Diogo Mourato

A well thought out sales promotion is an integral part of an overall marketing strategy. While the ‘spray and pray’ approach may tempt time-strapped business-types, it’s the highly-targeted campaign that will see you achieve the Holy Grail of promotions: high conversions.

Since 1996, the Webby Awards has recognised and celebrated the best of the internet. Last week, the awards celebrated their 15th year and five antipodean companies were among the nominees: four from Australia and one from New Zealand.

Nissan Casting Australia (NCAP), a company that manufactures casting and parts for the automotive industry, wins bid to develop components for Nissan’s LEAF electric car with the help of a series of cost-competitive casting technologies developed by CSIRO.

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, has announced, together with Premier Lara Giddings, CSIRO’s CEO Dr Megan Clark and Member for Denison Andrew Wilkie, that the Tasmanian ICT Centre will receive a $50 million package over the next five years to help Tasmanian’s development of information and communications technologies.

According to “The Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011” compiled by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD The Business School of the World , New Zealand and Australia are the two most fastest places in the world to start a new business.

A new report released by the World Economic Forum has suggested that the top 1% of entrepreneurial firms is responsible for the creation of 40% of jobs among start-ups and for 44% of their total revenue. So what makes the top 1% so successful? Featured in the report are also studies of seventy the world's most successful high-impact entrepreneurial ventures, such as Australia's Atlassian, Fortescue Metals Group, Paladin Energy and Resmed. [ESSENTIAL READING]

Travelex has issued a a word of caution to Australian importers and SMBs so they be careful with their purchasing practices in a moment when the $AUD is strong.

According to a new report from the ARC Centre for Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology, Australians spent $17 billion in the entertainment industry in 2009, with each Australian over fifteen years old spending an average $756. That ranks us fifth among the world’s biggest entertainment spenders, right behind the United States, Japan, United Kingdom and Germany.

Ovum's "Is your city smart enough?" says that cities should start integrating information technologies into their infrastructure so they can become more competitive in the future. The report also states that this implementation has to happen in two different ways: by Digital-City strategies and by Digital-Society initiatives.

A Newspoll survey, commissioned by Suncorp Life, has analysed what events are considered the most stressful for Australians. Having their house destroyed by natural disaster ranks in the first place, followed the by serious illness or injury. Curiously, many Australian men find marriage to be the most stressful event of their life.

Compare Broadband, a broadband comparison website, recently conducted a poll where it asked its visitors if they were willing to pay extra for their broadband provider to include unmetered Australian TV shows. Two thirds said no.

OBI found that the main reason behind the online commerce growth is consumer demand as well as an increase in the range of services offered by Australian Post. The rising of the Australian dollar also had a positive impact on eCommerce. According to the survey, a stronger Australian dollar allowed online businesses to import more products from overseas and led more Australian customers to online shopping which allowed online retailers to reduce prices in order to compete with international businesses.

According to a new report, the Australian private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) industries generated attractive returns over a one, three and five year period, as of June 2010, in comparison to traditional stock indexes.

Despite predictions of obsolescence, brought on by the world-wide-wide, some unexpected industries are not just surviving. They're thriving! Cinema screens did not go blank. Human resources agencies didn't get the axe. Travel agents were not sent on a long vacation. Department stores were not put on indefinite lay-by. And Postal services were not sent packing.

According to Michael Blythe, Commonwealth Bank Chief Economist, “The divergence between retail and non-retail spending trends, where women and men’s spending dominate respectively, correlates with the divide in gender sentiment. Department store sales, for example, where women are responsible for 59% of spending, is soft. And this softness is linked to the less positive sentiment of female consumers.”

The 17th AIMIA Awards have distinguished several projects and companies in the interactive media industry and as awarded the Outstanding Contribution Award to Oliver Weidlich.

The Hydrogen Group, through its report ‘Global professionals on the Move 2011’, has found that women are more likely to advance in their professions if they have experience abroad. Yet, according to the survey, of all the Australians working overseas, 67% are men and 33% are women.

The Festival of Media Global, organised by C Squared, has issued a call for media innovators to participate in its Media Accelerator Program (MAP). Participating companies will compete for one of ten speaking slots and the title of Festival of Media Global ‘Hot Company of the Year’.

Ovum's latest report states that Facebook is invading mobile operators space and could potentially become a very serious threat. However, mobile operators aren't taking Facebook as a serious competitor but rather as a business partner.

Google and MYOB joined forces and launched the 'Getting Aussie Business Online'. The partners plan to provide 50,000 Australian small businesses with one year of basic web site hosting using MYOB's Atlas web builder, two years of .com.au domain registration and $75 worth of Google AdWords at no charge.