Funded through the Black Summer Bushfire Grant Program to the value of $150,000, the Support Local & Product Champion Program has been very effective in giving 100 local businesses personalised promotion to the local community. This has been greatly appreciated after all the adversity local businesses have had to face with bushfires, floods and COVID-19. The additional exposure through the paid Facebook sponsorship for the Support Local competition and promotion of the Advance Cessnock Facebook Page has meant that our team is more effective to disperse any disaster or grant funding opportunities to the business community which increases uptake of these initiatives.
Increased businesses following our website and social media pages and eNewsletter allows our LGA to be more strategic in our approach to solving some of the industry skills shortages currently being faced by our area with lots of training opportunities and employment positions being shared on the Jobs Portal of the advancecessnock.com.au website.
Support Local Product Champion Outcomes achieved include:
- 41 new subscribers to the Advance Cessnock eNewsletter
- Likes and Followers to the @advancecessnock Facebook Page has increased by 139%. When
- Website Page reach from 1st July to 30th June 2023 is over 586K users representing a 294% increase.
- Throughout the year 48 Support Local & Product Champion advertisements were placed in the Local newspaper the Cessnock Advertiser and business profiles added to the advancecessnock.com.au website and @advancecessnock social media.
- 4 of the quarterly Investment Attractions advertisements were placed increase in enquiries received for new businesses in the Cessnock LGA which is directly attributed to this project as there is no other advertising currently in place.
- The Business Toolkit to promote Supporting Local Businesses has been produced and is now available online at advancecessnock.com.au It has also been scheduled and is currently in progress to be shared over the duration of the grant.
- Digital Banner advertising has also been designed and resulting in an increase in website traffic for Advance Greater Cessnock increasing from 17,019 users in 21-22 FY to 23,115 an increase of 6096.
- Produced 48 short Support Local videos to be shared on AGC social media.
A second grant was funded through APA Kurri Kurri Lateral Gas Pipeline to fund an additional 25 short Support Local videos which will be made and released in 2024.
