From Black Friday to Hack Friday
THE ICONIC is rebranding the year’s loudest sales window. Instead of adding another discount to the pile, the Australian fashion and lifestyle platform is launching ‘Hack Friday’ — a month-long, creator-led newsroom built to help shoppers find what is actually worth buying.
The centrepiece is the ‘Hack Desk’, a 90s-inspired newsdesk in THE ICONIC’s Sydney office. It will be anchored by Sally McMullen and Alexandra Hourigan of Two Broke Chicks, whose shopping spreadsheets and budget tactics have earned more than 1.3 million followers across Instagram and TikTok.
What the campaign actually does
Hack Desk is not a one-off activation. Throughout November it will work as an always-on content engine with guest correspondents and THE ICONIC’s own buying, product and sales experts. The duo get insider access to those teams, then turn the best deals and tips into a weekly shoppable YouTube show. The first episode drops Friday 6 November.
- A weekly shoppable YouTube show anchored by Two Broke Chicks
- Always-on ‘breaking news’ updates on deals, forecasts and style briefings
- A dedicated Hack Friday hub for episodes, curated edits, cheat sheets and offers
- Distribution across YouTube, TikTok, Meta and owned channels, with News Corp, YouTube and Pinterest media partnerships
Why it matters: utility beats volume
Black Friday has become a shouting match. Everyone drops discounts, and shoppers are left doing the digging. THE ICONIC’s insight is to stop competing on price noise and start competing on usefulness. By borrowing the credibility of news and the trust of creators, the campaign treats deal-hunting as content rather than promotion.
Joanna Robinson, Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at THE ICONIC, summed it up: customers want ‘trusted recommendations, useful advice and an easier way to find what’s worth shopping for.’ Emotive’s Jess Cluff framed the creative leap as giving ‘two brilliant bargain hunters a newsroom, a team of insiders and a whole month to investigate.’
The newsroom model: cast, access, cadence
Strip away the 90s set dressing and Hack Friday runs on four repeatable parts. First, a recognisable cast: Two Broke Chicks bring built-in trust and a hungry audience. Second, real access: they can question THE ICONIC’s buying, product and sales teams rather than read a script. Third, a weekly cadence: the show returns at the same time, making the sale feel like programming. Fourth, a single hub: every episode, edit and offer lives in one place.
That structure is worth stealing beyond fashion. A D2C brand could run a launch desk for a product drop. A B2B software company could run a deal desk during renewal season. The point is to make the commercial moment readable, watchable and useful.
What to steal
If you run a Black Friday or end-of-season campaign, start with the headline you want customers to repeat. ‘Hack Friday’ works because it reframes the event, not just the discount. Then give creators a specific job: investigate the sale, not just post about it. Finally, make every asset shoppable and centralised, so the content and the path to purchase sit in the same place.
Source: Campaign Brief
