Whether you’re jetting off with QANTAS, or just savouring your Vegemite on toast this Australia Day long weekend, take a moment to consider what it takes to make an Aussie brand truly iconic?

What makes Australians patriotic about a food that is brown and gooey, resembling axle grease? Is it a flying kangaroo logo that still makes more Australian’s choose to fly QANTAS?

It’s this very patriotism that makes a brand Iconic, an emotional connection that select brands and products can induce. They capture the markets imagination and more often than not, take the consumer down memory lane.

A truly iconic Australian brand will embrace the Australian lifestyle (whether real or imagined), via the actual product or via the marketing campaign.

It’s often argued that an Iconic Brand cannot be consciously created, and that it is cynical to try and do so; but there are several key factors that all iconic brands seem to evoke:

Heritage: they are enduring, long lived brands.

Consistency: iconic brands tend to evolve rather than go through dramatic changes.

Relevance: they manage to stay fresh and maintain relevance over time.

Leadership: while not necessarily being the biggest they are always the most respected.

Integrity: iconic brands always recover from crisis.

So this Australia Day, tilt your Akubra, munch on your Arnotts and rest your weary Blunstones as you salute those Iconic Brands that add so much to the Australian way of life

If you have been reading our blog regularly, you will be aware by now of the changing face of the media; a general decline of the use of traditional media, and the significant increase of internet use.

The internet is a virtual equivalent of the real world through which people and companies can publish information, much like they do through traditional media, share them with others, comment on various topics or alternatively seek information.

It is important to remember that the online world is populated by people, it is not just a one-way telecommunications channel. Therefore, all the Public Relations and Marketing activities you are currently undertaking offline should also be included online – and increasingly being highly visible online is becoming ever more important.

Online media releases can also do more than just boost the results of a traditional media relations campaign. Submitting your keyword optimised online media release to press release submission websites, with a link back to your company’s website, is a powerful way to enhance effective Search Engine Optimisation.

How is this so?
Google weights links to your website from other reputable sites a vote for your level of authority on a particular subject. The more inbound links from websites and articles containing content on your subject matter, the better your site will rank for particular targeted  keywords.

Want to improve the Search Engine Optimisation of your company’s website but don’t know where to start? Call Merilyn or Cal on (03) 9819 2566 and organise to come in for a coffee and a chat.