our tweet!

Take the opportunity to catch up over a free drink with like-minded business owners, nd out more about the new buzz around social media, and learn what it can do to increase your business growth...
GEN Y ACCESS invites you to its Everybodys talking about Twitter and Facebook. Are You in the know? As a business owner, you should be taking advantage of social media right now. Its time to nd out how.

LAUNCH EVENT
17th August 2009
5.30 pm for a 6 pm start Complimentary drinks and canapes Level 15 Riverside Centre 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane Discount parking available http://www.secureparking.com.au/ PromotionsArticle.aspx?id=128 Please RSVP by 13 August 2009 genyaccess@gmail.com, or to Nadya Nilova on 0413 291 653 Vanessa Steinheuer on 0411 969 811

Gen Y Access is your ticket in. As social media consultants

pioneering this next generation of marketing, we can help you take full advantage of social media as an inexpensive and inuential marketing tool. Well be bringing together some really switched on speakers to give you expert advice on the social media phenomenon and its applications for business - how it can... increase your brand awareness through word of mouth turn your customers into advocates for your business tell you what your customers think and say about you

see you there!

Gen Y Access is wholly run by 18 technology savvy QUT students in conjunction with Young Achievement Australia.

Hosted by

pricing:
Initial creation of dynamic and comprehensive Facebook and Twitter accounts | $100 Gold Package | $100 per week Silver Package + Passive interaction [responding to messages/ inquiries within 1 hour, 3 times per week for 8 hours] 4 x 30 min blocks of intensive interaction > creating buzz for the business, proactively creating conversations on the businesss behalf Market research > monitoring social media presence of 3 competitors Final week training and account handover Silver Package | $50 per week Bronze Package + 2 x 30 min blocks of intensive interaction > creating buzz for the business, proactively creating conversations on the businesss behalf Market research > monitoring 1 competitors social media presence Final week training and account handover Bronze Package | $30 per week Daily updates Passive interaction [responding to friends/ follower messages/inquiries within 6 hours] Weekly progress reports Use of Gen Y Access ready-made personal network [3400 people] Sourcing of interesting, external content (e.g. multimedia) Final week training and account handover

who we are
Gen Y Access is comprised of 17 QUT business students who come from different backgrounds and study different majors. We are Generation Y kids, and as a consequence, know this technology and what people respond to well. Gen Y Access essentially creates Facebook and Twitter pages for businesses, developing them a presence in social media. We offer businesses a way to generate positive word of mouth, increase brand awareness and brand loyalty, and obtain elusive customer feedback. As we belong to Generation Y, we feel that we have a rm understanding of the ways in which Generation Y consumers seek information, react to advertising, and are inuenced to purchase. We offer this valuable insight, as well as our time, to businesses targeting the Generation Y market, presenting ourselves as the link between them and their potential customers.

what you can expect from our service:

Passive and real time interaction between us (on behalf of your business) and your market Flexible service available inside and/or outside of normal business hours Access to a ready-made network: ours - our current Facebook friend count at 27/09/09 10:30 PM: 3400 people. Market research on your industry and competitors Weekly progress reports Comprehensive training and account handover to you Event promotion when necessary

why turn to social media?

Why not? A list of value to seriously consider: Its a known fact in business that it takes less effort to bring existing customers closer than to get new ones on board. Increase your brand loyalty. Increase your brand awareness. Get your name out there quickly and simply, and extend your reach further than you thought possible. Get more people along to your events or special occasions. Obtain the ever-elusive customer feedback. There are some things a customer wont necessarily say to your face, even when prompted by you. Find these out! Unleash your brand personality! We know you have one. Use social media in conjunction with your website if you have one, to establish a major web presence (and increase your Google hits!). Combine this inexpensive yet efficient marketing tool with your current techniques to reduce your marketing/advertising budget.

helping your business generate

> positive word of mouth, > greater brand awareness, and > stronger customer engagement...

contact us:
www.genyaccess.com genyaccess@gmail.com
how it can...
at your service:

the GEN Y way!

phone:

Gen Y Access Cold call e-mail campaign Urban legend, you are one!
Dear (business name), You probably already know this, but youre pretty famous in this neck of the woods. A part of the Brisbane landscape, we cant imagine life here without you. And from the quotes weve read in magazines to the word on the street, it seems that other Brisbane guys cant either. Well cut to the chase. You already have loyal customers, but if you could bring them even closer, would you? What if those brand loyalists became brand advocates, and started consciously promoting your businesslike all the time? But how? Allow us to introduce ourselves: We are Gen Y Access. Were business students at QUT, and weve started a venture to create and manage Twitter and Facebook accounts for Brisbane businesses. We want to do this because: We believe in the power of social media to increase word of mouth, and to open up a new line of communication between business and consumer. We're afraid traditional advertising is increasingly filtered out by busy people, and therefore losing impact. In Brisbane, we see a dynamic city with iconic businesses we feel fiercely passionate about. We're Gen Y. We know this technology like the backs of our hands, and we know what people respond to. Your business has a personality. It would be PERFECT for Twitter. If youre interested, please see the attachment to find out details! Sincerely yours, Gen Y Access

Gen Y Access Brand Personality

What is the Gen Y Access brand? An acquaintance of ours (and coincidentally the speaker at our Launch Event) recently planted the seed in our minds of picturing a brand as a person. So, who is Gen Y Access? Gen Y Access is unique. No one could ever accuse him of trying to fit in. In school he was the one with the marshmallow fluff sandwiches and the Peruvian panflute for show-and-tell. He was and still is the crazy one in his circle of friends, but dont write him off just yet, because he has a special talent for sensing opportunities before most people. Can he think outside of the box? He lives his life outside of the box. Gen Y Access is technologically savvy, to the point of being quite nerdy about it. He probably would stand in line for the launch of a new iPhone. He knows how to write html, understands Google Analytics, and was into Twitter before Ashton Kutcher. So there. Gen Y Access is professional. He understands the importance of being reliable, and of remembering peoples names. Equally at home in the boardroom as he is in his loungeroom, Gen Y Access thrives off networking events. They used to scare him but now he really digs the conversation and opportunity to meet like-minded people. His trademark look is the jeans/cool T-shirt/suit-jacket/Converse sneakers combo. Despite his years, theres a youthful exuberance about Gen Y Access. Hes not jaded, will sometimes order a chocolate milkshake instead of a coffee, and has the tendency to burst into song. But thats what we love about him and secretly hope hell never change!

Gen Y Access Summary of Marketing Plan as featured in Annual Report

The Marketing and Sales Department
Self-Introductions
Lauren Isaak is the Director for Marketing and Sales. She studies International Business and Arts, and was driven to enter the Marketing Department by a desire to gain experience in the field. Lauren has overseen development of the GYA marketing strategy, been responsible for media publicity, and has managed one of the client accounts. She wishes more people knew the song a plane pour moi by Plastic Bertrand. Kellie Hind studies Management while working full-time with the Australian Federal Government, and joined the GYA Marketing Department to broaden her knowledge of and experience in marketing and sales. She has since proven to herself that she has very strong sales skills, winning the company several leads. She has also been instrumental in the development of GYA promotional material. Kellie adores Deizel, her six month-old boxer puppy. Mohit Chhaya is studying to complete his Bachelor of Biotechnology Innovation. He also works as a financial analyst. Mohit has made a key contribution to the team by way of his technological prowess, developing the GYA website and investigating applications to improve the efficiency of GYA services. He speaks five languages, the fifth of which is Yodic. Phillip Harrigan is in his second year of a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Accountancy. Phillip has played an active role in the marketing of GYA, most notably through his direction of the Launch Event in August. He has also been effective in sales, acquiring and subsequently managing one of the companys clients. Just so you know, he drives an awesome little car. Joaquin Del Mundo studies a Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Laws. Joaquins enthusiasm for the business has been reflected in his commitment to sales. He has been involved with much of the teams pitching to clients, also trying his hand at service delivery. Joaquin has a penchant for ice cream, vending machines, and the word random. Stuart Quirk is currently studying International Business, and will graduate at the end of this semester. Stuart has made many valuable contributions to the Marketing Department, some of which include pitching to clients, account management, and planning and development of the service. He cannot resist lollies, and is often sprung monopolising the Mentos with the HR Manager at board meetings!

MARKETING Brand Personality What is the Gen Y Access brand? An acquaintance of ours (and coincidentally the speaker at our Launch Event) recently planted the seed in our minds of picturing a brand as a person. So, who is Gen Y Access? Gen Y Access is unique. No one could ever accuse him of trying to fit in. In school he was the one with the marshmallow fluff sandwiches and the Peruvian panflute for show-and-tell. He was and still is the crazy one in his circle of friends, but dont write him off just yet, because he has a special talent for sensing opportunities before most people. Can he think outside of the box? He lives his life outside of the box. Gen Y Access is technologically savvy, to the point of being quite nerdy about it. He probably would stand in line for the launch of a new iPhone. He knows how to write html, understands Google Analytics, and was into Twitter before Ashton Kutcher. So there. Gen Y Access is professional. He understands the importance of being reliable, and of remembering peoples names. Equally at home in the boardroom as he is in his loungeroom, Gen Y Access thrives off networking events. They used to scare him but now he really digs the conversation and opportunity to meet like-minded people. His trademark look is the jeans/cool T-shirt/suit-jacket/Converse sneakers combo. Despite his years, theres a youthful exuberance about Gen Y Access. Hes not jaded, will sometimes order a chocolate milkshake instead of a coffee, and has the tendency to burst into song. But thats what we love about him and secretly hope hell never change! *** Positioning Gen Y Access approaches the market from a unique selling position. Because we offer to create and manage Facebook and Twitter for businesses, rather than simply offer our advice, we offer a service no one in our city currently supplies, and have promoted this fact in our communications with the public. One of our claims to fame was technological know how and efficiency at social media. To this end, we have developed a thorough online presence and used it to demonstrate that we keep ourselves up-to-date with the latest developments in our field. See Advertising and Promotions: Online Presence for further insight. To gain credibility in our task to provide a B2B service, it has been necessary for us to position ourselves as professionals. In order to do so, we have used our QUT Business School background and PricewaterhouseCoopers backing as leverage. In addition, a company dress code was instigated whereby all members dress in business attire for all company-related activities (e.g. sales, board meetings). As well as creating a professional appearance, this company rule has bred the mindset that we

are professionals, not just students. See Advertising and Promotions for further insight. However, a key selling point was our claim to know the Gen Y consumer well, being of Gen Y ourselves. To us, this meant that it was important all aspects of our company gave off an impression of youthfulness, flexibility, energy and connectedness with our peers. Internally, a company culture was created whereby joking around and fun were encouraged. Externally, we set the tone through our language and style of communicating on our own Facebook and Twitter pages. Evolution of the Target Market The target market was originally defined as businesses selling predominantly to Generation Y consumers, with Generation Y consumers defined as those born in the period 1980 to mid-1990s. Identifying that the majority of discretionary spends by these consumers fall within the industries of entertainment, hospitality, leisure (sports) and bridal, it was decided that marketing efforts would be directed towards businesses in these categories. The target market evolved when interest was observed occurring among businesses outside of the target industries. The portfolio of clients consequently came to include businesses specialising in student accommodation, baby products and childcare.

Advertising and promotions Online presence | Website Completely developed in-house, the Gen Y Access website was established to give the company a web presence, and to provide information to potential clients. Use of Flash animation and CSS scripting projects the companys technologically-savvy image. Search Engine Optimisation strategies were also employed to promote the website. At the time of its debut, www.genyaccess.com appeared on the 29th page of www.google.com following the search string Gen Y Access. By October 25, 2009, it was appearing on the first page, signaling increased traffic to the website. Statistics show that of all visits to the site, 53.16% of these were from new visitors.

Site Usage for www.genyaccess.com

Sources of traffic to www.genyaccess.com Gen Y Access (GYA) Facebook Page Gen Y Access Facebook page was developed as a place to network with people interested in our business, boost awareness of our service among our networks (with the view to being recommended to potential customers), and promote interest in social media as a tool for businesses. Number of fans increased to 370 approaching liquidation, and interaction with these fans was constant due to frequent posts. Highlights on the Facebook page included the heated debate on the best way to market a product which even saw contributions from marketing specialists in Brisbane.

Increase in number of GYA fans during the period

Interactions with GYA fans genyaccess on Twitter Gen Y Access Twitter page pursued similar objectives to the Facebook page. As the nature of Twitter is that of a professional networking hub between businesses and specialists, Gen Y Access found a valuable opportunity to connect with other individuals involved in marketing and social media, and share information. Approaching liquidation, genyaccess was followed by 343 Twitter users.

Increase in number of genyaccess followers during the period Personal Selling From an early stage it was identified that direct marketing would be one of the most effective approaches to reach our target market. Observation of and conversations with the business owners who attended our launch event provided further insight into the industries we planned to target. In pitching to potential clients, telephone, email and face-to-face methods were used and tailored to each business. After initial contact (the foot in the door) was made, thorough research was carried out on the business in order to create the impression that we understood the business needs (this was conveyed in personal negotiations at a later stage). In some cases, pitches were unsuccessful; however, there was evidence that our approach had made a good impression on the business. A brochure was developed to accompany the pitch so as to leave undecided businesses with information about our service. Launch Event It was decided to hold a launch event as a mass pitch to clients. This was held at our mentors (PricewaterhouseCoopers) office at Riverside Centre. Located on the fifteenth floor of a main building in Brisbanes business district (with a view of the Brisbane River and city skyline) we imagined the setting conveyed prestige to our attendees and would assist us to leverage off PwCs credibility and image as a leading company connected to the business sector. The event was catered and promoted as a networking event, giving the night a social atmosphere. We feel this made the event more appealing for business owners to

attend and listen to our ideas. The launch event functioned as our introduction to Brisbanes business sector, a communication of our brand, and a demonstration of our product. In addition to our pitch, two external speakers (one on social media, the other on marketing to Gen Y consumers) were engaged as authoritative sources to support our proposition.

Media Coverage Gen Y Access was featured in QUT News, MX News, South East Brisbane News and Brisbane City News. It takes Y to know Y Gen Ys offer social media service appeared on QUT News on 13/10/09.

Qut!s tweet to woo appeared in MX Brisbane on 14/10/09.

Tweet smell of success appeared in City South News on 15/10/09.

Meet the team paid to Twitter appeared in City News on 15/10/09.

Evaluation (Marketing) Achievements Successful launch party with 60 guests and 5 sign ups on the night. 370 Facebook fans and 350 Twitter followers approaching liquidation. One client inquiry through online presence. 4 articles published in the media, with one more in the pipeline.

What could we have done differently? In retrospect there are a few things the Marketing Department would have chosen to do differently. Despite efforts to engage the media first in August, we were not successful in obtaining coverage until we went through a media contact at QUT. Ideally, we would have found this contact sooner, appeared in the media earlier, and leveraged off this to approach clients. In order to bring more guests to the Launch Event, we would have started inviting businesses earlier, and would have been more aggressive in our pursuit of RSVPs!

SALES Achievements Over 50 businesses pitched to in the greater Brisbane area. 9 clients signed up. Sales Structure All company members were involved in selling the Launch Event. In pursuing clients, the company was divided into five sales teams (3-5 members per team). An informal competition was used effectively as motivation for teams sales efforts. Within teams, one member acted as Account Manager. The responsibilities of this position included following up on leads and liaising with the client for the duration of the contract. Other team members were responsible for delivery, that is, sourcing leads for the Account Manager and building and maintaining the clients Facebook and Twitter accounts. Sales Training Sales training was conducted by the Managing Director and the Director for Sales and Marketing. It involved briefing company members on important selling points and pitch practice. This preceded the Amazing Race, the first weekend of approaching businesses in inner city suburbs such as the central business district, South Bank, West End, Fortitude Valley, New Farm and Teneriffe. Team members pitched in pairs or groups of three for the purpose of moral support. As this was the first time many members had ever pitched or spoken to business owners on business-related grounds, much of the learning actually occurred as the weekend progressed. A key learning from the weekend was that it was necessary to tweak the pitch for different scenarios. Sales Competition Responding to a decrease in enthusiasm among team members towards the latter part of the period, several incentives were brought in to encourage sales efforts. The first was a sales competition, which promised a prize to the team who brought in the most new clients. The second initiative was a commission system where any member signing a client would receive an individual prize (receipt of one week of that clients fees). Evaluation What could we have done differently? 1. An important lesson learnt from the Amazing Race was the need to put ourselves in our target markets shoes. The decision to target businesses at the weekend was initially made to guarantee participation from the majority of team members, and to reach the business owner directly (as opposed to subordinate staff). However, it was soon discovered that while business owners were mostly present for their (generally) busiest trading days, because of this fact they had limited time or attention for us. This forced our team to at best adapt our pitch, and at worst abort the mission. In learning from this mistake, subsequent visits to businesses were undertaken on quieter days at

quieter times, after a telephone call to ensure the owner was present. 2. As mentioned earlier, sales efforts significantly decreased towards the end of the period, with dampened enthusiasm apparent in most members. There was evidence that the sales competition and commission system ideas were effective, but it would have been more valuable to implement these earlier (e.g. immediately following the Launch Event) to set an expectation for maximum sales and effort. 3. Greater communication between the Director for Sales and Marketing and the salespeople may have assisted to increase understanding of the drop in performance. It is recommended that the Director should have undertook to provide follow-up training and more support to salespeople.