The Wrap Up – Cotton On Foundation

Inspiring a global network to create greater impact in the world.

How point-of-sale purchase data becomes an inspiring incentive for teams to achieve more.

Building on our strong partnership with the Cotton On Foundation, we developed an interactive data narrative—called ‘The Wrap Up’—to showcase a global leaderboard of each Cotton On Group store’s performance and contribution to the Foundation’s philanthropy around the world.

Sector

Presence

  • Global

The problem

While the Cotton On Foundation tracks and highlights individual store performance, it’s traditionally a printed poster delivered once a year. There’s no interactivity, no context of performance in comparison to other stores, and no incentive to share your results or improve your effort.

The approach

Bring each store’s 'Wrap Up' results to life through interactive displays, gamification, and shareable animations. In short, create an experience that showcases data with the same vibrancy and positivity those numbers facilitate in philanthropic efforts around the world.

The end-game

Create an experience where team members can view their unique performance in comparison to other stores around the world, develop greater insight into the data, celebrate their results, and spread the word about the work they’re achieving.

Caitlin White – Cotton On Foundation

UNDERSTANDING THE GOLDEN RATIO

When you think about changing the world for the better, some imposing numbers come to mind. Numbers like 8 billion; the number of people our total population is rapidly ticking towards. Or 3 billion; the number living in poverty.

For the Cotton On Foundation, the key number for positive global change is a ratio: one-in-five. In 18 different countries around the world—at 1,500 stores—22,000 Cotton On Group team members are working towards that ratio.

What’s the significance? For every five sales, at least one should be a Cotton On Foundation product: water bottles, tote bags, mints or tissues where 100% of the proceeds go towards empowering youth through improved education in developing communities

Beyond the 1:5 ratio, ‘The Wrap Up’ is all about making data meaningful. Stats are always more compelling in the context of a storyline.

A CLEAR NARRATIVE IN THE NUMBERS

With the sheer amount of numerical information required to convey each store's performance, a considered narrative structure became key.

To provide a stepped experience rather than a formless free-for-all, the user experience design is all about encouraging gradual discovery.

In place of traditional navigation, The Wrap Up features an animated storyline of unique data slides that seamlessly stitch together with animations via Greensock.

Stepping people gradually through the data is doubly beneficial: it ensures that every team member experiences the information with the same baseline context, while encouraging longer and deeper engagement with the experience overall.

A curated narrative ensures everyone knows what's up with The Wrap Up.

To facilitate the data involved in tracking and showcasing performance for 1,500 stores, we built a custom WordPress plugin to handle import and application web services.

GAMIFYING THE GREATER GOOD

Once you've got a handle on current and past performance, we get to the nitty gritty: how does your store compare to the best contributors in the world? Or, how do you stack up in The Wrap Up?

With a filterable leader board, team members can quickly and clearly see how their ratio for the year compares to some of the best in the business.

Whether you want to compare yourself to the best stores in the world, the best store in your brand, or the best stores in your region, the choice is yours. Cached web services ensure the results are displayed immediately, on demand.

Philanthropy shouldn’t be competitive, but if there’s a compelling incentive to boost your effort for greater, more positive impact, then game on.

GENEROSITY IS TRENDING

As a world-leading fashion and accessories retailer, Cotton On Group is all about trends: both stylistic and statistical. We brought the best of both worlds with an interactive data visualisation that’s eye-catching in any context.

Through an integration with Google Charts, The Wrap Up provides each store with a clear visual of trends in performance from the past two years. Compare year-on-year results, unpack the detail of performance in specific months, and see exactly how much your team contributed to the Cotton On Foundation’s philanthropic cause.

With this information, teams can forecast a greater effort for months that have been quieter in previous years and push for a higher position on the global Wrap Up leaderboard.

While the 1:5 performance ratio is useful as a benchmark, the real reward comes from understanding your contribution in the real world.

IT’S ALL ABOUT IMPACT

Each store's performance is translated into tangible, real-world outcomes: total dollars raised, meals provided, educational placements funded, and more.

Every store gets a shareable animation to post straight through to social channels and spread the word of their contribution. It’s the GIF that keeps on giving.

So, how'd it all 'wrap up'?

The Wrap Up was a huge success. Although there's no baseline for comparison, given the previous years' report consisted of a printed poster, the numbers speak for themselves.

Here's how The Wrap Up was received at launch

  1. 1406Unique Visitors

    Logged in to view their store’s results.

  2. 619Stores

    Across the Cotton On Group network viewed The Wrap Up.

  3. 12Countries

    Accessed The Wrap Up; every country with Cotton On Group stores.