Is your business being brave and making real change?
Following the Federal Election, incoming Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s immediate commitment to the Uluru Statement from the Heart and this year’s National Reconciliation Week theme of Be Brave, Make Change have brought into sharp focus the priority business and governments have placed on closing the gap between our First Nation peoples and non-indigenous Australians. But how often do we see this commitment translate into meaningful action? In his opening address at the WA launch of National Reconciliation Week, Western Australia’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti spoke of the Aboriginal Empowerment Strategy and his government’s commitment to better outcomes for Aboriginal people in
It’s a big year for elections – here are six things to watch for as we get closer to a Federal poll
Democracy requires constant attention, and our system is no exception — even when the antics of sports stars, the wave of Omicron and a summer of bushfires and soaring temperatures are dominating headlines. In our third year of the pandemic, Australia will head to the polls to elect a Federal Government and in contrast to the 2019 election, a focus on jobs and growth may not be enough to win voters over. It will be a test for Scott Morrison, the first Prime Minister to run a full term in nearly a decade — no small achievement considering Australia has had seven
Border tease: not on the first date
Christmas came early for many on the 13 December last year, when WA Premier Mark McGowan announced the State Government would embark on its “Safe Transition Plan” and ease hard border controls from 12.01am on February 5, 2022. Families rejoiced, weddings were locked in and flights were booked. Business breathed a sigh of relief, plans were made and talent recruited. But alas, 37 days later everything changed. Mr McGowan again fronted the media (this time in prime time) and announced that WA would live up to the name ‘Wait Awhile’ and would not be opening on February 5. That date sailed by
As WA prepares to reopen, what can we expect from Omicron?
Remember the days where Australia’s COVID-19 cases hovered between the 1,000 to 2,000 mark? You should because that was a few weeks ago. How long ago that now seems. At the time of writing, Australia had just reached a record, nearing 100,000 positive COVID-19 test results recorded nationally in 24 hours. But even that figure is merely an estimate, with thousands being turned away as testing clinics reach capacity each day within just a few hours of opening. By the time you’re reading this, it’s not an exaggeration to assume that figure has probably doubled. In fact, we have gone from almost nothing six
A year in the making
Cannings Purple had a big year in 2021; helping hundreds of clients achieve their strategic goals, welcoming many new members to our team, and even gaining international recognition at the 2021 Asia-Pacific SABRE awards. Tune in as a few of our team members reflect on their favourite projects from the last 12 months. Getting WA to the moon Our incoming Director of Corporate Affairs, Carina Tan-Van Baren, found it difficult to narrow it down to one project, but as a bit of a space-nerd, she couldn’t help but settle on working with Curtin University’s Space Science and Technology Centre to send WA's first
The Royal Flying Doctor Service announces two new aeromedical helicopters to its fleet
This has never been seen before in its 93-year-long history, and is an opportunity only made possible by Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). These helicopters have been specifically designed to adjust their purpose depending on the mission - such as search and rescue, firefighting, medical evacuations, or even police and federal roles, and the Royal Flying Doctor Service WA (RFDS WA) now finds itself in possession of two of them. The RFDS WA can proudly introduce two new EC-145 helicopters to their collection, allowing them to further the level of care available for their patients in critical conditions. In addition to this,
Poll position: Will Prime Minister Bill Shorten win a second term?
After defeating Scott Morrison in the 2019 election, Bill Shorten has had a lot on his plate with bushfires and pandemics but now, buoyed by Hillary Clinton’s second term win last November, his focus is shifting to the upcoming election. During the campaign he can be expected to point to a relatively strong local economy in the face of the pandemic. Hopefully, for the Labor party, this will be enough to help older voters forget their rage at the scrapping of franking credits last June. But, rather than sound economic management, Mr Shorten can thank strong pre-pandemic global trade and the strength
Rebranding pitfalls and how to avoid them
Branding and rebranding is often thought of as a sale-driving or marketing objective. But it’s so much more than that. Branding is communication, and communication is about people. Rebrand inside out Creating a new logo and visual identity can attract attention and create interest but unless you have a clear reason why you’re rebranding, your brand won’t feel authentic or cohesive. For example, when someone around you changes abruptly without telling you why – it feels jarring, and can build distrust: “I thought I knew this brand! Now I’m not sure”. A new name alone is definitely not going to help Facebook fix its
Changes to Cannings Purple Board and Executive Team
We recently announced some important changes to our Board and executive team. National Director Karen Brown, who has been with Cannings Purple for more than seven years and is set to retire at the end of this year, has accepted the role of Board Chair with effect from 1 February 2022, when our co-founder and current Chair, Warrick Hazeldine, will step down. With a growing portfolio of directorships and his private equity advisory service requiring more of his attention, Warrick has decided to step away from the demands of chairing the State’s largest communications firm. “Now is the right time for me to
Rethinking the Workplace
Australia is undergoing a social and economic experiment that will rival the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. After more than 18 months of measures designed to curb and crush the virus, some states have conceded it is nigh on impossible to suppress the virulent Delta strain — and that ‘living with the virus’ is the path forward. For WA, watching this unfold east of the rabbit-proof fence, with no restrictions or masks, and little fear, there are lessons to be learned: not only about what could happen if the virus re-enters the State, but about how businesses, government and institutions
What does life after 80 mean for the health sector?
Last month, the WA Government confirmed it will have one of the broadest vaccine mandates in the country, covering an estimated million workers and building on earlier requirements for all health, hotel quarantine, aged care and port workers to be vaccinated. The new measures identify two groups of employees and industries that will need to be vaccinated to ensure critical services can be delivered. The first group — high risk occupations — includes healthcare workers, emergency services personnel, mine site workers and pharmacists, dentists and meat workers, among others, who now have a range of deadlines for double vaccination, all by January 1
We are in good hands if the latest generation of journalists is a guide
I had been a fledgling reporter at the Kalgoorlie Miner for little more than a month when, in October 1994, a local man hitchhiked to Perth, stormed into police HQ in East Perth and held a senior police officer hostage for seven hours. The man, who was armed with two guns, was later shot dead by police after refusing to drop his weapons. It was a shocking, front-page story. It was also my first big story and I still remember the buzz of seeing my reports – focused on insights gleaned from the man’s friends and neighbours in Kalgoorlie-Boulder to complement reporting
The value of community sponsorships
When it comes to assessing whether your community sponsorship is valuable, it is time to talk about intangible benefits. Yes, your logo will be getting seen. Yes, your name is on the sign. But what about the less visible benefits of your investment? Studies into the impact of intangible benefits of sponsoring sports, arts, community events or local facilities find a conundrum: either companies overestimate the value of the intangible benefits of their sponsorship — or they don’t count the benefits at all. There is also the risk that the intangible benefits — the opportunity to host your top corporate peers in a footy
Life After 80: A Guide To Post-COVID Australia
The WA Government has confirmed it will have one of the broadest vaccine mandates in the country, covering an estimated million workers and building on earlier requirements for all health, hotel quarantine, aged care and port workers to be vaccinated. The new measures identify two groups of employees and industries that will need to be vaccinated to ensure critical services can be delivered. The first group — high risk occupations — includes healthcare workers, emergency services personnel, mine site workers and pharmacists, dentists and meat workers, among others, who now have a range of deadlines for double vaccination, all by January 1 next year. The second group — critical occupations — with a double-vax deadline
Should design agencies be more transparent about their work?
Are some design agencies living solely on the reputation of their past work, or are they who they say they are? If you go to any agency's website and view their portfolio, you will see a blast of their creativity with an array of their best, cutting-edge designs. We have to ask, how many of these are still their clients? At the end of the day, an agency's client list is a big part of choosing an agency for your business. We rarely see endorsements alongside work, so how do we know they had happy clients? After all, we can only take
Cannings Purple recognised as an Employer of Choice for the second year running
We’re proud to once again be recognised as an Employer of Choice in The Australian Business Awards. Although we’ve won a host of awards over the years, both regionally and internationally, we are particularly delighted with this one – which speaks to our focus and commitment to our people. Now in its sixteenth year, The Australian Business Award for Employer of Choice recognises organisations that develop workplaces that maximise the full potential of their workforce through established policies and practices which demonstrate effective employee recruitment and engagement. “The COVID-19 pandemic has presented one of the most significant business challenges ever faced by organisations across Australia. It created a critical need for leading organisations
Brand activism: The positives and pitfalls of taking a stance
Meaningful brand activism is no longer a nice-to-have, it is a must-have. The Year That Shall Not Be Named set this in stone as some brands were celebrated for making a difference while others floundered. One of the most pivotal events was the tragic death of George Floyd, a cataclysmic event that prompted weeks of protests and civil unrest across the United States. It started a long overdue conversation about police brutality and racial injustice around the world, including in Australia. It sparked discussions around dinner tables, on the floor of parliament, and in office lunchrooms. 2020 marked the end of staying silent. No comment
Who reads the news anyway? Actually, you should
There’s nothing like a social media slam to give business leaders a wake-up. It might be a cranky customer who has hopped on Facebook in the wee hours, adding angry-face emojis to their diatribe. It might be criticism of your staff on Twitter by an upset ‘egg’ with three followers and a disdain for punctuation. Something about the immediacy and human face of social media means that comment, and the scattered retweets or likes that follow, can cut to the heart of a business. But while social media monitoring is vital, if you are not also watching traditional media sources, you are seeing only a small part of the picture. Traditional media like newspapers, magazines, online
Cannings Purple takes home gold at the 2021 SABRE Awards
Cannings Purple have been announced a winner in the Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards for the work we’ve done with Hyzon Motors, a global supplier of hydrogen-fuel- cell-powered commercial vehicles. Established by leading international public relations expert, Paul Holmes, the Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards recognise superior achievement in brand, reputation and engagement. The award judges said they would be recognising bold, creative and brave communications, things which have been the hallmark of our work with Hyzon Motors. In August 2020, Hyzon Motors hired Cannings Purple in anticipation of speeding up the deployment of its vehicles around the world and preparing for a major transformation – a listing on the NASDAQ. Cannings Purple built the Hyzon Motors story and brand, helping commercialise almost two decades of hydrogen technology development
State Budget 2021 – 2022: The numbers that matter
Still riding high following March’s election landslide, Premier Mark McGowan today handed down his first Budget in his dual role as the State’s Treasurer. While most of the country remains in lockdown, and Western Australia may be locked to them, we’re anything but down. The surplus is in a word, up, and all economic indicators have improved since the 20-21 Budget. In handing down the Budget, Premier McGowan took the opportunity to remind us, that ours is not only the strongest economy in Australia, but one of the strongest in the world. With this Budget, he outlined his plans to reinvest some of the windfalls of the past year in the State’s future services and infrastructure. An ironclad result WA reported a massive surplus of $5.6 billion in 2020-21, $4.4 billion more than forecast in the previous Budget. Everyone knows money doesn’t grow on trees, but as every Western Australian does know, it is dug out
On RUOK day, check on your Stakeholder Engagement team
I’ve worked in retail and raised toddlers (and teenagers) so I am familiar with being yelled at and insulted. But for many, the negativity that can come with stakeholder engagement can be terribly stressful - and if left unchecked, can lead to long-term mental health problems. Conversely, working in stakeholder engagement can also be enormously rewarding – practitioners are privileged to be able to communicate and develop meaningful relationships with key stakeholder groups on behalf of clients and in doing so, develop a deeper understanding themselves. One of the goals of developing these relationships is to manage and minimise conflict – but unfortunately this means conflict is invariably part of the job. As facilitators who bring groups
Cyber criminals have targeted the property sector – but are gearing up for the rest of us
A new scam has triggered alarm bells for the property industry, but all businesses should heed the warning, writes Fran Lawrence. The property sector is the latest to come under fire from organised cyber criminals, with a new warning that real estate agents could be at heightened risk. The Australian Cyber Security Centre has urged the industry to be on guard after detecting a growing trend of cyber criminals trying to compromise corporate emails — what is known a business email compromise (BEC) scam. Under the scam, criminals impersonate parties in a property transaction — such as a real estate agent, conveyancer or party to
Why a cyber attack crisis requires a different comms response
Most crises centre around a distinct or discrete event. An accident. A fatality. A failure of critical infrastructure. And although the details of the issue may not be immediately apparent, there is usually clarity around what has happened, or at least, the immediate impact of what has happened. In most cases then, managing a crisis, particularly the communications aspect, centres on what has happened, what is known, what happens next. It is stressful, and it can put severe pressure on teams, but usually the interest and engagement about the issue tends to die down after a day or two. There’s reputation rebuilding, and
Showing to tell – visual storytelling and The Gibb Challenge
Show don’t tell is often cited as the ‘golden rule’ of writing. Whether using active voice over passive, expressing emotion through action, or practicing economical writing, a good writer employs a carefully honed bag of tricks to help you ‘see’ what you read. When creating visual content, the medium changes. Images, footage and sound replace words as the message’s primary courier. In essence, it is all show. The challenge becomes – how to tell the story. Some quick facts: 6 out of 10 people would rather watch online videos than television. Mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year. By 2022, online videos
What makes a good designer in 2021?
It’s not enough to be a graphic designer who only knows print or digital design anymore. In fact, you could say even the term ‘graphic designer’ is obsolete. A designer must know all the disciplines of design, from print and digital, to video and animation – and all of these to a high level if they want to thrive in the creative industry. Traditional print design is still relevant as the fundamental basis of a designer’s knowledge and skill, even if it’s something they may not use anymore. There is no room for error in print; you can’t just undo or
A cash free society – making sense of GovCoin
Splitting the bill isn’t what it used to be. Not so long ago, the end of a dinner out with friends would be a cue to scramble for an ATM, dig deep for notes and coins, and write an IOU to settle the evening’s expenses. Now it is more likely one person will pay the bill and the rest will send their share through an online banking transaction that might land with the payer in a few days. And it’s not just restaurants. Australians are well versed with electronic money, with most people familiar with online banking, e-commerce and tap-and-go – and thanks to COVID-19, many of us don’t carry any physical cash at all. So what if we did away
Why your stakeholder database is much more than it seems
It may look, smell, and walk like a database but your stakeholder database can be so much more than that. Here are some simple reasons why you should start looking at your database differently and appreciating it for what it really can be. It’s your record Well, of course – right? A database, by its very nature, is a record system. But it’s more than just a box-ticking exercise. It’s a permanent and evolving reference of every interaction you have had with your stakeholders. You’ll be forever grateful for the perfect database when it’s easy to track not only what you did and
What skills are needed to work in Public Relations in 2021?
For an industry that has been around for roughly a century, defining “public relations” can be tricky, especially in a rapidly changing digital climate and amid evolving practices in the industry. Cannings Purple’s People and Culture Manager, Bri Kent says that as an industry, there’s more to do in how we talk about our industry, especially when it comes to attracting the next generation. "We really need to work on communicating what the industry looks like," Bri said. After all, a career in public relations is usually nothing like Sex and the City where Samantha, Carrie and the gang strut from New
Why your business needs to start the conversation about digital accessibility today
Never have we had so much knowledge available at our fingertips. The web provides unprecedented access to information, goods and services and a virtual platform for networking and socialising with others. However, many digital platforms are developed with accessibility barriers, making them difficult and frustrating for people with disabilities and impairments to use. If you communicate with customers, you need to know about web accessibility. It is beneficial for your customers, and in turn, your organisation to remove barriers to access that may exist within your digital products and public facing platforms. The most common disabilities and impairments that can impact a
Gold medal highlights: Diggers & Dealers
Cannings Purple’s Investor Relations team have returned from Kalgoorlie, bringing with them the gold-medal highlights from the last three days. This week, Kalgoorlie's Goldfields Arts Centre hosted more than 2,400 registered delegates for Diggers & Dealers 2021. The turnout was among the highest in Diggers & Dealers’ 30-year history. The pandemic may have kept most of the east coast and international visitors away, but the Sandgropers made up for it in sheer numbers and enthusiasm. Diggers & Dealers Chair, Jim Walker shares his thoughts on the success of the event. An upbeat @diggersndealers chair Jim Walker at the halfway mark of this year’s event. pic.twitter.com/D2dpsAQlJi —