Contestant Matilda Rice may have won the heart of bachelor Arthur Green on The Bachelor NZ, but online clothing retailer The Iconic won the eyeballs of the hit show’s viewers. In a clever retail marketing strategy, the Australian site was the exclusive wardrobe provider of dresses for the rose ceremonies.
Product placement certainly isn’t new. In fact, along with constraining supply, paying to have diamonds feature in romance movies or songs was one of the ways manufacturers made giving one of them a social norm. And with The Bachelor NZ’s high ratings, including 227,100 viewers in the key 25-34 demographic for the final, The Iconic is patting itself on the back for a job well done in this regard.
The show had an average audience of 461,000 over the course of the final episode. And the products were marketed across the show’s strong presence on social media.
Posts of the contestants in outfits from The Iconic graced The Bachelor New Zealand’s Facebook page (48,000 likes) as well as the Facebook pages of the contestants, such as Dani Robinson (13,000 likes).
But there was a minor hiccup along the way. The NZ Herald reported a rumour that some frocks on the show were not as well fitting as they should’ve been.
According to its source, the girls squeezed and Spanx-ed their way into dresses after a hold up at customs.
A spokesperson for The Iconic confirms there was trouble with the customs department, saying shipping the dresses from Sydney to Auckland proved challenging.
“We were held up in customs several times to the point that I actually almost had my colleague get on a plane herself to deliver the items to meet a super tight deadline,” the spokesperson says.
However, it was all worth it, as the spokesperson says the company has had an influx of customer queries from New Zealand about the dresses that were featured.
“From a branding perspective, it was a great initiative for us.”
Capturing young Kiwi women’s eyes seems to be high on The Iconic’s agenda, as it recently launched a New Zealand version of its website.
The site was founded in 2011 under ecommerce incubator Rocket Internet.
The company says it is Australia and New Zealand’s largest online fashion retailer, offering more than 7,000 brands and over 45,000 products.
It’s part of the Zalora Group, which operates as Zalora in Asia and The Iconic in Australia and New Zealand.
As for the other retailers involved, Michael Hill’s chief marketing officer Joe Talcott says the company was pleased with its sponsorship of The Bachelor in both Canada and New Zealand. The attention on the show was a good way to draw more attention to its new global campaign via Colenso BBDO.
However, he wouldn’t discuss the impact sponsoring The Bachelor had for competitive reasons.
Revlon and Lindauer also sponsored the show, with Revlon running its ‘Love is On’ campaign.
- This is an edited version of a story that originally appeared on The Register.
