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Ron Thorpe the man affectionately known as Australia’s own ‘Mr Hallmark’ throughout his tenure has announced his retirement.

Ron was an integral member of the team who negotiated the Hallmark/newsXpress strategic partnership and will remain a staunch newsXpress supporter. Ron’s dedication and loyalty to the newsagency industry is unsurpassed. Over his 40 years at Hallmark has made many friends and helped many newsagents.

Ron enjoys a game of golf, so don’t hesitate to invite him up for a game now he has more time on his hands.

We wish Ron and his wife Gay all the best in his well deserved retirement.

Larger than life Ron Thorpe pictured here with newsXpress Business Development Manager, Karen Sutton.

If you didn’t before you surely will now!

On behalf of the team at newsXpress we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanks to Justin Randall for the video.

For generations of children Christmas was about the anticipation of Father Christmas, the end of the school year and a trip to the city to admire the Myer windows.

However a new attraction is competing with Myer this year. newsXpress Deception Bay have created their own version in their large front windows, filling them with toys, gifts and merriment. Congratulations to Brett & Alexandra Carey and their team for the magical video.

Nothing captures the imagination like a lottery jackpot and Manni Ribeiro and his team at newsXpress Eumundi have provided the perfect environment for customers to dream that dream.
Golden Casket (the Queensland lottery governing body) have provided some of the marketing materials but the ingenuity and creativity of this pro-active newsagent has made it truly a winning destination.

newsXpress members have the option of participating in two separate catalogues promotions this ‘Back to School’ season. This is another point of difference offered to members who are free to select which document best represents their local market or business goals.
Some stores are even participating in both events to maximise sales and really compete with others in this space.

As part of their membership to newsXpress, various seasonal marketing materials are provided to store’s. This Christmas two separate T-Shirt designs were produced and distributed.
HO HO HO linked in with the traditional catch cry of Santa Claus while BAH HUMBUG was a nod to another famous Christmas character Ebeneezer Scrooge.
Both shirts could be considered a little risque due to current political correctness trends however have been warmly embraced by team members and customers alike who appreciate they are part of the difference at newsXpress.
Retail can be a tough gig, especially around Christmas, but it can also be a lot of fun!!! The HO HO HO and BAH HUMBUG are our representation of the retail environment.

Thank you to newsXpress Buderim (top) and newsXpress Deception Bay team members for modeling the shirts.

The old saying ‘bigger is better’ certainly rings true in Bundaberg. Peter Heaps who owns the two newsXpress Chippandall’s stores knows the value of marketing his business, and how! Five rotating television ads and a distribution of 50,000 catalogues are part of the answer as to why he is GNS’ biggest stationery customer.
Watch the ads carefully and pick up on the features:
* Strong representation of the business name using a catchy slogan “slip into Chippy’s”

* Background use of the newsXpress jingle – linking all ad campaigns together

* Presentation of traditional and technology products to advertise a point of difference

* A great customer competition with a highly desirable large screen plasma TV as the prize.

newsXpress Melton have cleverly utilised their Hallmark Alliance marketing materials along with selected gift lines to create a visually stunning display in their giant exposed front window. Situated in a High St location they rely on attracting new customers through external marketing including how they present themselves as a business.
Representing your business with well executed seasonal displays is more likely to be successful than maintaining a standard facade

It is refreshing to meet small business owners and newsagents in particular who understand the need to spend money on marketing in order to build their business. With so much competition for the consumer dollar nowadays a targeted and varied local area marketing strategy can often be the difference between flourishing or perishing.
Ian Hargreaves from newsXpress Station Square, Maryborough has wholly embraced this program with his enthusiasm for promoting his new consumable ink and technology category along with old staples like Back to School.
His BTS television ad is linked below this article and is a fine example of the newsXpress brand including the clever cross-promotion of the unique newsXpress Magazine Club Card.

newsXpress Station Square – BTS08.wmv

Ashley Lynch, manager at newsXpress Rockhampton has just completed twelve months worth of ads with Channel 7 in the local area culminating with this Christmas ad.
Due to the success of the ad campaign and his strong network contacts Ashley has co-ordinated five newsXpress stores to join him in producing event specific advertisements for the newsXpress group.
This is another strength of the newsXpress brand that several stores in a local area can join together to share the costs and reap the benefits of a larger scale marketing promotion than they would be able to afford or facilitate on their own.

See the newsXpress Rockhampton ad here…

Rockhampton Area – Ad Dec07.wmv

With the newsXpress HOT ink! #4 flyer in the marketplace for six weeks already it is refreshing to see major retailers still struggling to match the great prices.
The HP #21 Black & #22 Colour Ink Cartridge Combo Pack listed at $40.55 in the HOT ink! flyer is also featured in the current Officeworks “Christmas with a difference” catalogue for the value pack savings price of $47.95!

Many other advertised products have had to drastically slash the RRP to come in underneath the HOT ink! prices. Members have reported this is apparent at not just Officeworks, but BIG W, Harvey Norman and others.

newsXpress Garbutt in Townsville sold the second division prize in last week’s Powerball draw. A brand new shopfit at the Garbutt store last Christmas has had it’s desired effect diminished due to a tardy renovation job on the centre.However this has done nothing to lessen the pride with which owners Steve and Alana Payne recalled their customers lucky day.
A 40 year old bachelor who looks after his ailing mother is now $62,000 wealthier, and when he came in to check his ticket Alana thought he was going to faint with joy! A great story! The streamers and balloons are going up today and they plan to share the story in their local area with a newsletter feature.

Around major promotional times small business and newsagents are often looking at different ways to gain a larger share of the market. Most newsagents will allocate funds to marketing in their regular business operation and it is at these times that they need to wisely invest this money.

One effective method to increase their exposure and therefore potential foot traffic and ultimately sales is by running a radio campaign. The level of participation in radio will depend greatly upon your location. Advertising rates in metropolitan areas differ substantially from their regional equivalents.

newsXpress offers their expertise in negotiation, demographics, frequency as well as script and copy writing to members to gain this critical advantage.
Several members have already in conjunction with newsXpress and various radio stations produced effective ads for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and the Ink promotions – Need Ink? and HOTink!

For more information on how you can get started with your owm radio strategy contact the newsXpress Communications Centre.

Listen to the ad

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