Top Story Archive

Small Business Forum campaign

This month, GMS was proud to be the PR company of choice for the small business advocate organisation, the Australian Small Business Group, which looked to GMS to promote its crucial pre election Small Business Forum in Brisbane.

The Small Business Forum was a first time initiative organised by the Australian Small Business Group that placed the Federal Minister for Small Business, Craig Emerson, and Shadow Minister for Small Business, Bruce Billson, in a live debate in front of more than eighty small business leaders.

The Australian Small Business Group’s founder Terri Cooper approached Gray Media Services to develop a strategic PR campaign that would help promote the event and the current issues facing the small business industry, within nationwide media.

GMS was able to achieve widespread coverage of the Small Business Forum across, print, radio and online media. The forum featured significantly on 4BC’s Morning Show with Greg Cary, while also receiving a mention on ABC 612’s Breakfast Show with Spencer Howson. Articles also appeared in several print publications, including a significant feature piece in The Weekend Courier Mail. However the most widespread coverage for the Small Business Forum was reached via online media, with the story appearing on ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, Queensland Business Review and Business Acumen to name but a few.

The Small Business Forum campaign was an incredible success that managed to not only raise awareness of the issues surrounding small businesses but also brought both major political parties’ proposed policies for the industry to public attention. Gray Media Services was proud to be a part of Terri Cooper’s campaign for small businesses and looks forward to continuing to build on its professional relationship with Ms Cooper and the Australian Small Business Group.

Launch of rebranding campaign

Gray Media Services has recently achieved significant local coverage for its client The Natalie Group, with the beauty brand appearing in several high profile industry and mainstream publications across Queensland.

GMS worked closely with the Natalie Group to develop two separate campaigns both aiming to reintroduce the quintessential Australian made brand and its natural beauty products to the Australian beauty industry and the mainstream consumer.

Founded in 1987 the Natalie Group has made a name for itself as an environmentally conscious beauty brand that specialises in a range of products including moisturisers, cosmetics and body scrubs.

The Natalie Group were looking to increase both its business profile as a leading supplier of natural skin care products and were also to further promote its two product lines to its target consumer and so asked GMS to help in re launching the brand.

To date GMS has achieved wide spread local coverage for The Natalie Group across a wide range of consumer and industry publications both online and in print based media. The Natalie Group has appeared in MX, Style Gold Coast magazine, Gold Coast Business magazine as well as significant feature pieces in online news websites Queensland Business Review and Professional Beauty.

The Natalie Group’s online presence has also grown with the brand celebrating its 200th visitor to Facebook just last month.

Gray Media Services looks forward to working on many more exciting campaigns with this home grown brand, particularly as it begins the launch of its product lines overseas.

Green Lane Diary campaign

This month, GMS was thrilled to again be given the opportunity to join forces with environmental not for profit organisation, Green Cross Australia.

Green Cross Australia was in the midst of launching a brand new environmental initiative called the Green Lane Diary across more than one hundred Queensland primary schools when it decided to reach out to Gray Media Services and ask for help in promoting the launch of the programme within local media.

The Green Lane Diary is part of a global initiative that looks at teaching the world’s future generation the importance of environmental sustainability and Green Cross Australia was very proud to be able to introduce the Green Lane Diary programme into Australia for the first time.

Launching at the beginning of June, GMS was able to achieve widespread local coverage of the launch across print, radio and online media. The Green Lane Diary launch featured front page on the Courier Mail Headst@rt section, as well as a signficiant article taking prominent place in the education blog on Courier Mail’s website. Radio coverage was also achieved promoting the Green Lane Diary on family programme 96.5FM as well as scoring a mention on ABC 612’s breakfast programme with Spencer Howson. The launch also had significant features in local newspapers the Gold Coast Mail, Pine River’s Press and South West News.

The Green Lane Diary campaign was an incredible success that managed to raise the project’s profile while continuing to promote Green Cross Australia’s good work within the Australian environmental sector. GMS looks forward to continuing its well established bond with this unique organisation long into the future.

You’re Never Too Young campaign

Aiming to raise awareness of bowel cancer, GMS convinced four brave Rotarians to bare their briefs and dance for the world to see in a hilarious YouTube video that was part of a complete PR campaign that involved everything from social to mainstream media.

Rotary Bowelscan is the initiative of over 300 Rotary clubs across Australia that aims to reduce the number of lives lost to this deadly cancer through regular testing of people from 40 plus. For 2010 Queensland Rotary looked to increase the impact of its campaign and so asked GMS to re launch the brand, its website and increase awareness of the disease.

GMS chose a number of ways to get the message out, not least of all through an intensive social media campaign – a first for Rotary.

GMS started the campaign in February with a medical forum and media lauch then strategically followed this with the release of the social media campaign. The YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfs9q4BcRnI elicited an outstanding response from both the public, other health organisations and the media and was supported by Twitter and Facebook campaigns that got everyone talking.

GMS scored television segments for Rotary Bowelscan on Channel Seven Nightly News and Early Morning News and gained plenty of local coverage for the dancing Rotarians – they appeared in The Courier Mail, on ABC and 4BC radio, in several Quest newspapers, the Bayside Bulletin, South East Advertiser and Simply Redlands as well as in specialist publications such as Retiree Magazine and Our City Our Logan. There was also incredible online news coverage as people all around starting hearing about the dancing granddad story.

In boosting the not for profit’s image, GMS also worked closely with Rotary to redesign their website , brochures and posters, which can now be viewed through visiting www.bowelscanqueensland.org.au.

The new look Rotary Bowelscan is now brighter, bolder and better than ever and GMS hopes its work on the campaign will lead to more people taking action and getting checked for bowel cancer.

Fifth birthday campaign

When Queensland children’s charity The Pyjama Foundation turned five recently, Gray Media Services made sure this fantastic organisation received all the media coverage it deserved.

It was up to Gray Media Services to promote The Pyjama Foundation’s fifth birthday and its upcoming fundraising birthday party, scheduled for October 7 at the Brisbane Powerhouse, with the aim of raising the charity’s profile while also helping increase ticket sales to the event.

Gray Media Services organised a ‘pyjama party’ to attract media attention complete with founder and CEO Bronwyn Sheehan and several children in their PJs. The event received excellent coverage in The Courier Mail on September 26.

The GMS campaign also targeted leading local and national media outlets and was a great success, with The Pyjama Foundation receiving both local and national media attention.

Bronwyn Sheehan and The Pyjama Foundation also featured on the highly rated state-wide Steve Austin show on ABC Queensland radio, the morning show on Brisbane’s 96.5FM., Brisbane City News, and many more print and online publications in Queensland. .

As a result of the Gray Media Services PR campaign, ticket sales to The Pyjama Foundation’s fifth birthday fundraiser dramatically increased by as much as five times the expected amount, with only a final few tickets left on sale in the days leading up to the event. A good result all round.

CRVA and Solitary Bay campaigns

Gray Media Services has been flying high in the world of travel news publications recently, thanks to successful public relations campaigns for two clients in the travel industry, Solitary Bay and Caravan, RV & Accommodation Industry of Australia (CRVA).

CRVA is the peak national tourism body representing all facets of the caravan and camping industry. Since September, Gray Media Services has run a series of targeted public relations campaigns promoting the benefits of the caravanning and camping lifestyle to the wider public through industry and mainstream media outlets.

The results have been exceptional, with stories featuring caravan holidays for older travellers and families alike featuring in a range of widely circulating publications including The Weekend Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald online and Jetstar magazine, as well as industry publications.

Gray Media Services has also been working to promote caravanning as the great Australian family holiday through television opportunities. Gray Media Services recently worked behind the for CRVA’s appearance on Better Homes & Gardens and Today Tonight, with each show viewed by more than 2 million people nationally.

Further television spots are scheduled to run in January 2010, so stay tuned for more news about this significant industry body.

Still on travel news, Gray Media Services has achieved significant media coverage for client Solitary Bay through a campaign to promote a new classic walk, which was launched in 2009 on the NSW North Coast.

The 60km Solitary Bay Trail allows walkers to explore the entire length of the untouched Clarence Valley coastline, which until now has been largely untapped.

Through a targeted public relations campaign, Solitary Bay featured in Virgin Blue Voyeur, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Travel + Leisure and The West Australian, with television opportunities planned for 2010. Watch this space!

SME Assistance Group

Gray Media Services recently achieved significant national media coverage for its client, industrial relations company SME Assistance Group, which asked GMS to promote its ground breaking spreadsheet based solution which aims to help businesses understand the Federal Government’s new ‘modern’ award scheme.

Based in Brisbane and specialising in providing industrial relations assistance to small and medium sized enterprises, SME Assistance Group developed its new Modern Award Payment Processing Tool (MAPPT) to assist several of its clients who were struggling to comprehend how to transition to the new ‘modern’ award and were risking non-compliance as a result.

SME Assistance Group enlisted Gray Media Services to create and instigate a campaign that would not only raise awareness of its new Modern Award Payment Processing Tool but that would also highlight the concerns small to medium businesses were having with the Federal Government’s ‘modern’ award.

GMS achieved significant coverage for SME Assistance Group and the MAPPT campaign, with the issue featuring in a wide range of national publications. This included a lead feature article in the Australian Financial Review’s Enterprise section, which is read by over 243,000 senior business executives, and an extensive story in The Courier Mail. As well as receiving wide spread national coverage in print publications, the MAAPT solution also featured in large number of business and online media websites including Queensland Business Review, Dynamic Business, and News.com.au.

The media coverage achieved emphasised how SME Assistance Group’s innovative technology was able to help small businesses overcome a huge industry problem with SME Assistance Group incredibly pleased with the awareness achieved from GMS’s campaign. Gray Media Services looks forward to working with SME Assistance Group on all public relations and marketing matters in the future.

Mel Roche

Gray Media Services recently achieved significant media coverage for its client, Olympic champion and professional softball player Mel Roche. Embarking on a new career as a singer/songwriter Ms Roche looked to GMS to raise her new profile within local and industry media.

Based in Brisbane, Mel Roche is an incredibly talented woman whose music combines her love for sport and music into a unique and fresh new sound.

Having just finished recording her first album, Mel Roche approached Gray Media Services to develop a PR campaign that would work to get her and her sound noticed within local, Brisbane and industry publications.

GMS achieved widespread coverage for Mel Roche across print, radio and online media. Mel Roche and her music had a significant feature on Brisbane’s most listened to breakfast programme ABC 612 and also on local Blacktown radio station SWRFM. She also appeared on the cover, and in a double page spread, of well read Brisbane publication City News, whilst also achieving significant features in the Blacktown Sun and North West News.

Gray Media Services also achieved industry coverage for Mel Roche in Softball Australia, North Shore District Times Softball Association, Softball Queensland and Softball New South Wales.

Gray Media Services managed to achieve outstanding results for Mel Roche in a very short space of time, with Mel Roche incredibly pleased with the coverage she received. GMS looks forward to its next campaign with Ms Roche and to further promoting her unique and soulful sound to a wide range of Australian and international media.