Thursday, December 29, 2016
Innovation in Australia: Welcome to 2030 - I own nothing, have no privacy a...
Innovation in Australia: Welcome to 2030 - I own nothing, have no privacy a...: "Now I can hardly believe that we accepted congestion and traffic jams." Image: REUTERS/Nicky Loh Written by Ida ...
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Atlassian to open office in Sydney CBD!
Atlassian plans to open a new 400-person office in Sydney’s CBD – just a few metres down from its existing headquarters.
The company has a second smaller office currently in Clarence Street which will close in the new year, and selected staff from there and the main building will move to the new 5000-square-metre site at 363 George Street when it opens in February or March.
The 30-storey building is part of a precinct that also includes 345 George Street and 24 York Street that is about to undergo a major redevelopment, which will now be known as George Place.
The office will be state-of-the-art, with every meeting room fully decked out with video communications, ample quiet space and will defy the current trend towards hot-desking.
“We’re trying to hand control of space back to the end user, which is the opposite to what facility managers do [currently],” Atlassian’s global head of real estate, Brent Harman, told Business Insider.
“The workspace is like a workshop where tradesmen and tradeswomen ply their trade and it should be their space to configure how they see fit.”
Atlassian now has almost 2,000 employees globally in San Francisco, Austin, Manila, Amsterdam and Sydney, where around half of them are based. The headcount has grown considerably in twelve months — it was at 1,200 employees last December at the time of its IPO.
Harman said that most professions — other than technology — have a precinct in Sydney and tech’s lack of such a physical presence is a problem for an industry facing skills shortages.
Saturday, December 17, 2016
2016 Aussie Businessmen of the Year
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar named by the fin review as business people of the year.
There tech startup , Atlassian has grown from strength to strength and now listed at many $billions!
They have built an incredible business and are great supporters of the innovation ecosystem.
Congrats Mike and Scott - and thanks for being awesome!
Monday, December 12, 2016
GO1 raises $4m from Australian VC
GO1 co-founders Chris Eigeland, Andrew Barnes and Vu Tran.- Tertius Pickard
GO1 , Queensland Tech Startup raises $4m from Australian VCS at a $15m valuation
GO1 is designed to make it easier for businesses to find and book appropriate training courses in a diverse range of fields, varying from first aid to anti-money laundering and management.
It has pulled together over 100,000 courses from training providers ranging from St John Ambulance to Richard Branson.
Investors include Queensland government's Business Development Fund , Black Sheep Capital, Full Circle Venture Capital, Amasia and Wotif chief financial officer Sam Friend,
Tbe moneys raised will help build offices in the US and Europe by taking on an additional 30 sales people.
The business was founded three years ago and accepted into Y Combinator, which has also backed businesses like Dropbox and Airbnb, in 2015.
It was one of about 100 companies accepted into the program, representing the top 1-2 per cent of applicants.
Other Australian start-ups to have gone through the accelerator include AirPair and failed business 99dresses.
GO1 joins a growing list of marketplace businesses to receive venture capital funding in Australia. In October carer's marketplace Better Caring raised $3 million from Ellerston Ventures, and earlier this year job outsourcing marketplace Airtasker banked $22 million from Seven West Media and online car parts marketplace SparesBox raised $3.5 million.
"GO1 is poised to grow rapidly all over the world into a leading provider of learning and management platforms,"
Sunday, December 04, 2016
8 Steps to. Crowdfunding
Great tips from a Bob Pritchard
The first step is to pick your platform…
Decide on either a rewards-based campaign where in exchange for donations you provide gifts, or equity-based where people become shareholders in your business.
Rewards Crowdfunding
Kickstarter and Indiegogo come first to mind, but specialty platforms on specific types of projects may be preferable. All platforms are structured differently. Kickstarter is an “all-or-none” fundraiser so if you don’t raise 100% of your funding goal, you get zip. With Indiegogo, if you choose to pay up to 9% of funds raised, you keep all funds pledged.
Equity Crowdfunding
Crowdfunder or Circle Up is where people become shareholders in your company.
Circle Up takes 7 – 10 percent of funds raised. Crowdfunder has a relatively low monthly fee.
Decide on either a rewards-based campaign where in exchange for donations you provide gifts, or equity-based where people become shareholders in your business.
Rewards Crowdfunding
Kickstarter and Indiegogo come first to mind, but specialty platforms on specific types of projects may be preferable. All platforms are structured differently. Kickstarter is an “all-or-none” fundraiser so if you don’t raise 100% of your funding goal, you get zip. With Indiegogo, if you choose to pay up to 9% of funds raised, you keep all funds pledged.
Equity Crowdfunding
Crowdfunder or Circle Up is where people become shareholders in your company.
Circle Up takes 7 – 10 percent of funds raised. Crowdfunder has a relatively low monthly fee.
The second step is to capture attention…
Remember you are competing against tons of other opportunities. Your initial pitch and message must be powerful enough to grab the potential investors attention. You need to explain what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Ideally you should tell a terrific story about yourself and the project, or better still, relate it to your customer.
If you’re raising investment, tell a great story in a succinct pitch deck. If you’re creating a rewards crowdfunding pitch, videos can double success rates .
The third step is what’s in it for them…
When you focus on what in it for investors, you create truly unique and compelling rewards that tie into your story and raise more dollars. Don’t just offer “stuff”. Ask whether you would actually buy this reward yourself? Look at offers by previous successful campaigns. In equity crowdfunding, focus on the terms you’re offering your investors. Check out the free Term Sheet resource in Forbes for guidelines.
The fourth step is fostering supporter engagement…
The most common mistake crowdfunders make in both rewards or equity crowdfunding is to not fully engage their network of friends, family, and supporters. For rewards crowdfunding, you must have people ready to start funding on day one. Campaigns that accelerate rapidly early and attain 25 – 30% of their funding goal quickly, attract much more attention.
The fifth step is the power of notable investors…
The certain way to get peoples attention is to get people or organizations involved with your project who will bring credibility and trust to you and your business. For equity crowdfunding, having notable stakeholders, a quality team, advisors, board members, partners, and existing investors provides assurance to potential investors and get up to six times the response on their fundraising.
The most powerful step you can take is to find a lead investor before you launch the fundraising efforts. This avoids the “stigma” of $0 invested, as well as determining what terms an investor would actually invest at. The lead investor is a critical part of launching a successful equity crowdfunding marketing plan.
The sixth step is planned marketing and outreach…
The results you get from crowdfunding are proportional to the effort and attention you put in and integrating it into your own online and offline fundraising efforts. Successful rewards campaigns put hundreds of hours into creative and marketing planning before launch. They then plan several “pushes” in their marketing to launch, fund, and drive funding.
In equity crowdfunding, the effort goes into structuring the actual investment offering, the terms and completing all the legal agreements. Investments of $10,000 to $200,000 aren’t often reached through broad marketing and PR across the web as happens in rewards crowdfunding. Donation amounts average closer to $25.
The seventh step is timing …
In the US, the best months for crowdfunding are January and February.
The eighth step is timing the data perspective…
The overall crowdfunding industry is growing exponentially, from $1.2 billion in 2011 to $8 billion for rewards and 4.3 billion for equity in 2015. In rewards crowdfunding, if you’re looking to raise $50,000, the most common contribution is $25 and with a conversion rate of 3% you need to get 66,000 qualified people to view your campaign. That’s a lot of traffic in 45 days, and a lot of backers. Do you have the network, reach, press contacts, and marketing plan to meet these goals?
In equity crowdfunding, the average investment from accredited investors is approximately $25,000. It is usually easier to find many investors at $10,000 than it is to find one or two investors at $100,000 plus. The risk is just that much greater when considering investing that much money. What entrepreneurs are finding in equity crowdfunding is that by lowering the minimum investment amount down to say $1,000, you lower the risk exposure for any single investor, and entrepreneurs often find it much easier to get the investment and support of many investors online at these amounts.
Crowdfunding is changing the rules of the game for fundraising and investing and it is still accelerating.
Life opportunities contract or expand according to ones stage
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Australian Israeli Collaboration in the VC Space
"It just seems like it's raining Aussies on us. I've never seen so many," says Jon Medved, chief executive of OurCrowd and one of Israel's leading hi-tech venture capitalists. After a period of "clearly not enough" investment in innovation, Australia seems poised for a "really great moment", he believes.
It looks like we're about to realise we can "actually make [money] on minds not mines", he says in his Jerusalem office, his voice as loud as his floral-themed shirt.
Some of them were among the 350 people, including Australian businessman and Israeli resident James Packer, who made it to the Australian embassy's "#Ozraeli" party celebrating ties between the two countries on the ocean-front in ancient Jaffa in September.
A rock band, drag queens and a stand-up comedian provided the entertainment at the function, described as "one of the most unusual diplomatic functions that Israel has seen". It was a high point for the innovative diplomacy of Australia's ambassador to Israel (and youngest ever ambassador) Dave Sharma. It even trended on Twitter, briefly.
Up to 40 Australian trade delegations have visited Israel this year: "a record for sure", says commissioner Ethy Levy of the Israel Trade and Economic Commission in Australia. NSW Premier Mike Baird led one in April; Greater Sydney Commission chief commissioner and prime ministerial spouse Lucy Turnbull led one in May.
A further deluge of Australians hit in late September, coinciding with the city's annual DLD Innovation Festival in Tel Aviv where start-ups, governments, multinationals and venture capitalists from all over the world congregate in search of deals. At least six separate delegations including from Telstra, the AMP, Visy Industries and the Trans-Tasman Business Circle toured the start-up capital's innovation ecosystem.
When Sharma took up the post three years ago, Australia "wasn't on the map" for the so-called start-up nation and there was "not much appetite in Australia for doing more" either, he says.
The upsurge in interest has coincided with the end of the commodities boom and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's personal commitment with the billion-dollar National Innovation and Science Agenda launched last December.
The delegations find doors wide open to the local ecosystem of more than 290 local venture capital, angel investor and micro funds; 350-plus megabrand multinationals like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Samsung; 25 start-up incubators; 70 accelerators and 5000 start-ups, as well as 282 research and development centres, mostly operated by multinationals.
Treasurer Scott Morrison has announced the two countries are negotiating a tax treaty aimed at improving trade and business links between the two countries.
Lessons from the 'Start-up Nation'
Almost every Australian business person among dozens Fairfax Media met in Israel said the country could teach us a lot about how to build an innovative economy.
Israeli Innovation Authority chairman Avi Hasson says the ecosystem is "mature". "Ten years ago it would have been difficult to name revenues of over $50 million in tech. Today we have hundreds of companies in multiple sectors." High-tech exports make up over 40 per cent of Israel's manufactured exports.
Sharma has studied it more closely than most. People look to Silicon Valley for inspiration, but Israel is "much more comparable" to Australia in many respects, he says. It has a relatively small population and domestic market that depends on exports, open markets and access to foreign capital for prosperity; a large migrant workforce and a forthright business culture that is relatively flat-structured rather than hierarchical.
"There are things we can learn that we could not really learn from a system as big and gigantic as the US," the ambassador says.
And after decades of singular economic focus on innovation, Israelis are willing to share: "The general view in the hi-tech world here is there is plenty to go around, and we can all grow the pie," Sharma says. PriceWaterhouseCoopers says 2014 was a record for Israeli hi-tech exit deals, with more than 70 stake sales from mergers, acquisitions or initial public offerings valued at nearly $15 billion.
A culture of teamwork learned in the military, multiple interlocking social networks, an attitude of "chutzpah" or gutsy determination and an acceptance of failure as a learning experience are the attributes most often credited with Israel's start-up success, notably in the 2009 bestseller Startup Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer.
Israel spends 4.3 per cent of GDP on research and development, twice the OECD average and the highest per capita in the world. It also has more venture capital investment than any other nation, and spawns more start-ups a year than anywhere outside Silicon Valley. There are more than 40 government funding streams for start-ups, says Hasson. Yet for every $1 the government invests, the private sector invests a further $5, with the result that the Israeli government has the lowest share of investment in start-ups compared with the private sector of any OECD country. "It's not really surprising, because as a company matures, as the risk goes down, everyone is happy to invest", says Hasson.
Israel-Australia deals are surging
Victoria has led the way in building hi-tech relationships with Israel, but NSW is putting on a late burst, with Baird staking a claim for NSW as "Australia's start-up state". He declared his April trip "life-changing"; the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce reciprocated that it was a "game-changer". NSW and Israel committed $2 million to develop co-operative start-up and innovation projects emphasising cyber security, agribusiness and water management.
Partly as a result of that upgrade in relations, a joint Austrade-NSW government delegation of 14 participants from eight NSW cyber security and fintech start-ups became the first alumni of the Tel Aviv Landing Pad, one of five around the world set up under the Turnbull government's innovation agenda to help Australian startups go global. It is housed at SOSA, an entrepreneurial work space occupying four floors of a vintage industrial building in south Tel Aviv. Set up by key players in Israel's innovation sector, it aims to be a "bridge between the global demand for technologies [from multinationals] and the supply of disruptive technologies in the market", says general manager Uzi Scheffer.
The Commonwealth Bank signed a deal last year with the Israeli Office of the Chief Scientist which gives it privileged introduction to emerging technologies from Israeli start-ups in areas relevant to its operations. It has since evaluated "dozens of companies" with disruptive technology in cyber security, blockchain, fintech, robotics and big data, chief information officer David Whiteing said. These have been narrowed down to six for more intensive evaluation, "with a view to experiment with them on our own infrastructure".
OurCrowd's Australian "Our Innovation Fund" is on track to be fully subscribed with $50 million slated for investment in Australian tech start-ups. Medved says the deals in Australia are "wonderful". "The valuations seem to be very nicely priced, they are not crazy like they are in Silicon Valley ... They are a fraction of the price". OurCrowd has also raised $US60 million-$US70 million from Australian investors on its crowdshare platform, "a big chunk, about 20 per cent of our total capital". That's "way beyond the rightful share", which should probably be under 5 per cent, he says.
There is a growing trend for Israeli tech companies to list on the Australian Stock Exchange. Five have done so since January 2015, including satellite communications company Sky and Space Global and data storage company Weebit Nano Ltd. A further three are expected to list by the end of the year, ASX general manager of listings Max Cunningham told the Times of Israel. Levy says another 10-15 are looking at it.
Australian venture capital firm Square Peg Capital has set up an Israeli office and reportedly intends to spend nearly $200 million on Israeli growth-stage online and technology companies over three to five years. The firm took a delegation of more than 40 technology entrepreneurs, investors and executives to Israel last year, which included one of its lead investors, James Packer. Packer later said his private company Consolidated Press Holdings is working with Square Peg on technology sector investments including data storage, social gaming and cyber security. The IT sector in Israel has emerged as a hub for innovation and start-ups in technology-related services and will "provide major opportunities in the future", Packer told reporters.
Opportunities for Australian companies
Yanir Yakutiel says his Sail Funding is the first Australian company to "completely automate the lending process" by coupling a data-driven underwriting algorithm to accurately price risk with an advanced biometric security solution for verification. Recently launched in Sydney, the online lender to small business, which has raised $8 million in seed funding, will also be the first Australian start-up to take up a 90-day residency at the Australian landing pad at SOSA Tel Aviv. Yakutiel, a Sydneysider who grew up in Israel, says the residency will help Sail to tap into SOSA's extensive experience working with big financial institutions. "It gives us a sounding board for things we want to try which were unavailable to us in Australia." The business culture, which attaches no shame to asking for help and does not hold back with constructive criticism, helps you "check the robustness of your ideas", he says.
"The whole community here is unbelievably supportive," says Matteo Grand of manner, an online insurance brokerage platform that was part of the NSW-Austrade delegation. He says any kind of progress takes two or three meetings in Australia, but "here, if you don't have key talking points or a resolution reached within 30 to 60 minutes, you get ejected from the meeting very quickly. It's a culture for getting things done".
Katryna Dow, founder and chief executive of NSW start-up Meeco, which seeks to create a mutually profitable relationship between individuals and institutions by leveraging the value of individuals' personal data, says Israel's cultural alignment on innovation is unique. "No matter who you speak to, everyone says you have to go global from day one. The expectation in Israel is, if you solve a problem it is for a mass audience, so people are not afraid to have conversations that are both visionary and practical."
An estimated 400 people attended The Bridge, an Israel-Australia Investment Summit, held in Sydney in November. Speakers included Dov Moran of Grove Ventures, inventor of the USB flash drive, Paul Bassat of Square Peg Capital, and Amnon Shashua of Mobileye, the Israeli Nasdaq-traded global leader in driver assistance and autonomous driving technologies. Levy of the Israel Trade and Economic Commission said the summit had led to negotiations on new deals worth "very conservatively" several million dollars between Australian and Israeli companies.
Catherine Armitage is innovation and ideas writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. She travelled to Israel as a guest of the Embassy of Israel in Canberra.
VC opportunities becoming noticed
It is well know from experience in the US, Venture Capital funds depend on 1-3 "super hits" in their portfolios to generate most of their returns. In India, this phenomenon started to play out with Redbus - whose $100 million+ sale to Naspers in 2014 - generated more returns for Seedfund than the size of the firm's fund.
Of course, in 2015, the mega valuation spikes for horizontal E-Commerce Unicorns - Flipkart and Snapdeal - made the fortunes of their respective earliest investors: Accel India and Kalaari Capital (formerly IndoUS Ventures). In Sep-09, Kalaari Capital had invested $2.25 M (INR 10 Cr) in Snapdeal for a 40% stake valuing the company at $5.6 M (INR 25 Cr). In Feb-2015, Kalaari Capital made a partial exit worth $60 million with a 11x return (when Softbank invested in the company at $1.6 Billion valuation). At Snapdeal's $5.5 Billion valuation in 2015, Kalaari's stake - including the realized and unrealized portion - would fetch the firm a return of 26 times its investment.
With out-sized returns like these, it is no wonder
1) Investors of all sizes (Mutual funds, Hedge funds, etc) and nationality (Chinese and Japanese) chased startups in India during 2015.
2) The success has led to a mini explosion in the number of seed / micro VC funds raising capital.
3) Limited Partners (LPs or investors in PE/VC funds) have developed a keen interest in the Venture Capital segment. In an interview to Mint, Nupur Garg, Regional Lead - South Asia, Private Equity Funds at International Finance Corp (one of the top LPs in Indian PE/VC funds) says her firm is looking to invest in a couple of early stage funds. Extracts:
In fact, early-stage funds have access to a large pot of domestic institutional capital that is not so accessible for various reasons to the traditional growth equity funds. As of H1 2015, 43% of the funds-raised was for venture capital, vis-Ã -vis 36% growth equity and 20% buyout. More capital was raised for India-dedicated VC funds in first six months of 2015, than was raised in any single year between 2006-2013.
...We all know that Indian growth equity funds have generally under-performed. We can debate endlessly on who and what is to blame, but the fact is that the industry as a whole has so far not delivered the promise of the underlying growth in the market. Early-stage funds offer another route to tap into this growth and make out-sized returns. Plus there is experience and proof of concept available today, investing discipline is coming back in and valuations are coming closer to sanity. This coupled with the availability of high quality start-ups makes early-stage funds an attractive investment option for LPs.
...Early-stage activity has exploded (while growth equity has declined), growing at 20% since 2008 thanks to the shifts in demand for capital within the entrepreneurial environment. And the number of early-stage fund managers has more than doubled—venture capital is fast eclipsing growth equity as the dominant form of investment in India.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
The USA workers have spoken
The problem is that our institutions—business very much among them—haven’t done nearly enough to cushion the blow for the half of Americans who lack the education and training that they need to thrive in this new world.
In fact, corporations have made the wounds worse during the past 40 years by not investing in developing their people; holding down wages and continually cutting back benefits; and downsizing their ranks—even when they’re profitable.
The social contract between employer and employee in America has been broken." - Rick Wartzman
See hull article http://fortune.com/2016/11/10/donald-trump-victory-president/
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Obama talks after the election
On the plane 1 hour to Washington , listening to Obama's press conference post election
Obamas key points / so you can tell your patients
1. His team was key - he had the best and smartest and as a consequence of the team - had the ability to make great decisions
Trump needs Team toserve him well - will help with his direction .... he won't be able to do this job on his own
2. Interconnectedness - needs immediate decisions - re globalisation - the horse has bolted - supply chains exist - will be very difficult to change
World has shrunk - can't put genie back in box - retool retrain education - rules of game are fair . People won't stay in 1 job - continual need to retool and retrain . Vocational EducAtion and continual upskilling is key.
3. Gestures matter - how he reaches out is important
4 When Obama came in USA was losing 800k jobs a month
In midst of feeefall
Collapse of housing markets - banks going broke
Obama - was busy - from day 1
Now - iindicators strong. -unemployment rate low
Income and wages high
Fin systems stable
Stock markets all time highs
Progress in Iraq
Alliances in strong shape
Carbon emissions strong - gas $2 per gallon
5. Will be difficult to undo policies - eg Obamacare - has helped 20m people get healthcare - If Trump can make this better - all the power to him, says Obama!
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Google opens its office in Singapore
SINGAPORE: US tech giant Google officially unveiled its new Singapore office located at Mapletree Business City on Thursday (Nov 10), looking to create an office that resembles its headquarters in Mountain View, California.
“We wanted a place that reflected our headquarters and have more of a campus feel to it so we were looking for a building that we could shape, influence the design and create a space that fosters creativity and spontaneous collaboration,” Mr Sengupta told Channel NewsAsia.
The Internet giant started operations in Singapore with only 24 people in 2007. The local team has since grown to 1,000, and is its fastest-growing office in the Asia-Pacific. Most of Google’s senior management team overseeing Asia-Pacific operations are also based in Singapore.
The new Google office at Pasir Panjang (Photo: Tang See Kit)
Mr Sengupta added that Google is ramping up its engineering team in Singapore to support its vision of reaching out to the next billion Internet users.
“We started the engineering team this year (and) we expect it to grow over the years,” he said. “Singapore is at the heart of a major change in how people in Asia are using technology and so for us, we want to have a team that’s based close to these users.”
A search on the tech behemoth’s recruitment page showed 76 available positions in Singapore at the moment. When asked about how big the local workforce would eventually become, Mr Sengupta declined to reveal specific numbers.
However, the Singapore-based senior executive told Channel NewsAsia that he remains “pretty optimistic” about further expansion despite an increasingly sluggish global economy.
“We are always cautious and very careful about how we grow … but I think we are still in a growth industry,” Mr Sengupta said. “Apart from Google, there’s an ecosystem of companies that are trying to take their services and products globally and so from that perspective, I remain pretty optimistic that as a growth industry, we can keep growing.”
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was present at the opening, said: "We hope you'll be able to bring with you the spirit and energy and connections, not just in Mountain View but also in other campuses around the world, to this campus in Singapore.
"Tech is disruptive and your objective is to disrupt the world… We expect to be disrupted but at the same time, we want to make sure we come out on the right side of the disruption, and we depend on you to help us to do that," he added.
PM Lee Hsien Loong posing for a wefie with the crowd. (Photo: Calvin Hui)
WE WANT TO GET YOUNG SINGAPOREANS EXCITED ABOUT TECH: GOOGLE
Google also announced on Thursday that it will roll out a new multi-year programme, Code in the Community, in Singapore early-2017.
Mr Sengupta said the new initiative is part of Google's aim to help get the younger generation excited about technology and engineering, and eventually consider taking up a career in these sectors.
“We feel this has an opportunity to reach out to children at a particularly impressionable age and get them excited about technology and the creative industries,” he said. “We want lots more Singaporean parents to turn around and ask their kids: ‘Why aren’t you becoming an engineer?’ That’s our broader goal.”
Google’s computer science and computational thinking course aims to provide training for about 3,000 children from less well-to-do backgrounds over the next three years. The tech giant will partner self-help groups such as the Chinese Development Assistance Council, Singapore Indian Development Association, Mendaki and the Eurasian Association to identify these children. The classes, which will be targeting children aged eight to 15, will be run by non-profit organisation 21C Girls and local start-up Saturday Kids.
Inside the Google office (Photo: Tang See Kit)
HELPING SMEs
Meanwhile, Google is also helping local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to embark on digitisation. In collaboration with nine other industry partners such as SPRING Singapore and International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the “Go Global” initiative was launched in November last year.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) manufacturing business, Poli Medical, is one of the local SMEs that has leveraged Google’s capabilities. Following discussions with the tech giant earlier in June, the 40-year-old company rolled out a YouTube campaign for one of its new brands, TruLife.
“As you can imagine, for a large and traditional business that has been running for quite some time, it’s quite difficult to change the direction of the company,” said the company's director Dylan Hu.
Before collaborating with Google, Poli Medical did not have a budget for digital marketing. “And so for me to go to management and say there’s this new channel of reaching out to people and let’s step up 20 per cent of our budget on this, was very difficult,” he added.
Through the YouTube campaign, the company was able to gather consumer insights from Google AdWords and use them to craft new marketing strategies for both the Singapore and regional markets. The campaign’s click-through rate of 27 per cent also translated into significant brand awareness which helped it to enter regional markets such as Cambodia and Myanmar, Mr Hu added.
In a speech delivered at the opening ceremony on Thursday, Minister of Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran said the focus on the digital economy and partnerships with companies like Google will create opportunities for local SMEs to enter online and global markets.
“While the digital economy presents challenges, it also offers new opportunities for companies and individuals… However it is equally important that companies adopt an open mindset to embrace new technologies and business models, while individuals take advantage of the various training programmes to equip themselves with the relevant skills sets,” Mr Iswaran said.
Additional reporting by Calvin Hui.
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