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: Noosa Shire Council State: QLD AEC was commissioned by Noosa Shire Council to assist in determining the financial and pricing implications of the 2019/20 budget using AEC's proprietary licensed waste lifecycle costing and pricing model. AEC developed the applicable utility charges and disposal fees for the 2019/20 budget in conjunction with Council using the model, ensuring ongoing financial sustainability of the business unit.

Client: Murweh Shire Council State: QLD Murweh Shire Council purchased AEC's proprietary landfill rehabilitation liability calculation model, and AEC provided peer review advice of liability calculations and outcomes.

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: Northern Territory Department of Tourism, Sports and Culture State: NT AEC was engaged by the Northern Territory Government to develop a Cruise Tourism Strategy 2020 - 2025. The purpose of the Strategy was to provide a framework for the ongoing development of the cruise sector in the Northern Territory. It outlined a series of actions to: Expand cruise tourism in the Northern Territory to grow the visitor economy Provide commercial opportunities to Territorians engaging with the cruise sector Promote Darwin as the preferred cruise gateway in Northern Australia Promote other Northern Territory cruise tourism destinations thereby distributing the economic benefits of cruise tourism more widely, maximising the economic impact of cruise tourism for the benefit of all Territorians. The number of passenger days spent in the Northern Territory has almost tripled over the last 10 years, from 22,873 in 2008-09 to 60,205 in 2018-19. To continue to capitalise on this growth, the Northern Territory needs to maintain our proactive approach in developing the appropriate infrastructure, facilities, and services to support cruise tourism. Further, the Northern Territory needs to adopt a targeted approach to capture specific market segments which provide the greatest opportunity to Darwin and other Northern Territory destinations. Cruise tourism can provide important economic contributions right across the Northern Territory from Arnhem Land to Central Australia, providing local business owners with an opportunity to benefit from visitor spend. Additionally, cruise tourism offers a great opportunity to showcase natural assets, and Aboriginal culture. Cruise tourism is a great platform to display what the Northern Territory has to offer and entice visitors to return for longer stays.

Client: Cassowary Coast Regional Council State: QLD Cassowary Coast Regional Council commissioned AEC to update the price paths for its water and sewerage services based on updated budget information and capital works projections. AEC's proprietary cost recovery model for water and sewerage services was utilised to develop long-term price paths for water and sewerage services for Council that will ensure ongoing financial sustainability in addition to meeting industry best practice cost recovery principles and Council's targeted rate of return from its investment in water and sewerage assets.

Client: Superyacht Australia and Tourism Australia The Australian International Marine Export Group (AIMEX) is the peak body representing the Australian marine export and superyacht industries and promotes Australia’s thriving marine industry to the world. To gain further insight into the status of the Superyacht sector, key Australian Charter Brokers were invited to provide crucial baseline information on the market with the key objective being to inform and promote Australia as a cruising and charter destination. The Charter Brokers were invited to participate in the online survey designed and distributed by AEC. A formal MS PowerPoint report was presented summarising the findings and highlighting key insights from the research.

Client: Townsville Catholic Education TCEO commissioned research to understand the drivers and influencing factors considered by parents, primary care givers and/or decision makers of children when selecting secondary schools. Ultimately the objective of the research was to understand most important aspects in selecting secondary schools, identify factors for choosing secondary schools within the Diocese and reasons for enrolling in competitor schools, identify opportunities for improvement to ensure TCEO continues to strengthen its position as the primary school choice by establishing a strong enrolment pathway and continuing to attract students. Quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were adopted to appropriately target each stakeholder group including online surveys, telephone surveys and focus group sessions with parents/caregivers who currently have children enrolled within the Diocese and those who considered a Diocese secondary school but did not enrol.

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: Logan City Council State: QLD There are very few regional centres in Australia that can justify a stand-alone performing arts or entertainment centre. Due to the projected 2.4% annual growth of Logan’s population by 2036 and the recorded occasions where events have exceeded supply capacity, speculation exists on the potential feasibility of a standalone or multi-purpose convention/ exhibition centre. Council engaged AEC to assist Ranbury in the development of a Needs Assessment and Pre-Feasibility Analysis for a convention/ exhibition centre. AEC’s work involved a socio-demographic analysis, review of the MICE market and key demand drivers, a gap and competitor analysis, estimates of future MICE demand, analysis and recommendations of governance structures and operating models, financial analysis and risk assessment. Key findings revealed the immediate demand for civic, cultural, sporting, business and community events are generally well catered for within the current facilities and infrastructure of Logan City. However, there is evidence to support a future requirement within the period of 5-10 years for the development of either a new purpose built (or expanded), metro-scale multipurpose convention/ exhibition centre. Under all scenarios, a proposed convention/ exhibition centre would generate an operating deficit. Hence the future direction of the study is to identify if the community benefits outweigh the financial cost, identify a specific site to allow for a more specific capital cost estimate and to undertake a more rigorous demand assessment.

Client: Property Council Australia State: VIC This report was commissioned by the Victorian division of the Property Council of Australia to examine the contribution of foreign investors purchasing residential and non-residential property on the Victorian economy, and the impact the introduction of surcharges on foreign investors has had on this contribution. The assessment reviewed historic levels of foreign investment as a share of total investment in residential and non-residential property and compared this to previous AEC modelling on the economic contribution of property to the Victorian economy to estimate the level of economic activity supported by foreign investment in 2015-16. Implications of the surcharge were estimated based on the observed reduction in foreign investor levels between 2015-16 and 2016-17 in Victoria (and other states) from the introduction of a surcharge. The outcomes of this research were used by Property Council of Australia to inform discussions regarding the surcharge.

Client: Lendlease State: QLD AEC was engaged by Lendlease to develop a review of the economic and social indicators in Townsville and their impact on future growth conditions. The report anlaysed key strategic insights, market developments and investment, and market trend analysis (economic and property).