First National started as an independent group of Victorian real estate agents who formed a co-operative in order to maximise their effectiveness against the already established franchise real estate brands.
Their philosophy was to allow members of their network to remain independent whilst gaining the benefit of a recognised brand and network referral. Today, the company has grown to over 600 members, across Australia and New Zealand, making them one of the top three franchise networks in the southern hemisphere.
Rather that dictate to members how they should run their business, First National has a unique approach that sees Member Service Managers (MSM’s) provide advice in a consultative manner and provide a plethora of Local Area Marketing guides.
The objective of FUSION therefore was to help member offices that struggle with their advertising and marketing needs and give them a low cost, easy to use answer to marketing procurement and design. Staff no longer need to send copy and text to several disparate suppliers to design artwork, they can now do it themselves online and send suppliers ready to print artwork as printable PDF’s.
FUSION was devised as a tool that would provide an online design solution for running vendor property campaigns. Members choose from a suite of predefined ”fast start“ template styles and layouts which are made available through their own personalised FUSION account. FUSION enables offices to self-manage the booking and design of print ready artwork for each member’s local advertising, brochures, mail cards and property signage needs.
FUSION is essentially a white label execution of Workstream Solutions campaign and production management systems, CampaignTRACK and JobTRACK Studio. Head office staff are able to manage the rollout of their own unique system, FUSION, including the set up of publications and media options, build online artwork templates and control the speed at which they initiate individual member office accounts.
Full training was provided to the 3 person team running the FUSION operations at First National head office by experienced Workstream Solutions Project Management staff, over a 3 month period. This in-depth training not only included instruction on the technology but also industry insight and education on liaison and negotiations with both media and print suppliers, as well as the development of a promotion plan and rollout strategy, unique to First National.
The FUSION solution has empowered the entire First National business to more effectively manage their brand and take care of their own local area marketing requirements, unaided by any third party organisation.
For more information about Workstream Solutions technology and solutions, please contact us.
“In 2005 First National members told us they wanted a simple way to create and manage their advertising. [We] looked at building our own systems and spent many months researching alternatives. Only one technology could deliver a solution that worked as well in the cities as in the country. Workstream emerged as the one player with a proven and open system … allowing members the flexibility to deal with their existing signage and brochure suppliers. Workstream was able to accommodate First Nationals’ requirements, helping us to tailor the solution to meet [our members’] needs.”
Jason Verstak
National Marketing Manager
First National