Client: MyFortress State: QLD My Fortress approached AEC to create a strategic digital campaign to help capture and stimulate interest in their financial advice practice over a six-month period. With the Royal Commission continuing to shine light on the four big banks and AMP in Australia, companies subsequently started to reduce or close their financial advisory divisions. This gave My Fortress a window of opportunity to put the business forward as one of the leading companies left that was still giving out best practice financial advice consultations. AEC conducted a display and search campaign to drive customers to the website to book a financial advisory consultation, below highlights the steps and work undertaken. Objective: Drive and attract new customers to the My Fortress website and secure new clients through online consultation bookings. Behavioural target message: AEC concentrated the message on the current problem that although the big banks around Australia are losing their financial advisors, My Fortress specialises in giving face to face financial advice and are here to stay. “Has your financial advisor disappeared?” The display messaging was short and straight to the point, consequently 402 people found the adverts engaging enough to click through achieving a 0.17% click through rate, higher than the national average (average CTR 0.136%). Retargeted behavioural message: Financial advice is considered a high-value purchase, which was crucial to consider when planning the campaign. In order to create a greater cut through with new customers AEC implemented a retargeted messaging component. The retargeted behavioral display ads were serviced to customers who had already visited the My Fortress website, to try and reengage the customer on their buying journey. As part of the My Fortress suite of services, the company hosts fortnightly financial seminars as part of their commitment to continuing financial education within local communities. To help capture new customers through the retargeting advertisements, AEC implemented a further call to action on the second landing page, giving potential customers the chance to instead register to attend a free seminar. This successfully resonated with 23 customers who went on to instead register for the free seminar first as their first step with engaging with the brand. Hard Conversion: 3 appointment bookings Soft Conversion: 23 bookings for My Fortresses free financial advice seminars Search performance overview The objective of the search advertisement was to make sure the brand was visible under relevant keyword searches in order to help convert leads when potential customers were ready to engage with the My Fortress brand. The search campaign successfully delivered 329 customers to the My Fortress website and achieved 20 conversions. The My Fortress Vanishing advisors’ campaign effectively gained 23 new clients for the brand and 23 soft leads via the My Fortress seminars. The campaign highlighted consumers are still actively looking and concerned on the best way to take control of their finances, which is a promising trend for financial services industry. However, it is important to understand that purchase consideration and buyer’s behavior for premium services can be difficult when trying to drive new conversions and leads. It is vital to understand each brands customer journey in order to influence the buyers purchase choice further down the funnel, whether that is through additional content marketing, client testimonials or soft lead conversions. For further advice on how AEC can help you engage with new customers, reach out to us via email nancy.clarke@aecgroupltd.com

Client: My Fortress State: QLD Web: http://www.myfortress.com.au/ https://www.mymortgagepartner.com.au/ AEC roll-out the new national brand for My Fortress and My Mortgage Partner. My Fortress is an Australian wealth management company working with over 3000 members to provide expert financial advice, manage their wealth and secure lifestyles regardless of their financial situation or life stage. AEC is now in its 26th year working in brand development projects across Australia and Asia, and is proud to keep working with national organisations in the field of brand strategy and visual communication.

Client: Visit Victoria AEC has been commissioned to undertake a biennial survey of cruise passengers and crew members disembarking at Station Pier Cruise Terminal in Port Melbourne to understand Melbourne cruise passengers and crew profiles, behaviour, and satisfaction whilst capturing expenditure. Information from the survey is used to inform strategy and development of tourism products, visitor services and infrastructure. The last research in 2018/2019 involved over 1,300 intercept surveys with passengers and crew members. Complex and consistent calculation are undertaken to understand the number of nights stayed in Australia, in NSW (outside Sydney) and within Sydney as well as the monetary value of the visit, including the injection of it into the NSW. The methodology was developed to align with the industry best practice undertaken by Australian Cruise Association and Cruise Lines International Association.

Client: Townsville City Council State: QLD This project involved a holistic review of Townsville City Council's general rating structure to assess the appropriateness of rating categorisation and the basis for differentials in the rate in the dollar and minimum rate across categories. The objectives of the study included enhancing fairness and equity in the distribution of the rate burden across different sectors of the community, increased transparency regarding reasons for rating categories and differential rates, and consistency with Council's economic and CBD activation strategy. Council supported all of the recommendations of the review, with full implementation of all changes in its 2020/21 budget.

Client: NSW Department of Primary Industries State: NSW Bowfishing (a crossover between fishing and hunting) is a popular activity allowed in coastal (not inland) waters under the Fisheries Management Act 1994. The DPI Game Licensing Unit and Fisheries division under the Fisheries Management Act 1994 undertook an 18-month restricted trial of bowfishing for Carp in specific inland waterways. AEC was commissioned to undertake an online survey with hunters participating in the trial to understand hunter behaviour, types of interactions and compliance with hunting regulations.

Client: Market & Communications Research (MCR) State: QLD A priority Development Area was declared (September 2016) to facilitate the development of the University of the Moreton Bay Campus, located at the core of The Mill Moreton Bay. This development will support the delivery of the university, together with a number of mixed-use facilities providing education, health, retail, residential, recreation, commercial and environmental uses. The higher education precinct is anticipated to help revitalise the local area and support economic, social and environmental outcomes and priorities. Given this potential impact on the regional landscape, AEC provided a report outlining key demographic and economic indicators for the local community and economy to help understand the current landscape and environment. AEC also provided high-level population by age projections as well as employment by industry projections to understand potential growth industries in the region.

Client: City of Sydney State: NSW AEC was engaged to assist Mako (engaged by City of Sydney) in carrying out an urban design review of development options at the Waterloo Estate. AEC’s input was delivered in two workshops, (1) to provide feedback following a critique of the suggested assumptions and make recommendations as necessary and (2) a review of the revised assumptions of the feasibility model.

Client: Government of Western Australia - Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage State: WA The Department of the State Heritage Office commissioned a value for money review of the tour products offered by Fremantle Prison to assist in setting the pricing policy and ticket prices reflective of the experiences offered and responsive to the market. AEC addressed the project objectives by undertaking detailed desktop research to understand the tourism products offered with Perth metropolitan area as well as interstate offerings. Additionally, in-depth stakeholder consultations were undertaken to support our recommendations for yield management and further product extension at the Prison. Finally, approximately 400 intercept surveys were undertaken with visitors at the Prison to assess value for money of the tour products offered. The final report was due for submission within four (4) weeks of AEC being commissioned to undertake the works. Effective strategies were utilised by AEC to ensure delivery of the final report within the set timeframes including effective management of AEC resources. The project plan was designed with the strict timeframe in mind ensuring priorities were set accordingly for each component of the study. AEC successfully delivered the final report prior to the delivery date as a result of effective planning and execution of various study components.

Client: Savills Australia State: QLD AEC was engaged by Savills Australia to examine a range of potential uses of the Toowoomba Soldier’s Memorial Hall (the Site), to meet demand from the local resident population. The assessment was undertaken in consideration of the population’s age structure and other socio-demographic factors in the area, and the resultant demand for community services and facilities. Focus areas examined for the Site included childcare, community, tertiary education, health and arts. In conducting this assessment, a simple three stage approach was followed: (1) Identification of the primary and comparison catchments, and profiling for all catchment areas to confirm comparability in terms of socio-demographic structure; (2) benchmarking assessment of the comparison areas against the primary catchment to identify gaps in community service provision in the catchment specifically aligned to the socio-demographic composition of the region; (3) consideration of the findings from Stage 2 against the floorplan and layout of the Site to identify activities which could reasonably be accommodated by the Site. The study revealed the services which may be appropriate uses for development at the Site (and hence should be investigated further) include childcare; an actors, dancers and other entertainers studio; fashion, industrial and jewellery design studio; sports/ physical recreation clubs; tutors and co-working spaces.

Client: Property Council Australia State: QLD AEC assessed the economic significance of Australia’s property industry in 2015-16, for each state and Australia. Building on this work, the Queensland Division of PCA engaged AEC to assess the economic contribution of social infrastructure (encompassing health care and education services) in Queensland, in particular the component which flows through from property investment and ongoing maintenance. Specifically, this study examines the following aspects: • Analysis of the direct contribution of the property industry to Queensland in 2015-16 by property sub-sector using Input-Output modelling techniques. • Analysis of the direct contribution of private and public health and education sub-sectors to the Queensland economy and each local government area (LGA) in Queensland in 2015-16. • Projections of the future value of social infrastructure investment and development based on anticipated future demand for social infrastructure to 2041. Report: https://www.propertycouncil.com.au/downloads/propsignificance/AUS_Full.pdf

Client: Mackay Council State: QLD Council required a renewed strategic planning process that would provide clear direction and focus for the library service and support the prioritisation of resource allocation based on the expectations and needs of the Mackay Region’s community. The primary purpose of the Strategy was to: • Provide broad observations on the local, regional, national and global trends in the provision of library services; • Consider the input and feedback received from the Mackay community and staff on future library needs; and • To identify any key gaps and initiatives to focus on over the next five years. The first part of the Strategy provided information about the Mackay community, library sector trends and how the library service was performing currently. The second part described the opportunities for the library service with a final part providing a suggested strategic framework that described key themes and activities. Professional standards and benchmarks, including National and State data were used to identify gaps in service provision and create tactics to improve them, thereby reducing the risk of services becoming out of step with their communities and unable to meet demand. Report: https://www.connectingmackay.com.au/39170/documents/86565

Client: Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) State: QLD AEC were engaged to assess the economic contribution the independent schools sector made to the Queensland economy in 2017-18, as well as key regions, state electorates and federal electorates. The project updated previous analysis undertaken by AEC for the 2013-14 financial year. The assessment used an Input-Output significance modelling framework to identify the direct and flow-on contribution of independent schools to Queensland Gross State Product (GSP), employment and employee incomes. This included consideration of operating activity and expenditure of independent schools, as well as capital works expenditure/ activity and the expenditure of international boarding students in the Queensland economy. The assessment also examined: The savings to the Queensland and Australian Governments in terms of recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure savings compared to what the Governments would otherwise need to spend to educate students at independent schools. The longer term benefits to Queensland economic growth delivered as a result of the improved education outcomes of independent students.