SURVEY PREDICTS THE BULK OF SANTA'S BILLIONS FOR KIDS

AUSTRALIA is set to splurge more than $48 billion in retail stores this Christmas, with electronic product makers and big name brands expected to pocket the lion's share when it comes to gifts for children. According to the Roy Morgan's Young Australian Survey, kids are chasing nothing but the best in 2016, with products from...

ZAMBRERO POWERS UP GLUTEN FREE OFFERING

ZAMBRERO has developed a new menu offering to cater to the growing market of gluten awareness. The Sydney-based Mexican quick service restaurant franchise has launched a black rice tortilla as part of its new Power Burrito. Zambrero global procurement and product development manager Perry Josito says the new addition to the superfoods...

BARTERCARD LAUNCHES $250,000 INCUBATOR FUND

BARTERCARD has launched a business development grant to get a piece of the startup action. The Gold Coast-based trade exchange's Small Business Incubator Grant has a pool of $250,000 up for grabs, funded through its trade dollar currency. Small and medium-sized businesses on the Gold Coast can apply for a grant of up to $25,000 to...

NOT COOL: DULUX FINED $400,000 FOR MISLEADING ADS

DULUXGROUP has been fined $400,000 for false advertising relating to its Weathershield and InfraCOOL paints.

The temperature-reducing claims the company made about the paints have been found to be false or misleading by the Federal Court, in a case brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

In advertisemen...

FAST-TRACK THE EFFECTS OF TECHNOLOGY BY CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK

LOOK at what is happening in the world, link it to your company's vision and then experiment. This is the simple three-step process Kate Eriksson, head of Innovation and disruption at PwC, advises marketing professionals when it comes to helping their companies stay on top in a fast changing world.

At last week's 2016 MarTech Summit i...

MEET THE ENTREPRENEUR WHO HAS WORKED OUT THE NEW MEDIA MODEL

IN the age of disruption, it is publishing that has been one of the industries hardest hit by new technology, but Gold Coast entrepreneur Dan Richardson (pictured) could have found the successful business model that so many in this industry have searched for.

His health and fitness focussed business, Challenger Media Group, has hit the g...

MARTECH SUMMIT TO GROUND BUSINESSES IN THE DIGITAL ERA

IN A rapidly changing world, an organisation's survival hinges on its successful digital transformation. According to studies, digitally transformed companies are 26 per cent more profitable and generate nine per cent more revenue. The MarTech Summit was introduced based on the demand from marketers, to keep pace with the latest d...

GOLD COAST LEADERS DIVE INTO CITY'S SPORTING FUTURE

A PANEL of Gold Coast industry leaders will share ideas to help the city shine as a sporting destination on the global stage this weekend. The Big Blue Sky Event will discuss the Gold Coast as Australia's most active city and how to make it the number one sporting precinct by 2020. The panel comprises Gold Coast Commonwealth Games...

QANTAS FREQUENT FLYERS SCORE WITH AIRBNB DEAL

QANTAS has teamed up with Airbnb to reward Qantas Frequent Flyer members with points when they book host stays through its website. The partnership marks the first time the accommodation marketplace has worked with an airline rewards program. The Qantas Frequent Flyer program has 11.4 million members eligible to earn one Qantas point ...

LOCOMOTE REBRANDS TO DRIVE UK EXPANSION

MELBOURNE-BASED corporate travel platform Locomote is gearing up for its expansion to the UK under a new name. Travelport Locomote has appointed a new leadership team to tackle the UK market in coming months, as well drive growth for its suite of products to manage business travel. It follows Travelport's investment in a majority ...

QUEENSLAND REAPS BENEFITS OF 'CRUISE BOOM'

QUEENSLAND has become the port of choice for holidaymakers, attracting more cruise ships than any other Australian state last year. A record 329 cruise ships visited the sunshine state in 2015-16 according to the Australian Cruise Association's Economic Impact Assessment of the Cruise Industry in Australia report. Premier Annastac...

TOURISM GETS A SHARE OF QANTAS BILLION

QANTAS Airways (ASX:QAN) is ploughing back some of the mega-profits it has earned this past year into promoting its home market to the world through a three-year deal with Tourism Australia.

The flagship carrier has signed a $20 million joint-venture agreement with the peak tourism body to promote Australia through digital marketing initiativ...

BUSINESS NEWS AUSTRALIA AND IVVY TEAM UP

BUSINESS News Australia has launched a new venue hire site in partnership with leading events and venue management cloud computing software company iVvy, in a move that is set to further revolutionise the way businesses plan and manage their event needs.

The new venue hire site offers the opportunity for event planners to easily search, ...

PRINCE MIXES PHILANTHROPY WITH BUSINESS AT ZAMBRERO

SOMETIMES, after building a successful business and making millions, entrepreneurs will turn their thoughts to philanthropy. Zambrero founder Sam Prince took a different approach. He intertwined the commercial focus of his Mexican restaurant chain with the philanthropic goals of his social enterprise, Plate 4 Plate, right from the beginning, in ...

SALLY PEARSON NAMED FIRST GC2018 AMBASSADOR

AUSTRALIAN track queen Sally Pearson OAM has been named the first official ambassador of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. The Gold Coast resident is best known for her achievements as a world, Olympic and dual Commonwealth Games hurdles gold medallist. The GC2018 Ambassador Program has been designed to help GOLDOC promote the e...

DESIGNCROWD FREELANCER NOTCHES $1M IN EARNINGS

A FREELANCE designer using DesignCrowd has raked in more than $1 million on the crowdsourcing platform. Anand Thangavel (pictured), operating as PB from the UK, has become DesignCrowd's top freelance designer following the milestone. The Sydney-based company provides logo, print, website and graphic design through its marketplace ...

ANZ TAKES OUT SIX CANNES LIONS FOR EQUALITY CAMPAIGNS

ANZ (ASX:ANZ) has cleaned up at the Cannes Lions awards for its marketing campaigns promoting diversity and inclusion. The bank was awarded Gold Lions in both the PR category for its Equal Futures pocket money initiative and the media category for the GAYNZ campaign, as well as another four Bronze Lions. As part of International Women...

BUSINESS BITES: M&C SAATCHI

IKEA is a property developer, Airbnb is a media company and Facebook is a drone developer.

Got your attention? That's the mark of M&C Saatchi's group innovation director, Ben Cooper.

With too many 'agency of the year' accolades to count, M&C Saatchi pioneers creative direction worldwide.

Cooper heads inn...

ANOTHER WAVE OF TOURISM SUCCESS ON COAST

THE number of overnight visitors on the Gold Coast is on the rise, with overnight arrivals from Sydney surging 25 per cent in the past year.   The National Visitor Survey results released today by Tourism Research Australia indicate that the city welcomed 337,000 more domestic overnight visitors and 1.1 million more day-trippers in t...

TOURISM PUNCHING ABOVE ITS WEIGHT, SAYS WINTER

INTERNATIONAL visitor expenditure on the Gold Coast has risen 15.4 per cent in the 12 months ending March 2016, with Gold Coast Tourism CEO Martin Winter claiming the local industry is punching above its weight. According to Tourism Australia's International Visitor survey, international visitor expenditure on the Glitter Strip rose t...