It has been a fantastic year for Connecting Images, its clients and suppliers in which we have strengthened existing relationships and created some very exciting new ones! The team has enjoyed the opportunity to work on some exciting AND challenging projects!

Amongst our many highlights for the year are:

ASSA ABLOY – producing internal, external publications, media campaigns

Baldasso Cortese Architects has been responsible for some very successful projects in 2008 – particularly in Childcare and Education, and we have enjoyed supporting these efforts with some very targeted media campaigns.

Festival Indonesia was a fantastic event held in August full of colour, culture, fragrant food and trade opportunities.

Future Fibre Technologies’ unique fibre optic security systems has come under the spotlight. Trade shows, media campaigns and online marketing have kept us busy.

Heat Beads^® brand new website www.heatbeads.com.au was launched. This website is going gangbusters, already achieving previously undreamt of results in terms of user engagement and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). A massive jump in opt in subscribers to the site (in excess of 200% increase), in the first 20 days of December is most encouraging.

New clients, Optalert www.optalert.com and Dr. Murray Johns www.epworthsleepinessscale.com, are very satisfied with their refreshed websites. Each site provides astounding information in terms of drowsiness detection technology and research. Brilliant product for transport, mining and railway industries particularly, and an extremely important work safety innovation.

Portfolio Management Services has joined us as a client and we look forward to working with the team in 2009.

Profitable Hospitality’s annual Chicago tour went off without a hitch this year, making it one of the best to date. Working on the inaugural Food & Beverage Summit in collaboration with the Club Managers Association of Australia in October was hugely rewarding and a great success!

Review has attracted strong traffic to its site, driven by a regular blog, showcasing the latest styles and trends. In 2009, we will continue to grow web traffic and drive user engagement.

Ronson Gears is still getting rave reviews for its ‘Gear Whispers’ Newsletter; we’re pleased to hear.

Vividas Asia Pacific has achieved some impressive wins in 2008. Its highlights include the live streaming of the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach over Easter and the Rip Curl Pro Search World Tournament in Indonesia in August. The rapid uptake of live streaming by corporates, as a highly successful communication tool, is impressive.

The Connecting Images team wishes all you all a very enjoyable festive season and a productive, fulfilling and prosperous New Year! We look forward to working with you in 2009.

The Connecting Images office will be closed on December 24 and will reopen on January 12.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is of growing importance in a world where reputation is everything. Business is being held accountable for its actions in so many ways, in the communities where its stakeholders live and work.

Governments cannot fund all worthy causes. Businesses and individuals will be increasingly called on to support the necessary work of so many.

Corporate sponsorship is a positive way in which business can demonstrate its commitment to CSR, and help fund projects/research conducted for the better good of our community.

An example is the work done by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. The JDRF is making strong headway in working to ‘find a cure for Type 1 diabetes and its complications’ and has raised more than $US1.3billion for research.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘in 2004 982 new cases of Type 1 diabetes were recorded in children aged under 15 years’. This equates to an annual incidence of around 1 in every 4,000 children under the age of 15, which has seen the frequency of cases double since 1983.

In May this year, Merilyn’s 19 month-old granddaughter, Milly, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. This means a life dependent on up to six insulin injections a day – at this early stage!! – so we have a very personal reason for wanting to find a cure.

Thanks to so many of our clients who generously supported JDRF when staff members Merilyn, Kirsty and Cal joined other family members in the JDRF fundraising walk in October.

If you are a current client or supplier of Connecting Images, click here so that we may donate to the JDRF on your behalf, this Christmas.

One of our favourite blog topics is website design and usability, especially in the context of conveying a desired image for your business.

We can’t bang on enough about how important your website is in the sales and marketing process, given it is most often the first contact potential customers have with you.

This week the Optalert website, www.optalert.com went live. Our brief was to redesign the site with a fresh new look that would accurately depict the future direction of the company. Optalert is a company that produces fatigue management systems for the road, rail and mining industries.

Our priorities:
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) was a consideration throughout the entire process with copy being written with carefully planned keyword density. As proven by the results we have achieved for many of our clients, SEO should dramatically improve Optalert’s ranking on search engines such as Google. Including the right keywords should also increase the average number of pages visited by users, and the amount of time they spend on the site.

The new interface has been carefully designed to ensure the site engages the user and increases the number of conversions of web visitors to become new business.

Thinking of giving your current website a face-lift? Why not come in for a coffee and a chat? Give Merilyn or Cal a call on (03) 9819 2566.

Current clients and suppliers are invited to complete this form and we will make a donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation on your behalf (we donate the money, not you!). This is our way of spreading Christmas Cheer in 2008.

We’re all aware that the ways in which people source information is changing, but just how rapidly these changes are happening and what it means for your business may be harder to grasp. How do you get your products and ideas into the marketplace? What methods of marketing and communications should you use? Are advertising and media communication mediums really changing?

Statistics show us that young people spend more time surfing the web than they do watching TV – and it’s not only the young who spend time online! Fairfax media has recently slashed is staff around the country in a desperate bid to stay afloat and relevant in the digital age. Australia’s commercial free-to-air networks are struggling to maintain audience figures that only a few years ago would have been considered inadequate.

Recently James Packer walked away from PBL, leaving the Nine Network and ACP magazines deep in debt and in desperate need of a financier to support repositioning of the company online.

Back in the good old mid-’80s, advertisers could rest easy in the knowledge that if they booked spots across the three major commercial networks they would reach the majority of Australia’s consumers. Not so today.

Recent surveys of consumer respondents have shown that:
* 19% stated spending six hours or more per day on personal internet usage, versus nine percent of respondents who reported the same levels of TV viewing.
* 66% reported viewing between one to four hours of TV per day, versus 60% who reported the same levels of personal internet usage.

So what are your options in this brave new world of media? The short answer is that marketers need to integrate the traditional media of press, TV and radio with the new social media elements added to the mix.

Smart marketing makes the most of these new environments, reaching target audiences directly – interacting and engaging people and key decision makers on their terms.

When you understand where your audience and markets source their news and information, you can consider different media to reach them.

Here are just some of the options you can consider as part of your ongoing marketing:
* create a company blog
* participate in social media forums
* create company profiles and share relevant content on social networks
* create videos and demos for YouTube, webcast and podcast.

Most importantly, make sure this content is closely managed, with new information added constantly.

As you enter 2009, is it time to review your external communications plan? What are your customers reading, listening to, watching?