iconic on the sun-smart dressing campaign because of the retailer’s ability to positively influence a broader audience.

The Iconic remains Australia’s leading fashion and lifestyle platform with 25 million monthly visitors, an estimated 2000 app downloads every day and over 1.7 million followers.

“Utilising our channels and stylists to promote practicality and accessibility of sun-safe behaviour through a fashion lens also provided a new way to engage with segments of their target market outside of their traditional marketing ecosystem,” said Robinson.

The best retail collaborations appear to be organic, and this partnership met the mark with The Iconic promoting sun safety from a style and fashion perspective.

“Alongside utilising the Australian Government and Cancer Council’s research to understand the perceived barriers to making sun protection fashionable, practical and accessible,” said Robinson.

“We also used our own customer insights and understanding of the latest fashion trends to develop content ideas and talent recommendations that would resonate both with the creators and the target audience of 18-30-year-olds,” she added.

Meanwhile, the Cancer Council benefitted from the fashion industry’s ability to drive social and behavioural change and, in particular, The Iconic’s deep understanding of its consumers.

“The success of the campaign highlights the influential role social media and the fashion industry can play in supporting the Government in driving awareness and positive behaviour change for sun-safe behaviours,” said Robinson.

The success of The Iconic’s campaign was measured through media metrics including impressions, clicks and reach while the influencer’s performance indicators were measured by tracking their engagement and reach.

The reach of creators

The Iconic tapped into its community of content creators that reach a Gen Z audience to execute the partnership’s social media strategy.

The retailer worked with seven creators within the 18 to 30-year-old target audience including the likes of beauty and style creator, Sarah Gardner, fashion model and creator Kate Wasley and AFL star Patrick Lipinski.

“All of these creators shared their own individual message about how Australians can be sun safe and stylish – from ‘get ready with me’ videos, personal recommendations and myth-busting to ‘fits that protect’ the talent involved all took the role in sharing the message of how to be sun safe and stylish to help young Aussies better understand the risk of skin cancer,” said Robinson.

These content formats have been proven to resonate with Gen Z consumers for their accessibility, personability, authenticity and relatability – content that seamlessly integrates entertainment and education converts more often than not. 

“Before we engaged these creators we worked closely with the Australian Government and Cancer Council to define the brief to ensure creators were given enough freedom to produce authentic content that would resonate with their audience while still aligning with the broader campaign messaging,” said Robinson.

The Iconic was able to effectively translate the Cancer Council’s scientific research and advice into a sun-safe shopping guide that engages consumers. 

“Alongside utilising the Australian Government and Cancer Council’s research to understand the perceived barriers to making sun protection fashionable, practical and accessible, we also used our own customer insights and understanding of the latest fashion trends to ensure we were selecting the right content creators for this partnership,” said Robinson.

The Iconic CMO said the online retailer is motivated to continue producing future collaborations that are designed to drive conversations and behavioural change amongst Gen Z, its fastest-growing new customer segment.

“All of our partnerships are unique as they are tailored to specific briefs however the power of the message behind The Iconic and Cancer Council Sun Safe campaign and the huge potential it has to drive positive behavioural change that can ultimately save lives – has been something in itself,” she concluded.

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