Financial Review, August 1988 Two years after founding the Message On Hold industry, it was decided to advertise the company to get the ‘message’ to marketers and decision makers. At the time of this advert, Mr Alan Bond, an Australian business legend made famous for his America’s cup win, was in disgrace for his commercial failings. The advert was clearly cheeky as it did not spell out which Mr Bond it referred to, but at the time it could only have been referring to the on and only infamous character
The Advertiser, 1988 The Advertiser newspapar is a local South Australian News LTD publication and back in 1988, it latched onto the story line of the novelty of Messages On Hold at the time. Bringing David Bonnin into the article was presumably to give it the personal touch.
Financial Review, September 1988 There can be no doubt that publicity for a new media concept will attract attention. The Financial Review is a good read and specialist Australian Business persons paper. This article was one of many in the print media around that time.
The Sunday Mail, 1988 The Sunday Mail is an institution in South Australia as it has become compulsory Sunday morning reading – preferably with a cup of coffee over breakfast or morning tea. Even though Messages On Hold is a commercial media application, it gained publicity in a number of community papers.
Modern Office, 1989 This article appeared in Modern Office, presumably because its readers are those with commercial interests in how to improve office communication performance.
In the late 90’s Muzac (background music often used in stores and on hold), which was a very bland form of background music, had reached its use by date and the media and customer communication benefits of Messages On Hold, as founded by this company, offered a better value proposition.
September 1988 This article was one of many appearing in Sunday papers, and the Company perspective was to be thankful for all the publicity it could get.
Melbourne Sun, 1988 Having founded the Message On Hold industry in 1986, David used a PR agency to gain some valuable exposure for this new customer communications initiative. This was in fact the first of all articles to appear about the company. This artricle is from the Melbourne Sun and summed up the approach of the time pretty well.
The News, 1988 Adelaide likes to promote its local community, and at the time the innovation of Message On Hold was most newsworthy.
The News, July 1990 Yet another News LTD article of the day, making its point with tongue in cheek – always good for readability.
Golden Wing, 1989 The Golden Wing Magazine was carried in every seat of all Ansett airlines aeroplanes. This article was a centre fold about the company and it highlight important factors about wait time – and just like today, in 1989 plenty of people were kept waiting on hold. This article reached had the highest readership of all publicity around that time and stimulated many enquiries about the company’s services..
Marketing, March 1989 A key decision maker for business media and communications resides within the marketing department of most corporations. This idea of getting into specific industry magazines paid dividends for the company. This article follows the idea that if the opportunity to communicate with callers on hold presents itsalef, then go for it – this was a new media then and seen as a good way to improve on the lesser treatments callers were getting on hold at the time.
Australia Building News, 1989 One is never sure how it is that articles appear in seemingly unrelated print media, but here is an example of an industry journal getting into the concept of Mesaages On Hold – probably because it was innovative and a new commercial concept at the time.