Success stories from Little Tokyo 2!
The Urban Developer
TheUrbanDeveloper.com has quickly grown from a bedroom blog into Australia’s premier source of news and information for the property and urban development industry. Since formally launching in July 2014, our subscriber base has grown from 3,000 to 20,000 and our readership has grown from 20,000 to 200,000 monthly visitors.
As a new media company, we are striving to fuse credible news and journalism with the rise of social content, while at the same time, building a sustainable business model. The challenge lies in convincing the industry to change its established ways and invest in a new, innovative advertising platform. Our time at Little Tokyo Two has exposed us to a collection of innovative entrepreneurs who have informed, guided and contributed to our growth. Ultimately, our vision is to create the homepage of the global urban development industry – a digital hub of news, information, research, events and education.
ChitChat
ChitChat Speaks is a full service experiential marketing company that is turning 4 years old this July. We run nationally with full time workers in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Our Casual staff members are currently sitting at 2,056 around the country, in both urban and rural areas alike.
Belinda started ChitChat when I was 22 years old after leaving Australia’s largest experiential company. I had no intention of starting my own business, it only came about from old clients approaching me and asking if I would still manage their accounts.
ChitChat has had a lot of wins in its short life span. We have been lucky enough to bring new products to Australia such as Zico Coconut Water, new releases of Lindt Chocolate, SodaStream and working alongside international companies M&C Saatchi, DDB Group and so on. Our reputation in the market is our selling point. I honestly love what I do and being able to be creative every day is a blessing. There have, of course, been losses over time. Old rivals under cutting our quotes, old colleagues spreading rumours to clients and being on the receiving end of threatening phone calls just to list a few. All of this has not mattered as we have always kept our hands clean of playing dirty and our clients have never wavered from us. The wins definitely out way the losses.
LT2 has been a breath of fresh air. We have worked from a few different offices and the vibe, creative instinct and passion inside the walls of LT2 is like nothing else in the country. The other members motivate you, their passion for what they are doing ignites your own passion, you work hard to show those who are just starting out that it is achievable and even though we are young we can make a difference. On bad days, there is always someone there who has been through the same experience. Letting you know it is ok, and you do come out of it on the other side if you just keep working through it.
The next step for ChitChat is international growth. We have been approached to start up internationally, so for the moment we are researching the different markets, reading up on case studies and finding out back ground information on potential future competitors. On the other side of this we have been offered by a board of directors to become a part of their group of companies. All of this being worked on in the background while launching around 30 campaigns through out the country and trying to keep my sanity in tact.