Launch of ad campaign to promote Australian made products

Australian consumers will soon see a new range of media ads promoting Australian made products.

Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, launched the new Australian Made Media platform (pictured) this morning at the home of Vegemite, the Kraft factory in Victoria.

Speaking at the launch, Senator Carr said, “This venture will help to promote and sell products made in Australia, by Australians, to Australians.”

“Real workers will star in the advertisements. Not only will this give the ads a unified look and feel; it will drive home one of the strongest reasons to buy Australian – supporting local jobs.”

“I firmly believe that people will buy Australian if they have the choice. This venture will give them the information they need to make that choice,” he said.

The advertisements will feature products registered to carry the widely recognised Australian Made, Australian Grown logo. Read more

Australian SMEs to benefit from largest-ever trade fair in China

Australia’s largest-ever trade promotion in China for SMEs will be staged at the 7th China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair (CISMEF) to be held in Guangzhou on 15 – 18 September 2010.

One of the biggest trade fairs in the world, CISMEF attracted 3,935 exhibitors and 254,600 visitors from China and the world in 2009.

Guangzhou is the third largest urban economy in China and a gateway to China’s rapidly growing western interior.

Austrade’s Guangzhou-based Senior Trade Commissioner, Jeff Turner, says the event offered an excellent opportunity to connect Australian SMEs to opportunities in Australia’s largest and fastest growing export market.

“Last year exports to China grew by 30.7% to reach $42.3 billion. It is quite possible that two way trade, which now stands at around A$86 billion, could reach A$100 billion this year,” he said.

“It’s not just resources that are in demand, more and more SMEs are benefiting from the opportunities China’s growth presents. Around 4,500 Australian companies, many of them small, are already active in China. With GDP growth expected to remain strong in 2010, and Goldman Sachs recently predicting the Chinese middle class will reach 70% of China’s 1.3 billion population by 2020, consumer demand will continue to grow and diversify, right across the country.”

Australia will have a 10,000 square metre Pavilion to promote a wide range of SMEs and industry sectors. Read more

Grants for small businesses to become more family friendly

Eligible small businesses with less than 15 employees can apply for a grant of up $15,000 to put in place family-friendly arrangements in their workplaces.

This second round of grants form part of the Australian Government’s $12 million Fresh Ideas for Work and Family Grants Program, created to support Australian small businesses to implement practices that help employees balance their work and family obligations.

Successful recipients of grants in Round 1 of this program put in place practices such as, agreements between employees and employers for flexible working hours, and agreements for some employees to work from home in order to spend more time with their kids. Some businesses installed family rooms within their offices.

Research shows that these kind of flexible working arrangements help businesses to retain their valuable staff, reduce turnover costs, increase productivity and improve staff morale and customer satisfaction.

The Fair Work System also provides all working families with access to a number of entitlements to help them balance work and family.

These are:

• 12 months unpaid parental leave for new parents – one of the ten legislated National Employment Standards. Like annual leave, public holidays and redundancy pay, unpaid parental leave is guaranteed to all employees covered by the new national Fair Work system.

• A parent’s right to request flexible work arrangements like returning to work part time or an additional 12 months unpaid leave to help care for children under school age. The ‘right to request’ will help Australia maximise workforce participation and ensure employers can retain skilled and experienced employees in the future. An employer can refuse a request on ‘reasonable business grounds’ but must provide their reasons for the refusal in writing. A refusal without reasons is insufficient.

The Australian Government is also introducing legislation for a government-funded paid parental leave scheme later this year to help working families better balance work and family responsibilities.

Applications for the second funding round of the Fresh Ideas for Work and Family Grants Program will close on 31 March 2010.

To apply for a grant, small businesses can go to www.deewr.gov.au/freshideas to complete the online application form, or call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94 (open 8.00am–6.00pm, Monday to Friday) for further information.

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Australian Business on show at World Expo in Shanghai

From May 1 to October 31, Australian business will be on show at Shanghai World Expo 2010, one of the largest events ever to be staged in China.

In just under three months 200 countries, 50 international organisations and 70 million visitors will attend Expo on a site comprising nearly six square kilometres of downtown Shanghai.

Austrade’s China country manager Christopher Wright said Australian business will make an important contribution to the staging of Expo.

“As well as a great platform to showcase Australia’s culture and lifestyle to the world, it is also an opportunity promote Australia’s business strengths,” said Mr Wright.

“Australian companies have won Expo related deals in areas as diverse as infrastructure and construction, sustainable design, education, and in the provision of artistic and cultural programs. Opportunities will continue to be generated in the redesign and development of the event site following the conclusion of the event.” Read more

Microhoo: Microsoft given greenlight to purchase Yahoo Search

Microsoft’s plans to buy Yahoo’s internet search and search advertising businesses have been cleared by both European and US regulators. This will mean Bing powers the natural search results for Yahoo! and Yahoo! will handle advertising for Bing.

Microsoft and Yahoo! finalised the purchase in early December, shortly after the competition regulators in Canada and Australia approved the deal. With other countries expected to follow suit, UK search marketing agency Greenlight, is predicting the search landscape would be a two horse race by the end of the year, drawing attention to “Microhoo”.

“Having pledged 5-10% of their operating profits ($22.5 billion in 2008) to promoting Bing over the next 5 years, Microsoft has a good chance of increasing Bing’s market share over the next year, much as they have in the US,” said Adam Bunn, Head of SEO at Greenlight.

“That could make ‘Microhoo’ worth paying much more attention to from an SEO perspective,” he said.

Greenlight’s top 10 predictions for paid and natural search in 2010:

1. Investment into ‘TwitFaceSpace’ will continue to rise

2. Google’s Twitter integration will change fundamentally

3. Google factors the content of videos into page relevancy scores

4. Internet use on mobile phones will accelerate and mobile search will take off

5. Search will be a two horse race by the end of the year, attention to “Microhoo”

6. Google will find more ways to monetise the excess inventory in AdWords

7. Winning the click will be more important than ever

8. There will be increased spends across Google’s Contextual Network

9. Latency becomes part of the Google algorithm

10. Domain structure will play a bigger role for Paid Search

For more information head over to Greenlight’s blog at blog.greenlightsearch.com

Extension of Do Not Call Register to negatively impact small business

An extension of the Do Not Call Register to include all Australian businesses’ phone and fax numbers will place a significant financial strain on Australia’s small businesses according to new research* released this week.

The study commissioned by business search directory, Truelocal.com.au in partnership with the Council of Small Business of Australia (COSBOA), revealed 78% of small businesses do not have the resources to manage the proposed Government changes to the Do Not Call Register.

The Federal Government has introduced legislation to extend the Do Not call Register Act to allow all phone and fax numbers to be included on the Do Not call Register including those used by small businesses. Political parties are exempt from compliance with the Act.

The survey of 78I small businesses revealed that many small businesses were unaware of the legislation with over half of respondents saying they were unaware of Government’s proposed extension to the Do Not call Register. Read more

The 5 Keys to Positioning Your Business to Sell at a Premium

As the economy in 2010 is expected to trend upward, selling prices will improve and the supply of emerging growth and middle market businesses for sale will increase. Given this rare window of opportunity for companies looking to sell, it is important that owners know how to place their business in an optimal selling light. Kenneth H. Marks (pictured), who provides strategic consulting, investment banking and interim leadership services in the United States, has offered to share with our readers, the 5 keys they need to position their business to sell at a premium. Read more

Ten Consumer Trends for 2010

From ‘urban pride’ to ‘forced sustainability’, according to trendwatching.com, even cautious consumers will crave pragmatic or exciting innovations in 2010.

1. BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL: When the downturn ends, there won’t be a return to ‘business as usual’. This year, prepare for ‘business as unusual’ as for the first time, there’s a global understanding, if not a feeling of urgency that sustainability, in every possible meaning of the word, is the only way forward.

In mature consumer societies, companies will have to do more than just embrace the notion of being a good corporate citizen. To truly prosper, they will have to ‘move with the culture’. This may mean displaying greater transparency and honesty, or having conversations as opposed to one-way advertising, or championing collaboration instead of an us-them mentality. Read more

Right of reply from Jenene Crossan CEO of Flossie Media Group

Australian Women Online received an email from the CEO of Flossie Media Group in reply to my article Flossie Abandons Display Advertising and NZ Girl Jumps Ship published on the website this morning.  As per Ms Crossan’s request, I have published her reply in it’s entirety, with my response to specific criticisms of AWO in red.

The decision to move away from display was not made lightly. I have found it interesting that some individuals have seen this as negatively as they have, and we have simply put that down to them feeling like we’re ‘attacking’ their revenue stream. We’re not. We’re not saying display doesn’t work, we’re just conceding that this is an area that we don’t want to play in – there’s not enough money to be made out of it.

The market has changed enormously in a very short period of time. The decision to launch Flossie into Australia Read more

Online Diva Hollie Turner on the run from creditors

Founder of OnlineDivas.com.au, Hollie Turner (pictured), is currently ducking creditors and a long line of dissatisfied members who are demanding their money back from the women’s networking site.

Australian Women Online has spoken to several women who say they have been let down, ripped off and in some cases, verbally abused by Hollie Turner, who is reportedly in the United States at present and can’t be reached. When reports surfaced last week that the TV program A Current Affair, were interested in doing a story on the Online Diva, Hollie Turner silenced her critics by promising to pay what she owed. Read more

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