Raising awareness of an exciting investment opportunity outside of the immediate circle of friends, family and fans can be difficult, especially if networks of high net-worth individuals or institutional investors are not easily accessible.

Zakazukha has successfully helped a number of companies raise the awareness of their investment opportunity through the production of high-quality investor communications materials as well as a targeted investor relations campaign designed to alert those who may not be aware of the prospect at hand.

KFSU, a north Queensland based company that manufactures a revolutionary new dietary fibre, is in the process of significantly expanding its operations and in turn potentially bolster Australia’s $2.5 billion sugar cane industry.

The company has spent the last five years commercialising its product to produce a world-first dietary fibre from sugar cane and now plans to go into full production through a $3 million capital injection.

The global market for dietary fibre is more than US$3 billion annually and growing at 13 percent per annum. The World Health Organisation has defined a recommended daily intake of 30g per day, however people in most developed countries are consuming less that 50 percent of this amount.

Zakazukha assisted KFSU in its capital raising through the production of a high quality prospectus and DVD presentation as well as a media relations campaign.

Research has shown that companies who have a suite of professionally presented corporate presentations and a simple media relations campaign are generally more successful in their capital raisings than those that dont.

The ability for KFSU to be able to present its investment opportunity to potential investors in a succinct and informative manner has certainly assisted in its capital raising efforts, however the engagement of media relations also helped raise the awareness of the opportunity outside of immediate networks.

The media relations campaign from its first press release has so far resulted in a major articles in both the Australian Financial Review and the Courier Mail, achieving direct investment from a pool of people outside the immediate circle of friends, family and fans.

The aged care industry is often plagued with bad publicity surrounding issues from inappropriate care through to facilities facing receivership, with positive stories often second place to more sensational news.

However one provider has managed to continually communicate its successes through a carefully managed messaging strategy.

Supported living pioneers, the Tall Trees Group, utilises a marketing mix of advertising, media relations, events and networking to ensure its philosophy of care and services promoting independence and dignity is top-of-mind in the market.

The supported living model is relatively new in Australia and is not a traditional aged care home or a traditional retirement village as it straddles both categories.

Residents purchase their own private self-contained home with extensive neighbourhood facilities and expert medical care and household support, all delivered to their home, with services only paid for when they’re needed.

Zakazukha has worked with the company, which has two facilities in Queensland and a number of others in various development stages, over the past few years to help manage this message and ensure the positive outcomes of their facilities are recognised in the wider community.

As an example, over the past 12 months Tall Trees has enjoyed consistent publicity (an average of three articles per month) in local, state and national media. This includes capturing the numerous human interest stories that abound in an aged care facility as well as ongoing comment about the philosophy behind supported living in a range of industry publications.

Zakazukha works closely with Tall Trees’ management and staff to ensure all possible opportunities to highlight their product and aged care services are considered and form part of the overall marketing strategy. This includes close liaison with the company’s networking and activities coordinators to ensure resident’s stories such as milestones, personal histories and achievements are captured and shared through a variety of channels including traditional media, new media (facebook, twitter and other online sources) and special events.

Apart from a well-known brand through their high profile, capturing and disseminating the positive messages behind a successful aged care facility has ensured Tall Trees is best known for what it does for its residents, rather than what it hasn’t done.

This has led to increased enquiry and sales and an overall high resident satisfaction within the communities.

Nifsan, developers of the $1 billion masterplanned community Emerald Lakes on the Gold Coast, has enjoyed a continued high media profile through the proactive use of publicity manufactured by Zakazukha.

The development achieves almost weekly news articles in either print, online or TV through a managed program of stories about development updates, new commercial sales and leasing, residential sales updates, industry comment and community events.

Nifsan’s chief operating officer, Sean Wardrop, says publicity ensures Emerald Lakes remains top-of-mind for potential property buyers, businesses and the local community.

“As a masterplanned community we have several stages of development still in the planning, so maintaining a consistent and continued profile is paramount to us,” Mr Wardrop says.

“While we have a strategic marketing plan which includes an advertising program for new stages, publicity provides us with the extra editorial coverage which can convey so much more information.”

“Publicity also allows us to continue to tell targeted audiences and the general public what is going on within the development, even when we aren’t advertising product.”

Once complete Emerald Lakes will contain more than 1,800 homes including the prestigious The Islands residential precinct, the unique European Village, and shopping and commercial sectors.

The development boasts a 37-hectare lake, an 18-hole Graham Marsh designed championship golf course with buggy access to the golf course and clubhouse, and 11km of walking and bike tracks.

Mr Wardrop says targeted publicity campaigns have directly helped sell new apartments and attract businesses to their commercial offerings.

“We can monitor increased foot traffic and enquiry rates immediately after a news item has appeared, and in most cases there is a direct correlation,” Mr Wardrop says.

“New apartment buyers are immediately attracted to the story we have to tell and what’s on offer in the community.

“We’re also finding our commercial sales and leasing news is piquing the interest of new tenants who are attracted to the developments central location and benefits for employees.”

Nifsan is owned by Japanese businessman Toshiaki Ogasawara, who is chairman and publisher of The Japan Times, Japan’s oldest English language newspaper, and chairman of car parts manufacturer Nifco.

A newly formed production company headed by well-known industry experts has been launched to take advantage of the emerging billion-dollar online video content industry, with Zakazukha helping raise its profile and in turn funds through a targeted marketing campaign.

Triptych Concepts, headed by Queensland producer Adam Ben Lomsargis, has enlisted the support of creator and star of The Comedy Company Ian McFadyen, and IT industry authority Dr Mark Rainbird, to pioneer the industry in Australia.

The company produces high quality content available for direct-download and in the process will become one of Australia’s first Internet TV channels.

Online video is expected to comprise 90 percent of the world’s internet traffic by 2013 with professionally produced brand-funded content to grow nearly 14 times to $US5.79 billion in 2011.

US based MyDamnChannel.com, who have been creating original video content for distribution through its website and syndication networks including YouTube, MySpace and Yahoo, charge up to $5,000 per day to advertisers. Since their launch in 2007 they have recorded over 70 million hits and now receive an audience of 1.5 million viewers per month.

Mr Lomsargis says while the online video industry is well established in the US, it is still in its infancy in Australia but is expected to explode over the next 12 months driven by the heavy promotion of web-ready TVs.

“Most people think YouTube when it comes to online video content, however there is an emerging industry based around professionally produced content explicitly designed to be distributed via the Internet,”Mr Lomsargis says.

“There are two ways to provide this content, either by licensing and selling existing programming that has already been produced for TV, or creating new content produced to be distributed via the web.

“The technology is already here with major retailers heavily promoting ‘web-ready’ TVs, which are expected to drive the need for high quality content.”

“You can only watch so many video clips on YouTube before the novelty factor wears off and you find yourself searching for better quality entertainment.”

Triptych, through McFadyen’s position on its board, have already acquired the rights to the multi-award winning Australian comedy series, The Comedy Company, and the ensuing Let the Blood Run Free series, for distribution through its own web channel.

Mr McFadyen says the company’s business model includes securing the rights to other classic Australian TV series for pay-per-view distribution via its website, as well as a production company to create its own original web serial content.

“The advent of the web serial and its industry and economic spin-off’s have not yet been realised in Australia,” says Mr McFadyen.

“They are already extremely popular through distributors such as WebSerials.com and others, and have been shown to be a legitimate and growing medium for entertainment production.

“They’re also much cheaper to produce and distribute than through traditional channels, and provide great opportunities for emerging actors, directors and technical crew to hone their craft.”

Web serials are now being taken seriously by the major film studios with Paramount planning to create professional content that is supported by digital distribution, and is already releasing a slate of web-video series starting with a production called Circle of Eight.

Mr Lomsargis says apart from distributing and producing content, the medium also offer advertisers integration and alignment of their messaging across multiple digital platforms, with direct access to the highly sought after 18-34 year old audience.

“Advertisers are happy to pay anywhere from $250,000 to $2 million for thirty-second advertising on prime time TV,” Mr Lomsargis says.”

“Online branded advertising can better penetrate these markets more frequently and at a fraction of the cost of traditional TV advertising.

“We’re confident the convergence of the technology, need for quality content and cost-effective and targeted advertising will prove a sustainable and growing business model very quickly.

“There is a real opportunity here for us to establish ourselves as the premier web TV channel in Australia – we’re certainly at the forefront of the concept in this country.”

Zakazukha has helped Triptych Concepts raise their profile in investor and business circles resulting in the take up of a number of shares.

The strategy has included working with the company on a range of events as well as gaining exposure in national daily newspapers The Australian Financial Review and The Australian, features in the Courier Mail and local business magazines and interview opportunities on ABC Radio.

The company’s board comprises Dr Mark Rainbird, former COO of Web Central and managing director of CITEC, Adam Ben Lomsargis who has 12 years experience in sales, film and finance, and Ian McFadyen CEO of Media Arts Television.