Last year we were proud to take so many of our clients’ businesses to whole new heights.  Some of the stories that stand out are:

Who Ate All the Pies?

For this innovative specialist pie business in Dunedin, we developed a great brand identity and enabled them to get much more brand exposure through an updated website and an active social media presence.

This exposure was great but the biggest benefits were brought about by suggesting some key structural changes and realignment of responsibilities inside the business.  By putting these in place, the business managed to increase sales in the closing months of 2011 by 26% over those of the same period in the previous year.

We look forward to seeing what further increases will be achieved when the new packaging we designed for the pies hits the supermarket shelves in the coming months.

Stirling Sports Online

The innovative Stirling Sports On-line is another great success story.  After we project managed a major redesign and upgrade to their e-commerce website and get their social media channels up, running and fully integrated to the website, they doubled their website traffic and had their best December sales ever by a significant margin on all previous years.

These are just two of the highlights for last year.  We will be adding more of our success stories to our website as we go through the year.

If you would like to find out what we can do for you, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Have a great New Year.

We are delighted to announce that our Director & Consultant, James Hacon has been announced as a speaker at the US eTourism Summit being held in San Francisco later this year. James will travel to San Francisco in late September, where he will be leading a workshop on the advanced use of Linkedin for the travel and tourism industry. Within this session he will be sharing his experience of utilising this powerful social media platform to develop business relationships, generate new business and increase sales.

James will be joining a line up of top speakers including executives from TripAdvisor, Google, Linkedin and many National Tourism Organisations. Attendees are travelling from Europe, Africa, Asia and the US to attend the summit.

Always striving to learn of the best new practises and technology in the eCommerce world, James will also be representing Kiwi Dreams on a visit to a number of silicone valley based ‘tech’ companies including Google. On a personal note, James is planning to couch surf for part of his trip, to ensure he gets a feel for the real California – however does admit that he’ll be enjoying the luxury of a five star resort when visiting Las Vegas!

For more information on the eTourism Summit visit - www.etourismsummit.com

I’m writing from a very chilly Dunedin this morning. We are most certainly in the depths of winter here in New Zealand, whilst we’ve experienced 2-3 degrees at 1300hrs here in Dunedin, the Central Otago ski fields are finally opening and visitors arriving in their masses. My fellow directors, John and Pam, are off to enjoy the winter delights of Queenstown this weekend – as I hope to do next weekend. I’m thinking about giving cross country skiing a go this year! If you’ve any experience in this, then be sure to leave a comment with any tips.

It’s all systems go here at Kiwi Dreams, we are fully immersed in two big projects with our clients; creating a brand guide & clear marketing direction for Dunedin family pie manufacturer – ‘Who Ate All The Pies?‘ and the other, an eCommerce project with major online sports retailer, Stirling Sports Online. We hope to be able to update you about our work with these projects more thoroughly in the coming weeks.

I am looking forward to my Auckland trip next week. Prompted by my invitation to be a panellist for the marketing seminar at the  The Restaurant and Bar Show, I will be catching up with a number of existing clients as well as meeting with many prospective clients too! Where, I used to find myself eating alone in my hotel restaurant for dinner when on business, being so active on social media has meant I will be catching up with my Twitter friends at virtually every meal time – a great opportunity to meet in person, find out what is going on in the ‘big smoke’ and of course enjoy some good wine. One such meal is at the Auckland University of Technology Training Restaurant,Piko. I love to visit training restaurants, its such a brilliant way to support the training of up and coming recruits to the hospitality industry – in a really fun way!

I’ll be sure to share my Auckland experiences with you on my return, if you’re in Auckland and want to grab a coffee or drink on Monday or Tuesday then let me know by tweeting my – @jameshacon.

Until next time! In the mean time, become our fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to keep up-to-date with what we’re up to!