Great Southern Bank hopes for a pay off from sponsoring Carlton in AFL
A small Brisbane bank is hoping for a big pay off by sponsoring Carlton which is playing against the Brisbane Lions in the preliminary final on Saturday.
The Great Southern Bank is based in Brisbane but on Saturday CEO Paul Lewis concedes he’s backing Carlton in the AFL preliminary final.
The Blues take on the Brisbane Lions at a packed Gabba ... and the Great Southern Bank sponsors Carlton.
When asked about split loyalties, Lewis reckons the sponsorship is all about business.
“About 33 per cent of our customers are from Brisbane and about the same from Sydney. We have 24 per cent in Melbourne and we’re looking to grow that,” he says.
“For the purposes of this weekend we are very much with Carlton.”
Carlton’s rollercoaster season has been a big reason that the bank – which was formally Credit Union Australia – hopes will lead to a significant increases in brand recognition.
The bank, which also sponsor the Brisbane Heat, said in January this year when the team was on fire in the Big Bash League, 50 per cent of people who searched for Great Southern Bank on Google were cricket enthusiasts.
Brand awareness is also several points higher among sporting fans in cricket and AFL than in the general population with the bank hoping to build its market share of first homebuyers.
Back to the game, Lewis reckons the Carlton-Lions match will be tight.
“Three months ago the wolves were at Carlton’s door. They weren’t going too well but they’ve stuck together, pushed through and look where they are,” he says.
Party time
Brisbane will host one of its largest international incentive groups in history with 2000 delegates from Cathay Life Insurance in Taiwan arriving in May.
The reward trip for the long-established insurance company’s top performers is expected to
fill more than 10,000 hotel nights and inject $12.6m to the local economy.
The bid was secured by Brisbane Economic Development Agency in partnership with
Tourism Australia’s Business Events Bid Fund Program and Tourism and Events
Queensland.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says Brisbane is a compelling destination for international
business events with its premium event venues, urban adventures, breathtaking natural wonders and quintessential Australian experiences.
“Brisbane is becoming an internationally acclaimed destination, with international travellers flocking to our city to see our fantastic tourism offerings for themselves,” he says.
“Come May 2024, the successful delegates will be among the first in the world to experience
Queen’s Wharf – Brisbane’s new $3.6bn world-class entertainment and lifestyle precinct.”
In a competitive bidding environment, Brisbane was selected ahead of Japan and Dubai in
the final stage of the selection process.
Love pays
AI technology company RAMMP – which has developed a marketing tool that can “emulate and simulate” falling in love in a business context – has secured a place on the high-profile TechCrunch Disrupt program.
Queensland based business, founded by CEO Dr Anna Harrison and Steve White, will showcase its work in front of thousands in the highly coveted AI category of event’s Startup Battlefield in San Francisco on Friday US time.
RAMMP is a marketing tool for B2B SaaS companies that draws on the science of how human relationships are formed.
Harrison says the increased interest in AI technology against skyrocketing digital marketing costs has put a global spotlight on the company’s work.
“It’s no secret that the hey days of cheap click digital marketing are behind us, and businesses are looking to more traditional methods in securing users and building loyalty,” she said.
“I had once believed that falling in love was a chance encounter before my interest took me down a rabbit hole of research and development that ultimately curated a process that can emulate and simulate the course of falling in love within a business context, using AI as a differentiator.”
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