Diversity and Inclusion Summit Testimonial: 'We got into various key publications and radio with high-value content'

Diversity and Inclusion Summit organiser Tanya Finnie and Ronald Chua, of Red Head Communications, at the summit in Perth last month.

Working for Perth’s inaugural Diversity and Inclusion in September, 2022, was a steep learning curve and fascinating experience. We would recommend all decision makers in business and not for profit to attend in 2023, particularly those in resources, technology, education, agribusiness, environmental services and community sectors. This was an enlightening conference and we were proud to promote it to Australian media. Wide-ranging topics covered included neurodiversity, sexual harassment and the impact of good D&I policies to company profits. Research was game changing. - Cate Rocchi (Perth Media)

“Cate Rocchi from Perth media is an absolute gem! She supported us with PR for the inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Summit and went well beyond what was expected. Perth Media’s invaluable support  connected us to the world! Cate took the time to interview various speakers and truly custom media releases and articles. They got the Summit into various key publications and radio with high value content.  We are looking forward to a long relationship with the company’s tailored approach to drive our media campaigns and publicity for our events. We cannot be more delighted with the service!”

Tanya Finnie, Director RedHead Communications and founder of the Diversity and Inclusion Summit

Perth Media News

As Western Australia experiences increasing business activity, Perth Media’s clients are releasing more news. Here are our top recent results:

1.         A successful Media Conference, organised by Perth Media, for Blockhead Technologies in August, 2020. Perth business reporters saw $300,000 of gold bullion on display.  A presentation was made by Blockhead CEO Greg Leach, and representatives from ABC Refinery also attended. Coverage included Stockhead -  Gold Fraud is on the Rise but New Tech Is Helping Stomp it Out, S&P Global, Miningnews and Business News featured New Tracing App for Gold.

2.          Acuris and Stockhead covered Bryah Resources ongoing results and deal making while Paydirt featured the junior explorer substantially in its annual Diggers and Dealers Preview edition.

Source: ABC Refinery

Software Company – Blockhead Technologies – and Australian gold processor ABC Refinery enter partnership to trace gold bullion.

Adapters: New Empowering Communities Program Begins at Sudbury House

Virginia Aden, Chief Executive of Sudbury Community House

Photo: Perth Media‘s Sophie Minissale

Mirrabooka-based Sudbury Community House, in Perth, has an innovative new empowering program to encourage public contributions and engagement.

Budding entrepreneurs, local firms, socially-minded people and those skilled in arts and crafts such as cookery and embroidery will have a role to play in the new five-year Empowering Communities Program in Sudbury House.

Virginia Aden, Chief Executive, says the new initiatives take a holistic approach that can lead to successful treatment of mental health issues, alcoholism, drug dependence, crime and domestic violence.

“It’s about humanising people who need help the most,” she says. “We are trying to move away from a deficit model of poverty and helplessness. We want to empower people to have a strength-based approach to make them respect and believe that every individual is more than capable of contributing to their own development and wellbeing and that they have the solutions to their problems. Sudbury House just needs to offer support.”

Already, a student from Perth Modern School is utilising modernised kitchens at Sudbury House to prepare edible cutlery as part of a project targeting mental ill-health.

Ms Aden is excited by the developments happening so early in the life of the program, which launched in July this year.

 “Just seven per cent of our running costs at Sudbury House come from public funds,” says Ms Aden who revitalised the 33-year-old facility after her arrival in 2011. “Seventy per cent of our clientele are refugees and migrants. When they arrive, they already have been traumatised in refugee camps.”

Sudbury House's main source of income is a modern early learning centre run by qualified staff catering for infants from six weeks of age to six years. Revenue generated by the facility's Learning and Development Centre pays for open-door services that include the drop-in centre, support groups and an information and referral hub.

Yet it is not enough to meet demand for services that Sudbury House provides as an organisation in the not-for-profit sector.

To rectify that scenario, the centre successfully applied for funding from the Department of Communities’ Empowering Communities Program, and received $1.5 million for distribution over the next five years to 2024. Funds will:

·         Stage year-round activities in The Mirrabooka Square, to raise awareness of partner organisations and demonstrate the community’s self-belief.

·         Act as an incubator for small groups to meet in safety to discuss day-to-day needs, supported by mentoring, coaching, computers and photocopying.

·         Hold annual workshops to share community ideas about evolving needs. Some will be developed into programs, supported by partner organisations.

·         Tackle unemployment by registering local skills such as cooking, artwork, craftwork, dance and music; then look at micro finance and social enterprise.

·         Offer grants to five community members to help plan and implement poorly resourced grass roots projects and ideas affecting streets and suburbs, with a view to raising finance.

Ms Aden says Sudbury House demonstrates that problems are manageable by collective action. “Let’s start a conversation that leads our people to their own solutions, giving them a solid base from where they can flourish and grow into their place in the community. We can literally give power back to these people,” she says.

“Our Sudbury family includes people of Aboriginal descent with whom a strong relationship has been respectfully built through their Elders.”

Ms Aden said program outcomes would be measured against impact, not attendance in hope to address two critical questions – have we changed anyone’s life and are they any better off?

Ms Aden oversaw the transformation of Sudbury House from a single room drop-in centre with a childcare annexe on the verge of closure in 2011 to a thriving community hub whose presence is so important to many. Ms Aden has worked with the peak body, Linkwest, and the Department of Communities (formerly known as Department of Local Government and Communities) to see SCH take shape as a multi-purpose facility renowned for a welcoming atmosphere.

This article is one of many featured in 'Adapters', a series in WA Business News exclusively for Perth Media clients, profiling news of innovative small businesses, start-ups and not for profits.

Adapters: Exceed Customer Expectations, says Perth’s Captivate Connect

Mark Horwood of Captivate Connect

Not all Australian companies understand the importance of customer experience, warns Perth entrepreneur Mark Horwood who is changing how businesses around the world relate to clients.

He says customer experience quantified a person’s emotional response in dealings with a company or organisation, and most major US corporations had hired a director of customer experience.

 “We need to look at some of the reasons that this is important, that a customer ‘feels’ an emotional attachment to a business,” Mr Horwood said.

His firm, Captivate Connect, developed new technology to defeat frustrating on-hold phone calls by helping organisations to interact with consumers who were waiting to speak to a staff member.

Mr Horwood says businesses and organisations must exceed consumer expectations to enjoy the benefit of positive customer experiences.

He noted the evolution of commerce with disruptors, such as Uber Eats and Amazon, and commoditisation, in which products or services became indistinguishable from similar ones.

Mr Horwood continued: “Do you ’feel’ any emotional connection to Amazon or the Uber Eats delivery person? Nope. Can you remember the name of the restaurant from which the Uber Eats bag emanated? Nope.”

He said commoditised products had thin margins and were sold by price, not brand. Typically, ever cheaper and common technology was sold by more suppliers who lower prices even further.

“So, when a business does not want to be seen as ‘the same as everyone else’ – chasing prices to the bottom and squeezing margins – what can it do,” Mr Horwood asked.

“It must make the business different in the mind of the customer,” he explained.

“To do this, it needs to create a connection – not an Uber Eats bag type of relationship, but one where the customer forms an emotional connection. One that is memorable long after price is forgotten.”

Mr Horwood said a five-star restaurant that met customer expectations had done just that. But a pasta joint in the suburbs that exceeded customer expectations might be more memorable.

“Which of these two restaurants are you going to bother rating on Google,” he asked. “Which will you tell your friends to go to?”

He went on: “Larger corporations have the most to give and the most to gain from improving customer experience as generally they are not too good at it.”

Mr Horwood singled out being kept waiting on a telephone as a pet hate. “Why do they do that in this day and age of modern technology when there are so many caller preferred options,” he asked.

Captivate Connect’s world-leading phone technology offered entertainment to people on hold as well as information, a quiz, several genres of music and, importantly, a podcast, download of the company app being called and option to be called back.

The internet helped Captivate Connect establish a bigger customer base in the US than Australia.

“From a business perspective, you gain from this new service not only from having improved customer experience, but higher Google ratings and, of course, the business database grows from every number that requests the quiz or app or podcast link,” Mr Horwood said.

He said customer experience differed from customer service. The latter concerned human interaction and directly supporting customers but was only one aspect of dealing with customers.

“Customer experience is the sum of the entire customer journey with your business,” he said.

For more information go to: www.captivateconnect.com

This article is one of many featured in 'Adapters', a series in WABN exclusively for Perth Media clients, profiling news of innovative small businesses, start-ups and not for profits.

Adapters: Perth Skincare Manufacturer – Marina’s Ambrosia – Plans Sustainable Shift to Eco Packaging

Marina Herlihy of Marina’s Ambrosia

Perth businesswoman Marina Herlihy is rebuilding her thriving skincare and cosmetics firm after realising that her company must take responsibility for eco-friendly social change.

Ms Herlihy wants to appeal to a new market, despite returning annual profits of 20 per cent year on year from Marina’s Ambrosia, the brand of organic personal care items she launched a decade ago.

 “Each day I get between 10 and 20 customers who want to know if I use biodegradable packages,” Ms Herlihy says. “These customers are generally in their early 20s to mid-20s and many of them won’t buy if the packaging isn’t sustainable.”

She identifies these inquisitive young people as drivers of future business growth and has decided to meet their demands or risk being wiped out in today’s new world of environmental awareness.

“I’m budgeting for my products to be made in biodegradable packages for a relaunch in the new year,” Ms Herlihy says.

 Her range of organic products will be offered in organic packages, including bamboo. “My products come from the Earth and soon you will be able to return them to the Earth,” she says.

Ms Herlihy said plastic harmed the planet and everyone must work against it. A sustainable business must have sustainable products, she reasoned, and cancelled her existing packaging order.

“If I don’t do this now, then changing to biodegradable packages later will become a huge demand that will be overwhelming. And if my products don’t shift off the shelf there won’t be an income. And that is where brands fall down.”

 Some customers wanted refills instead of repackaging but that approach was costly, inefficient, impractical and did not always work for mail order items. 

Initially, she planned to offer organic packaging within 10 years but was acting now because of a sense of urgency driven by a new generation of customers.

Redesign costs surprised her. She retains a designer in South Africa having been intimidated by quotes for work in Australia. “I couldn’t afford in Australia the calibre of the work that I will get in South Africa,” Ms Herlihy says.

Customers can expect products packaged in bamboo and cardboard. Old labels in black, white, silver and green are likely to be displaced by biodegradable ones in earthy bamboo tones.

Products would either be recyclable or biodegradable.

Ms Herlihy says the need for change was driven by plastic – a cheap, ubiquitous product that was hard to break down. She hoped scientists could one day produce a chemical bath that could dissolve plastics acceptably. “We cannot stop plastics, but we must slow their advance,” she says.

Some recyclable products posed problems. Glass, for example, was disliked for skincare and cosmetics packaging because, if dropped in a bathroom, it could shatter or break a tile.

Similarly, cardboard could be compromised by moisture. Marina’s Ambrosia was successfully selling deodorant in cardboard tubes with waxed-paper linings. “Everybody loves it,” Ms Herlihy said.

Bamboo packaging held great promise because, like wood, it was recyclable. Ms Herlihy had found a supplier in Indonesia who farmed sustainably and did not employ child labour.

Ms Herlihy, a mother of four who trained in naturopathy, founded her company after inventing what is now her bestseller, Organic All Over, a body lotion that successfully treated her bad skin.

Marina’s Ambrosia has a catalogue of more than 100 products with a global customer base.

For more information go to: www.marinasambrosia.com

This article is one of many featured in 'Adapters', a series in WABN exclusively for Perth Media clients, profiling news of innovative small businesses, start-ups and not for profits.

Perth Media Testimonial: Public Relations Campaign for Advanced Energy Resources on Refurbished Wind Turbines ‘Results Speak for Themselves’

On 19 June 2019, Perth Media ran a campaign on behalf of Advanced Energy Resources (AER).

Founded in 2006, AER is a WA electricity generator and retailer focused on supplying 100% renewable energy to its customers by 2025. Construction of its 3.5MW wind, solar and battery project will power GMA Garnet’s wet plant operations 40km south of Kalbarri in WA, a region of generally weak electricity network coverage.

On Perth Media’s successful media campaign, AER business development manager Steve Wall said: “When we announced our Australian-first 3.5MW Wind/Solar/Battery hybrid project to supply a mine in the Mid-West, we were determined to gain maximum exposure for our success.

“Cate and her team worked quickly and enthusiastically to ensure our story was embraced by a large number of industry, regional and general media outlets – including requests for interviews.”

Funding of $3 million by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the Federal Government’s renewable energy programs manager, furthers its Advancing Renewables Program by commercially trialling AER’s back-to-back inverter technology. This, and the use of refurbished turbines, is a world first.

“Perth Media displayed a good understanding of AER’s business and the renewable energy industry in WA. The results spoke for themselves.” - Steve Wall, business development manager of Advanced Energy Resources.

Perth Media Hosts Investors' Club with Bryah Resources

Perth Media organised an excellent investors’ briefing with Bryah Resources in Perth, last week.

The event received national coverage in Stockhead and many more Investors’ Clubs will be planned exclusively for Perth Media clients. The Bryah event was held at morning tea time and attended by 15 retail investors who met Managing Director Neil Marston and Bryah staff. Events for Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) are also planned within weeks. Registration is by invite only.

For more information please contact faye@perthmedia.com.au

“I think it was excellent, an informative and engaging presentation.” said Wendy Davies Business and Advisory Director, accounting and consulting network Nexia.

Series of Cracking Films for Australian Vanadium

Perth Media’s film for Australian Vanadium’s Pre Feasibility Study for the Gabanintha Vanadium project in Western Australia. Editing by Courtney Waller.

Adapters: Perth Media Films and Script Writing Wins Business for Our Clients

Perth Media public relations firm is increasing collaborations with Australian film makers to tell corporate clients' stories.

 Bristow has been a highlight. Working with Courtney Waller Productions, dramatic footage depicted a rescue by helicopter at sea. The resulting film was used as a tool to pitch for business.

“We told the story of the people behind Bristow, their striving for excellence and how that drove them to perform daring rescues safely,” Rocchi said.

"The work is indicative of how our small public relations company has evolved into a multi-media firm. We work closely with film makers to ensure the right footage is shot and films are scripted and edited carefully to include correct messages, crucial facts and other important material. Our clients are typically extremely busy, and don't have media experience, we are stepping into film production because films are extremely effective at connecting with audiences. For businesses, that means good films are winning new contracts and investors."

Torrance Mendez, Perth Media’s creative digital consultant, has written several scripts.

At the height of the bitcoin frenzy, he wrote a script to launch the newly formed International Council for the Virtual Economy which was agitating for a regulatory body for virtual currencies.

“Fortunes were being made overnight but there was genuine concern that virtual currencies posed unacceptable risk that included money laundering,” Mendez recalled.

The narrative had to support the currencies because they created wealth, and cautiously introduce the benefits of a regulatory body. The video was launched in Dubai.

Bernard Shaw, director of Perth-based Red Empire Media production company, hired an American narrator and shot a fast-paced film.

“Our clients gave us great feedback on Perth Media being able to grasp the sometimes difficult and unusual concepts,” Shaw said. “This was particularly so when writing a script for the International Council for the Virtual Economy, which needed a strong understanding of the banking industry.”

Companies generally want videos to promote a product or service or to raise money for projects.

Another WA firm Callidus wanted to promote its unique services, customer focus and high engineering skills, once again Perth Media's script writing came to the party, working with Courtney Waller Productions.

This column is part of the Adapters series produced by Perth Media. It profiles Perth Media news, small business and not-for-profit clients, exclusively.

Perth Media Expands Team, Client List and Opens New Nedlands Office in Perth

PERTH: Media content and public relations firm — Perth Media Pty Ltd — has opened a new office in Nedlands in line with continuing expansion plans.

The development is the latest news in a series of organic growth milestones for the Perth-based small business.

Perth Media managing director Cate Rocchi said: “Perth Media has, to date, been a small operation but we have consistently built powerful global profiles for our clients through tailored integrated media and communications services.

“We act in an advisory, creative and media service capacity and have a strong network of journalist and broadcast partners and connections, so are uniquely placed to deliver global-standard media management services in the sectors of finance, mining, renewables and agribusiness.”

Perth Media was established in 2015. It rebranded from Cate Rocchi Communications which began in 2011.

Major clients include: resources companies Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL), VSUN Energy and Bryah Resources (ASX: BYH); urbi; Partners in Grain; and Rockcliffe winery.

The Perth Media team now includes editor/writer Torrance Mendez (formerly of The West Australian).

“Our team — which has welcomed high calibre artists, photographers, former reporters and film makers — produces some of Australia’s best, most consistent media content for corporates,” Ms Rocchi said. “It has taken many years to assemble productive working relationships with such a talented and professional group. We have also been careful to grow our business conservatively, so quality has remained excellent.”

Perth Media values include: staying true to the principles of integrity, authenticity and clarity; continuous improvement; and innovative thinking.

“We remain focused on improving media outcomes for our clients and enjoy the challenge of mixing social and traditional media as we embrace the communications of the future,” she said.

The company’s current list of services are: script/copy writing, investor relations management, content creation, blogs, photography, videography, social media strategy and delivery, infographics, strategic media advisory and support, campaign research, publicity, global TV, radio and press coverage, media training, CV writing and speech writing. Packages are available.

“We know how to achieve publicity and we will give clients authentic advice on which stories and media services they need to reach their customers,” Ms Rocchi said.

Perth Media Pty Ltd is now located at 47 Hampden Road, Nedlands, Perth. For the next four weeks (until November 15, 2018) the company is hosting some rarely-available media release writing sessions ($350) and media presentations, by appointment. There are only eight slots available. Terms and conditions apply.

There are other key developments ongoing such as a website rebrand, which will be launched in 2019.

Contact

Cate Rocchi

0428431699

cate@perthmedia.com.au

This story has also appeared in Perth Media’s Adapters column that features in Western Australian Business News.