February 2013
A note from Annalise….
I am thrilled to have been able to participate in the 2nd annual CEO Cookoff on Monday night.
Picture Cathedral Square in the centre of Sydney filled with a huge tent filled with row upon row of dressed trestle tables and chairs, waiting for one of 1000 hungry homeless people to arrive and be served the meal of a lifetime.
To participate in the CEO Cook-off is a total assault on the senses. On the one hand, we had the opportunity to stand side-by-side with fellow CEO’s and business owners, donning an apron, and getting our hands dirty whilst being instructed how to prepare a meal by one of Australia’s top 30 chefs, which in itself is a unique experience that only happens once a year. On the other hand, we had the opportunity to serve our 5-star meal to a cross-section of Australians who we would not ordinarily cross paths with. Australian’s that don’t know what it is like to sleep in the same place night after night. Australian’s who don’t have the security of a steady job and pay check, and who often don’t know where their next meal is coming from, many of them having not eaten for many days when they arrived in Cathedral Square.
Not a skerrick of food went to waste on Monday night as we sat and heard the stories of despair, hope, joy and hardship from these fellow Australians. It was humbling to watch a family eat their first meal for the day, and hear them saying a prayer together before hand, so incredibly thankful that they had food on their plates that evening. It was heart-breaking to hear of two women’s experiences of more than 20 years of living in an abusive relationship where domestic violence and broken bones was the norm instead of the exceptions. It was very grounding to hear that they considered themselves the ‘lucky ones’ as they may be homeless and living in a women’s shelter, but at least they didn’t have to endure another day of beatings.
The live entertainment was exciting and lifted the spirits of everybody present, providing a little ray of light in what would be a difficult day to ensure for too many.
OzHarvest is an NFP that The Kanga Group will continue to support in every way that we can and I congratulate Ronni Kahn from OzHarvest & Allan Joyce from Qantas and their teams for putting on such an amazing event.
For anybody that has thought about participating in the CEO Cook off, I challenge you to get involved any way you can next year! I can highly recommend the event as a great way to give back to your community, and remember to put life and our problems into perspective.
January 2013
Always in search of innovation and even better ways of making our client’s brands get ultimate cut-through in the crowd, The Kanga Group was once again in attendance at the world’s largest promotional product trade show at the Mandalay Bay Convention Centre in Las Vegas in January 2013.
After 2 days of quality education seminars, we are reassured that The Kanga Group continues to lead the industry in our unique approach to being a one-stop promotional marketing agency for all of our client’s specialty advertising needs. Our key take out from the education component of the Conference is the importance of telling a compelling story. By using product to help tell stories we can really help to advertise our client’s brand benefits, and de-commoditise the business, proving the purpose of what our clients are trying to achieve with their brands, and increasing their ROI and bottom line sales.
Walking the show floor was a great reminder of how a promotional product can touch all 5 senses in the way that no other form of marketing can! Featuring 3 football fields of every conceivable piece of branded merchandise you can imagine, we found some real pearls of ideas that we have brought back to our offices to be the first in the world to show to our clients. The best part being that none of it currently appears in a catalogue, and will allow The Kanga Group’s clients to be the first to market with some great speciality advertising ideas! The over-arching trend is the move towards tech-related and smart phone product. The USA has reaffirmed itself as the land of innovation, and it was great to be able to bring back never-before-seen items such as the new infra-red projector keyboard, that will one-day become an everyday item, but for now, speaks volumes as to the brands that we can pair with it.
June 2012
Earlier this month the TKG team packed up a few favourite case studies, a bunch of business cards and dressed with a touch of orange!
mUmBRELLA360 is a conference designed for those in media, marketing and entertainment and included keynotes from some of Australia’s most influential media and marketing executives.
The Kanga Group was lucky enough to score a stand at the exhibition which housed some of the industry’s most exciting and innovative companies.
The conference took place at The Hilton in Sydney on the 6th & 7th of June and for those who didn’t get to see us at the conference, this is what our stand looked like…
May 2012
There has been many exciting changes at TKG House over the past 3 months.
A couple great new client wins, 3 new team members, many successful products launched into market and to top it off, confirmation that The Kanga Group has been shortlisted again for a globally recognised international industry award.
To celebrate the wins and spend a few hours out and about, the team will be shutting shop early today, Friday the 4th and head off on a mystery outing.
The team have spent the past week guessing where and what we will be doing. They were given until 4:30pm yesterday to submit their guesses based on the below hints…
Stay tuned and come back next week to see where we will end up!
February 2012
The night started with drizzly weather but as the CEOs and celebrity chefs rolled in, the rain cleared and a great night was to follow.
Annalise was one of 130 CEOs and business leaders from around Australia to put on an apron and team up with 30 Celebrity Chefs from Australia’s top kitchens. They gathered at St. Mary’s Cathedral and cooked over 800 meals for Australians doing it tough.
Through some healthy competition in fundraising between participating CEOs and business leaders, the 2012 CEO CookOff raised over $945,000. These much needed funds were shared equally between OzHarvest and Mission Australia.
TKG would like to thank those who supported Annalise in this great cause, your donations were much appreciated.
Check out the video from the night…
January 2012
Next Monday 6 February, our CEO Annalise will be participating in a new concept called the CEO Cookoff. Some of you may be participating in it as well, many of you will know about it but have no idea what it is about, but the majority of you will probably have not yet heard about this initiative being launched by Qantas and OzHarvest.
The GOAL of the Cook-off is to raise much needed funds for OzHarvest and Mission Australia – two Australian not-for-profits that we try to support wherever possible.
The COMPETITION lies in fundraising for the cause – the event is about teaming up a celebrity chef with a small group of CEO’s to help prepare and cook a simple yet delicious meal for our guests – everyday Aussies that are doing it tough…. THIS IS WHERE YOU ALL COME IN!
Every dollar counts and every donation regardless of size is appreciated, and will go towards a homeless husband, mother, child, brother, sister or entire family being able to have a decent meal or roof over their head, thanks to these two charities, which could not exist without public support.
If you are able to sponsor her in this event and support this great cause, then please click on the link below.
http://www.ceocookoff.com.au/profile/277
Less than $1 delivers a meal to those less fortunate, so even a few dollars will go a long way!
June 2011
The Kanga Group AGAIN recognised by the Advertising Speciality Institute as one of the top two fastest growing promotional companies GLOBALLY. This is the first time a company has been listed in the top 2 fastest growing companies two years in a row.
