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Shareholder Review
Contents
Introduction
About Salmat
Chairmans Message
Joint Managing Directors Report
Review of Operations
BusinessForce
SalesForce
MediaForce
Corporate Responsibility Report
Board of Directors
Corporate Directory
Full Financial Report
Financial Contents
Corporate Governance
Directors Report
Auditors Independence Declaration
Income Statements
Balance Sheets
Statements of Recognised Income and Expense
Cash Flow Statements
Notes to the Financial Statements
Directors Declaration
Independent Auditors Report
Independent Auditors Report
Shareholder Information
MediaForce
The past year
was largely
characterised by
a re-engineering
and revitalisation
of the traditional
business alongside
some exciting
growth in our
newer segments.
The year in review
Traditional business innovation
and growth
While the traditional catalogue
delivery market remains
relatively price sensitive,
MediaForce has continued to
achieve healthy volume and
revenue growth. We’ve also
undertaken a comprehensive
review and restructure program
that’s gone through the
business from top to bottom.
Increasing traditional market
sales by more than 10% was
a great achievement in the
current environment. Our
strong client retention rate
and some exciting new business
wins contributed to this result.
Higher costs in areas including
fuel, freight and contractors in
competitive localised labour
markets continue to impact the
business, partially offset by
higher volumes. We expect cost
pressures will remain an issue
but aim to mitigate the impact
somewhat with price increases.
An ongoing review of cost
control and a decision to exit
some unprofitable work should
further improve our margin
prospects moving forward.
We continued to innovate
our offering in the area of
job tracking and reporting,
completing the roll-out of our
total accountability model on a
national basis. This technologybased
model is the most
sophisticated of its type in
the world and offers clients
an unbeatable range of timely
and accurate reporting options
which are supported by
extensive independent auditing.
Dialect achieving great results
Growth in SMS and Interactive
Voice Response (IVR) services via
our Dialect business over the
past year has been extremely
gratifying. Both volumes and
revenue in this area have shown
healthy growth, resulting from
new client applications and new
partnership arrangements.
Revenue was well above
forecast, growing more than
threefold during its second year
in the Salmat stable, helping
the business move into profit
for the year. New mobile
content applications and higher
IVR volumes were the primary
contributors. A number of
key cost savings were
also identified.
Overall it was a year of key
milestone achievements in an
emerging business with strong
prospects for continued growth.
Encouraging performance in
online solutions
Within DigitalForce, the
Lasoo website and Dynamic
Catalogue product continue
to achieve an amazing market
response. Consumers and
retailers alike have quickly
recognised the superior
proposition they offer. New
functionality continues to be
added to both services.
Lasoo.com.au quickly moved
to the number one spot in the
online advertising market after
its launch in November 2007
and has continued to
consolidate that position
ever since. Lasoo now not only
receives the most traffic of any
pre-shop site but sees more
traffic than any of the retailers’
own sites.
The Dynamic Catalogue
product – which powers
interactive catalogues on
retailers’ own sites – has
experienced similar success,
and is now the leading
catalogue viewing technology
used by Australian retailers.
Now that the key development
and start-up costs have been
expensed, this business should
reach run rate break even in
the second half of the year.
Looking forward
The key focus for MediaForce
moving forward will be further
integration of our offline and
online offerings. With an
eye on changing consumer
preferences for information, this
capability creates an important
competitive advantage for
the division. Our ongoing
commitment to provide
comprehensive qualitative and
quantitative data means that
the unaddressed advertising
category is gaining legitimacy
as a strategic part of the media
mix. We are looking at
opportunities for additional
revenue: both from expanding
our non-traditional clients and
offering additional solutions
that complement existing
services already enjoyed by
our customer base.
We will continue to review
processes in all areas for further
productivity enhancement and
we are still seeking additional
improvement in cost control.
Our joint venture with
New Zealand Post should show
significant improvement over
the next two years as the two
different operating models
are consolidated onto a
common platform.
The Dialect business will also
deliver good results next year,
as product and technology
development plus a strong
sales focus continue.
Under the DigitalForce banner,
we expect Lasoo and Dynamic
Catalogue to carry on growing
retailer and visitor numbers as
well as revenue. Opportunities
for additional revenue from
different sources and strategic
partnerships are under review.
Product enhancements will also
continue to add to the appeal
of this exciting new medium.
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