Small business to get Government cash if ads are stimulating

By Antonia Magee
The Courier-Mail

LEADING advertising agencies say small and medium businesses can still attract a piece of the Government's $42 billion stimulus package without breaking the budget.

Starting this month, millions of working Australians will receive up to $900 in cash from the Rudd Government with the intention for the money to go straight into the economy.

Some of the nation's biggest retailers have advertised stimulus savings to attract customers receiving the cash to spend in their stores.

Upmarket department store David Jones got into the spirit of things last month when it advertised "Government Stimulus Savings" on anything from lingerie to washing machines. Chief executive Mark McInnes previously said the store missed out on the initial $10.4 billion package in December because it did not go to its customers.

Most small and medium business owners do not have hundreds of thousands of dollars in spare cash lying around to pay for full page advertising spreads to let the public know about special offers.

Australian Retailers' Association executive director Richard Evans says the worst thing businesses can do is stop communicating with their market and retract their advertising spend.

"They should be reviewing their spend mix - whether they're spending money on TV rather than radio or moving out of corporate style advertising and going on to product specific advertising,'' Mr Evans says.

Smart advertising agency chief executive Ben Lilley and Gill Walker, head of Melbourne-based Evergreen agency, say businesses can do several low-budget schemes to attract the Rudd Government's stimulus cash.

Mr Lilley says retailers that do not have an advertising budget, but have some shopfront exposure, should create their own stimulus specials.

"The stimulus package is going to be top of mind for people who have received the payment, so specials are a good way to attract people to spend it", Mr Lilley says.

"Our own advice that we give to clients who don't have the budget for a big ad campaign is to start with their own website activity and work out from there."

He says businesses should use things such as search engine optimisation and change aspects of their websites to better market themselves online to people who are receiving the stimulus package. He also recommended Google Ad words to direct web users to business sites.